To Soar like Eagles—Part 2
By: Alan Smith
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.” (NIV)
Okay, do you still want to fly? Well, if so, then let’s look more at flight number Isaiah 40:31 and continue to prepare for take off. In our preparations from last time, we learned about the spiritual fuel that we need in our spiritual tanks. How our “hope” is to be in the Lord, and in return, the Lord will fill us with “faith”.
The writer of the book of Hebrews unlocks more of the mystery of this supernatural substance called faith. Hebrews 11:1: “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This is unbelievable! Something that I cannot see has “substance”. So “faith” is some kind of spiritual substance, which must be preceded by “hope” before it will materialize. The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that the only “evidence” which I can use is the “evidence” that cannot be seen. This indicates that the “evidence” we see, life’s circumstances, is off limits and cannot be used. If we use this kind of “seen evidence”, it will only pollute the spiritual fuel that is necessary to get this eagle off the ground. Do not let your spiritual fuel be polluted with this slime. We need unpolluted, undiluted, unpooted spiritual fuel from heaven. Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away in my descriptive words. But regardless, we need to understand that the evidence of life’s circumstances does not equal a spiritual truth in our lives.
This evidence of life’s circumstances is not the prophetic voice that should speak into our future. Do not bring glory to these “past” events of sorrow and doubt. We should only let Christ write our future. Remember, we decide who writes our future: Christ or crises. Where are we to appropriate our hope? We are to appropriate our hope in the One who can give us the spiritual fuel of “faith” to take us from where we are to where we are going. We need to take this spiritual flight: a flight that will take us into the very presence of God. To a destination that only God of heaven could chart for each one of us. Remember, He wants us to make it more than we want to. If God is for us, I believe we will make it. Let’s put our hope in Him today!
Now, let’s look at the next part of this verse. It says: “They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” If we are going to soar like eagles, we must start running down this spiritual runway. The runway must be somewhat long because Isaiah exhorts us to not grow weary while running. If we continue to hope in the Lord, which is what gives us our direction on the runway, this verse indicates that the Lord will renew our strength. Our strength comes from above; not from within. Our hope is within. This hope will be sent on a spiritual journey on the wings of prayer to the One, who in return, will send us strength.
I encourage you this day to take your eyes off life’s circumstances and place your hope, more than ever, in Christ. You can trust Him. He will renew your strength to run down the runway of life and make it over the trees to climb into the heavens and live in the very presence of God.
Blessings,
Alan
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