Lessions From The Eagle

Deuteronomy 32:11-12
As an eagle stirs up its nest,

Hovers over its young,

Spreading out its wings, taking them up,

Carrying them on its wings,

12 So the Lord alone led him,

    And there was no foreign god with him.

Job 39:27-28

Did you command the eagle’s flight,

and teach her to build her nest in the heights,

28 Perfectly at home on the high cliff-face,

invulnerable on pinnacle and crag?

The eagle builds his nest high upon a mountain. They will at times pick a location that’s 10,000 feet above the ground. The nest that they build can weigh up to two tons and stretch to as much as eight feet across. The eagle carries limbs that are up to four inches in diameter to the nesting area, as they build a nest that can be as deep as two feet. The core of the nest is supported by huge limbs. The outer edges of the nest is lined with soft leaves and vines that are actually woven together by the eagles before they lay eggs. The leaves cover the rough sticks that would puncture the soft fur of the baby eaglets.

In addition to the soft bed of leaves, shortly before the eggs hatch, the mother eagle begins to pull the soft downy fur from her own body to shelter and warm her young. As the small birds are attempting to free themselves from the egg shells, the mother never helps them in their struggle. Because if she did, she would hinder their own survival. After about six to seven months, one day the mother eagle swoops in and begins to stir or basically wreck the brooding area of the nest.

She pulls out the soft leaves, tosses the fur from her own body to the winds, and removes the long vines that once provided comfort. The young eaglets then try to stand and balance themselves in the nest that has just been stirred. It’s something that they have to do, because lying down in the nest would cause cuts in their bodies because of the limbs in the nest. They must learn to balance themselves, and also get used to using their small stubby talons that have started to grow. Learning to balance will help the young eaglets later with flight, and the talons will assist him in the catching of prey for hunting.

God does similar things to us. He disturbs OUR nest and causes US to reach toward him. Thank God for the stirrings that He sends our way.

●Every Apostle has had their nest stirred.
●Every great reformer and revivalist has had their nest stirred.
●Every man of woman who has ever longed to accomplish their purpose in the Kingdom of God has had their nest stirred.

They had to move forward toward a new calling. They had to leave the familiar for the unfamiliar. They had to leave the ungodly and move toward the godly. They had to leave the shallows and reach for the depths. They even had to break some current relationships, and change the way they thought about some things. What we need to realize is that it’s God that’s stirring our familiar surroundings to stimulate our growth.

God was the one who built a nest in Genesis 47 for the children of Israel. Their herds increased, they had prosperous times, and they had favor. But then Joseph died and the favor that he was giving the children of Israel also died. The favored became the despised. They were sent to hard labor. Their nest became very uncomfortable, but at the same time there was something on the inside of them that wanted to rise up and go to the Promised Land.

So how does God create the stirring of our nests?

●He allows someone or some things to come into our lives to cause us problems.
●He allows us to suffer under the effects of a heavy burden.
●He allows our emotions to be attacked with over-whelming feelings of not knowing what to do.
●He grooms us with a restlessness that cannot be quenched with nothing but Himself.

And since everyone is different, God knows exactly what stirring each of us needs. The stirring that God allows to come into each of our lives, is custom designed by God, to stir each of us in such a way, that the stirring causes us to run to God who can change our life and destiny.

When the nest is stirred many things start to take place in our lives. Our carnality is displaced with spiritual hunger. Self-righteousness begins to fade, and die out to godly desires. Complacency gives way to fiery passion for the things of God. The compassion of God begins to increase on the inside of us, and that compassion leads toward a giving of ourselves. 

Also through the stirring, many times brokenness takes place. We see this brokenness taking place in God’s greatest saints all through-out Scripture. Everything that is of self must go and everything that is of Jesus must shine forth in greater power.

Well getting back to our story about the eaglets, one day the eaglets experience the shock of learning how to fly. There comes a day in the life of the eaglets when their mother returns once again to the nest. But this time she begins to flap her wings over the nest with forcefulness.

The small eaglets began to scream in terror as she pushes them closer and closer to the edge of the nest. The nest is up in the cliffs of the mountains about 5,000 to 8,000 feet above the ground. And from that height, the eaglet is pushed from the nest and begins to fall. And as he begins to fall, something takes over, called, the will to live, and the struggle to survive. The desire to fly is all ready on the inside of that little eaglet, but because it’s never tried to fly, or had a reason to fly, it doesn't know that it can fly.  

As the eaglet gets kicked out the nest, it screams. Not screams of power, it’s screams of terror. But out of that situation comes the will to live. So he begins to clumsily flap his wings. During the free-fall, he beats at the air without success until exhaustion leaves him almost totally unable to move. Then right before falling to a certain death, the father eagle swoops down, catches the young eaglet, and returns it to the nest for the next lesson that will come on the next day. That’s repeated over and over again until the young eaglet can fly for himself. But the flying lessons come without warning. Suddenly the mother eagle appears at the nest and starts the training of flight.

Spiritual growth and maturity occurs in much the same way. Without warning we find our lives wrapped up in a situation, that could even be a situation where every thing is at stake. Our home, our family, our job, or our health. Everything is Falling, falling, falling. At that point it seems like hundreds of questions race through our minds.

One of those questions is always “God, Why”? And God’s answer is, “You can’t learn to fly in a church pew, or on the back of a pastor”. Then the next question we usually ask is, Why am I falling for so long?. And once again God answer is, “You needed a long time, so you could learn to fly”. God knows if He takes the struggle away, He takes the strength away. If He removes the thorn, and He removes the grace.

God’s greatest men had to struggle with the frailties of their own flesh.

●Abraham had to struggle with de-ception.
●Jacob would war against worldliness.
●Moses would be terrorized by a horrible temper that would lead to murder, and to striking the rock.
●Elijah was burdened by his faith-less despair.

Elijah hid in a cave thinking he was the last Prophet alive. Elijah told God in

1 Kings chapter 18,

I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

●Then there was David who was involved with lust and then murder.

When we’re going through a trial, it’s not a fun thing to go through. And it’s not something we've prayed for. After all, very few people pray for things like:

●A lion’s den.
●A fiery furnace.
●An almost impossible task of building an ark.
●A a Judas’ kiss.
●A Cross.
●To be mis-understood.
●To have to endure pain of slander.

We don’t pray for those things, because those things hurt. But in the hurt, there’s a healing that happens. And the healing creates within us a vision, a desire, and a passion for God that ordinarily would never exist. When we’re right in the middle of a trial, we pray that God will give us some kind of relief. We pray that God will give us a way of escape from the trials and the difficulties of life. We pray that our life would not be filled with hardship and difficulty.

But the changes that needs to take place in our heart, and our soul, will never ever take place. Unless we go through an intense struggle, that makes us stretch the wings of our soul. A struggle that causes us to go higher, and to hunger more for God. God can take a struggle and work with it, in a way no one else would even think of. God works under different laws than what men and women work with. Then when we rise from our struggle, we often find ourselves stronger, and looking more like Jesus. 

Psalms 103:1-5 says,

Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

2Bless the Lord, O my soul,

  And forget not all His benefits:

3Who forgives all your iniquities,

  Who heals all your diseases,

4Who redeems your life from destruction,

  Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

5Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

  So that your youth is renewed like the

  eagle’s.

It finally happens. The day that the young eaglet will finally stop his screaming and start his flying. It’s sad but there are those in the church who do not know the call of God to go higher with Him. Some men and women have never understood the joy of God calling them to a higher walk with Him. They never realize the reason why they were created. They age in years, but they grow little in God. And just like a natural muscle, the lack of resistance creates an atrophied spiritual muscle. But praise God there ARE men and women who would rather go after God, than the material world around them. Their spirits soar high with God, instead of conforming to the desires of those around them. They hunger for the things of God. Their desires are for more of God. . . The spirit of the eagle stirs within them. . . . .

The Apostle Paul described them in

Philippians 3:14…

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

They can be described as the great men and woman of God.

Isaiah 40:30-31

But those who wait on the Lord

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.

No other birds have the ability to fly as high as an eagle does. An eagle is not a bird that will fly with a flock. Someone said, “The eagle is solitary in his conquests. His purpose is single-minded”. Other birds may call to him, but there’s something about an eagle that causes it not to associate with lesser birds. So he remains alone.

In our lives, there’s a mighty power that WE can receive when we’re alone with God. It’s in the hours of loneliness that God does some of His greatest works in our lives. 

●It was in loneliness, that Elijah heard God’s voice.
●It was in the lonely path of faith that God came once again to Abraham.
●It was in the lonely hours following failure that Peter found God.
●It was in the lonely midnight hours that Jacob had his wrestling match with God.
●It was in the loneliness of the mountain that Moses would get the Ten Commandments from God.
●It was in the loneliness of her barrenness that Hannah prevailed.
●It was in loneliness that Daniel received his great vision from God.

It was in the loneliness of the pit and prison that Joseph felt God continuing his dreams.
●It was in the loneliness in the garden that Jesus labored in prayer while His disciples were asleep.

●Mary also found loneliness in a stable in Bethlehem. Then she found loneliness once again when she stood and looked at her son Jesus on the cross.

God uses the schoolhouse of loneliness to teach His servants. Another thing that God uses is the storms in our lives. Most animals have been equipped by nature with the ability to sense the coming of a storm. Some by smell, some by sight. And when they sense a storm is on the way, they will run for shelter. The rabbit will find it’s burrow, the bee will flee to it’s hive, and the deer with seek the comfort of it’s place of rest. But the eagle, because of it’s great ability of sight, can see the storm approaching from a great distance. Because the eagle is a territorial bird, it will remain in it’s home area until the first few drops of rain begin to fall. The eagle will begin to fly and to ascend in a spiral manner upward. Upward until it has found it’s way into the sunlight above the storm. Other animals, when the storm starts to approach, they have a tendency to run and to hide.

But the eagle has no fear of the storm. The winds can be hard and fast and often destructive, but the eagle is challenged by the storm.

You and I need to let our desires for more of God challenge US during our storms of life. That desire for the upward call. That desire, that hunger, that restlessness in our spirits needs to challenge us for more. All of these things need bring us to the heights that God desires for us to go to.

Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The greatest men of medicine, business, and merchandise were those men who struggled with opposition until they reached their goal.

Robert Louis Stevenson battled with tuberculosis, but at the same time he wrote some of the classics of literature. 

Helen Keller struggled with her own obstacles of being deaf and blind and turned negative circumstances into the positive.

Handel was paralyzed on his right side, all his money was gone, the creditors were going to imprison him, but he rebounded and composed the greatest of his works called the Messiah.

Acts 16:25-26

At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.

Paul and Silas’ Hallelujah chorus was born in a jail cell.

We need to soar on the winds. Reach for the heavens. Why? Because the hand of the Lord is upon us.

It’s all a matter of perception. From time to time our spiritual lives take on a course of struggles:

Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

New Living Bible says,

For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.

Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 

8Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

The eagle who is built for the heights, is not content to stay on this earth. Because you’re a child of God, there will come a day when God is going to stir your nest. For some of you, God may be stirring your nest right now. He’s not doing it because he’s mean, He’s stirring it but because you need to grow strong.

For those of you that seem like you've been kicked out of the nest, and feel you’re your falling, remember your heavenly is watching, and knows just how much you take. He is teaching you how to depend totally on Him.