| | Earlier this week our BSF leader shared something about the care of the mother eagle for her eaglets during class since we were studying Deuteronomy 32:
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
As I was reflecting on what I might post for this Mother's Day I remembered an account from Andrew Murray about the mother eagle in his book "Waiting on God." Right away I thought that would be a wonderful follow-up to my post about looking unto Jesus when we're shaken since we quite often feel like those little eaglets: the mother eagle has stirred up our nest, fluttered our feathers and pushed us out, we find ourselves falling through the sky in total helplessness...
* * *
When we're humming along, content in our own little paradise, we sometimes begin to forget the bigger picture. We forget we have been created by God and redeemed by God for His glory. We forget that God has birthed us into His family by the power of His Spirit and the only way we can walk in this world is through His Spirit. We soon begin to trust in ourselves and rely on own strength rather the power of His Spirit.[1]
We've become like Jeshurun; we've become fat. Like Jeshurun, we have forsaken our God who made us and redeemed us. You ask, "How have we done this?"
We've all but forgotten we are the people of God.
We forget the God who has brought us from death to life.
We forget that we are to live by the Spirit who first breathed life into us.
We've become self-sufficient.
We rely on our own power rather than the power of God's Holy Spirit.
We try to live the Christian life apart from the Spirit's power.
We try to do God's work though our own power and strength.
We quench and grieve His Holy Spirit.
It is impossible for us to live the Christian life apart from the Christ who dwells in us. Christ in us is God's perfect and all-sufficient provision for us. When we refuse or disregard God's perfect provision for us–the gift of His Holy Spirit–like Jeshurun, we have scornfully esteemed the Holy Spirit of God because whenever we scornfully esteem the Holy Spirit of God, we are scornfully esteeming the Rock of our salvation! The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Because our heavenly Father loves us, He disciplines us for our good. And part of that discipline comes when He swoops into our lives much like a mother eagle. He comes in and stirs up our nests, flutters our feathers and pushes us out of our nest of self-sufficiency and self-reliance all so we might remember whose we are and rely on Him and Him alone.
As we begin to free fall in the sky we might initially try to fly by our own fleshly means, but soon we come to stark realization that in and of ourselves we can do nothing, absolutely nothing! We become desperate and see our utter need of the eagles' wings God alone has provided: the all-sufficient power of His Spirit. We cry out to Him. Because we've been pushed out of the nest we come to the end of ourselves, which is something we would never do while tucked away safely in the nest.
Here's Andrew Murray beautifully unpacking the picture of the eagles' wings for us.
They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.–Isaiah 40:31
Waiting always partakes of the character of our thoughts of the one on whom we wait. Our waiting on God will depend greatly on our faith of what He is. In our text we have the close of a passage in which God reveals Himself as the everlasting and Almighty One. It is as that revelation enters our soul that the waiting will become the spontaneous expression of what we know Him to be–a God altogether most worthy to be waited upon.
Listen to the words: "Why sayest thou, Jacob, my way is hid from the Lord?" Why speakest thou as if God doth not hear or help?
"Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the Everlasting One, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" So far from it: "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths"–"the glory of young men is their strength"–"even the youths shall faint, and the young men shall utterly fall": all that is accounted strong with man shall come to nought. "But they that wait on the Lord," on the Everlasting One, who fainteth not, neither is weary, they "shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and"–listen now, they shall be strong with the strength of God, even as He shall "not be weary; and they shall walk, and, "even as He, "not faint."
Yes, "they shall mount up with wings as eagles." You know what eagles' wings mean. The eagle is the king of birds, it soars the highest into the Heavens. Believers are to live a heavenly life, in the very presence and love and joy of God. They are to live where God lives; they need God's strength to rise there. To them that wait on Him it shall be given.
You know how the eagles' wings are obtained. Only in one way–by the eagle birth.
You are born of God. You have the eagles' wings. You may not have known it; you may not have used them; but God can and will teach you to use them.
You know how the eagles are taught the use of their wings. See yonder cliff rising a thousand feet out of the sea. See high up a ledge on the rock, where there is an eagle's nest with it treasure of two young eaglets. See the mother bird come and stirs up her nest, and with her beak push the timid birds over the precipice. See how they flutter and fall and sink toward the depth. See now how she "fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings" (Deut. 32:11), and so, as they ride upon her wings, brings them to a place of safety. And so she does once and again, each time casting them out over the precipice, and then again taking and carrying them. "So the Lord alone did lead him." Yes, the instinct of that eagle mother was God's gift, a single ray of that love in which the Almighty trains His people to mount as on eagles' wings.
He stirs up your nest. He disappoints your hopes. He brings down your confidence. He makes you fear and tremble, as all your strength fails, and you feel utterly weary and helpless. And all the while He is spreading His strong wings for you to rest your weakness on, and offering His everlasting Creator-strength to work in you. And all He asks is that you should sink down in your weariness and wait on Him; and allow Him in his Jehoavah-strength to carry as you ride upon the wings His omnipotence.
Dear child of God, I pray you, lift up your eyes, and behold your God! Listen to Him who says that He "fainteth not, neither is weary," who promises that you too shall not faint or be weary, who asks nought but this one thing, that you should wait on Him. And let your answer be,"With such a God, so mighty, so faithful, so tender,
My soul, wait thou only upon God!
–Andrew Murray, "Waiting on God! Daily Messages for a Month," (Chicago: Moody Press). First published in 1895. The portion here is The Twenty-First Day, THE ALMIGHTY ONE.
My brothers and sisters in Christ:
Are you feeling weary? Are you feeling faint? Are you feeling timid and weak? Has He stirred up your nest? Has He disappointed your hopes? Has He brought down your confidence? Has He made you fear and tremble? Has your strength failed? Do you feel utterly weary and helpless?
Oh, let us rejoice when we come to feel this way! This is a wonderful gift God gives to us, His children. Oh yes, of course, I know this stirring of the nest, the fluttering of our feathers, this pushing out from the nest is not pleasant for us and can be quite grievous, but can we not trust it is working a far exceeding and eternal weight of glory? Can we not trust our Father intends it for our profit and will bear in us the peaceable fruit of righteousness. While we are yet falling in the sky, will we not trust that our heavenly Father is working even this for our good? If we didn't need to be pushed out, He would not do it. He stirs up our nests only if necessary. Our God is a loving Father. He gives us only good gifts. It is His intent for us is to walk in the Spirit because that is His best for us. Therefore part of His loving Fatherly discipline is to bring us to that point of helplessness, to where we're like those eaglets who have come to see they have no recourse, so we cry out to Him, "Impossible with me, but possible with You, Father! Impossible in my flesh, but possible with Your Spirit! Teach me how to fly with the wings You've given me! Teach me how to walk in Your Spirit and no longer in the flesh! I need to stop relying on myself and rely on You and You alone!" It is only as we come to end of ourselves will we come to trust wholly in Him. And it is only then will we see His almighty strength and grace poured out and His glory blazing!
This is what Paul wrote of in II Corinthians 12:
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
And what George Whitefield testifies:
Stopped with my fellow-travellers at the house of Mr. Line, who gladly received us for our Master's sake. I had a thorn in the flesh sent to buffet me, being weak in body and deserted in mind. With great reluctance I rose and preached to about two thousand, at eight o'clock in the morning; then I retired to my bed again, with an unspeakable pressure upon my heart till noon. I was somewhat better after dinner, and much revived to see what an effectual door was likely to be opened in Wiltshire for preaching the Gospel. Went to pay my respects to the chief magistrate, who was my friend, and reached Cirencester about six in the evening.
Here also men breathed out threatenings against me, but were not empowered to put them in execution. Numbers came from neighbouring towns. my congregation was a large again as when I preached here last. God enabled me, weak as I was, to speak boldly. How heavily do I drive when God takes off my chariot wheels, that I may learn to be meek and lowly in my own eyes. Lord, give me humility, or I perish.
Yes, it's uncomfortable and disconcerting to be an eaglet whose been pushed out of that nest. It's difficult to trust Him when that thorn in the flesh comes or our chariot wheels come off. For a time we keep insisting that we can do it. We keep saying,"I can handle it," the four most dangerous words (please see here for more on that). Yet so long as we keep relying on self, we do not give room for His Spirit to work; we do not welcome Him. We grieve and quench Him. Brothers and sisters, we've been made new creations in Christ, yet how often do we continue to walk in our flesh rather than by the Spirit? It is God's intent for us to walk in His power alone.
As sons of Adam how difficult it is for us to rely upon and trust solely in the invisible wings of His omnipotence, but as sons of the living God that is what we are called to do. That is the life of faith. God intends for His children to walk (or should I say, fly) by faith. We have received life by the Spirit, and we are to keep in step with and walk in the Spirit. Yes, our faith is challenged and tested and pushed to the limit each time we're pushed out of that nest, yet as we walk by faith and not by sight, as we wait on Him and on His power, we will see that our God is trustworthy and faithful to supply exceedingly above all we can ask or imagine. The loving Father who did not spare His only begotten Son for us will certainly freely give us all things for our life in Him. He who promised has the power for perform what He has promised. He who birthed us will give us all-sufficient supplies to carry us through to the end. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is our justifier and sanctifier. He will finish what He has begun in us! He will work in us all He commands us to do.
We can only know the power of His eagles' wings when we stop trusting in ourselves and trust in Him. It is only when we give up on our own strength and use the eagles' wings can we live as He has intended. We have the Spirit but so often we regress back to our flesh. When we remain self-sufficient and independent, we leave no room for God to work and then God gets no glory. When we work out of our strength, we leave no room for His strength. We may do some very nice and good things, but they will be devoid of His power. We will have a form of godliness but deny His power. All the works that come from our own flesh, our own wisdom and our own strength will be burned up in the end.
Remember, it is only when we come to the end of ourselves and when we are pushed out of that nest, that His power flows freely to work in and through us. Only as we stop trusting in our wisdom and strength can He work through our foolishness and weakness, and consequently He alone gets all the praise, honor and glory, as it must be.
The word for "renew" in Isaiah 40 is the Hebrew word "chalaf," meaning to change or exchange.
It is God's intention for us to put off our own strength, our own power and our own might and exchange it for His perfect strength, for His mighty Spirit. Why would we refuse to use this good gift He has given us? Wouldn't it be silly for the eaglet not to begin to make use of her wings? This is what God is training us to do when He pushes us out of the nest: to fly by the power He has provided. Jesus died not only so we would be forgiven and go to heaven and but so we might walk daily by the power of His indwelling Spirit in the here and now. Let us not forget His blessed legacy to us, His Holy Spirit. He is part of our rich inheritance as children of God. He has come that we might have life and have life abundantly. If we are His, we have that life in us. Let us live the life He intends for us by His Spirit!
Might we all learn more what it means to live by His Spirit and only by His Spirit. He takes off our chariot wheels. He causes us to fall into a deep sleep. He allows a thorn in the flesh. He brings the storm. He brings us to the Red Sea. He shows us the armies all around us. And then He shows us our insufficiency and inadequacy. It's a lesson we must continue to learn because we forget. When we lapse back again and again into self-reliance we must be reminded of our need to trust in Him and rely on His power alone. Might we always seek to glorify Him by wholly relying on His Spirit to carry us.
When He pushes us out of the nest, as we are in a free fall, may He give us grace to trust in Him wholly for He is our life and breath and strength. When He comes in to stir up our nests, flutter our feathers and push us out might we submit to His will for us in that, for we know it is His means for us to come to rely more and more on Him and less and less on ourselves. May our boast be in Him and not in ourselves! May we glory in Him and Him alone! Let us remember that it is only when we are helpless that we come to rely on the Helper, and He will never fail us. He will never fail to provide all we need. Our Father is loving and faithful and kind and good to His children. We can trust His wings to carry us–every time. His grace and His power and His strength are more than enough for us.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
–Isaiah 40:29-31
Have you forsaken your God and scornfully esteemed the Rock of you salvation?
Have you refused or disregarded the gift of His Holy Spirit?
How has God been pushing you out of the nest?
How is He asking You to wait only upon Him?
How do you need to trust His eagles' wings to uphold you today?
More about the Holy Spirit:
More about this post:
I bought my copy of "Waiting on God" for a quarter. It's an old paperback and the pages are all falling out, but of course, it has all my notations, prayers and so forth in it; at this point I must keep it rubber banded together except when I'm reading it. There was a period of time when I read this book daily. As I've opened it up and am looking at it again, I do think I need to go back there again and spend more time reflecting on what it means for a child of God to wait on God...I found some of what I've posted here tucked away in a half-baked private post, but have now edited it/expanded upon it for this post. I don't think I've posted any of this publicly; at least I couldn't find it anywhere in my public posts!  If you've ever found a reference to this in another of my posts, I'd appreciate your letting me know where it is! Thanks!
[1] There are other things we forget as well, but I'm not going into all this here...We become focused on the blessings of the world and often forget the God who's given us the blessings. We've become oblivious to the call of God on our lives; we begin to live for ourselves rather than for the God who's redeemed us. We forget we are to be a people to be holy to Him. We forget we are to be His priesthood. We forget we are His Kingdom presence here on earth. We forget we are sent to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We forget we are to be salt and light in the world. We forget we are blessed to be a blessing. Etc...
Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
|
