When teaching them to fly, a mother eagle will not allow her precious eaglets to enter a free fall that ends in their demise. No, she will be there to catch them. God tenderly preserved you until he decided to nudge you out of your nest. When you take flight with him, he will not expect you to go it alone. You can trust God to be there for you.

Hearing the Call to Spiritual Flight

A mother eagle gently prods her young out of the nest and provokes them to fly. When God calls into being your spiritual flight, he rouses you to leave your protective nest in the wilderness. By the influence of his Holy Spirit, God seeks you out and calls your attention to his desire to enter into a relationship with you.

In the original writings of the bible, Jehovah or Yahweh is used to signify Lord.   Both Jehovah and Yahweh mean to become. Lord means self-existent one. The Lord has his being in and of himself and he gives being to all of creation. He reveals himself to his created beings in order to become known.  So, the Lord is the Self-Existent One Who Makes Himself Known.

God chooses to disclose himself to you because of his amazing love for you. You can’t do anything to deserve God’s love. His love surrounds you before you become aware of it. There’s nothing you can do to prevent the Lord from making himself and his love known to you.

Learning to Trust the Growth Process

Though unwilling to cooperate at first, the eaglets learn to trust the mother eagle because she catches them safely on her wings so they will not fall. When Almighty God came to his people in the wilderness at Sinai, he revealed his will for them, he entered into a covenant relationship with them and he bestowed his blessings upon them. God carries you out of your wilderness state and into the land of promised abundance. He prepares your spiritual encounters and takes responsibility for their final outcome.

When you first become aware of God’s presence in your life, you have a decision to make. You can refuse to move or you can choose to begin a trusting relationship with him. By cooperating with God, you take part in tilling the soil of your spirit in preparation for its growth.

Growing by Nurturing the Relationship

God created the human spirit as a device to enable his created ones to communicate with him. Your spirit allows you to discern and understand the existence and truths of God. You have the ability to relate to and have a relationship with God. Your spirit enables the flow of spiritual light from God’s Spirit. When you begin to nurture spiritual life, you cultivate a space where understanding about God and his love increasingly become known to you.

The mother eagle encourages, instructs and assists the fledgling eagles to make longer and higher flights. The revelation of God’s love gives you a desire to draw closer to him, to know more about him and to feel safe about deepening your relationship with him.

As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him. –Deuteronomy 32:11

Do you trust God enough to let him take the lead in your spiritual flight? Are you willing to cooperate with him by doing your part?

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This post originates from Chapter One, The Uncultivated Spirit / A Season for Solitude, in my forthcoming book, Seasons of the Spirit / 16 Disciplines for Abundant Growth in Each Step of Your Walk with God.