Eagle Saints
“But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] will gain new strength and renew their power; they will lift up their wings [and rise up close to God] like eagles [rising toward the sun]; theywill run and not become weary,they will walk and not grow tired.” Isaiah 40:31 AMP
We all grow weary in this life, needing to wait upon and put our expectation on the Lord to renew our strength to continue walking His way. Just as Jesus frequently withdrew to be with the Father to renew His strength, we require Father God to lift us up into the spirit, to cause us to renew our spiritual strength to overcome all of life’s obstacles. We look to the God of all salvation to send us the wind of His spirit to cause our wings to be lifted upward.
Then we are enabled to run without weariness, walk without growing tired, glide through the heavens on the wings of His spirit as He renews our strength. God refers to eagles many times in the scriptures as a way to show us how He lifts us up into the heavens of His spirit, facing life’s many storms by enabling us to soar high above earth’s troubles and adversity. This is what eagles are enabled to do.
Did you know that eagles will fly directly into a storm, using the currents of the storm to lift them higher, flying with ease above the storm. God uses eagles as an example of how He causes His saints to fly into the storms of life, far above our earthly troubles as we soar in Him. Eagles catch the air currents, just as eagle saints catch the flowing of the Holy Spirit. Eagles use their speed to rise up until they soar effortlessly, without using their wings.
Eagle saints also have the ability to effortlessly, in rest, soar above all the calamity and adversity we encounter in this world. Like those eagles who catching the thermal winds to fly long distances with little effort. eagle saints rise up to catch the wind of the spirit to find the higher, deeper, more holy ways of the Lord. This we do, not with self effort, no flapping of our spiritual wings, but by resting in Him as He lifts us into higher places where He dwells.
What a beautiful parallel to what the spirit of the Lord enables His saints to do. Eagles are admired as symbols of power, freedom, and transcendence, just as the Lord’s people should be. As we are free in Him, we so long for everyone else to have that same freedom. It is not just freedom from external sin. To be free in the Lord is to be free from self-effort, from our earthly minds, earthly concerns, earthly ways.
This is soaring far above our earthly troubles, without effort or labor on our part. The spirit lifts us as we worship, praise, and adore our Lord. We learn to rest in Him as His spirit lifts us up into the heavenlies. Years ago, God gave me a song about this, and these words still ring within as His truth:
There’s a place in the Lord that brings His rest
There’s a place in the Lord that brings holy communion
There’s a place in the Lord that brings righteousness
There’s a place in the Lord that’s His rest.
No struggle, no strain, no labor in vain
No worry, no blame in His rest.
Fear is cast out, along with it doubt
Torment is out in His rest.
There’s a place in the Lord that brings His rest
There’s a place in the Lord that brings holy communion
There’s a place in the Lord that brings righteousness
There’s a place in the Lord: that’s His rest.
B. Mikelson 1998
No struggle, strain, labor in vain, worry, blame, fear nor doubt! This song parallels a picture of God’s rest that an illustrator created, with a person relaxing on a leaf while the wind blows it wheresoever it will. This rest is being with the Lord, the love of our life, perfectly relaxed and at peace. It is His place of rest while we are serving Him. We seek for it as we seek Him, our wonderful amazing God of the universe who actually loves us and wants to be in communion with us.
“Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.” Psalm 37:8 NASB
We Christians can rapidly lose our rest in Him when we focus on those who seem to succeed in their wicked schemes. But with our eagle eyes, the sharpest in the kingdom, fixed on Him, we return to rest, patiently waiting for Him within us. He reveals His ways, so the vision of eagle saints are increasingly acute on the things of the Lord while our earthly focus fades in importance.
If we want to soar in the heavens by the spirit, far above all the challenges and difficulties of this world, our eyes are to remain fixed upon the Lord. There are many scriptures encouraging us to do just that and here is a favorite:
“O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.” Psalms 34:3-5 KJV
The word magnify is a powerful illustration of what happens when we focus upon, seek, and look to the Lord. It comes from the Hebrew word gadal, meaning “to make large in body, mind, estate, or honor; increase, magnify, nourish, promote.” When we look through a magnifying glass, what we see is revealed in more detail and seems closer. Our magnifying glass is the holy spirit within, empowering our inner man to ever magnify the Lord in our being as we focus upon the spiritual things of God and His kingdom.
Our very countenance is changed, lightening it or causing it to beam, as the Concordant Literal translates it. What we focus on grows, thus it matters a great deal what we allow our eyes to gaze upon. As God is our meat and drink, His essence is absorbed into our being, as surely as the food and drink we have in the natural is absorbed into our bodies. The apostle Paul told us what we are to think upon, to remain mindful about, to be focused upon in our lives:
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report;
if there be anyvirtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8 KJV
What is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, all the time and in all ways, but our Lord? Such are His qualities, the nature of His kingdom living within. The kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy is ever increasing as He nurtures and feeds the seed of His word into the crop that produces the fruit of His nature. There is a way to live in this world and not be of it.
Such is God’s way as He makes the path straight before us. We can mark or ponder this path before us, keeping our eyes upon it as we learn to forget the past:
“Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.” Proverbs 4:25-27 NIV
As we learn to keep our spiritual eyes, our hearts, our focus on what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, we learn to sustain this focus as we look upon others. How Christians would change the world by focusing upon and meditation on the good things, those glimpses of God’s nature in others. The atmosphere around us would surely change from darkness into light.
What if we continually magnify and keep our gaze on what is worthy of a good report in others?
Consider a child who is continually told good things about themselves, things that are true, qualities that can be nurtured for growth in this life. When we focus on a child’s strengths, they grow in confidence, shining as they grow. This is the Lord’s way. Contrast this to the child who is constantly told what is wrong with them. Some children are reminded frequently of their failings and mistakes, even by well meaning caregivers and others responsible for nurturing a child’s growth in this life.
Such a child shrinks into defeat and despair, with discouragement growing into resentment and rebellion. It’s a very sad way to nurture young lives and yet many of us do it, even being well meaning in our focus on what’s wrong rather than what is strong in another. There’s another proverb that speaks directly to this:
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7 KJV
What you focus on will be what’s attracted to you. When we become defeated and discouraged in this life of adversity, how we need someone to speak a good word to us, an encouraging word, a word that builds up our faith and hope. God’s word is just that and the power of His love is stronger than anything. Oh that we could remember and live this way with those we love, let alone all others God tells us to pray for and extend our hearts of concern to in th isworld.
It’s harder for some Christians to do this than others, depending on how they were taught and the nature God gave them in their mother’s womb. Some people are just naturally more critical and negative, even believing this is the way to help others become better people. Many a preacher is doing this when they focus upon sin, rail against the evil ways of this world, and predict doom and destruction to those who do not listen. More than one Christian reports more about what the enemy is doing in their lives than what the Lord is accomplishing within them, particularly through times of adversity.
Are we the Lord’s or not? Is He in charge or does the enemy have more power than He does? Did He or did He not defeat the enemy on the cross, rising again and bringing Himself into our hearts so that we may live in His sight? Yes, we do have an enemy. Yes, there is evil in this world. Yes, others, including those we love and with whom we live intimately, have faults, make mistakes, do things wrong, sinning, missing the mark.
We are not blind to these things, but that should not be our focus. Is this really what we want to attract to our life? Are these the seeds we want to plant and nurture in others, especially those we love, including our precious children God has given us to love and raise as godly people? How the Father grieves to see these precious little ones so treated. Yet we cannot help but plant these seeds if they are in us, just as the world is in us.
But God is more than able to change our fleshly nature into His nature as we keep our eyes fixed upon Him. This is the way to soar in the heavenlies with the Lord like eagle saints. Then we plant the pure Word, a positive, life-enhancing word, even the word of correction He brings. What we focus upon, gaze lingeringly upon, regularly absorbing into our souls, does grow and increase within us. Absolutely, irrevocably, inevitably.
What is in our hearts comes out of us, whether good or bad. Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees of His day, these knowledgeable scholars who knew the word of God:
“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Matthew 12:34 KJV
As eagle saints in God’s spiritual training ground, He continually refines our vision from earthly to heavenly things. He is always saying to look up, come up hither. His word and His ways are seeds that bring forth a crop, maturing into His nature of love, peace and joy. This is how humans learn and grow as well as how others learn of our nature and character.T hank God our wonderful amazing brains are able to learn new things all of our lives. We do not need to be set in our ways as we age.
We are made to continually grow and learn from the Lord, as we taste and see that the Lord is good.The chorus of the hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, provides a directive to eagle saints.
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace.”
Helen Howarth Lemmel, 1918
Did you know that this hymn is also called “The Heavenly Vision”? Written in 1918, it was inspired by a tract entitled Focused composed by the missionary Isabella Lilias Trotter. Please take time to read the entire pamphlet as I just did. The holy spirit led me to this at the end of this post, and, she says it all much better than I have.
Here’s several sections of her pamphlet that continue to speak to us more than a century later:
“…Gathered up, focussed lives, intent on one aim – Christ – these are the lives on which God can concentrate blessedness. It is ‘all for all’ by a law as unvarying as any law that governs the material universe…What does this focussing mean? Study the matter and you will see that it means two things – gathering in all that can be gathered, and letting the rest drop.
The working of any lens – microscope, telescope, camera – will show you this. The lens of your own eye, in the room where you are sitting, [sees] as clearly as any other. Look at the window bars, and the beyond is only a shadow; look through at the distance, and it is the bars that turn into ghosts. You have to choose which you will fix your gaze upon and let the other go….
Turn full your soul’s vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him, and the Divine ‘attrait’ by which God’s saints are made, even in this 20th century, will lay hold of you.
For ‘He is worthy’ to have all there is to be had in the heart that He has died to win.” Focussed, A Story and a Song, reprinted 2018.
Thank you, Lilias Trotter for these wonderful words that echo through time into our hearts. Here the promise of the living God to all His eagle saints determined to soar in the heavenlies with Him:
“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 40:31 KJV