Isaiah 40:31
‘but 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.’
• DAILY READING 1 Corinthians 2; 1 Kings 15:1-32; Joel 2:12-32
We have come into a new dawn. It is a new day of great things. It is a year of greater heights. This year, it is God’s plan for us to soar with ease and peace. Like the eagle we shall be mounting up on the wings of the wind.
Isaiah 40:31 says ‘but 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.’
An eagle “mounts up” as it soars high into the sky, far above the plains below. The Hebrew word for “mount up” is alah , which means “to ascend,” “to be high,” “lifted up,” “arise up,” or “carry up.”
All these words describe the movement of the eagle, when it is carried up by the wind. By mounting up, the eagle does not struggle to fly, rather it simply soars on the wings of the wind. And by so soaring, the eagle flies higher than any other bird.
However soaring for an Eagle is not an option, but a necessity. This is because eagles are born with big and heavy wings. Part of their survival mechanism is that they learn how to fly without actually flapping their big wings. They do this in order to conserve energy. Eagles can literally die if they expend too much energy flapping their wings during flight. As a result, early in life, eagles learn to soar, thereby using minimum energy during flight.
How Eagles soar, is that they wait for what are called wind thermals to come up on them. A wind thermal is a big gust of wind that rises up from the atmosphere. Sometimes eagles will remain perched for days before they can catch a good, strong, wind thermal. Once this wind comes upon them, they launch into it and combine a mixture of flying and soaring on the strong winds to get them to where they want to go.
Often we have seen this demonstrated in documentaries, when Eagles are caught on video soaring high up in the sky without flapping their wings. Their wings are spread straight out as they literally soar with perfect ease on the wind currents.
What we can learn from this, is that when we wait on The Lord, the wind of The Spirit like the thermal wind comes to carry us to the height ordained for us by God. Just like the eagle has to learn to catch the wind thermal, we have to learn how soar on the winds of The Spirit.
It is God’s will for us to be above and never beneath. But oftentimes there are forces of limitations that try to keep us bound on the ground.
In the book of Exodus, God had a plan for the Children of Israel to be free to worship and serve Him, but they were held in bondage by pharaoh. Despite all the signs and wonders God showed in Egypt, Pharaoh still held them bound, until the sign of the blood was applied. After the sign of the blood, Pharaoh released them from bondage in a hurry.
Last year, despite your efforts, certain things may have kept you bound from attaining the heights God ordained for you. But in this New year, just as the blood made the difference for the Israelites, by the blood of Jesus you are set free from every such bondage in Jesus Name. Whatever is still resisting and limiting your progress, by the blood of Jesus they lose their hold on you today. The Egyptians you saw last year, this year you shall see them no more. Every pharaoh of limitation that tormented you last year, by the blood, you are free from their oppression. Every pharaoh trying to cross over to pursue you, into this new year, just as pharaoh drowned in the red sea, the red blood of Jesus shall drown them all in Jesus name. It is a new day, it is a new dawn. It is the year of our greatest flight.
Deut. 32:11-13 says “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields…”
As we follow the leadings of The Spirit, God will cause us to rise upon our high places. We shall be attaining results far beyond our human capabilities. And it shall not be by power or by might, but by The Spirit of The Lord. Therefore as we embark on the eagle’s flight, we have to be greatly sensitive to The Spirit.
It is indeed a new day and a new dawn!
PRAYER: Lord, please may this New year mark a season of new beginnings for me. As I embark on the eagle’s flight, please grant me the grace to continually wait upon You, so that I can mount up with ease and peace. Thank You Lord for the great things You have in store for me this year in Jesus Name.
When God places His hand upon a man in life nothing can come against him, this is because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
[ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK DIVINE ORDER FOR A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS]