[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_text]”For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship].” – Romans 8:19 (Amplified Version)
The Chicken Eagle
The Eagle is called the King of the birds because of it’s great strength, super vision and really strong claws. When someone mentions an eagle many of us imagine a big bird flying high up in the air, with it’s wings spread out, moving around gracefully with a little effort and that is rightly so.
I once heard a story of an eaglet who was raised by a hen. For a very long time, this eaglet behaved like a chicken: ate the food of chickens and even pecked like them, strutting around in circles, scratching it’s talons in the dirt, it used it’s massive curved and pointed beak to dig seeds and grains out of the ground. It even sounded like a chicken and never flew. Whatever the chicken did, the eagle also did because it was ignorant of it’s true identity and their ability to soar in higher altitudes as an eagle.
One day a naturalist was walking nearby and he saw the eagle with the chickens. he plucked the eagle out with his hands and added it to his company. He then began to train it and teach it how to behave like an eagle and that included learning how to fly. Initially it could not even exercise its wings, the frightened bird shrieked and fell ungraciously to the bran yard where it resumed pecking the ground in search for dinner. The naturalist gave it another chance again and took the eagle to high mountain, he spoke to it and said, “FRIEND YOU WERE BORN TO SOAR! IT IS BETTER YOU DIE HERE TODAY ON THE ROCKS BELOW THAN LIVE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE BEING A CHICKEN IN A PEN.”
Having said those final words, he lifted the eagle up and once he commanded it to fly again. He tossed it out and this time, the eagle open it’s wings seven-foot, wingspan and flew gracefully into the sky. It slowly climbed in even higher spirals, riding unseen thermals of hot air until it disappeared into the glare of the morning sun. The naturalist smiled and was happy for the eagle because the eagle had found it’s true identity and it’s attitude was changed drastically. It never again returned to the company of chickens.
As inspirational as the above story is, I am afraid to say that many Christians who are the “Eagles” of God are behaving like the chicken eagle. Due to ignorance of our true identity, we have allowed society & circumstances to determine how we behave and run our lives. Like the eagle, many of us have allowed other people to define who we are and we wake up daily to find ourselves in a chicken pen, surrounded with unsupportive and uncaring people whose only aim in life is find the next juicy morsel to consume.
Sometimes we are blinded by our companion’s choices, the material morsels they choose to peck away throughout life may be quite spectacular. Like the eagle in the chicken pen, surrounded by champions with downcast eyes, most people lack the desire to discover their God-given abilities and talents.
Instead of exerting the least bit of faith to look up to our Creator we have rather resigned ourselves to the miserable existence of eternal pecking at the chicken feed of life: fame, a better car, a bigger house, a little more acknowledgement, a little more acceptance among our peers.
Thus we see mighty men and women of valor threshing wheat at the winepress and the devil whipping us because we are ignorant of who we truly are; if you do not know you are a millionaire with millions in your bank account, you will continue to remain poor however the moment you come to the realization of your true identity, your perception changes and you begin to walk as such.
In the same way, for us to really come into the fullness of our true identity, we must firstly know our origin; we must know who and whose we are. The Bible gives a beautiful narration of our beginning. In Genesis chapter 1 verse 27-30,it clearly states that God created man (both male & female) in His own Image and likeness to have dominion and subdue the earth and everything in it.
First of all, from the scripture, we understand that man (both male and female) was created and made. The word created is originally from the hebrew word bara which means to create from nothing and the word made is originally from the hebrew word asa which means to form from something that is already created. In other words, we are both spirit (bara) and physical (asa). After forming man from the dust of the ground, He breathed into His nostrils, the breath of Life and Man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). That meant that without the breath, there was no living soul.
Not only that we were also made in God’s image. The image here is not referring to physical likeness but is translated originally from the Hebrew words, tselem and demut which means nature, copy, characteristics and essence. Hence it denotes that Man as a spirit being is an expression of God’s moral and spiritual nature and his attributes make him a “God-Like” and place him above and beyond all earthly creation.
It is also noteworthy to note that in Romans 8:29 (NIV)
“For those God foreknew He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the first born among many brothers and sisters.”
Thus, God is telling us He has destined us to be in the image of Jesus Christ that we might be forerunners in our pursuit of life and to excel in all our endeavors. In other words, for us to soar into greater heights, we must be like Jesus Christ not by words but by our walk and character. To have the image of Jesus means we are also in the same hierarchy as Jesus. And we know that Jesus is the Son of God (John 3:16) so if we are to be like Jesus it means we are also sons of God.
THUS OUR SONSHIP IN GOD IS OUR TRUE IDENTITY.
This is our heritage, We are the sons of God! Whether you are male or female, you are still a son of God because your sonship has nothing to do with gender but your spiritual DNA; it is your legislated rights and inheritance . This thus should explain man’s obsession for power and control in our world today because that was the ultimate purpose of man : to manifest our sonship in the earth and to govern every affairs of this life as God’s representatives.
To be continued………[/fusion_text]
By Felicia Asomaning[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
