Mounting Up With Wings Like Eagles...

By Joe R Wheeler

America is becoming a nation of angry, short tempered people. Road rage, airplane rage, etc. Anger simmers for months, even years, and finally explodes. We are always living under pressure which builds steadily.

Impatience leads us to anger, doubt, fear, and to desperation.

Isaiah is going to help us understand an important spiritual discipline which God wants us to possess. It is a fact that we need courage and commitment to persevere when things don't go as we think they should.

Courage when fatigue has set in. We often struggle and struggle and all of our effort ends in frustration. We find discouragement instead of success. God knows that we have this weakness of needing to apply our efforts towards some sort of goal. The problem is when we as Christians seek after a goal that is not what God desires us to achieve. We end up putting out all of our effort into something that He can't allow us to achieve, because He knows best. We have to trust Him in these difficult times of our lives. "Let Go and Let God" is a familiar axiom that we have all heard at one time or another. The truth behind this saying of men is found throughout scripture. We are going to examine now how to actually do this thing, to "Let Go".

Isaiah 40: 28-31 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 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.

I. The Symbol of Courageous Strength is: The Eagle!--In Isaiah 40:31, we see a metaphor of a bird used to describe how with God we can soar through difficulty.

3 Different Types of Flight Used by Birds:

1. Flapping- keeping their wings in constant motion to counteract gravity, Humming Birds flap up to 70 times per second. Sometimes we are like humming birds, we flap a lot, but get nowhere.

2. Gliding- going up high and heading back to earth. Unfortunately for us, when we do this we often hit the ground.

3. Soaring- Only eagles and hawks etc. do this. Taking advantage of air currents and heat risers to fly with little or no effort. Some eagles have been clocked at up to 80 mph with no real effort on their part, they just soar. They just ride the columns of air currents (Isaiah 40:31 ...they shall MOUNT UP with wings like eagles...) We also can soar.

Only God can teach us to soar.

So how do we stop flapping and start soaring?

II. The Secret of Courageous Strength is: Waiting!--Isaiah 40:30-31 not the young or the strong, but those who WAIT on the Lord...The Bible has a lot to say about waiting. To wait means: to pause, to slowly consider our inadequacy's and the Lord's all sufficiency, and to seek counsel and help from the Lord...Waiting involves submission to the Word of God . Letting God be the updraft over which we can "mount up" our wings.

5 Benefits of Waiting

1. Waiting results in Perception-

Psalm 25:4-5 Show me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths. 5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

...we have to learn to wait to receive the perception that is mentioned in this Psalm.

2. Waiting results in Protection-

Psalm 33:20-21 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

...when you wait on the Lord, He becomes your refuge. He becomes the one who protects you.

3. Waiting results in Perspective-

Psalm 37:7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

...when you wait on the Lord, you can understand the prosperity of those who do not do His will. Not everything that seems to be important or desirable is what we at first think it to be. Waiting on the Lord gives us the perspective to understand this.

4. Waiting results in Provision-

Lamentations 3:25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

...when you learn to wait on the Lord, His goodness becomes so evident in your life.

5. Waiting results in Power-

Isaiah 40:31 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.

...when you learn to wait on the Lord, His strength becomes you power to live.

Waiting is what gives us these 5 results.

Perception, protection, perspective, provision, power. All of these are direct results of waiting for the Lord.

Solitude and Silence are pre-requisites that God requires before He will give strength.

Isaiah 30:15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

...God's formula, not our formula.

III. The Source of Courageous Strength is: God!--Isaiah 40:28-29...the attributes of God are shown in every line of this text. God is...

God wants us to stop flapping and learn to soar, and the way we learn to stop flapping is to Wait for God. Listening to His voice through His Word. Silence in our heart allows us to listen to Him. Meditation with God. Prayer with God. Reading His Word.

Eagles are frequently examples in the Bible, and their attributes are mentioned to us as an example of strength given from God, He made them to be the way they are!

Deuteronomy 32:11-12 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

The mother eagle:

-Stirs up her nest- The young have to be made uncomfortable so they will leave the nest. shier feeling of safety is disturbed.

-Flutters over her young- She disturbs the young so they have to climb to the edge of the nest to escape the flapping of her wings.

-Spreads abroad her wings-The young eagle has to climb onto the mother to escape her wings, as he does she spreads her wings and flies from the nest.

-Bears them up on her wings- She soars up high into the sky with the little eagle on her back, and suddenly she dives out from under him, leaving him with no secure resting place.

As he tumbles down to earth, he has to use his little wings to try and prevent his descent. Just as he nears the earth, the mother swoops down and under him and he lands on her back...and up to the heavens they rise again. Once there, she again dives out from under him and leaves him to once again have to use his own wings. This will continue over and over until the little eagle learns to use the air currents and to soar on them.

God is in the business of transforming us from hummingbirds into eagles.

Waiting is Frustrating!

Trust is a Journey we embark on and travel all of our lives to complete.