Wings of an Eagle signify God’s Power in Life Applied to us and Becoming our Grace

The four living creatures have the wings of an eagle, the hands of a man, and the feet of a calf; the eagle’s wings signify God’s power in life applied to us and becoming our grace.

The Bible is both specific and exhaustive in speaking concerning the four living creatures in Ezekiel 1, and it gives us particular details about them. It may not tell us their name or birth or how they got to be four living creatures, but it tells us concerning their face (each had four faces), their wings (each had four wings), their coordination, and their hands and feet.

This week in our morning time with the Lord we are prayerfully considering, The Wings of an Eagle, the Hands of a Man, and the Feet of a Calf, specifically how we can experience them practically, and not merely what spiritual significance they have.

As believers in Christ we are not just men: we are God-men, we are living creatures with God’s life within them to be the reproduction and continuation of Christ for His expression, move, and administration on earth.

We need to enquire of the Lord, therefore, how we can experience the aspects of the wings, the hands, and the feet of the living creatures; these all relate to movement (the wings and the feet) and doing something (the hands), that is, work and activity.

What should be our work and activity as living creatures today? How should we move, how should we behave, and how should we work as living creatures? Today in particular we want to see many wonderful verses in the Bible which speak concerning the eagle’s wings, how God’s power in life applies to us to become our grace, as we experience the resurrection power of Christ.

The Wings of an Eagle signify God’s Power in Life Applied to us and Becoming our Grace

What do the eagle’s wings signify? The pure revelation of the word of God clearly show us the spiritual significance of the wings of an eagle, the hands of a man, and the feet of a calf.

In the Bible the wings of an eagle signify the strength of God applied to us. Eagles are graceful birds, powerful and strong, flying and soaring above all; they are quite inspiring to look at. As we see them flying up in the sky, nothing seems to bother them or bind them; they are boundless, free.

The Bible uses the symbol of the eagles to signify our God as the Spirit with His resurrection power to be applied to us to become grace to us (see Isa. 40:31).

On the one hand, the Spirit of God is the Spirit of power, and on the other hand, He is the Spirit of life. He is the Spirit of power without and the Spirit of life within. Therefore, the Bible uses two symbols to speak about these two aspects of the Holy Spirit. It uses the eagle as the symbol of the Spirit when it speaks about the Spirit of power, and it uses the dove as the symbol when it speaks about the Spirit of life. (Words of Life from the 1988 Full-time Training, p. 20, by W. Lee)

In Exodus 19:4 God said to His people, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. God likens Himself to a big eagle coming to visit His people in Egypt, and He bore them on His wings and brought them to Himself.

The people of Israel was suffering under the tyranny of Egypt, and they cried out; God heard their cry, came to them, arranged ten plagues, and then they were released. They came to the Red Sea, Pharaoh and his armies followed them, and God came in to open the Red Sea and bring them across.

During their travel in wilderness they were thirsty, and God gave them water to drink from the rock; they were hungry – and God sent manna down from heaven. God was like an eagle, carrying them through the wilderness, bringing them to Himself.

God is like a big jumbo jet, carrying His people along not swiftly but station by station; His grace was bestowed on them, eventually bringing them to Mount Sinai.

In spite of their rebellion, murmuring, and complaining, Jehovah brought them on eagle’s wings through the wilderness to Himself, and He was gracious to them, taking care of them in an all-inclusive way to bring them to Himself.

Isa. 40:31 says, Yet those who wait on Jehovah will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and will not become weary; they will walk and will not faint.

Those who wait on the Lord will sprout wings like eagles, enabling them to soar like eagles. Not only God Himself is a big eagle, but we who wait on Him will mount up wings like eagles – we are little eagles.

Paul also testified of this in 2 Cor. 4:7, where he said, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.

We all are just earthen vessels – in ourselves we are nothing and we have nothing, but we have the eagle in us, that is, we have the treasure in earthen vessels.

In 2 Cor. 3:5 we read, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.

We are not sufficient of ourselves: we are mere earthen vessels; as we are pressed and pressured, we follow the Lord and enjoy Him again and again, and our testimony is that our sufficiency is from God.

God as an eagle with His eagle’s wings is carrying us, we are riding on His wings, and He takes us through all these situations. Sometimes it is beyond our means and capacity, yet He is carrying us on His wings, and our sufficiency is from God.

Thank You Lord that we can experience Your resurrection power, God’s power in life applied to us and becoming our grace. Thank You for bearing us on Yourself as on eagle’s wings. Lord, we want to wait on You by spending much time with You so that we may mount up wings like eagles. Oh Lord, in ourselves we are nothing and can do nothing, but we have the eagle in our being, and this treasure in our earthen vessel is everything to us! Hallelujah, our sufficiency is not in or of ourselves but from God, who makes us sufficient by grace!

2 Cor. 1:12 says, For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

In our behavior we need to conduct ourselves by the grace of God; our boast is not in our strength but in the grace of God. This grace is nothing but the wings of an eagle – it is God’s power applied to us to become our grace.

Furthermore, in 2 Cor. 12:9 the Lord told Paul, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness, and his response was, Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.

In our experience of the Lord, the power of Christ may overshadow us, even as the eagle’s wings overshadow the covered ones.

May we be those who can testify like Paul in 1 Cor. 15:10, By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.

Whatever we do and whatever we are should not be according to our own wisdom, strength, or ability, but by the grace of God, the power of God, and the strength of the Lord, so that our boast would not be in ourselves but in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:31).

When we rely on the Lord, enjoy His grace, and allow Him to overshadow us and strengthen us within, we will not boast in anything else but the Lord with His power and strength and grace.

As we enjoy the Lord’s grace, are filled with Him, and let Him overshadow us, His grace becomes the power to bring us through and to cause us to overcome all kinds of situations.

Psalm 103:5 says, He satisfies the prime of your life with good, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle. God can satisfy us that our youth is renewed like the eagle.

How can have our youth renewed like the eagle? It is possible for us to have our youth renewed like the eagle by taking Christ as our life (Col. 3:4). We need to let God satisfy us; He wants us to enjoy Him as grace so that He may satisfy us, and our youth and vigor will be renewed like the eagle.

We need to enjoy God and be satisfied with Him, and we will be strengthened, invigorated, and renewed to be like an eagle. We need to drop all our oldness and enjoy the living Christ within, take in Christ all throughout the day, and our youth will be renewed like the eagle.

Praise the Lord: we have Christ within, so our youth and vigor is being renewed like the eagle! Lord, we take You as our life, we enjoy You as our grace, and we allow You to overshadow us as grace, so that we may renewed, invigorated, and made young and soaring like the eagle. Hallelujah for the eagle’s life in us – Christ in us! Our only boast is Christ who lives in us. We choose to conduct ourselves in the grace of God by enjoying God and enjoy God’s power applied to us to be our grace.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother James Lee’s for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, pp. 58-59 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 5 (week 5), The Wings of an Eagle, the Hands of a Man, and the Feet of a Calf.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lo, from vessels, earthen only, / Shining forth in ceaseless grace, / Reaching weary hearts, and lonely, / Beams the light from Jesus’ face! / Christ, the light that fills the heavens / Shining forth on earth beneath, / Through His Spirit freely given / Light of life ’midst shades of death. (Hymns #590)
  # Though youths will faint and become weary, / And young men will collapse exhausted; / Yet those who wait on Jehovah / Will renew their strength; / They will mount up with wings like eagles; / They will run and will not faint; / They will walk and will not become weary. (Scripture song)
  # Oh, let that grace inspire / My heart with strength divine; / May all my powers to Thee aspire, / And all my days be Thine. / All sufficient grace! / Never powerless! / It is Christ who lives in me, / In His exhaustlessness. (Hymns #312)