(This article relates to two previous articles written on this site. Reading “On Wings of Eagles” (4/20/09) and “Lifestyle of Worship” (6/16/08) will provide a more complete picture of the contents of this article.)

I am a walker. Most every day, come rain or shine, wind or snow, I go on a 5-6 mile prayer walk with the Lord. Somehow age has a way of letting one know it’s there, and this past year I’ve begun to notice the toll of walking hills and gravel, as well as a loss of upper body strength. Therefore, my justification for the purchase of walking poles designed to deal with both, as well as burn more calories – who doesn’t want all those benefits? I don’t really struggle with how weird it might look, so yesterday was my first day using the poles. (In my spirit, I sensed the Lord tell me they were also for protection from the dogs and snakes I encounter frequently.)

In my quiet time with the Lord prior to walking, He had made it clear it was to be a “speak, Lord, your servant is listening” day, rather than “listen, Lord, your servant is speaking” day. I’m walking, listening, processing what I sense He’s revealing, and I’m three-fourths done with my walk when I push off on one of the poles that has worked its way lose and is suddenly a foot shorter than the other pole. I’m on a neighborhood paved road at this point and watching for oncoming traffic. With both poles held horizontally in front of me, I am also adjusting and tightening, while attempting to press forward on my walk. All of the sudden, in the midst of shifting too much focus on the poles, I trip over something I most certainly had not seen seconds prior when looking up to check the traffic flow. I immediately turned around to see what I had just tripped over and there sat a “honkin’” three foot bull snake with its head and neck upside down trying to right itself after having been plowed through and stepped on (notice it was the snake’s head again). If I had “seen” the snake I obviously walked right over (or through – I’m not sure which), I would have purposed to go completely around it, rather than walking through it, especially since bull snakes look so much like rattlesnakes to me. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?), I was looking at my poles and not at where I was walking. The thought of it still “grosses me out,” as I am not overly fond of snakes. While growing up, the boys in my neighborhood used to chase the girls with them and whip them at us; this established an interesting attitude about snakes for me.

I asked the Lord if there was something I was supposed to glean from the situation. (If you read the articles I suggested at the beginning of this one, you will have a more complete picture of why I asked that question, and of what I’m about to share.) We are a Kingdom people. We are to look at everything and everyone from Heaven’s perspective, even though we walk through it on the earth in the natural. An eagle’s perspective is the necessary perspective in this realm as we move forward in this Kingdom season. If we take our eyes off of the Lord and start to focus on the natural, the snakes (Satan, our flesh, the things in the natural going on in our nation as revealed/taught to us by natural means and systems, the trials and tribulations of this life, etc.) can and will trip us up. They can be instantly under our feet, leaving us completely unaware and caught off guard. Some of the snakes may appear harmless, but they’re not. Many of the snakes are poisonous and dangerous.

As a Kingdom people, promises in the Word of God speak to the authority we have in Christ Jesus to trample on those snakes (Luke 10:19) and to overcome them. If we keep our eye on the Lord, the snakes will not catch us unaware or unprepared, nor will the snakes trip us up. If we soar on eagles’ wings as Scripture exhorts us to, keeping an eagle’s perspective and view, whatever snakes lie on the road ahead of us will be revealed and exposed, and we will receive Heaven’s strategy to crush their heads (like the snake in the “Lifestyle of Worship” article).

I won’t mention or “speak” about any of the snakes that have manifested throughout our nation. Rather, the Lord’s strategies and ways are so much higher than ours. When our KHOP (see details on the homepage of this site) met yesterday to pray for our nation, the Lord was clear as we gathered to seek His will and pray His heart, that He desires His people to continually speak the truth of His Word into the darkness, and to continually be doers of His Word out in the midst of the darkness. Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth and the only life, and His light alone will dispel this darkness; His life, death and resurrection crushed the serpent’s head, and His Spirit living within us will reveal and crush the snakes in our nation. As a Kingdom people, the Body of Christ must not only speak the life of Christ into the atmosphere of darkness 24/7, but we must also take the life of Christ in us out into the darkness so He can brightly shine His light through us.

A prophetic generation is being dispersed to call forth the light and life of Christ in this nation; a generation who intimately knows and desires to be obedient to the leading of Holy Spirit. A Joel 2 army is being raised up to expose and crush the snakes in this nation (the snakes are never people, but rather principalities, powers, spiritual rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places – Ephesians 6:12). The Lion of Judah is beginning to roar in this generation; a generation who is pursuing a revelation of the perfect love of Christ for our Heavenly Father, for His heart and will, and of the perfect love of Christ for each and every person. In that place, His children in this generation will walk in His authority and in His anointing, and will find rest, provision and protection in the shadow of His wings.

His Kingdom is advancing. The government is on His shoulders, and it will increase without end. Regardless of what we see or hear in the natural in our nation, let’s purpose to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Let’s purpose to be one with the heart and will of our Heavenly Father, and to be one with one another. Let’s purpose each day to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and to soar on eagles’ wings, ascending higher and higher in search of Him and of all that He would reveal to us (Revelation 4:1). Let’s purpose to speak and walk out daily His Kingdom come and His will be done, here on earth, here in the United States of America, here in each state, city and community, here in our churches, our work places, our schools, our families and in our individual lives, just as it is in Heaven. To Him alone truly belongs the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen