Isaiah 40:29–31 (ESV): 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for 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.
Job 39:26–29 (ESV): 26 “Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? 27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? 28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold. 29 From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.
We are called to live and lead like eagles not chickens. Yet, our enemy has many convinced that they have no power to soar above the daily grind and problems of this life. Are you soaring above the fray or are you grounded in the grind of earthly living? The following story describes the way too many believers live and lead far below their God-given ability and gifting.
An American Indian tells about a brave who found an eagle’s egg and put it into a nest of a prairie chicken. the eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.
All his life, the changeling eagle, thinking he was a prairie chicken, did what prairie chickens did. He scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. he clucked and cackled. And he flew in a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that’s how prairie chickens are supposed to fly.
Years passed. And the changeling eagle grew very old. One day, he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. Hanging with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings
“What a beautiful bird!” said the changeling eagle to his neighbor. “What is it?”
“That’s an eagle-the chief of the birds,” the neighbor clucked. “But don’t give it a second thought. You could never be like him.”
So the changeling eagle never gave it another thought. And it died thinking it was a prairie chicken.
Ted W. Engstrom, The Pursuit of Excellence (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982), 15-16. Quoted in Spiritual Multiplication In The Real World, by Bobb McNabb>
As followers of Jesus Christ we are called to soar, to lead, to live as those who have been born again as the very children of God. We are called, sanctified, delivered for more than hum drum, ordinary, boring living. We are called to be saints, light, salt, a pleasing aroma, ambassadors, witnesses, disciples and disciple-makers. We must stop listening tot he defeating voices of our enemy of the doomed, of the defeated and listen to the voice of the Father. Live up to His calling, to the your new identity in Christ as the sons and daughters of the King. Know whose you are, who you are in Him, and His call on your life. You can’t stay in the grind with this belief and mindset. Say good bye to boring scratching and clucking chickens and hello to soaring as God’s eagles.
1 Peter 2:9–10 (ESV): But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
RESTORING HOPE 