One facet of the face of God is an eagle face which each of the four living creatures named as Cherubim had. They are placed around the throne of God to protect its holiness and proclaim the glory of God when it is revealed to them (Ezek 1:3-10; 10:15; Rev 4:6-10). Each time the living creatures revealed a facet of God, we see the elders who represent the Church of God fall down before God and worship Him by casting their crowns (Rev 4:9-11). In other words, when ever they realised their royal identity that God has lavished upon them, they humbled themselves before God and give Him all the glory for what He has given them because of His benevolence. Lack of revelation always deprecates the glory due to God, but abundant revelation glorifies God. The eagles represented the royalty of God. Because we are God's children adopted in to His great lineage of royalty, we are called in the Bible as "a royal priesthood", "kings" and "His own special people" (1 Peter 2:9; Rev 1:6). As God children we need to know deeply about this kingly lineage that we have and need to remind ourselves of it especially when we feel as worthless trash because of the devil's soulish ideas that come from the third rated world system of governance. Royals are always taught to behave and live in a royal way, which is totally different from the way people live outside of it. We also need to teach ourselves to think, live and behave like the royalty of God's family when we live in this world. We are in the world but not of the world (John 17:11, 16).
We are going to know about the eagle, because God has called us to be one with such a royal characteristics to exhibit as long as we live on this earth. Because we are the ones who have a royal character of an eagle with in us, we just need to learn what is inside us and remind ourselves of it when we feel otherwise. You might have heard about a story of an eagle egg which was placed in the crow's nest and got hatched by it. The eaglet did not know that it is an eagle and stayed with the crow in the lower altitude thinking of a crow by being with them. One day when it saw an eagle trying to attack the crow flocks, something within it said, soar higher and the eagle will get scared. Once the eaglet believed it can, it went after the attacking eagle higher and higher in to the high places, till it surrendered to the young energetic eagle. Surprised by the power within it, the young eagle left the crow flocks forever to live in the higher altitude of greatness and royalty. In the same way we as believers not knowing the royal lineage of our God has been living in the crow crowd of wordly people in the low altitude of the earth. But I believe as you come to understand the eagle face of the royalty of our Heavenly Father, you too will soon believe you can and begin to soar high in your spirit in to the heavenly mindedness of our God and live perpetually in the lifestyle of royalty. The crow based earthly low altitude thinking of the old man in thrown away and replaced with the "I can do all things through Christ" (Phil 4:13) renewed high altitude heavenly thinking of the eagle for the glory of God (Eph 4:22-24). Remember the apostolic exhortation of Apsotle Paul to soar in to high places by setting our minds on things above (Col 3:1-2).
1. Eagles Flock Together
As the old saying goes, "Birds of like feathers flock together". Eagles do not mix with other birds but always only enjoys to fly in the high altitude of the eagle only. We as the children God are told not to forsake the assembling of saints but come together and encourage each other to live a royal lifestyle of God with other believers. This royal character of our heavenly Father and lifestyle is the heavenly attitude of high altitude sermon of Jesus on the mount (Heb 10:25; 3:13; 1 Thess 5:11; Matt 5:1-48). Also like Jesus, Moses and many other saints of the past, we go alone and pray with the Heavenly Father (Matt 6:6; Exod 24:15, 18; Luke 6:12). We soar alone in the spirit realm with God the Father many times.
2. Eagles Sees a Long Distance Prey or Enemy
Eagles have strong vision and so are able to identify its prey and focusses on it until it gets the prey and at the same time it is able to see from afar its enemy the snakes trying to sneak in to its nest in order to steal its egg or to kill its young ones. Though eagles build its nest on high rocks and places, snakes have a tendency and ability to climb it. But the strong vision of eagles keeps the enemies away from its nest. We as the children of God are focussed on our reward which is to kill the unbelief, sorrow, depression and eat the positive things of peace, joy and righteouness as a result of killing it (Isa 61:2-3; Rom 14:17). The demons and devils have a tendency and ability to attack our nest which is our home, finance, relationships, health, spiritual well being and soulish wholeness (1 Peter 5:8). The demonic realm of principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness of this age who are trying to steal, kill and destroy our abundant life of God within our families, loved ones and our community, we see by the foresight and strong vision of God from far off and strart to resist it by attacking it, the enemy who tries to come in will become scared and flee away (John 10:10; Eph 6:12; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9-10). The Lord will reveal the plans of the enemy within our spiritual foresight like for the prophet Elisha. When the Lord reveals the plans of the enemy in advance to us, the enemies of our soul will become frustrated, powerless and confused till they can no more attack us who are the people of God (2 Kings 6:23; Matt 4:11; Luke 4:13). This has recently happened to me in my life too. The Lord showed the enemy trying to kill a lukewarm believer whom I know very well in a vision. I prayed for him to be shown mercies and had peace after that. Afterwards I met his mother a few weeks later and she told that this particular believer met with an accident and if not for God's grace would have died on that spot itself. I told her the time that it might have occured and she said that it was the same time he met with an accident. I praise God for the strong vision of royalty he gives to us in various times which outwits the enemies plans completely.
3. Eagles Do Not Eat Dead Things
Eagles never consume dead things but vultures do. Because we are the ones with the royal characteristics of an eagle within us, Jesus said, "55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." (John 6:55-57). His blood that we drink is our faith in the saving blood of Jesus and the flesh of Jesus that we eat is the words that He has spoken to us which we keep in our lives (Matt 26:26-28; John 6:63; 10:27; 14:15). We the believers are the one who eat fresh flesh of Jesus' words from heaven through the Holy Spirit's teachings which always makes us live His life on earth royally (John 1:14; 6:63; 11:26; 1 Cor 2:13).
4. Eagles Loves the Storm
Eagles are the only birds that loves the storm. When all other birds try to flee from the storm and hide itself from the fierceness of it, eagles fly in to it and will use the wind of the strom to rise higher in a fraction of seconds. It uses the pressure of the storm to glide higher without using its own energy. It is able to do this because God has created it uniquely with an ability to lock its wings in a fixed position, in the midst of the fierce storm winds. After a certain period of experiencing storms face to face, the eagles love to play in the storms. The storms in life that we as God's royal eagles face are trials, tribulations and temptations (John 16:33; James 1:12). As we face the stormy wind of afflictions in life, the Holy Spirit helps us lock our mind in a fixed position with the grace of God through faith in the finished work of the Cross, which helps us not to spend our energy but just stay in the storm and enjoy the lift and height of heavenly mindedness in a greater and greater altitude (1 Cor 10:13; Eph 6:16; 1 Peter 5:9-10; Phil 4:7). After a period of time we start to love the trials because of the positive things of peace that we are able to experience in the storm and the heavenly after effects of being lifted in to great height of spirituality and ecstacy in believing (1 Peter 1:8), which would not have been possible without it. This is the reason Apostle James said, "2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (James 1:2-4). We as a person of royalty need to take a quality decision of accepting trials willingly with joy because it lifts us in to higher altitude of spirituality without us wasting even an ounce of energy. After we start to use all the manuveres in the midst of stroms, we will surely say, "Bring it on with a stout chest and our head held high".
5. Eagles Tests Before Trusting
The female eagle during courtship always takes a male one in to the air after picking up a twig from the ground and go to a certain height and will drop it for the male to chase it. Once the male catches hold of it and brings back, the female flies in to a higher altitude and drops it in the same way. This is repeated until the female gets an assurance that the male one has mastered the art of seriously picking up the twigs in real love and affection. Once they get hooked up in trust, the father and the mother eagle mate for life. And they work together as parents. Apostle Paul made it clear that we must enter the kingdom of God's parental and a lover's joy, peace and righteousness only through tribulations (2 Tim 3:12; Acts 14:22; Rom 14:17). God tests us through various trials in order to test our love for the Lord and purify it by making us learn obedience through suffering (Ps 66:10; Heb 5:8). God tested Abraham before he trusted Him as his dear friend for eternity (Gen 22:1, 9-12, 16-17; Is 41:8; James 2:21-23). Some of us try to test God like the grumbling Israelites did, which is totally a wrong attitude that arises out of our sinful soulish mind (Exod 17:7). God must be trusted because he is perfect (Matt 5:48), we need to be tested because we are imperfect beings who need to be purified through various trials, temptation and tribulations in order to be made perfect (Rom 5:3-5; Deut 8:16; Mal 3:3). Once the tests are over, God trusts us and establishes us for eternity ahead (1 Peter 5:9-10). This is a royal courtship with God that we must undergo in order to be establised for eternity.
6. Eagles Trains Its Children to Maturity
Eagles always builds its nest on high places where the enemies cannot easily reach. God always sets his weak amd lowly in mind children's in high places far above the reach of the enemy by His sovereign power (Matt 5:3-4; Job 5:11; Ps 91:14). The male eagles pick up thorns and lays it on the cliff as an outer shell of protection and then it brings twigs to form another layer over it for ruggedness and agility. And again it places a layer of thorns over it for the nest to withstand enemies penetration and then places a layer of soft-grass just before the inner most layer of rugs which completes the nest. The finishing touches for the nest is completed with its feathers kept over the outermost layers of rugs. In the life of Joseph his circumstances and his place of stay was full of thorns. He was thrown in to a well by his own brothers because of jealousy and was sold to some nomadic Arabians as a commodity, who again took him to Egypt and was resold as a slave to an officer of the Pharaoh. From there he was thrown in to a prison where his feet were hurt by the fetters and was laid in irons for no fault of his (Ps 105:17-18). The presence of God and His grace were the feathers that was always present all around Joseph which kept him inside the nest of thorns where he prospered and did not bleed to death by the thorns of his circumstances (Gen 39:2, 21, 23). When we go through the times of hardship and trials for no reason of our mistake, God covers us with His feathers and protects us under the shelter of His wings. And only there we find our refuge and His faithfulness becomes out shield and rampart in the midst of all our throny and harsh circumstances (Ps 91:1-4).
Both male and female eagles participate in raising the eagle family. She lays the eggs and protects them; he builds the nest and hunts. All the members of the Trinity participate in the royal training of all believers. The Father loved us and sent His only begotten Son to transfer us in to the kingdom of His Son Jesus Christ (Col 1:13), the Son of God died on behalf of us redemptively and qualified us to be participants of the training of the royals (Col 1:14, 21) and the Holy Spirit works as the agent executive and facilitator in ministering the training course of the royals (John 14:26; 1 John 2:27).
While in training the mother eagle will thrown the eaglets outside of its nest and the eaglets will get scared and will always try to come back in to the comfort zone of the nest. Slowly the eagle will begin to remove the feather, rugs and soft grass inside its nest step by step so that the eaglets can be trained to fly like them. The eaglets may feel that their mother and father are doing cruel things to them as they feel the thorns prick them and make them bleed. Many times we as believers try to stay in the comfort zone of the old season that the Lord has kept us to grow for a time. But the Lord takes us in to situations that may seem very cruel as we start to bleed because of the hardship of thorns we face in the new season, but the Lord's motive in doing it is to make ours fears flee and teach us to soar in faith. Because of the thorns we feel inside the comfort zone of our old and outdated season, we slowly jump out in to the new season like the eaglets jump out of the thorny nest.
Then the mother eagle pushes them off the cliff of their nest into the air. As they shriek in fear, father eagle flies out and picks them up on his back before they fall, and brings them back to the cliff. This goes on for sometime until they start flapping their wings. God said to the Israelites who faced consistent trials, tribulations and time of great testings in the transitory time of wilderness, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." (Exod 19:4, NLT). God also said to them, "9 For the LORD’s portion is His people...10 He found him in a desert land...a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. 11 As an eagle stirs up its nest, Hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, Carrying them on its wings, 12 So the LORD alone led him.... 13 “He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock" ( Deut 32:9-13). God always throws us off from the familiar surroundings during the transitory time between the old and new season. This makes us to get caught in a great fall off guard and suddenly we feel as though we are going to die because of the great fall, but instead we are safely taken in to His wings of our Heavenly Abba Daddy to find comfort from all our fear. Slowly we start to enjoy the fall and the fresh air knowing that we will be taken by the safe wings of God each time. As we fall like the eaglets in to great trials and fall, the blood of Jesus starts to flow inside our wings and strengthens our faith in the protecting sovereign hand of the Lord over our life. The great things that happens during this time is that we learn to live in the so called danger of fall by our faith and also specially we start to enjoy the trials and tribulation (Rom 5:3-5; James 1:2-4). Fear of the fall flies away because of trusting in God's love and sovereign protection and we soar consistently flapping the wings of faith and learn to stay that way without toiling (1 John 4:18-19; Gal 5:6; Heb 4:3).
7. Eagles Retires Until New Feathers Grow
When the eagles get older and weak because of the worn out feathers which slows down its flight speed and manueveres, the eagles retires away in the rocks and will pluck away all its old feathers until it is completely bare. It waits until a new set of feather grows and comes out of his body. It stays in the hiding place until all the new feathers comes back to make it fly dynamically and royally again without much effort or toil. Likewise, we take of our old man of soulish self after a season of flying in faith and wait in the presence of the Lord to make us rise up with the new feathers of faith from the new man by renewing our minds with the word of God (Eph 4:22-24). This is what Apostle Paul spoke about when he said, "8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him" (Col 3:8-10). We need to wait upon the Lord in constant prayer of the secret hiding place of God's presence inorder to be renewed with new feathers and be strengthened to mount up and soar again like young eagles in faith (Is 40:31; Ps 32:7; 119:114; 31:20; Matt 6:6).
May we all live royally as an eagle and soar in our faith for the glory of God in our end time generation!
Abraham Israel
Indeed God is great in my life. I repent and I would like to copy the characteristics of eagle and commit it in my christian life .