“Shake Before Using”

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place, Osoyoos
Pulpit Series Volume 19 Issue 01 January 4, 2009

Deuteronomy 32:11 “As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings....”

Perhaps not very much of a Scripture reading, but it certainly is the Word of the Lord. There is enough here that God will no doubt show us something over the next 20-30 minutes. If we have the right attitude I know it will cause us to grow in Jesus.

Fellow climbers as we enter this new year, I need you to understand that the Word of God is...
· Healing to you if you receive it as healing
· Pardon to you if you receive it as a pardon
· Every blessing is yours if you receive it as God wrote it

“As the eagle stirs her nest, flutters over her young, takes them on her wings and bears them….” What a beautiful picture of how God deals with his people!

There are at least seven stages that a young eagle goes through when learning to fly. As we talk about them, see if you can find what stage you are at?

The seven stages are: Demonstration, Discomfort, Danger, Decision, Direction Change, Doing and Deliverance.

1. The Demonstration Stage
When it is time for a young eagle to begin flight training, the mother eagle will frequently push off from the perch where the nest is and hover above her young. The little eaglets begin to flap their wings in imitation. Although they don't have enough feathers to fly, they begin to develop their wing muscles.

Consider what God has done for us through His Son. Jesus came to earth demonstrating the faith life for us to follow.

Romans 5:8 “God demonstrated his love towards us.”

John 13:34, 15:12 “Love one another; as I have loved you.”
God has never left us to figure things out on our own.

He cares enough to give us a full blown living demonstration..... Jesus!

2. The Discomfort Stage
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest… It's one thing for those young eagles to flap their wings in the security of their down-filled home. It's quite another for them to move to the edge, look over and imagine stepping out on to nothing!

Naturally, they don't want to do it.

So the adult eagle does something the eaglets won't understand until much later. She begins “stirring up” the nest! She actually begins to tear the nest apart. The young eagles are literally poked out and forced to fly.

In our faith-life, this stage is when we begin to be bothered about something. We sense that something is wrong.

Like Job in Job 30:27, we might say, “My heart is troubled and restless.” Spiritually we become aware of a new level or step we should be taking.

The trouble is, like the eaglet, we too are reluctant to move out of our comfort zone.

It is so much easier to “stay in the nest”, to continue just attending church.

But hey, God never sent His Son to die for us so we can attend meetings. Yes, the Bible warns us not to forsake our assembling together, but there is more.

It wasn’t the disciples meeting in the upper room that turned the world upside down.
It was when the disciples spilled out into the streets and started living God’s Love in sandal leather.

God knows He has to stir up our nest, making us uncomfortable. There is a good reason they call most church seats “pews”.

Unfortunately most of us are like certain medicines. We have small print on our souls that states, “Shake before using!”

Why does God have to shake us? It is too often the only way He can prepare us for change.

Do you know what I mean?

Sadly, some people live their entire lives in this Discomfort Stage. They cling to their nest (church chair or pew) like terrified eagle chicks, afraid to do anything about their problem.

They'd rather live with discomfort than risk the unknown thing called “flying”.

Sadly we get stalled in our discomfort. Our reluctance to change forces God to bring us to the next stage.

3. The Danger Stage
Can you imagine a full grown eagle perched in the nest of its parents, peeping like a baby begging for something to eat?

But eagles weren't meant to be nest-sitters, they are to fly!

We weren’t meant to be church goers, we are called to be the church! Because He loves us, God allows a danger or a crisis to come into our lives that moves the issue we're ignoring off the back burner.
He sends us a wake up call.

All of a sudden the situation gets so bad we can't ignore it anymore.

We get fired or are set back by an accident or serious illness. The pain becomes unbearable.

Our spouse threatens to walk out or a creditor starts foreclosure.

Like the eagle's nest, the bottom falls out from under our lives and we realize we've got to do something…. something fast!

It happened to King David. Look at what he says in Psalm 119:67 “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.”

An affliction was needed to show David that it was important to keep God's Word.

Could this be the reason you are in a crisis right now?
Is there something you've been ignoring?

Remember…..God wants you to fly, not flutter in the nest.

He wants you to grow up!

The danger stage quickly moves us on to the next stage.

4. The Decision Stage
What is it going to take to get you to make a
decision? Is God dealing with your stubbornness or neglect?

And after the Decision Stage comes…..
5. The Direction Change Stage
The young eagle, falling fast, has come to the wise conclusion that he has got to do something.

He has to change direction! He must start going up instead of down.

You can’t continue on in the same manner
as you have and expect to grow.

In fact, doing the same thing in the same way while expecting a different result is the definition of “Insanity”.

We're talking about God teaching us to fly - to live the faith life in a way that is pleasing to Him and brings us to maturity.

6. The Doing Stage
The adult eagle can teach her young to fly but she cannot fly for them. They must do it themselves.

When Jesus cleansed the ten lepers, He told them to go present themselves to the priest. Then, “as they were going, they were cleansed.” Luke 17:14

This step of doing is critical to the young eagles learning to fly and it is critical to our growing up in Christ and to the final step.

7. The Deliverance Stage
This one is beautiful. “He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.”

I understand that the adult eagle will actually swoop down and catch her falling offspring on her back and carry them back up to the home perch. What a beautiful picture of what God does for us!

II Timothy 3:11 “What persecutions I endured and out of them all the Lord delivered me!”

Psalm 34:19 “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

If you are a Christian, God will teach you to fly. There will come a season - it may be now - that God will begin His stirring. Be sure God wants you to fly. You can ignore it, but it won't stop the process. You can resist it, but it won't stop the process.

Isaiah 43:19 “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, [and] rivers in the desert.”