Intro: 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.
In my studies on this week I thought about how so many of us has moved without the consent of God or without waiting on the Lord, and the reason that so many of us have ran into so many difficulties, so many calamities, so many hard ache and so much trouble is because we have not learn how too wait on the Lord. It has been said so many times down through the years that patience is a virtue, and scripture backs it up so many times.
When Paul was giving his example in 2ndTimothy 3:10 he says to us but thou hast fully known my doctrine which are the manners of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity and then he says patience.
Hebrews 10:36 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
James 1:4 but let patience have her perfect work, Romans 12 and 12 says that we need to have patience in tribulation and even David said I waited patiently on the Lord. I even remember the song writer says if Job waited on the Lord why can’t I?
Who was Isaiah talking to when he said but they? 1st of all he was talking to those that was now supposed to be in captivity in Babylon. But that’s not all that he was talking to, he was talking to those who call themselves believers, he was talking to those who call themselves saved and those who call themselves sanctified, the holy rollers, the intercessor, the wailers and the mourners. [Pause]
He said but they that waited on the Lord, that good enough to preach all by itself, learning to just waiting on the Lord, because just waiting on the Lord has its benefits. He said but they that wait on the Lord their strength shall be renewed. I can hear someone saying in their spirit, if I would have just waited on the Lord in some of my decisions I would be much better off. Have you ever felt that way?
Some of you can tell the differences from when you waited on the Lord oppose to you moving on your own, or listening to somebody else. Isaiah but they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.
The Hebrew for strength here is (ko-ahk). Which means they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, this means that:
1. they shall renew their power,
2. they shall renew their might,
3. they shall renew their force,
4. their ability,
5. their faith
6. their fruits,
7. their substance,
8. their wealth thy shall renew they strength.
And one way that we can obtain some of these attributes are by becoming eagle saints. [Pause]
Pastor, out of all of the birds that you could have picked, why did you pick an eagle? It’s a simple deduction. Because, an eagle is not just any ordinary kind of bird, he extraordinary. He’s not like the owl: one that has a big head, we all know some people like that, not that their head is big but they just got the big head, and all they do all day long is ask WHO, WHO, WHO. Who said this, who did that, who is on the telephone, who is going to the mall. An eagle is not like the owl.
Nor is He not like the mocking bird all he does is sit around repeating everything that he hears. One that can’t hold water, child did you hear this was going on, or did you hear what they have done now.
An eagle is not like the ostrich bird, anytime that he fears that trouble is coming his way they runs and sticks his head in the sand and hide. The Ostrich is so unintelligence that he doesn’t even know that while he hiding his head, that his backside is sticking out. He’s not like any other bird.
The eagle has a strange behavior, the eagle set their territory or their living area up near water, and if you know anything about water you will know that it is symbolic to the Holy Spirit. Water also is where we draw some our life supply from. In other words he doesn’t live around anything that doesn’t bring him life, and I need to tell somebody if you are in a dry place, then you need to find a place that will feed you spiritually, naturally, physically, and financially, there are people that is looking to be fed.
The eagle has a strange diet he just don’t eat any old thing. Most eagle live off of fresh fish, trout, and salmon. And in the winter they eat things like rabbits, ducks, geese and crab, they just don’t eat from any old place.
And I think that we need you learn a lesson from the eagle on what we should eat and should not eat. But some of us have the cast iron stomach and we just eat from anywhere. We are at every conference that is in the neighborhood, we got four different pastors, when you are in Jackson you got one pastor, and when we are in Arkansas we got another pastor, we have three or four different T.V. pastors we tithe to everybody but our own home church where we are being fed. [Pause]
And somebody tell why is man the only thing that God created that not still doing what God has design them to do. The cows are still mooing, the dogs are still barking, the cats are still meowing, the flowers are still blooming, the grass is still growing, the stars are still twinkling; the sun is still rising and setting, but man, man won’t listen to God, man won’t follow God, and man won’t hear God. Lord have mercy but man. That was free.
The eagle is extremely sensitive to human activities so they set themselves off from others apart from others. And if we are going to get what we need from God there will be sometimes when we will need to steal away from some human activities. Because it seems harder to pray when there is a lot of nagging going on, it’s harder to pray when the phones are ringing, it’s harder trying to pray, when peple are knocking on your screen door sometimes you just got to steal away.
Here is something that I found out!
When matured an eagle gets hurt they know how to heal themselves. What they do is, they will fly to the highest mountain or cave that they can find, and they will pluck all of their feathers off, they will sit there and take the time to heal, this allows them to grow back better and stronger then they were before. And there are some of us that have been hurt. Hurt in the church, hurt in the home, job, family members, husband, wife, and we need to find our spiritual cave and strip ourselves and allow God to restore us.
Here’s something interesting. The incubation period of an eagle averages at about 35 days, and then the parents will nurture and cultivate their offspring until they are about 4 weeks old [which means they cover them and they protect them] and then they begin the fleeing stages any where from 8 to 14 weeks. And it is said that an eagle is mature at 4 to 5 years old.
Now saints it is all right to go through our incubation period [you being warm until your born] and it all right to brood [to be protected and watch over, but there is going to come a time when the fleeing stages will need to take place. What do you mean pastor? I mean there will be a time when you will need to pray for yourself, you will need to seek the Lord for yourself, you will need to talk to God for yourself.
Watch this! The momma eagle gets her eaglets ready for life. What she does is she test her eaglets to see how far they have grown, so what she does is she pushes them out of the nest to see if they have learn to fly on their own, and if they have not she would swoop and catch them before they can hit the ground. But when they get back to the nest, she doesn’t take it easy on them, what she does is she makes the nest smaller and smaller each time so that they will become uncomfortable, the thorns and the thistles would make them want to get up and get out of the nest. And I think that to many of us has become too comfortable in the nest. We want everybody else to pray for us, but when are you going to pray for yourself? You want everybody else to take care of you, but when are you going to get up and get a job and take care of yourself?
It is said that an eagle is mature in 4 to 5 years. My question is, how long will we need to hear the word of God before change will take place. Some people have been in worship service, revival services, prayer meetings and in church 30 and 40 years, and is still as mean as we were when we first can to Christ, how long will it take us to grow up? When will we change from our wicked ways? When will we become more loving, more peace, and more humble?
I just have a couple more points and I’m out of here. It is said that an eagle wingspan is anywhere from 7 to 8 feet. And that tell me that we need to learn how to spread our wings, and stop saying that I can’t and start saying that I can, and remember the Word of God that says, “I can do all thing’s through Christ that strengthen me” we have to stop being narrow minded.
I heard even Jebez pray this pray Lord increase my territory. In other words, Lord give me more wisdom, give me more knowledge and understanding. Thing that I don’t understand teach me Lord and the things that I do understand teach me how to do better in it.
Let me close this thang here.
I’ve got to go y’all:
It is said that an eagle can see a storms coming from miles away and instead of the eagle being like the ostrich running and hiding with his head in the sand. The record is that he meets the storm and he rides the storm. To many of us are running from the storm, every time a storm comes up, every time that a problem occurs, or even a small situation appears we run and hide, but we need to be like the eagle we need to spread our wings and get on top of the storm and ride it out.
Let the hater come on, I’m going to ride it out, keep on lying on me I’m going to ride it out, keep on down playing me, I’m going to ride it out. We need to be eagle saints.
I heard that there was a story about a little boy and his daddy that was taking a stroll through the woods one day and they found a little eaglet that had broken his wing.
So they picked him up and took him home back on the farm where they had their chicken farm. And his daddy bandaged up his little wing and then he put him in a cage.
Well a couple months had gone by and the feathers of the eagle started to spread and he couldn’t stay in the cage any longer and the eagle was walking around with the other chicken that was in the yard.
But the eagle was not satisfied with the chicken because he felt uncomfortable, because he looked differently he didn’t look like those birds, he sound differently he didn’t sound like those birds and he even walked differently he didn’t walk like those birds.
One day he heard a sound that was coming from the sky and it sound like some eagles soaring through the sky. So he started moving and he began to start flapping his wings and all of a sudden he took off. I heard that the little boy started weeping and crying and I heard him asking his daddy why is he leaving. And his daddy said don’t cry son he had to leave so that he can be with his kind.
And that a word for somebody on this morning if your are going to be an eagle saint you are going to have to leave the chickens, if you are going to be an eagle you are going to have to leave, the turkey’s, ducks, you are going leave the owl and you are going to have to soar with the eagle.
Isaiah said it like this “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.
I want to be an eagle saint, is there any one else that want to mount up and soar with the eagles?
