Wait on the Lord, Part 2 — Leonard Ravenhill

Eagles as an Image of God's Care

He gets all those little babies up there and they look out and right down in the valley there and they think it's wonderful. Dad comes and brings some fresh meat, mother comes and brings a change of diet, and it's great.

Oh, it's great. And they start growing their feathers and mother says, you're going to start flying. No, we want to stay here, it's comfortable. Well, you're going to fly tomorrow. No, we're not. We're going to stay here.

It's so warm in this wool that you put it. Oh, we like. You keep bringing the meat, you keep bringing the diet. We enjoy it. The sun is warm on top of us. You see, when the eagle is up there, he cares for those little ones.

Remember the song, it says, he shall cover thee with his feathers. But God isn't a bird. It's an analogy. You know what the eagle does? Well, when the babies are there, she sits with her wings like this and it can rain and But those little kids underneath are as warm as well.

Job's Trials and the Testing of Faith

They were tucked in your bed with a thermostat, the blanket. And you remember the story of Job where God says, all right, no, no, no. You see, and I think we forget this very often. It wasn't a challenge.

It wasn't a challenge of Satan to God. It was a challenge of God to Satan. Nobody like him in the world. Oh, well, of course, he serves you because he prospers. Prosperity and piety are tied up together.

Send him bankrupt and you've got no Job left. But the Lord says, you touch him. And he touched him. First thing he did was send him bankruptcy. Second thing, he sent bereavement. He killed all his family.

The third thing he did, he sent boils. And he couldn't stand up or sit down. And he's got boils, bereavement, and bankruptcy. He's in a mess. You see, he thought that he could break in with taking his fortune.

No, no, no. Well, can I stretch out my hand again? Yes, stretch your hand out. So the second thing I say is he kills his family. Bereavement, bankruptcy, and then bereavement. And then he says, well, can I go further?

And you know, the Lord says, look, you can take his money. You can take his family. You can take everything. But you can't take his life. You know, it seems as though sometimes God lets the old devil go so far as though he's going to wreck the whole thing.

And you say, what's left now? You can't take his life. And he can't take our spiritual life either. You know, sometimes we get so settled down. You know, the old mother nurse, she says, well, you're going to fly today.

God Uses Disruption to Teach Spiritual Maturity

It's a good day. And I say, no, we don't have to go. She says, get on my back. Why? I'm going to take you for a ride. I'm going to take you up in the sky so high. And when she gets up there, she suddenly rolls over.

And they go fluttering down, and they struggle. And their wings, their wings go out. Their wings, they fight, they fight. And if they don't, if she has three on her back and two flutter, and one's going down like that, then she goes into a power dive, maybe 150 now, and she swoops right underneath that little thing and lets it sit up like that.

She doesn't let it crash to the ground. But you see, if she didn't upset the nest, now sometimes they won't get on her back. So do you know what she does? That big, strong mother or the father who arranged it.

And you know, there's a big twig hanging out of the side of the nest like that. And he comes down from the sky and he goes, oh, right, and they go up in the sky like that, you know. Like sometimes you jump on the end of a plank and somebody shoots up and the thing goes, ooh, where am I?

And dad just laughs or mother laughs and watches that bird. It's going to go swooping. And he suddenly swoops down like that. Oh, down he goes. And he rescues it. That's somewhere in a psalm, isn't it?

Renewed Strength and the Promise of Waiting on the Lord

In a psalm where it says, Psalm 103 and verse 5, who satisfies thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Now that's what it says. Well, then, what you're saying is that an eagle gets a second chance.

Exactly. Exactly. It lives for about 60 years and it begins to get tired when it flies. And worse still, you see, its beak is bent like that, you remember, it has a hook at the end. And that beak will grow like a toenail that you don't cut and it goes under so that the eagle can't open its mouth.

It can't get food. And so he flies to a place on a crag and he shelters there and the storm beats on him and his feathers begin to come out and he can't eat because his beak has folded and shut his mouth up and he's really getting old and it looks as though he's done.

And then one day he said, I'm not taking this anyhow. And he beats his head against the rock until that beak comes off and you know what, there's a new beak underneath. And he's able to eat. He flies a little with what energy he has and lo and behold, he discovers new feathers are coming.

And you know, an eagle has been known to live after that for nearly as long as it lived before. It will get old and decrepit, its beak goes, as I've said, it decays, its strength goes, feathers come out, and then it renews its youth.

It gets glossy feathers, a new beak comes, it's strong, it can tear and devour, it can lift great weights, heavier than itself. Its youth is renewed like the eagle's. Your youth, he said, should be renewed like the eagle's.

It's not a nice experience. I've heard it said that sometimes it's so anxious to get rid of that horrible old beak that's crippling it that it will beat its head until it's bloody and its hair will all be bloody or its feathers all bloody.

But then once again, when its energy has come back and its youth is renewed, it climbs higher maybe than it's ever climbed before. That's why in this context it says, He giveth power to the faint. Before all eagles fainting, he giveth power to the faint.

And to those who have no might, he increaseth strength. You see, we think sometimes our assets, well, my ability, my education, something, no, no, no. You've got to cast it all away. But you have to say, almost like the hymn writer, hangs my helpless soul on me.

Depending on God's Strength Rather Than Human Ability

God says as the eagle bears. He says somewhere in what, some genesis, I think it is somewhere up there, I can't remember the verse now about the 19th chapter, or Exodus the 19th, somewhere around there.

He says, I have borne you on eagles' wings. Isn't that great? The strength of God. He doesn't need any revitalizing. He's eternally strong. He's eternally the same. It's a great thing when, to compliment a man, I think in the way that God complimented Saul and Donathan, he said that they were thrifter than eagles and stronger than lions.

That's a beautiful combination. See, they were fit, apathetically fit. They were stronger than lions. They were swifter than eagles. In other words, they were totally coordinated. Everything's responding in them.

It all comes again by waiting on the Lord. It comes by living in heavenly places. It comes by having eyes that can see what nobody else can see. It comes by being brave enough to go into a storm and everybody else backs off.

It comes from knowing the mind of God. This ship, this ship. You're not going to save anything in this ship, so you better settle for that. All your baggage is going, all your investment's going, the ship is going, but listen.

Everybody says, I don't think God's a bit interested in the economy of America. People say, let's pray that this will happen, that will happen. You see, we've got to give all this money to nations. No, no, no.

I don't think so. I'm glad of money given to nations. But that revival doesn't hang on the cash box. For the holy favor and mercy of God. That we have been the richest, most overfed, overstuffed nation in history.

Worldly Wealth, Sin, and Spiritual Priorities

People say, do you know how much America gave to nations last year? Tell me. Well, I think we gave about 200 million. We did. We spent more than that on cat food. We spent about a billion and a quarter on liquor.

We spent about a billion on smoke. What's two or three hundred thousand dollars, million dollars, compared to what we give on sin? Did you ever hear a sinner say that they died? No. They don't die. They give every blessed penny they have for drinks, smokes, going to Las Vegas and what have you got.

Did you ever hear a fellow say, well, of course I never think of going to the World Series. Man, he'd give it his everything to go to the World Series. Did you ever hear a girl say, I'm sorry, I can't dance with you.

I always go to bed at ten o 'clock. Oh, yes, I'll go. Well, it won't finish till three. That's great. There are some Hollywood stars. Oh, do you think I could even rub my shoulder next to somebody, because I'd never sell that dress if I did.

It's getting like that with Christian. Oh, do you know, he went to a breakfast. Do you know who sat at the next table? Did you see him last night chewing his wife's head off? And when he was angry or something, some other carnal thing, he wouldn't want to sit near the fact.

You see, we're living with our five senses like the world. What we can see and what we can touch and what we can eat and what we can smell. Oh, come on. If you're seated with Christ, live in heavenly places.

Start thinking on the eternal level. Get the world beneath your feet and the devil and everything that's earthly and sensual and deadly. Don't feed on it. You just can't get it. If you leave your dog food out, some other dog may come for it.

Some other creature may come for it. But I'll tell you one thing, an eagle won't come for it. By its very nature, and that's the whole thing. If you and I are new creatures in Christ Jesus, we've made partakers of the divine nature.

This whole world hasn't got much for us. It certainly doesn't push us around. We push it around. We've got it all under control. There's only one way to live. And that is that you and I should live on earth every day as though we were already in heaven.

Because the grave isn't going to change us. There's no sanctification of the sacrifice. The Lord said, they that wait upon the Lord shall become like sparrows. I won't be too thrilled. Or if he said we'd be like seagulls or cockatoos.

Mounting Up With Wings as Eagles

There's a lot of those in the church too. But he says that he wants us to mount up with wings as eagles. To run and not be wary and to walk and not think. Oh that God could look down on your fellowship, this little fellowship here.

And say that precious bunch of children of mine, they're stronger than lions and swifter than eagles. Because you see when an eagle sees a thing and it says I'm going after it. You can't deviate it. You can't sidetrack it.

Other birds can attack it. It will still go and get that thing which it has seen. And it will bring it back. God wants us to explore what? His name, but I thought his name was a book. I looked for it for 30 years and found it.

Exploring the Possibilities of Grace

So the message we want to do about the Possibilities of Grace by Lowry. The Nazarene reduced it to about 30. I don't like a great division of books because the man that's biased leaves out the part he doesn't like.

It might be the best part but it's too strong for him. He can't stomach it so he leaves it out. But the full edition is somewhere around. I got one after searching for 30 odd years. You know that's what all of us have to keep in mind.

The Possibilities of Grace. Let me just say this in quick. You see, no man that ever lived. Doesn't matter whether a Spurgeon, a Finney, a Booth. No man that ever lived ever had a bigger Bible than you.

All he did was explore it better. There's no special editions for Billy Graham at all or rather for Jack Jones or Leroy Jenkins or someone. No, no, no. There's no special editions for that. This is your book as much as anybody's in the world.

You can mount up with wings as well as the man down the street. You can run and not be weary as well as the Apostle Paul. You can walk and not faint like the Lord views himself. Because the Word of God says as he was so we in this world.

Living in Heavenly Places Every Day

So let's not get weary and let's not live with the sparrows. Don't let me come back and find you've been living with the owls because they stay up too long at night. And I hope you're not a rooster on somebody's garbage pile.

Coffee doodle doing at three in the morning. Get to the heavenly. Get to the high places. Get to the peaks. Live up there. Live up on the crags. Live up in the lonely places. Then from there you can get higher you see.

If you live down here you've got to climb up, oh I don't know, three, four thousand, ten thousand feet. A bird eagle would live. So we've got to start living up there you see. So many of our people live down in the gutter during the week and feed on all the awful they can get.

And Johnny Cast and all the junk. And then suddenly they want to become saintly and they wonder why their appetites are jaded. If you've even got the brush off all the week. It's not going to suddenly sanctify you on Sunday and make you feel anointed as though you can pull down the stronghold.

You're not going to do that. If you feed on rubbish you'll become like what you feed on. If you live in heavenly places you'll have a heavenly disposition. You'll have a heavenly hope. You'll have heavenly joy.

Prayer for Spiritual Strength and Faithfulness

Father we thank you for your word again. How precious it is to us. Help us to search it. May we find your mind. May we know your will and have the grace and strength to do it. Bless these precious fruits.

We have to leave them but I'm glad you don't leave them. And I pray that they'll prosper in spiritual strength and wisdom above any material things. That they'll be ambitious to be pleasing to thee. That they will indeed explore the possibilities of grace.

Keep the wolves away. The apostle said that grievous wolves would enter the flock. Jesus said when he left them the sheep would be scattered. But again we thank you for the presence and power. Of the Holy Spirit.

Bless our sister as she works with the Spanish people and this other lady. We pray that you'll give them wisdom and strength that they need. May they realize that maybe potentially there are some prophets.

And apostles and evangelists in their midst. That will go out to be strong and do exploits. Bless these dear parents. May they counsel these children. With discipline. But discipline heavily balanced with love.

Not that of the sergeant major. Not that of the bully. But that of the tender Christ. That it may be true of all of us. As your word speaks of the gentleness and meekness of Christ. What a beautiful thing.

We live in a world of arrogance and roughness and self assertiveness and dominance. We're strongest when we're weak. When we've no confidence in the flesh or human ability. But our strength is derived solely from thee.

And only to be used for your glory. We give you praise in Jesus name.