Like an Eagle’s Young Deuteronomy 32:11-12, NIV “… Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.” Introduction Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “Like an Eagle’s Young” which is based on Deuteronomy 32:11-12. There are several places in the Bible where believers are compared to eagles. Today we are going to speak about eagles. God shows us the process of how a mother eagle raises her little eaglets up and trains them to fly. I’m going to liken this eagle process to Christians embracing their heritage in God. A mother eagle prepares a nest before she lays eggs. When she builds her nest she starts with thorns, broken branches, sharp rocks, and a number of other items that seem entirely unsuitable for her project. But then she lines the nest with a thick padding of wool, feathers, and fur from animals she has killed, making it soft and comfortable for the eggs. The nest turns out really wonderful, even better than a bed at a Hilton hotel. This eagle’s nest turns into a room of an exclusive hotel with a great view. But actually the inside of this nest is made of thorns. She finishes her nest and lays eggs and they will hatch on this “bed of thorns”. She raises her eaglets in a nest of materials not known to them. They enjoy the soft side of this nest and the luxury of free meals which their mother brings daily to them. We can compare Christian to young eaglets. While God raises us up He lets us experience good things: our prayers get answered, we daily get free blessings but actually we are in a nest of thorns. But when we reach flying age, God begins “stirring up our nest.” He begins to pull apart the thick carpet of fur and feathers to bring the thorns and sharp rocks to the surface. Our once soft and comfortable abode turns into an uncomfortable, prickly place. When God wants us to train to fly He will pluck up our bed and our nest will become a nest of thorns. We should then move on to a more mature life of faith by always giving thanks, by praising God in all things. We should live a sanctified life; not only asking for our own blessings but also asking for a holy life according to God’s will. Job 39:27-29 says, “Does the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high? He dwells on a cliff and stays there at night; a rocky crag is his stronghold. From there he seeks out his food; his eyes detect it from afar.” By the time the growing birds reach flying age; the mother eagle will spread their wings to notice whether they have grown strong enough to fly. One day she spreads her wings wide and gives the eaglets a ride on its wings. “Come on.” The little eaglets would shrink back in fear. Not one young would get onto her wings. During those times the parent eagles would stop feeding their eaglets. They would return from hunting but would not share their kill with their young birds. “To hunt or fast.” It is the time of prayer and fasting. The young eagles are dumbfounded by their parents’ behavior. They can smell the food but cannot taste it. “Are you hungry?” Once again the mother eagle spreads her wings wide and says, “Ride on!” After refusing several times, one eaglet dares to get on top of one of her wings. “I’ll give it a try, fall or fly. I will stop at nothing.” Then one at a time, each rides on her wings. The mother bears each of her young on her wings, taking them high into the air. They admire the scenery. For the first time, they see big mountains, rivers and huge landscape from above. They enjoy it all; then the mother eagle brings them each back to their nest to find a delicious meal prepared by their parents. This is great! What an adventurous flight! Not only riding on the wings but also having a delicious meal! But take a look! Whereas once the nest was comfortable, it becomes painful to stay there. Sticks and thorns are exposed to the young eagles. They scream and try to avoid going into the nest. Instead they want to ride on the wings of their mother eagle again. By the time a growing Christians reaches an independent age of faith, the comfort of the faith of their pastor, father, mother, leader, elder, and deacon make them quite reluctant to leave. “You are big enough. Rely on Jesus personally. Pray, have faith, hope and love by yourself.” God begins “stirring up the nest”. “Do it by yourself. Pray, praise, preach the Gospel.” “No. Not yet. I can’t do it.” With His love God begins pulling up the comfortable carpet, bringing thorns to the surface. Difficulties and sufferings heighten our life of faith. We cannot but fast and pray. Our problems seem unsolvable as bitter tears flow down our cheeks. Despair endlessly chases after us! It is too late to look back and there is no way out. When the place where I find myself in becomes a nest of thorns, and when we face hardships in our circumstances; it is time to independently fly. God encourages you to stand on your own faith, not on that of others. “Have your faith. Have personal hope and love. Come to me in prayer. Come to church by yourself. Go to Prayer Mountain. Have an independent faith!” Deuteronomy 32:11-12 says, “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions. The LORD alone led him; no foreign god was with him.” An eagle can soar for a couple of hours in the sky because he rides an air current. By the power of wind he flies. Christians who are deepened in faith live not by their strength but by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can ride an air current of the Spirit for 24 hours and enjoy faith, hope, love, righteousness, peace and joy. He is our Comforter who is with us and helps us all the time. Therefore the one who can ride on the wind of the Holy Spirit is a real believer. He prays by the power of the Spirit. He gets joy through the Holy Spirit. He knows how to fly on the wind of the Spirit. But the eaglets who do not know how to ride an air current may try to fly all by themselves. They trust their own strength; they put their hope in themselves, and soon grow weary. Usually an eagle can reach over 5,000 meters high. But if a sparrow tries to reach that high, it will die. A sparrow gets exhausted after it flies from one fence to another. It gasps for air. “I cannot fly anymore. I am tired.” After it flies about 50 or 100 meter it feels like its heart would explode. This is because a sparrow flies by its own strength. The problem today is Christians do not realize that they are eagles. They are not sparrows. But some people become sparrow-minded Christians. They try to live their lives all by themselves; by their own ability, by their own strength, by their own efforts. This is why they get easily tired out. All human being are limited. But when the Holy Spirit comes and blows like a wind we can ride an air current of the Spirit and go up higher without feeling tired. We are not sparrows but eaglets. Eaglets should learn to ride an air current. We should fly by the wind of the Spirit. If the Spirit of God works in Korea, our churches will wake up, our people will wake up and we will experience miracles as we all fly by the wind of the Spirit. Job 23:10 says: “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” God trains us to stand on our own faith rather than to stand on the faith of others. Like an eagle mother, God raises us up to fly. He wants us to use our wings and to hunt for a meal. He neither wants us to ride on the wings of others nor rely on free meals of others. Soon after a mother eagle has trained her eaglets to fly in the sky, they go hunting together. They will fly together, hunt together, and eat together. They become a good team. Let us read together Deuteronomy 8:14-16. “Then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” Please repeat after me. “Our God is the one who lets it go well with us in the end.” He is not a God who ruins you in the end. The more we trust in God, the more He will give us blessings in the end. This is for you. God trains us in a nest of thorns; he bears us up on His wings. He takes us high into the air, and drops us, swooping underneath to save us from crashing to the ground so that we may learn to trust in Him, to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit with undivided hearts. As God’s people He wants us to grow to that level. This is why God sometimes must deal harshly with His children. God humbles us and tests us so that in the end it might go well with us. A Christian’s ending is much better than his beginning. A mother eagle has a duty to teach her little eaglets to fly. She drops them until the young eagles learn to fly. Likewise God led the Israelites out of Egypt and let them go through the wilderness for 40 years meeting all their needs until they learned to stand firm in faith. In the end God blessed them. God wants each one of us to come to Him freely in prayer, to stand independently in faith, to have hope and love by ourselves, to enjoy peace and to live a life of freedom. God trains us because we are precious to him. He wants us to live a victorious life. We are conquerors of the kingdom of heaven. In this world everyone faces difficulties because our lives are full of thorns. Both unbelievers and Christians live in a nest of thorns; but God sustains His people even in a nest of thorns. Thorns will not disappear. It is God who protects us from thorns. By His unfailing love and grace He covers our nest with leaves and soft animal fur and encourages us to overcome thorns. God does not get rid of the thorns but lets us overcome them. There are thorns in our family and in our personal lives as well. A husband, as well as a wife, has their own thorns. Our children have their thorns. Life is full of thorns. To survive in a nest of thorns we should have faith relying on God. A storm may come into our lives. You and I cannot boast that we do not have any storm. The mother eagle wants her eaglets to learn how to ride on a storm. Faster and more higher they can fly when a storm breaks. Eagles know how to rely on the stormy wind and get higher through it. The mother eagle brings her young eaglets to a high rock. As the rain falls, the winds blows stronger, and as floods are everywhere; a mother eagle teaches her young to set their wings perpendicular to the blowing wind. Even if the wind strongly pushes their wings; they are to grab hold of the rock with their strong talons, and wait for right timing. One, two, three! Let go! Winds hit the eagle’s spreading wings and their bodies rise in the sky in 90 degree angles to the ground. They rise through the storm over the top of the clouds where there is no more storm but only sun-shining blue sky. There they fly above the clouds. God lets us go through storms so that we could deepen and widen our faith. When a storm breaks we must ride an ascending air current and get higher. Our faith should not weaken or shrink back when stormy winds blow against us. God is with us and teaches us to go through the storm and rise up to receive our source of great blessings. An eagle is specially designed so that he can go high. He knows how to ride an ascending current of air. Christians have two great wings; one is faith and the other is hope. One is a dream and the other is holy desire. We always ride threatening circumstances by faith and prayer and go high to our victory. Eagles can rely on the winds. That is why they are not afraid of storms. Eagles are able to soar high in the skies above the clouds and against stormy winds. Christians also face all kinds of stormy winds in our personal lives. We are prone to be afraid when a storm breaks against our family, children, and business but now it is well with us. Why? It is because we have got great wings. We have wings of faith, hope, a dream, and positive attitude. Every one of you has these wings. Please repeat after me. “I’ve got the wings of faith; wings of hope, wings of love.” In our life of faith, whenever a storm breaks I will just spread my wings and the stormy winds will help me to go higher and faster to my destination. Yes, a storm of hardship will break out but it is okay. James 1:3-4 says, “Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” The storm will build us mature and complete; not lacking anything. Romans 5:3-4 says, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” What does a chicken usually do when a storm breaks? A chicken will run and hide in terror from the sound of stormy winds. He will hide himself under a fence or a roof. But an eagle never hides his head under his wings nor seeks a refuge in a barnyard. The great eagle of the sky will spread forth his wings and take a ride on stormy winds and go high over the clouds. Christians should take a ride for eternity with the word of God. Do not go back when a storm comes. Do not run and hide under regret, resentment, lamentation, and despair. Face the storm spreading your wings of faith and hope in prayer. Where can we get this confidence? The Bible tells us: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” We can use these words of faith as our wings. We can fly with the wings of faith, with the wings of hope and love which are written in the Bible. With these wings we should stand face-to-face against a storm. Don’t avoid your storms: rather face up to them. Our storms will take us to our God-given destiny faster than we think. A storm pushes you higher to where you actually are supposed to be. Please don’t be a “chicken-minded person” who can hardly get his feet off the ground of difficulty but be an “eagle-minded person” who soars in the heavenly realm. You are born to be brave. Stand firm in faith and pray in times of stormy trouble. Then you will see that your life will change in a great way. No storm, no troublesome circumstance can change your destiny. You are not a chicken who is an earthbound creature flopping here and there but an eagle who has great wings to fly freely in the sky of faith, prayer, and a dream. We know that in all things God works for the good of us. Far and beyond we ask or imagine, God will let us fly and see the victory in a higher, deeper, and wider dimension. “Whether the east-south wind or the west-north wind blows, all things are okay with us. We will smell the fragrance of the Lily of the Valley of thorns - Jesus.” I still remember my Senior Pastor Ja-Shil Choi sing and dance this hymn. “Take a look! When did we pray more? It was when we faced trouble. When did we pray overnight? And when did we go to Prayer Mountain? It was when we suffered. What did we do when all things went well with us? We slept. We stayed at home. Sometimes God sent hardships because he wanted to train us to remember that we can fly like an eagle. You can rise through the storm over the top of all clouds of circumstances and destiny.” We all know that the great storm of final judgment is coming in human history. This is the last storm. It draws nearer. 4000 years of the Old Testament and 2000 years of the New Testament have passed by. We do not know when the Lord will come again. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” We will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. In that day we will enter into eternity with the Lord. That is the final storm. We can rise through that final storm when we spread our wings of faith in Jesus. Those who do not have faith in Jesus will try to avoid this storm and flee to the deep mountains or sea but it will not help them to survive. In the kingdom of heaven He will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. He is waiting for us. In our Bul-Gyuang-dong church we had a water pump. We were not able to get water from the well if we did not first pour a large bowl of water several times into the pump before we began to pump. We needed to prime the pump by firstly pouring water into it. Then water would gush from it. Likewise we need to show our efforts several times in the beginning. We must try to flap our wings and ride the current of the Spirit. The current of the Holy Spirit will enable you to do powerful things and you will not grow weary or be faint. You will be well able to raise up your children. You will be well able to carry your business. You will be well able to worship God. You will be well able to preach the Gospel to your neighbors. You will be able to do everything in Him. God wants us to live by the Spirit soaring in the heavenly realm. We are not to live by human strength. Isaiah 40:28-31 says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” We will look to God in all our circumstances. For this we need to remember what God has done for us. We must put everything unto Him in prayer and then move forward. We can soar on the current of the Spirit when we look to God, pray to Him, rely to Him. “Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” We will run and not grow weary. Even though difficulties in our lives chase after us, we will not despair; we will not be disappointed. We will walk and not be faint. When everything goes well with us we feel bored. We can faint if even our business is booming, and our lives are running smoothly. We can be without joy and find life boring; thinking that going to gamble, get drunk or take drugs would be more exciting. Only those who look to the Lord will soar on the Holy Spirit and not be faint because they do not need to fall into that kind of weariness of life. Conclusion God’s people do not live like a flock of sparrows squeaking in groups. No matter how many people we live with, we have our own heavens to fly in, we are to maintain our godly solitary lives. In maturity, we are to turn from people, and to look only to Jesus, who personally came to us. An eagle does not flap its wings to fly. It always lifts itself to the rising current of the wind. Like an eagle, we always leave ourselves to the Holy Spirit who is within us. We will then live a miraculous life by the power of God. I bless you in Jesus’ name. Let us pray together. Our Father in heaven! You are a living God. We are born to be eagles and we look to our mother eagle, our God. We are ready to learn to fly. God, my Father! A mother eagle trains her eaglets to fly. It is unacceptable for the young eagles to never learn to fly. Likewise let us learn from God our Father. Help us to live by your power on this earth and to share your grace with all people. We are eagles gathering together here and now. Let the wind of the Holy Spirit blow and let miracles take place. Let us rely on Your Spirit. Let our hearts be filled with faith, hope, love, righteousness, peace and joy. This will be done not by might nor by power, but by God’s Spirit. Let us be eagle-like Christians who soar by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen! 1