One of my dogs is very poorly and can’t walk far or fast, and needs plenty of rest stops!  This has had the benefit of making me slow down.  Yesterday, while my dog was ‘resting’, I saw what I thought was a buzzard and found myself watching it soaring overhead.  It reminded me of something that happened 18 months ago and what God had spoken to me through it, and indeed, continues to speak to me.

I had been driving through the south of France with my mother and my kids when my mother spotted a bird of prey overhead.  “What bird is that?” she asked.  “It looks like a kestrel,” I replied.  “We’ll get a better look when we round these trees.”

We drove round the corner.  “That’s not the kestrel,” I said.  “That’s an eagle.”  The kestrel had completely vanished and there were no other birds in the sky.  I pulled over and we all got out.  In my wonder, I completely forgot about the camera I had in the car.  I couldn’t keep my eyes off this colossal, beautiful bird.  The kids were mesmerised – no small feat.  It was a big eagle, possibly even a golden eagle, although my knowledge of birds of prey had expired with my membership of the Young Ornithologists’ club when I was a spotty teenager.

The eagle had the whole valley in silence as it hovered in the sky, not even moving its mighty wings an inch.  As we watched, it soared out of the valley and out of sight – we didn’t see it flap its wings once as it rose higher and higher, its wings spread right out as it let the thermal currents lift it higher and higher and higher until eventually it was a tiny dot that disappeared.

There’s a song we sing at church about being lifted up on wings like eagles, in fact there are several.  There’s also a well known scripture in Isaiah.  “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.  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.” Isaiah 40v28-31

I had never really thought about what the scripture meant before – it seemed to be a nice picture of a strong, powerful bird – chief of the air, soaring without much effort.  To me it was a comforting passage that cheered me up when I felt I was struggling or couldn’t cope.  It told me that I’d get through, with God propping me up, like a timely can of Red Bull or mug of coffee when working late into the night on a deadline.

When I was baptised at 17, I wore a t-shirt with a picture of an eagle and that verse in Isaiah printed on it.  I’ve still got the t-shirt but still hadn’t quite got the message from the scripture.  If anything, I sometimes felt I should feel like an eagle but didn’t, and that a sparrow was more apt where I was concerned.

The word says wings ‘like’ an eagle.  It’s taken (cough) years since then, but I’ve realised the scripture isn’t about the eagle being strong.  It’s what the eagle does and what happens to it that is important.

Yes, this bird was clearly powerful, but what really struck me that day in France was that this bird wasn’t doing anything except spreading its wings – the thermal currents did the work.

“You lift us up on wings like eagles.”  It’s right there.  It’s God doing the work.  All we have to do is spread our wings and we’ll soar on the thermal currents of the Holy Spirit. 

Soaring like an eagle isn’t simply a picture for how God helps us when we’re struggling – the Holy Spirit is not the energy boost we get when we’re tired, soaring is the eagle’s lifestyle.  It’s how the eagle travels, hunts and protects its young.

In day to day life, and when we’re weak and weary, we often try to cope in our own strength – like a little bird (maybe a sparrow!) battling against strong winds, or we think we have to flap like crazy to stay in the air.  But God wants us to fully open our wings and let the Holy Spirit do his thing!

Have you ever played the ‘trust’ game where you fall back, trusting someone will catch you?  Or abseiled off a cliff or building trusting in the rope and in the person holding it?  If you’ve abseiled, you’ll know that the you get the best experience by leaning back until you’re truly horizontal, then jumping away from the wall, letting the rope run free for a few moments.  I imagine freefalling is the same – you won’t fully experience it unless you take a deep breath and go for it, putting your trust in the equipment and your training.

Living in God’s strength is like that – completely letting go, opening those wings fully and trusting that God won’t let you fall.  It means giving all of yourself to him.

The wonderful difference between the ‘trust’ game, and trusting God, is that you don’t need to go into it wondering if the person catching you is strong enough or quick enough and wishing your arm pits didn’t sweat quite so much.  God is stronger, quicker, more powerful than anything we could ever imagine or need and he made us and loves us for who we are, body odour and all.

What giving all of yourself to God, abseiling, freefalling and the ‘trust’ game all have in common is that you start by making a decision.  Nothing happens if you don’t decide to ‘trust.’  You can’t freefall unless you make the leap out of the plane.  You can’t abseil unless you lean back over the cliff.

We all probably hesitate several times the first time we do any of these things – including completely handing our lives to God.  We make the decision, but don’t quite follow through.  We take a tentative step with one foot, and then the other foot shoots out to give us our balance back.  We keep some of our worries or part of our lives back from God, or we get ‘busy’ with life and don’t give God control.  How many times have we made the same decision to ‘go for God 100%’ saying ‘This time I really mean it and nothing’s going to stop me?’  I’ve lost count.

I’m something of a control freak so I find this really hard, but I’m learning.  Here are a dozen tips that help me.  They probably seem obvious, but I find I need to remind mysef every now and again!

1. Make the decision.  Make it again and again.  Make it every day.  Make it even when you’re doing well at surrendering your life to God. 

The more times you abseil, the less scary it is and the more confident you become.  This is the same principle.  Remind yourself every morning that God is in control of your life, he’s got a purpose in whatever you are going through – whether easy or hard, and he is completely dependable. 

2. Worship.  Worship as early as you can in the day.  Even if the only time you can snatch is in the car on the way to work, put on a CD and belt out some worship songs – just don’t close your eyes! 

Worship as often as you can.  And remember, worship doesn’t just mean singing.  It means doing what you do for God.

3. Talk to God throughout the day. If you’re being picky then you could say it’s the same as the last point, but it’s important!  If you don’t know what to pray, pray in tongues.  I’ve found praying in tongues at work is powerful and have seen God respond amazingly as I’ve been praying.  

4. Remind yourself who God is.  If you don’t know where to start, look in scripture or look around you.  He’s everywhere.  Look at the people around you.  If they know God, look at what God’s done in them and you’ll soon start thanking him for who he is.  If they don’t know God, think about all you know that they’re missing out on and you’ll soon start praising God and start praying for them!

5. Ask God to speak to you – about anything!  Sometimes we think God is this fantastic, amazing, awesome being (which he is), but that hearing from such a big God must be reserved for really spiritual people, or at least we need to spend a month in prayer and meditation before we’ll be able to hear him.

Ok, I’m exaggerating for effect, but what is really amazing is that God WANTS to speak to us.  And we don’t even need to have spent an hour in prayer first!  We can have had a terrible day at work, but he still wants to talk to us. 

I’ve had some incredible experiences lately where I’ve asked God something and been completely blown away by how he’s answered.  One example that stands out is one Sunday lots of people were praying and calling on God during the meeting.  I asked God; “We’re talking to you, but what do you want to say to us.”  I have never felt such emotion than that which burned within me as God answered my question and spoke through me in a way that is the closest I think I will ever come to an out-of-body experience. 

Another fantastic lesson for me in how eager God is to speak to us was when my home group set ourselves the challenge of asking God for a word for everyone going to the coming church weekend so that we could write an individual card for them.  Everyone meant everyone – even the babies in the church.  If we didn’t hear from God, we didn’t write a card.  Everyone got one.  And another thing I noticed – I think we were probably at least as blessed seeking God for our friends, as they were receiving the cards!

6. Study the word.  I’m not particularly well disciplined and I’ve struggled with this one.  One way of getting into the word I find helpful is to read scriptures that are connected to things God talks to me about through life. 

For example here… I saw an eagle and God started talking to me about how the eagle soars on thermal currents once it’s decided to spread its wings.  So I looked up scriptures about eagles and started asking God about them. 

It may not be the most academic or systematic way of reading scripture, but it puts the things God shows me in life into the context of his word. 

Another way is to follow a study series – with others can be a great encouragement.

7. Pray for your circumstances.  Don’t settle for the way things are.  You may not see change for years, but remember that God does not see time in the way we do. 

This is one that I find hard, I get out of the habit of praying for things and start accepting the way things are.  If you like I give up.  But God doesn’t give up and I am really encouraged by testimony I hear from people who pray faithfully and see God answer their prayers.

When a friend of mine first became ill, I prayed a lot.  Nothing happened.  Time passed and then I realised I had stopped praying.  When did I accept my friend’s illness?  When did I decide that it was ok that he couldn’t get to church and had to withdraw from many of the activities and relationships he’d been involved with? 

8.  Pray and praise where God takes you as you spend time with him.  Let God lead you.  I just think God’s amazing when we spend time with him.  At times I’ve found myself in heartfelt prayer for things I never thought I had much interest in.

9. Listen. So, so important. One of the things I often struggle with is what God wants me to do.  For example, over the last several months, I’ve been thinking about what I should do with some of the things he tells me that I don’t think are just for my ears.  Should I share them at church?  Talk to the pastors?  Someone suggested a blog, but how do I ensure it’s about God and not about me? 

I’ve spent so long wondering and worrying, scribbling notes, worshipping, praying… but not really listening.  I’ve folded my wings, taken control back from God.  It’s become my problem not his and now I’m being buffeted around in the wind, trying to keep control.  Well it’s time to stretch my wings out again and see where the Holy Spirit takes me.

10. Set yourself achievable practical and spiritual goals so you can see how you’re making progress.  I don’t mean to formalise it and turn a relationship with God into something ‘religious,’ but for someone like me who finds it hard to focus, this can really help.

One of the things I think God is showing me at the moment is that I need something to aim for – to help me, not make me feel like a failure when I don’t succeed.  I’m very busy and a lot of my relationship with God is developed through snatched moments throughout the day or shattered time late at night once the kids are in bed and everything else has been done. But God’s challenging me to find an hour a week during daylight hours when I’m not too tired to listen to him, where I can write down what he says without the words swimming in front of my eyes. 

He’s also challenging me not to watch programmes on the iplayer I’ve seen before or am not that interested in, and to have evenings when I don’t even turn the computer on!

11. Ask others for help. Don’t do this alone.  Jesus had 12 disciples.  The church in Acts 2 had everything in common.  I don’t think for a moment they simply shared possessions and didn’t share what the Holy Spirit was doing in their lives.  God has put us into a family and we should ask for, and offer each other help to develop our relationship with Jesus.

12. Thank God.  Don’t forget to thank God for what he’s done, is doing and will do.  Thanking God gives him the credit and the glory, makes it about him and puts him at the centre where he belongs.

First written 27th February 2012