To Soar Like Eagles 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)

I always wanted to be able to fly. Have you ever felt this way? Did you ever have a dream where you could fly over the countryside? You know, like Peter Pan. It looks like this will never happen in my natural life; or could it? What about the life of the spirit? Isaiah says there will be a people that will “soar on wings like eagles”. Let’s take a flying lesson from the scriptures on flight number Isaiah 40:31. Okay, prepare for take off.

Now, how are we to get this “eagle” off the ground? The first thing this scripture tells us is we must have the strength to fly. So how do I get this strength; this spiritual jet fuel? Well, I believe this verse is telling us, we get it from the Lord. The Lord is my spiritual and emotional fueling station. I have included the word emotion, because in order for this eagle to fly, I must get into the correct e-motion to get off the runway.

The second thing we must do is check our fuel tank readings. As we look over the gauges, we find the fuel gauge. This gauge has a name, and it is called “hope”. Over the gauge it says these words “FILL ONLY WITH HIGH QUALITY FAITH”. I have always wondered how much faith I have in my tank; haven’t you? I can’t tell you how much faith I have. I don’t know if I have a little or a lot; but I can tell you how much hope I have. So hope is the way I can read how much faith I have to get this eagle off the ground. A little hope equals a little faith, which equals a little spiritual fuel. Therefore, a lot of hope equals a lot of faith, which equals a lot of spiritual fuel. Now I have more understanding of why life’s circumstances are trying to rob me of my hope. My spiritual enemy knows that if he can keep my spiritual fuel tank empty, I will not even attempt “take off”.

Life’s circumstances are like tall trees at the end of the runway. It is amazing how we look at the tall trees and say, “I know I cannot make it over them; I cannot make lift off. I know the trees, life’s circumstances, are just too tall. I will never get enough momentum to clear them.” This unbelief is a lack of hope. Unbelief is a hole in our spiritual tanks in which “faith” will leak out upon the ground. Our hope is not to be appropriated in the tall trees or in ourselves or in the evidence of life’s circumstances. Our hope is to be in the Lord. As we appropriate this “hope” in the Lord it is supernaturally and instantaneously changed into “faith”. Hope is what I send to the Lord and Faith is what He sends back into my spiritual tank. Faith is a gift; a gift from God.

Eph 2:8-10: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. (NIV) God sends us this spiritual fuel because He wants to. It is by his grace, as you can see in this scripture. We do not deserve it; He just wants us to make it. He wants us to make it off the runway and soar with the eagles and get a perspective, which we can only get from high places.

Okay, do you still want to fly? Well, if so, then let’s look at flight number Isaiah 40:31, once again, 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 and every 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 take a 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 fairly long because Isaiah exhorts us to not grow weary while running. If we continue to hope in the Lord, 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 of 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.