There is a picture of Father God in the book of Deuteronomy 32:10-11
“…He shielded him and cared for him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye. 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”…as a parent eagle that prepares its precious eaglets to take the plunge and use their wings". The eagle stirs up the nest, picks out all the soft bits and it’s no longer cosy and comfortable. The eaglets flap their wings vigorously, but they need boldness to take the plunge. The parent eagle does not push them over, but hovers over them……ready and alert! Ready to catch them on her pinions, should they fail. This is what they have been prepared for…..to catch the wind and soar! To see from above and hunt their prey!
What an amazing picture! The last few months of lockdown, has been a special time for the church. God has met with us as individuals, stirred us up…..out of our complacency. We have sought Him and He has poured new wine into lives. As we feel a sense of expectation for the season ahead, we may look for those safe religious places, our comfort zones in the nest…..but God has prepared us for a brand new season. To carry the new wine, we need to be ready for the new wineskins. A changing of our mindset. Jesus said we cannot carry the new wine in old wineskins. It will burst and the wine will be wasted. God is calling us in the secret place to know His heart. That’s where the commission flows from God’s heart into our hearts. Jesus taught His disciples to pray…..Let Your Kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven. Until recently, I said those words, like some wishful thinking.
Now I know, that Jesus is teaching us to partner with God, like He partnered with His Father. John 5: 19, Jesus teaches us how He carries out the commission His Father gave Him. ….the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. We are called to do the same. We are called to carry His heart…..but not as lone rangers, but as sons, bound to Him and held in unity with one another. When we come together, in oneness of heart, in the revelation of who God has made us to be…..we come as history makers! What we bind on earth, would already have been bound in heaven and what we loose on earth, would already have been loosed in heaven. We cannot make disciples with organisational power. With man’s ideas. We need the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s open our hearts to Him……to see our Father at work in Heaven, to keep on being filled with Him and we remain in Him. Pray, and be filled again.
Jesus talked about the key to make all this happen in our lives. In Luke 10: 38-42, Jesus talks about a choice that we need to make. He said that Mary had chosen the one and only good part…..to be with Him! Mary demonstrated, what it means to be forgiven much and love much. God loves to restore the broken ….find the lost….take back into family the undeserving! Its messy….people misunderstand…..it’s even risky!
Are we willing to fly out of the nest? He has promised to never leave us or abandon us. We were born to carry His love for the world!
We share out of what we have received….. however desperately lost and broken a person is, we are here to show the goodness of a loving Father….to heal the broken-hearted, to set the captive free, to share good news with the poor! Let’s stand in the gap and pray and God will give us divine appointments….open doors.