The Lord has recently done some amazing and beautifully mysterious things with me involving eagles. Eagles are symbolic for leadership, the prophetic and seeing from above, for the United States of America and for freedom. Every day since “winter has passed” (Song of Solomon 2:11-13), I have returned to my favorite part of each day…going on a 5-6 mile prayer walk to spend time with the Lord in His creation. The first week I happened to glance up towards the top of a tree as a huge bird took flight. I asked the Lord whether it was an eagle or a hawk?” It was then I noticed the white details and was graced with the privilege of watching this majestic eagle catch the currents of the wind, rising and soaring, for about a mile of my walk, until it finally soared out of my visible range. It was the most breathtaking display of this magnificent bird I’d ever witnessed so “up close and personal.” I sensed the Lord speaking to me as the bird reached heights beyond my natural vision, “I want you to keep coming up higher. Don’t look at things on the earth from a natural perspective any longer. I want you to see everything from My perspective alone. Come higher. Come higher.”

The next week I went to MACHE (MN Association of Christian Home Educators) where a book called, “The Eagle Story,” (a necessary book for anyone raising children in this season – Institute in Basic Life Principles, P.O. Box 1, Oak Brook, Ill. 60522-3001) caught my eye. I’m always looking for good resources for family devotion time, however, five of my six children are ages 14-19, and my first thought was, “This would have been a great book for when the kids were younger.” Then I got this little “check” in my spirit, and knew I was supposed to buy it anyway. The next week I pulled out the book and began to share the story contained in its pages with my kids. In a nutshell, the story is obviously about an eagle, and how someone lurking in the shadows goes about gradually making things in the eagle’s environment comfortable enough that it lets its guard down over the course of time and becomes the victim of a trap; no longer free to soar. The book is intended to be a great resource for overcoming temptation and sinful habits. However, the Lord began speaking to me as I read the contents of its pages about the eagle representing our nation and its freedoms under His Lordship, and the trap representing humanism and all of its destructive elements, setting the trap that threatens those freedoms.

I divided the book into several days reading and during each of five consecutive days, I was graced to watch one or two eagles during my prayer walks. On two of the days, the eagle actually circled me for what seemed like minutes frozen in time, as though I were the prey it was searching for, or as though it was trying to speak to me personally. Each of the eagles flew low enough over me that I could see their white heads and tail feathers. On one occasion, after flying out of my sight due to the height of the trees, I reversed my direction and began looking for it again. The eagle proceeded to land on a telephone pole in front of me and waited for me to get closer before flying to the next telephone pole, again waiting, and finally soared off into the distance to fetch its next meal. I shared the eagle story at KHOP (see homepage), and that day some of the children got eagle visions with Scriptures to pray through. One girl, about age 8, got a beautiful new song that arose out of our “pressing in” time that went on for about 10-12 minutes, regarding our nation repenting for its sins and for the Lord to have mercy on us. I believe this is connected to what I’m about to write.

The Lord has obviously had my complete attention since the beginning of this journey (which began with a 40 day fast for the purpose of seeking something I felt He prompted me to seek), but He has even more so peaked my curiosity. I keep getting, “come up higher; higher,” of which that would be an answer to prayers I’ve prayed for many years, but in particular, one prayer I have prayed fervently for several years…to not just read or hear about other people’s “visitations” and “heavenly encounters,” but to have my own.

Last week I asked my kids to seek the Lord individually, as I knew He would confirm through them what He desired to reveal. Later that day my daughter got Ezekiel 17 and my son got Isaiah 58:11-14. (I would encourage you to read not only Ezekiel 17, but also Isaiah 54 and 58 and see what the Lord would speak to you.) Ezekiel 17 is a parable of two eagles…when the Lord is speaking something He confirms it over and over…in our humanness He makes certain that we get the message loud and clear. As I “pressed in” to what the Lord wanted me to understand, I again sensed this was about our nation and how we have allowed humanism to steal our identity and the destiny He intends for this nation. The Lord loves this nation and its people too much to allow us to continue down the path we have been on the past 40-year cycle. This nation is His; He established it and He still sits on the throne, regardless of all that’s going on around us. Those who seek Him, His Kingdom, His will and His purposes need to worship Him in Spirit and in truth…ascending higher…in order to receive Heaven’s strategies for restoring this nation to the plans that our Father God intended for it and bring them to manifest on the earth…through Christ in us, the hope of glory and by the power of His Spirit indwelling and flowing through His people. This nation has belonged to the Kingdom of Heaven from its conception, and the Creator of the Universe has been at its core for far more years than humanism and all of its cultural influences have tried to push Him out.

Back to the eagles…I forgot to mention in the mist of all of this, my youngest son woke up one morning and said, “Mom I had a dream that you were flying on an eagle’s back last night.” I also met with a friend this past week who felt led to pray with me. She prayed some things that only the Lord, my husband and I could have known…all having to do with the eagles. This past Friday on my walk I glanced up in a tall tree and noticed a large nest. I wondered if it belonged to one of the eagles, and just that quickly, the eagle flew above me, again so I could be certain it was an eagle. It circled closely and repeatedly above my head, and as it did I could hear the Lord speaking, “Come up higher…mount up on wings of eagles…I have things to show you…are you ready?…higher…come higher…” I was again graced with the beauty of watching this eagle soar, catching the currents and ascending gradually beyond my vision for about a mile of my walk. I eventually just stood there in the midst of it all and wept…overcome at how the God of the universe would so choose to touch my heart and life…overwhelmed that He would single me out and speak to an eagle just for me…(obviously more than one) in the midst of all that’s going on in the world…confirming to me that my heart’s deepest yearning of seeing from His perspective…seeing from the Throne room of Heaven…encountering Him intimately…being a vessel He could use to bring Him glory and honor…humbled by all of this being His desire for me as well…that He has been preparing me in the natural for what I have longed for in the supernatural…my Heavenly Father continues to get bigger and more incredibly awesome with each passing day.

I also wept over how much He loves this nation and wants to restore it to Himself. I could feel the rejection of a nation that has been given the freedom to choose Him and the gift of being able to walk in more freedoms than any other nation in the world…and yet, we have allowed someone in the shadows to gradually introduce things in our nation over the past 40+ years that have paved the wave for our freedoms to be suddenly taken away. I do not think or sense that it’s too late, but I do know that it won’t be by might or power that we will be restored and rebuilt…it will be by His Spirit alone…and He is looking for vessels He can be mighty through…for those who will have eyes to see and ears to hear from Heaven’s perspective…“Come up higher…I have things to show you. Don’t look at things from a natural perspective, but rather, see them from My perspective. See them through My eyes. Hear them through My ears. Then…watch what I will do through willing vessels who love me wholeheartedly and yearn to see My Kingdom come and My will be done. Come up higher, My beloved. Those who hope in Me will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31).”

(It is interesting that the topic of eagles relates back to the very first blog-type article I wrote on this site back in June of 2008, entitled, Lifestyle of Worship.)