Isaiah 40 verse 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.”
We must condition ourselves to listen to the Lord’s voice because every decision, everything we go through in life; if we fail in this, then when we will get into much unnecessary burden which will turn into worry and disaster. And then we will have to retrace our steps and then try to recover the losses but it’s a big unnecessary burden and at some points, it can be spiritually fatal. So it’s very important to take this to heart that waiting upon the Lord is a critical characteristic of a believer that follows the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to wait upon the Lord.
So what does this mean? What does waiting upon the Lord mean? We know what the word wait means. It means to “stand by”, it means to be “patient”, it means to “watch”, and look for something. That’s what wait means: to stand by, to stay still and with it; watch, look for, etc. But, waiting upon the Lord is not just standing by and looking. But there’s more to it than that. It also means that we are actively engaged in the impossible through the Word and the promise of God, through the power of God. Whatever is coming against us, whatever is impossible, whatever looks hopeless, whatever looks uncertain, whatever looks like we cannot get in our own strength; when we wait upon the Lord, the whole heaven opens up.
The creature that the Lord used here to liken to our waiting is the eagle. And parallel to the eagle’s experience is the Christian’s experience. And there are three things that we can say about the eagle that parallels the believer’s experience in waiting upon the Lord. And the Lord used the eagle for a very specific purpose. There are three things that we can draw from the Word of God is; when we wait upon the Lord, there is transcendence. There is a transcendence; there is a rising above, there is a going beyond, beyond the material limits, beyond the usual limits, we go beyond to another realm altogether, and the eagle does that. The eagle flies higher than any other bird. It flies higher than any other creature naturally. And it seems as if it glides for hours up in the sky that it is in a world of its own, transcending time and space, far above the mountains. In some cases, it is there flying at an altitude where it is completely beyond the usual experience of other birds or other creatures. And it glides there gracefully for hours sometimes at a time.
And so we also, when we wait upon the Lord, we are going beyond our own experience; our own ability, our own foresight, everything that we know, the best strengths that we have; we are surpassing that, we are going beyond that. Because we find that we cannot do many things, only God can do. So we shut ourselves in and when we are in with the Lord, waiting on Him, then we transcend our own material experience, there the Lord can do wonderful things. As we know, everything that is physical, everything that is material, everything that you see has a spiritual origin. Everything that we see has a spiritual origin and there are spiritual forces at work all the time.
As we heard in the worship, faith is a spiritual force. It’s something that happens and it is immaterial to the natural realm but it is the spiritual substance of that which we need. So it’s something that is definite and it is substantial but it is in the spiritual domain. So, in the spiritual domain when we wait on the Lord, certain things happen. We transcend the normal experience, we are going beyond ourselves. There are many people in many religions, who try to invoke the gods or the presence of that which is above themselves or outside their experience by many incantations, they chant, they do all kinds of things. Sometimes, they work themselves into a frenzy, as the worshippers of Baal, when they cut themselves thinking that, that would please the gods. People do many things, but God says all we need to do is wait upon Him.
The second thing that happens is we get transformed, just like the eagle, we get transformed. What do we mean? The eagle goes through a process called molting. And in the molting process what happens is, that the eagle actually begins to lose its feathers. It begins to rub off the talons, its sharp claws, on the rocks and it begins to actually break its own beak. So that all of these things are useless and the eagle becomes in effect completely weak, completely vulnerable to any attack. What happens is the eagle actually goes through a period of renewal. But to the observer that is worldly and carnal, even some scientists, believe that the eagle gets depressed during that time. But not knowing the Lord and the Lord's ways, how He created the eagle, they fail to give glory to God and so they minimize the renewal stage. The molting process of the eagle, as it waits in private, and it happens in private and that’s the reason why scientists don’t have much knowledge about that because it is in private that the eagle goes through the molting process.
So in private, we wait upon the Lord and we go through the process of dying. When we wait on the Lord we are saying in effect, “Lord, You take over and I am looking to You and not to myself. I am looking to You for the breakthrough. I am looking to You for the liberation and deliverance. I am looking to You for the blessing that I need.” As some people wait on the Lord specifically so that they can get transformed. Other people, wait on the Lord for some deliverance or some other blessing. Both are fine. But, know one thing; those who wait upon the Lord will definitely be transformed. They will go through transcendence to another realm in the supernatural, where under God's wings they will trust in the secret place like Psalm 91 says. They are waiting on the Lord in the secret place where God is and God begins to work behind the scenes. And it may belong, it may be dark, they may see no material sign. But the Lord’s promise is enough and the Lord says they that wait upon Him shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles they will run and not be weary they will walk and not faint.
When the eagle mounts up the wings and begins to soar, is far above every other creature and is there in that special place that only it can occupy. The believer who waits on the Lord far transcends the normal experience. The eagle goes through that process of renewal. But first, there is a plucking of the feathers, there is a breaking of that beak, there is a rubbing off of the talons, completely useless it seems. It seems to be dead. No function, or functionality. But that’s where the Lord has programmed a renewing, where it re-grows the talons, re-grows the beak, re-grows the feathers with a renewed vigor and a complete revitalized youth; that’s a fact. So that eagle that looks like it’s over, its story is over, when it is going through that waiting period on its Creator. Now that’s built-in nature by the Creator.
But the parallel is for us; we are waiting on the Lord, we are saying, “Lord I am not going to try this on my own. What I need to do, what I need from You Lord, I am not going to try to do it on my own. I know that I am weak but You are strong.” When I wait on the Lord and I depend upon Him and I pray to Him and I am waiting patiently, that’s when God sees that He can begin to renew me. Because in and of myself, I cannot do what God wants me to do. In and of myself, I cannot obtain the supernatural blessings. So God revitalizes all my vigor just like the eagle goes through that revitalization. So when I wait on the Lord, like the eagle, I will renew my strength.” Once that eagle renews his strength, all new equipment as it were, it’s actually sharper and stronger than before. Praise the Lord! And that’s what the Lord will do for those who wait upon him.
So many things are happening when we wait upon the Lord. But as we look into the scriptures, we trust the Lord, we do what He says; then we will benefit from all of those things. But if we take it casually, and we think waiting upon God is just praying, and then looking at the clock to see when my blessing will come; we have completely missed what waiting upon the Lord means. It’s a period when I am shutting myself in with the Lord with close communion, with a childlike trust. Trusting the Lord in the dark because of His promise to me that, “He will never leave me nor forsake me” and a thousand other promises for healing, deliverance, for victory; for every good thing comes from the Lord. But the Lord wants to train us to depend upon Him and to become like Him. And He will renew our strength in the process.
The third thing that happens is, of course, we triumph. When we transcend the human material experience by being alone with God; that could mean sitting like David before the Lord, kneeling before Him, looking at Him with our spiritual eyes, and saying Lord, “I gaze upon your beauty. Who is like unto You? Lord, if You are like this, then what is there that You cannot do for me if You are the Creator?” And we then just worship Him and we commit that thing into his hands that we need. As I said it could be, it could very well be spiritual transformation. We might say to the Lord, “Lord, I want to be more committed to You. I am waiting on You for that. Lord, I want to be more zealous for You. Lord, I don’t want to have a weakened faith. I want to exercise my faith and I am trusting You to help it grow as I do my part. But I am depending upon You.” That’s what waiting on the Lord means. Depending upon Him.
Like the eagle almost being oblivious to time and space. We don’t regard time. We don’t regard the material properties, like Abraham. He didn’t regard the time period chronologically that he was beyond the age of bearing. The eagle transcends beyond the usual altitudes in terms of experience. The Christian, who believes in God, who waits upon Him; transcends and mounts up with wings like eagles, high above his problems, high above all of his limitations because he is trusting in God with Whom all things are possible. So, we triumph also in the end, because like the eagle, once the vigor is renewed, the youth is revitalized; it’s able to see sharper, fly higher and look down, and see the prey and with a renewed vigor get the prey.
For us, when we are seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, as we are waiting upon Him in the spiritual realm - we are praying, we are trusting, we are not looking to ourselves, we are not looking at the things that are blocking the vision; we are looking straight at the Lord. And like David we are sitting there before Him, we are waiting upon Him. We will get the answer from God. We will obtain the prize. We will obtain the deliverance. But it takes for us to know God is doing something in us also. Amen! It is not only I am doing this so I can get this from God, some blessing, but through the process, God is helping me to die to myself. He is changing me.
