[Music] I want you to open your Bible to Leviticus chapter 11 Leviticus chapter 11 and I have some friends with me tonight but I'm going to be kind of coming over here and sharing a little bit with you about my dear friends and you're probably wondering what I have here I have an eagle in my hand and I have an eagle to the left side of me and I want to share something with you that's very important Leviticus chapter 11 verse 13 gives some of the laws of God concerning eating and here's what it says and these are they which you shall have an abomination among the fowls that means among the birds they shall not be eaten they are an abomination the Eagle the AUSA fridge and the Osprey the one I want to key up on for a moment is the eagle let me say this to you it's illegal to eat eagle and I'm going to preach tonight on it's illegal to eat eagle why am i preaching on that because I'm going to show you in the next few moments that the Eagle is a perfect picture of a Christian of a believer and we are not as believers to be biting and devouring and criticizing one another and if the body of Christ has a problem it has a problem is in that we eat our own kind and I'm going to show you tonight that if you devour another Christian if you eat eagle the Bible says you're not - it is illegal to eat eagle now you may be wondering what all this has to do with the picture of an eagle representing a Christian well before I begin let me just share with you that God in the Old Covenant established some very unusual things you read that five books of Moses which is called the Torah and you'll find there are some unique things that are written in that book did you know for example that the law of washing if you touch a dead carcass or something unclean you're supposed to wash your hands over running water they didn't do that for here's when they were delivering children in our hospitals they would take a basin of water and what a woman would have a baby and the doctor would go to that one basin wash his hands and they would use that same basin the mortality rate was incredible children were dying right after birth finally a doctor read the Bible in the eighteen hundred's and said we should be changing the water out they mocked him at that time and come to find it out the man was absolutely correct because they found out that by using running water than any kind of substance that would be on your hand would be washed and then you could go to the next patient how many know God knew that 3500 years ago in the same passage which has found some of these are in Leviticus 11 for example but in the Bible again in them in the five books of Moses it talks about sanitation that you may think sanitation is not important but here's what the Word of God said every Israelite had a special paddle that's the King James translation it says shuffle and when they were to go to ease themself and I'll just let you imagine what ease yourself meant it simply means for those of you who may not understand the King's English going to the bathroom when they went to the bathroom they were to go outside the camp point one and they were to dig a hole in the ground ease themselves and then cover it cover it up with dirt now you said that is really ridiculous why would God require that because every country that has open sewage has sicknesses and diseases that spread throughout their population and the people are in continual sickness the sanitation engineer of Jerusalem told doctor he'll tear years ago a friend of mine that that was one of the greatest things that God required the Hebrews to do because if they lived in that desert for over thirty seven years actually for forty years and they had not done that the disease in 40 years listen to this could have wiped the children of Israel out so these little things that you read in the Torah or the five books of Moses may seem ridiculous to you but there are reasons that they're there I'll give you another example the the the law of not having sexual relations with the relative do you know a father is not supposed to go into a daughter or the mother into the Sun and have physical relations with them now we know that not only is that wrong but from a practical perspective it's a DNA thing when you have people who intermarry who are related one to another in the rate of birth defects shoots through the roof but I'm simply saying to you is those things in the Bible that you read that seem a little bit ludicrous or a little bit ridiculous God had a purpose and God had a reason for those things being written in the scripture now there was also a law of eating somebody say law of eating these are dietary laws and God had an established thing set there Leviticus 11 and 3 whatsoever part of the hoof and it's proof of clovenfooted she with the cut among the beasts that shall you eat so why does God say you can eat a goat or you can eat a cow because they part the hoof here's the reason why because a cow or a goat has a better digestive system if they eat a poisonous plant of some kind their body can digest it a certain way and pass it off through the through the salivary glands so what we you know and so in other words if you eat the meat it doesn't have that the level of toxins in it that other animals were would have other animals retain the toxins now God talked about fish here's what he said that these shall you eat of all that are in the waters whatever has fins and scales in the water and in the seas and in the rivers you shall eat all the things that do not have fins and skills and the season rivers all of that that moves in the waters of any living thing which is in the water should be abomination unto you know why does God say it's okay to eat something if it has fins on it or scales but if it doesn't have skills it's better to leave it alone very simple simply put if you eat for example a fish that has the scales in it you didn't know you're gonna get a little lesson on eating here tonight did you it the bottom line is it packs passes the toxins that are in that animal through the fins and so it passes it off into the water so when you're eating it you don't have the level of toxins any non scale fish such as and my wife likes catfish come on people from Alabama a lot of catfish hello I'm preaching now come on but if you eat a lot of catfish catfish keeps toxins within the body shellfish is the same way well let me give you another well it will help let me go over here I'm going to go over to my friends to help explain this to you a little bit here one that has already passed out on me right here he just kind of went out on me here are some here are some things that are considered non kosher excuse me sir you're in front the sign there if you get out of the way can't stand up for left nothing Kenny alright here are some of the things that are considered you know kosher it means it's okay to eat non-kosher it's not that's not the actual word what it means but to keep the definition symbol here is a Maryland crab now how many know that the greatest crabs in the world come from the state of Maryland somebody help me if you're from that area there's nobody that makes crack hmm Oh help me hole I'm gay I'm having visions right now crab Imperial and look crab cake and bluefin crab however a crab is a bottom-feeder so the crab has to go into the non kosher area now this is a Arkansas Razorback come on somebody anybody from Arkansas brother Ben wiles from Arkansas is here tonight Hot Springs we're going to Hot Springs for a camp made next June Alleluia somebody to get brother Ben stand up brother Ben give him a hand for being here tonight pastor from a great church there in Hot Springs Arkansas but Arkansas you know Arkansas this is the this is the emblem of the football team in Arkansas at the University the Arkansas Razorbacks what do they say what do they say down there did football game been pig sooie sooie everybody say suey well guess what let me tell you something about a pig now when I grew up we ate sausage and bacon and all that kind of thing and I'll be honest with you I've gotten away from that because I found out that a swine does not sweat and a swine keeps a lot of the toxins in its body it's one and that's one of the one of the animals that God says we got to put I hate to do this to this little fella but I got to put him in the non-kosher the basket over here we got to make room for these other guys you you have these little Kony's that you know a Coney is not to be eaten Coney almost looks like a squirrel you see him in Israel all the time when we go on our whole land trips there's Kony's all over the rocks well that one was forbidden and then you have an out guess what you're not supposed to eat it now you know just the thought of eating and now grosses me I don't know about you there's something you know al soup you know so that was one of those animals that was that was and then the Lord also I don't know who in their right mind would even try this but the Lord said you can't eat a rat now is anybody here that's never had an appetite for a rat would you just raise your hands we have a prayer line for you before the service ends tonight what's supposed to eat a rat so the rat goes in well this kid and there's different reasons for all of this yeah and you know what you're not supposed to eat a bat did they eat bats in Indonesia some people do eat bats in Indonesian of Kelvin's been to Indonesian he said huh you have tried a bad taste like a Pringle there is one missionary that's lost his mind I knew there was something happened to ya you know it's really true everything weird that people eat when you asking what it tastes like tastes like chicken you don't understand everything tastes like chicken but the bat is also one of those non kosher and there are certain types of these these are chameleons or lizards certain types of these that are not kosher animals now we got a rope then then I got to read this to you then God says there's another whole law here about eating he says this there are things called creeping things Leviticus chapter 11 20 and 21 creeping things now the creeping things are the critters that I have a whole bucket full of critters here you can't eat spiders shucks I like my medium rare there's certain kind of bug there's all kinds of bugs I got butterflies down here you got them but but believe it or not you can eat a locust and locusts taste like chicken no they had it they had an invasion of locusts and that it ended right before my last Israel trip last year and they were cooked they were frying these things they were catching them and frying them and I thought how come Jews are eating locusts because it says that you can eat these little bugs like this you can eat those no I show nothing we'll try they're fried cooked raw or any other way hello so if I were to say to you what God established about eating in the Old Covenant let me give an example about shellfish one of the reason I believe God said no shellfish was practical because you have to keep it cold if you don't keep it cold and it gets warm it spoils and it can it can actually make you very sick gilja some of the reasons God established this was practical now everybody's looking at me right now in a deep depression because you've said well brother stone you just listed a whole bunch of things that we like to eat all right let me go into the New Testament to give you a verse to encourage you you ready for a New Testament verse here we go every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if received with Thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the Word of God in prayer first Timothy 4:45 it got double quite now you're royally confused bottom line is this if you eat God's Way you'll be healthier but if you're eating the Bible says what eat what set before you asking no questions for conscience sake when you go overseas you never ask him what is this never did you kill him do you brother Charles Lambert you you never asked the person of the house when it's got legs it's got hairy things on it and something's crawling out you never say excuse me what is this before I eat it you just have to learn to sanctify what you're eating by the Word of God and by prayer now when that would pull you remember in acts 10 when Peter saw the sheet and it had all he's uh you know what it had instead of head-on clean animals it had a bunch of this stuff on it and God said kill him eat and he said I'm not gonna I've never touched that I'm a good Jew I've never touched anything unclean but then God says to him don't call what I have cleansed unclean or common now he's getting him set up as you know to go to Cornelius house and Cornelius was a Gentile that's the setting of the story but you and I have to understand something so that no one will get in some kind of bondage tonight that whatever we put in our system we can live healthier by eating by God's laws and we shouldn't go out and eat all kinds of crazy stuff that's gonna clot the body up and the arteries up I don't know why I'm talking about this this isn't even my message tonight but the Bible did say whatever you eat sanctify it by the word in prayer the waive food is today I don't pray over it I rebuke it I've got in the meme of Jesus I rebuke anything that's in this food I rebuke that ugly cook that cooked it back there that's sweating all over the place come on you know what I'm talking about sometimes you got a rebuke instead of blessing so let's go back let's go back to the main issue let's go back to the main issue and that is God says and there's a spiritual principle I don't want you to miss the spiritual principle I'm about to give you God said in his word it's interesting a dove was a bird that could be eaten because a dove is a picture of the Holy Spirit and Jesus said eat his flesh and drink his blood you have life in him we know what that means that's the Lord's Supper but it said don't eat an eagle why should you not in eagle do you understand that the eagle is one of the four faces of the four living creatures around the throne of God the eagle is the king of the air come on somebody and the eagle is a perfect analogy of a Christian the strength of the eagle the authority and the freedom that God gives to an eagle is picture in the Middle East there's two types of eagles there's what is called the Golden Eagle and what is called the imperial eagle that's interesting that there's two types of eagles in the Middle East because gold represents deity in the Bible it's a medal that represents deity and because gold represents deity it's a picture of God God being a golden eagle what do you mean about that read the Bible God says to Israel I bore you up on eagle's wings when I brought you up out of the wilderness that alludes to God being the majestic eagle that bears up his young but on the other hand there's an imperial eagle the word Imperial implies some form of Authority and that represents a believer because God has given a believer certain spiritual authority if that believer communicates with God and walks with God and is obedient to God as a matter of fact the word of the Lord tells us that we shall mount up with wings as Eagles we shall run and not be weary and we shall walk and not faint and I have over here an eagle that is a beautiful replica of the eagle that is the emblem of the United States of America I want to interview him do y'all mind you got to get a close-up of him here do you love the preacher did it move wait a minute try again do you love the preacher dealer pam stone you love the devil thank god he's saved you watch manna-fest okay I want them is that share with you some of these unusual characteristics and feature of an eagle I want them to kind of zoom in on the eagle where you can picture what I'm saying here's what I'm going to do an eagle has to be taught to flatten momma before an eagle is taught to fly it has to learn how to stand that's a picture of a Christian because before we can do great things for God we have to learn to endure the testing and the trials when you're saying it's not going to be long after you're born again that you're going to encounter testings and trials it's going to test your faith but God will teach you how to stand the Bible said having than all the stand stand therefore in the book of Ephesians so an eagle has to learn how to stand before it can fly let me talk about the eyes of an eagle the eyes of an eagle are very unique compared to other birds an eagle can see forwards and sideways at the same time it can see fish in water up to actually hundreds of feet away now the Bible tells us to watch as well as pray we're to have the eyes of an eagle not just pray but to watch watch what's happening around us an eagle has such great eyes that it can see up to one mile away and they can see 1,000 feet in other words up in the air it can be a thousand feet up in the air and they can look down and one mile away actually see a rabbit the Eagles eyes have membranes that slide across the eyes so that when it's moving and flying it keeps dirt out come on haven't you got to keep the dirt out of your life you know what I'm talking about the eyes are four times sharper than a human beings eyes the Bible says you have to guard the heart with all diligence for out of it precedes the issues of life now here's something that's very interesting the Eagle has two sets of eyelids not not when I talk about the eyes that will talk about the eyelids two sets of eyelids one is for seeing long distance now this is very interesting one is for seeing long distance and one is the is for looking into the Sun the Eagle is one of the rare birds created by God that can absolutely fly into the Sun itself and the Sun not burn the eyes of the eagle out now if you wonder what that represents we are to have spiritual and natural eyesight we have natural eyes to see what's going on around us but we have to have the eyes of the Holy Spirit just like the Bible said he that hath ears let him hear what the Spirit says everybody has ears but not everybody has spiritual ears everybody can hear what brother stone is preaching but not everybody can hear the spiritual content of what I'm preaching you're to have natural eyes and you're to have spiritual eyes spiritual eyes means the ability to discern the things of the Holy Spirit and inward ability to know that's from the Lord that's a word from God the Lord is speaking to me so just like a natural Eagle has two sets of eyes one that is totally natural one that can look into the Sun we've got to have eyes too of natural understanding to discern common-sense things but we've got to have us to be able to look into the Sun and I'm not talking about the s UN I'm talking about the s o n the Son of the Living God someone prays him in the place today here's some other interesting things Paul said in Ephesians 1:18 concerning believers that the eyes of your understanding be opened now there's something about eagles that's very interesting about their family lifestyle an eagle is a monogamous that means an eagle is faithful to one eagle all of its life well that was a dead man let me try that again an eagle don't go chase the skirts an eagle don't marry one woman divorced that little little eagle bird go get another one divorce that eagle bird and go have come all kinds of little Eagles that don't know who daddy is Eagle finds one stays with that one raises that it's young hello somebody and they actually spend as high as fifty years of its life on the same rock the Bible says the rock is Christ and when you get an established relationship with the rock you don't want to leave the rock come on somebody the rock is Christ in the Bible and when you have a relationship with him you're to be faithful the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 verse 2 Paul says I have espoused you to one meaning that there's not all kinds of gods we're supposed to be servant but there's only one God the Lord Jesus Christ that we're to serve and we were to follow we're to be faithful to but eagle loves to build its nest high up on the mountains in other words it may go thousands of feet up into a cliff but the higher the better because that's where the fresh air is hello somebody had you see mountains of God read the mountains in the Bible there's the mountain of the Beatitudes there's the mountain called the Mount of Olives there's Mount Zion there's there's oh my mind I could go on and on there's Mount Moriah there's the mountains of Heffron there's the Mount of Gerizim there's the mountain of e ball God's blessings manifested with his people on top of mountains and so the Eagle wants to build its nest high up on a mountain as everybody's still here shout amen if you catch it what I'm saying now let's look at some other things about the eagle the bald eagle will take one mate for life then when that mate dies it will only take another then that that actually was the scriptural way in the new covenant that was supposed to been established for the relationship of the husband and wife the eagle will scream to indicate an area is being defended or protected when a predator comes in it's area that should not be there it screams out to warn that predator you better watch where you're coming you're headed in the wrong direction this area is being defended book the book of Romans chapter 8 says we don't know what to pray for as we should but the Spirit Himself will make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and see the holy spirit is it sets the boundaries of our life of the Holy Spirit when predators come or the adversary come it's the Holy Spirit but the Bible says it this way when the enemies shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against them so it's the Holy Spirit that through us cries out to God watch this Eagles aren't meat-eaters there's two times the feeding yourself according to the New Testament one is to feed yourself the milk of the word and the other is to feed yourself the meat of the word and the Bible tells you that if you're a milk drinker that you're just a babe in Christ it's babies that drink milk you know you made a drink milk in cereal or use milk and cereal but if you're an adult person you don't go drinking milk that's not your mainstay all day long you've got to be a meat-eater you've got to go after the deeper things of God and an eagle watch this now and the eagle won't just eat any meat it means it needs clean meat all that'll preach right there because there's a lot of stuff floating around in the body of Christ that people are eating and chewing on that happened that has absolutely no basis no straight for them spiritually and you know it's real strange because sometimes the more spiritual people get sometimes people get weird hello but it shouldn't be that way but they have to stay balanced by eating the meat Hebrews chapter 5 and 14 we're meat eaters another thing about an eagle is an eagle can fly high higher above a storm eagles can go as high as 10,000 feet now I have a twin-engine Cessna and I can tell you what 10,000 feet up in the air looks like that is very very high and many times and when you're flying in a plane you get different kinds of storms you get low clouds that have rain in them and you can very easily get above those clouds then you have a level of clouds above the dark clouds these clouds are the white puffy clouds and the dark ones are above below it you get above that but every now and then you'll get in a storm that is the storm is 35,000 feet here and then you're caught between that my plane cannot fly a jet can but my plane cannot fly over 25,000 feet in elevation so if we ever get in a situation where there's a storm above the storm below we can't fly we have to stay on the ground come on you need to pick your storms oh I can freeze right there he said some of you find everything that comes your way and every bad thing that happens every bad word that happens every relative that gets stirred up again and all day long you're in a tizzy all day long you're in turmoil because all these storms are coming and you're fighting everything that's coming your way you're battling you need to learn to pick and choose your battles sometimes you just say you know that battle I'm not even messing with the day get out of my face I don't want to hear about it where were you were to talk about we'll talk about it later when I'm not to talk about it right now you need to pick and choose your battles because an eagle has the ability to say there's a storm here yes there is but I want to ride high above it today hallelujah somebody praise God in this house for that word now here's something else you need to know about it Eagle you're ready for this the eagle does not go south when the weather turns cold whoa an eagle I have a photograph of an eagle in the middle of a snowstorm up on the mountain spreading its wings over its chicks they don't leave the nest in a locket creature out here just because the church services have been a little dry lately doesn't mean it's time for you to bail out your pastor doesn't need you to bail out this because Church got a little drought I could preach this right here to some of you Saints and it gon be look oh well things just aren't as they are the church is a little cold well if it's a little cold spread your wings a while camp out a wild intercede a while stay there a while come on winter doesn't last forever snow doesn't last forever coal doesn't last forever I think I'll preach right there hallelujah the Bible tells us in second Timothy chapter 2 and verse 3 we argue endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ I want to publicly say this is just true that the American Christianity that has been preached many times especially in our modern time has produced a bunch of wimp we need Christians I have people I have people that leave them these letters and they'll say something like this they'll say I'm just so upset at God I've been praying for a new home and we went to get that new home and didn't get it well how do you know it's not God's will how do you know you think it's God's will but it's not God's will see how do you know God might not want you to pack up and move somewhere else how do you know that you might come into such financial bondage that you and your husband go into fighting for a year and end up ending up in a divorce I'm telling you when you learn to trust God you trust him in the good times you trust him in the bad times in the hot and the cold and the dark and the light and since so many times our American Christianity is presented to the place like give enough money and you'll never have a financial problem pray enough and you'll never be sick let me tell you something as long as I've lived in this body cars are gonna break down storms are gonna hit homes come on arthritis is going to try to get in my foot it doesn't mean I'm going to be defeated by it but I'm trying to tell you something we've got to learn to endure hardness for the gospel and keep on pressing in and keep on pressing off and keep on obeying God because an eagle is not moved by the tall somebody praise him in the house glory to God an eagle hunts in pairs of two oh I could preach this now the Bible tells us that Jesus sent forth his disciples how you got it two by two why because the Bible said if any two of you shall agree as touching anything there is an increase of power one can chase a thousand the Bible says two can chase 10,000 there's an increase of spiritual authority in the life of a believer when you begin to increase believers that totally come into unity and totally come into agreement and it's interesting that Eagles will hunt in pairs of two one will scope out the animal while the other pounce us down on it and then they shared together Jesus knew what he was doing Elijah and Elijah Paul and Timothy Paul and Silas when they went out they always went out by two you know the Bible even gives us strange verses Ecclesiastes it says a three-fold cord is not easily broken when you begin to get people together who are united together it's difficult to break into that unity when it's difficult to break into that unity it's difficult for the enemy to have his heyday and do what he wishes to the body of Christ come on somebody ought to give God a shout right there for that word oh wait a minute there are some Christians that instead of having an eagle spirit they've got a vulture spirit let me tell you bout a vulture vulture loves to get in the air and find anything that's dead or dying and land on it vulture Christians love gossip they live for gossip they live to know the inside story that nobody else knows they live to get information that nobody else has only because they think it produces some kind of personal power or authority in their life when they have it vultures listen to this a vulture is not like an eagle and the Eagle is a monogamous bird it stays with one mate of its life a vulture will go from mate to mate I know a bunch of men living in America need to hear this message they got a vulture demon on them I want to say something to you you're not a man because you can get a girl pregnant you're a man because you can take care of a baby and a vulture spirit a vulture spirit will just go from one to the next to the next to the next number three vultures Eagles never forsake their young vultures will forsake their own young and that's a message for the men in many of the men in the United States who go from one young girl have a child another young girl and have a child another young girl and have a child they have a vulture spirit on them but we don't need vulture spirits come on somebody we need two Eagles spirit the spirit of the eagle now you may be wondering and everything I've just said to you how does that tie in with it's illegal to eat eagle let's look at it this way Paul wrote to the church at Galatia here's what he said for brethren you have been called unto Liberty but use not Liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another for all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this you shall love thy neighbor as yourself but if you bite and devour one another take heed that you be not consumed of one another I'm gonna read two other translations in this but if you bite into our one another in partisan strife be careful that you and your whole fellowship are not consumed by one another here's another translation but if instead of showing love among yourselves you are always biting and devouring one or the watch out beware of destroying one another now let me give you a brief word study some words here the word bite is used figuratively it doesn't mean literally they're grabbing each other's arms and trying to tear a piece of meat off of them you know I'm saying biting is figuratively used to thwart or to abort or to stop something the word devouring in Greek would look using the Greek word here means to eat down to tear it the flesh apart with the teeth and it talks about the mouth the mouth means to speak against a person to hinder them or to cause to abort their plans so basically what Paul is saying here is that now listen don't miss this people who go after other people verbally and they make it an issue of their life to attack people are doing it with a spirit of trying to hinder that person's plans or to hinder that person's purpose if people are not a threat to other people people never talk about companies do this I've got some executive level CEOs in this camp meeting and they know that when you deal with other companies there are other companies that will put things out even misinformation not something you could sue them over but they'll put out misinformation because they are jealous of an account that you could get and they will put out a little bit of misinformation in order to try to pull away so see can I say it to you this way if you are serving God doing what's right and people are talking about you just remember that when you were growing up the only tree you threw rocks at was the one that had fruit on it you'll get that in a minute I never wasted my time when I was growing up a big stone gap throwing a rock at a dead tree branches out there no leaves but there was a lot of times we had some apple trees in the neighborhood and we'd stand there cuz we were too small to get up in and we'd take rocks and try to knock come on somebody you hear what I'm saying so my point is this that if people use their mouth to speak evil towards someone and try to abort their purposes this is a very serious thing with God because an eagle please hear me an eagle is not to attack another eagle but people do it they come behind a person's back and they start trying to pull feathers see if the eagle's wings is missing its feathers it can't fly high anymore and through a spirit of jealousy people go behind people's backs and say things to try to keep them from flying as high King Saul did it to David King Saul knew that he had family members Jonathan and his own daughter that was married to David then admired him and he played this game and said would you either love me or you love him now you got to make up your choice who will it be will it be me or will it be David the Bible talks about that it was a jealous spirit that came upon saw because he knew that David had a destiny and David was going to one day take his place Saul's sons were supposed to have been king but they had problems in their own life because they followed saw instead of moving into the new anointing with David so you got to understand something people will literally try to us go behind your back at times and pluck the feathers off your wings so that you will not be able to ride as high as you were you know there's some folks that's so depressed they don't want anybody to be happy and they try to put that over to that that they try to talk that depression and oppression on you come on to pull you down and when you come in the office and your smile they say when you smile about are you so happy for and there's a jealousy there the second thing that happens the wing feathers are the feathers that cause an eagle to fly on and here's some interesting on the back of this eagle and I don't want to turn it around here and I guess I couldn't turn him sideways on the back of this eagle or are these beautiful tail feathers what a lot of people don't know that's not they're just for beauty you know that's there for balance a rudder of a ship directs the ship a rudder of a plane directs the plant if the rudder dies you're in trouble you can't tell where you're going you gonna have to land and hope it's a field somewhere flat field no trees no wires this bird this is where the balance comes in and when it's standing like you see this eagle standing right here this is what balance is that it balances on its tail feathers there are some that don't want you to fly high so they pluck the wing by jealousy because they don't want you to be encouraged and be blessed you'd be surprised how many folks are out there that way and there's others that want to throw you off balance come on they want and what they do is they go after what I call the tail feathers when you go after the tail feathers what does it represent it represents distractions because when the Eagle eats it has to balance itself with its tail feathers you see Nehemiah encountered this when God told them to go back to Israel and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and they went back and started rebuilding the walls and when he did sanballat and a group from Samaria rose up and said we're not going to have the Jews doing what they're doing and you know what they did they set out a decree to stop them from building and the Jews had to have permissions from the Persians to do it because the Persian Empire ruled the entire world at that time and it became for actually for several years if you read the Bible and study history it became a distraction to the Jewish people and so my point is that if the enemy using people cannot cause you to - to gloor yourself on their level and keep you from flying high he'll go after the feathers which simply means your balance you will become distracted you'll be distracted and you'll not be able to balance yourself you'll find yourself tossed to and fro here's the third thing that happens they do this sometimes in which they try to because an Eagles beak is very powerful if you'll see it the eagle has a hook on its beak right here you see you got to be careful though touching these things because you never know what's gonna happen you get up close to me see they'll start moving on you see what saying he's talking to me again you probably wondered how we're doing that aren't you it's some miracle not really it's not really alright alright I'll get back to preach and here we go but see this right it's gonna open its mouth any minute now snap Abbott you see you see that big right there the hook turn him that way go yeah you see that hook right there that's so that when he gets the meat he put and he can rip that meat and get that fresh meat that he wants but sometimes they have to tie the Eagles beak they tied up so that it won't be able to do that Oh help me Lord see this is strange because the way I was raised I was raised with people having a good time in church we didn't go to church and just say well it's another Sunday I hope by 12 o'clock he's through preaching so we can get to Shoney's we we knew we want to see people we enjoyed seeing our friends and we were growing up but we wanted to move on the Holy Ghost and there are people that want to silence the worship I'm sorry but we'll have no say Amen here clamp I'm sorry but no lifting the hands here clamp I'm sorry no hand clapping here clamp I'm sorry no shouting and rejoice in here clamp but Jesus they tried to clamp him up on one occasion too all these people were saying Hosanna to the king son if they don't glory that God laid out palm branches he's coming through the eastern gate on a donkey and what did Jesus say they said shut these people up they tried to put a clamp on the mouths of the Eagles but jesus said mm-hmm if they don't praise me the rocks and the stone are gonna cry out here in the city of Jerusalem and I have there's an old song that says ain't no Rockhold crying my place as long as I'm alive I'm gonna fire his holy name and so you understand that there are people again we're talking about the eagle there are people that want to silence the believers in their worship and praise there's also another thing I need to tell you about sometime because an eagle is so powerful they'll take Eagles and lock them up in cages and they'll even tie them in there I'll tell you a story I've told this many times many new people are here many years ago there was a young boy that went to a zoo true story when he was at the zoo they had a man that was showing them around all the different animals and explaining him he got away from him a little bit went over here to this huge cage it was a wire mesh cage cage that three giant Eagles in it got to look at those Eagles and he noticed that there were two of those Eagles that were sitting perched there they were just as happy as they could be and they were just looking around watching things going on there was one eagle that had those big talons you see those right in here the claws and had a hold of that cage and was shaking that cage and beating his head against the cage and it would shake that cage and flap its wings he thought man that birds gone insane what's wrong with that bird why is it doing that why is it not happy like the other birds and finally the man that was showing them around came to the cage and he looked up at the cage and his opening statement was this well here's the eagle cage but I guess it's easy to tell the eagle that was born free and the Eagles that were born in captivity see if you've ever had the anointing if you've ever felt the presence of God if you've ever gotten a service where they were really worshiping if you've ever got cut loose sometime in church when you were singing then it's very difficult to go back into a cage where they don't let you rejoice and they don't let you clap your hands and they don't let you sing and they don't let you shout and sometimes you get in that cage and you start screaming let me out of this cage I know what it is to be free I know what it is to have the Liberty of the Holy Spirit I know what it is to have the anointing of God in my house somebody give him a shout in this house if you've ever experienced what it's like to have a Liberty of the Holy Ghost but an eagle is not let me get back to my point an eagle is not to eat another Eagle period in the Old Testament the Bible says the Hebrews had been eating manna every day and they wanted flesh to eat and then after crying out to God God give us flesh God give us flesh God give us flesh and God sent quail that we're coming across and this still happens to this day from Turkey to the Middle East there are a quail that try to fly across that water and when they get across they have flown against the wind and they get so tired they drop in the desert I had a military man from Turkey said I saw it with my own eyes that couldn't hardly believe it there were hundreds of quail laying out there God sent quail he sent them enough quail that they had quail for breakfast well for lunch and quail for dinner and here's what it says in numbers chapter 11 in verse 33 while the flesh was yet in their teeth eret was chewed the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people and the Lord smoked the people with a very great plague here's the bottom line they got sick by eating something they weren't supposed to eat if he would have been living in the wilderness of Israel and he would have went to the Red Sea and you would have caught lobster and kept it in the camp the whole day and decided to cook it the next day you would have died eating it you can't take shellfish unless you keep it cold you know that and you cannot I gotta say this this way a Christian cannot devour another Christian without a Christian getting sick by eating a Christian he went to prove it to you Paul wrote about the Lord's Supper taking communion in the church and he said for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep because you do not discern the body of Christ and you read all that Paul said there he said that church had contentions and strife working in them and I'm convinced of one thing I really believe this I've studied this I've examined this we wrote a book called the meal that heals many of you have seen our series with dr. John Miller and after talking with men who I know are doctors there'll be a doctor brother Casey will be here from Tampa Thursday night that will have a whole healing team here this week we're gonna have are all seven coming as far as you know this is a major thing I'll announce it in the morning and and but dr. Casey still being in these men can tell you this you see people strife unforgiveness bitterness that's what's killing some of you they have proven stress can cause trigger cancer they have proven that many of the diseases that affect the human body are caused by depression and oppression and by fear that's why the Lord instructs you to live a certain way in your life because you cannot become critical with your mouth toward a believer you do understand this that the church is the body of Christ doesn't matter if it says Baptist Church Episcopalian Church Methodist Church many customers it's the body of Christ so think about this if I'm attacking a church I'm attacking Christ's body [Applause] how do you think he feels about me taking a knife and just jabbing his body up that's why I have no respect and I mean this sincerely I won't say it publicly I have no respect for any man on radio or TV that stands up and calls people's names who are good godly people and all because they teach one thing they differ they call them heretics on worldwide TV I would get out of that church I would leave that church I would sit under that ministry because just because somebody disagrees on something that you may agree on or think does not make them a heretic the definition of a heretic according to the early fathers was people that denied the virgin birth and people that denied that Jesus was the son of God and some of these names being caught on TV are good people that love God that believe in the virgin birth they believe that Jesus is the Son of God that believed in the power of the Holy Ghost and you've got ministers out there who are and they don't want you to get in their closet one guy I know most of the most of most of America don't know this his wife left him a few years ago because she couldn't live with him anymore he was sameen then he got up told everybody it was because of the cross she left him he was the cross I'll preach it anyhow we have got to understand this spiritual principle tonight to forgive people and release people and get people out of your spirit get situations out of your spirit let me tell you what happened to me I'm gonna go ahead and say this I would never tell who or where but we went through we went through recently and you know the teaching that we did probably a lot of you heard about the days of all so it's a Hebraic teaching and the seasons of tests you've all the 29 days of Elul someone asked me the other day I talked in fact David Sorella from Insp called me last night and I was saying David I did I did a program for you at your camp meeting and I wish I would have made this one statement because we got so many emails wanting an explanation where does the idea of the seasons of repentance come from have you heard me teaching on test shave a little bit raise your hand I'm explaining this to you when Moses went on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments he received him at Pentecost when he came off the mountain they were worshiping the golden calf he destroyed the commandments and had to turn right around and go back on the mountain for 40 days and have with his own hand hand write the commandments that God had given him during the 40 days those 40 days were a very serious season of Moses interceding for the children of Israel so the idea developed that after Pentecost there was a season of repentance that Israel had to go through repentance so the idea of a season of repentance stems from that story in the book of Exodus well some of you that did not hear me teach this Ahlul is the last month on the Jewish calendar the first month on their religious calendar of course is in the spring we're talking about the civil calendar or their new year that's what I'm talking about so the first date or a month I should say on the Jewish for their civil calendar is called the month of Tishrei the month of Tishrei is what we're in at the time of this camp meeting we're between the time of the Feast of Trumpets Rosh Hashanah and I think it will be Thursday if I'm not mistaken will be Yom Kippur of the Day of Atonement now during this time and it's believed in this teaching that God opens the window of heaven for prayers to be prayed intercession to be made repentance to be done and then as his people obey Him in that he sets the blessings for them for the next 12 months of the Jewish calendar it doesn't mean you're not going to goof up it doesn't mean you may not have to repent next year for something you said because you should repent anytime you do something wrong I make this clear don't wait a year you know later and you know I'm gonna wait till the month of Elul to repent no you better repent before you know you got to make it you know so that I make that clear to people now having said that something came to me many years ago there was a situation and I won't go into detail that I held a little bit of a bitterness toward a minister and this Minister held some bitterness toward me and I had always dealt directly with the minister in other words when this situation came up it was the minister and I never thought much about his wife so the Lord got to talking to me during the month of Elul this man's wife is 80 years of age I have not seen this man's wife this man died many years ago I don't know he was it 20-some years ago perhaps and I had never seen this man's wife in 20 well let's see 25 or 26 years 24 years I didn't even know really I knew the towns she was in but I didn't know exactly where she lived or her address and I saw this woman's pastor and his wife in a store in Cleveland I'm reading a book and she comes up and talks to me and I'm saying she says you don't remember me do you don't know me lo and behold if he is was not the best man in my wedding when I got married and there's his wife standing there and it's been so long since I've seen her I didn't recognize I felt like a fool I don't want you to know and I start asking about this woman I said it's his sister so-and-so still living and the pastor's wife said you know to tell you the truth period she almost died recently but I went in the hospital and says how did you know it's your time if it's not your time you need to get up and she got up after she got up out of a hospital bed went home and I told this minister's wife I said you know what I believe the Lord spoke to me that I'm supposed to write her a letter during the month of Elul this season and repent to her for any misunderstanding that was developed 20-some years ago and this pastor's wife looked at me and she said that's why God's kept her alive for 80 years he said she almost died a few weeks ago bus but she came up out of her deathbed and I knew there was a reason 80 years of age and here's what God spoke to me God said Perry here's the reason you got to write her her and her husband were one flesh you only dealt with him you went to him six months after it happened and you talked to him you never talked to her so you've only got half the job done you were supposed to do I sat down and wrote a four-page letter none of my staff read it wasn't their business but I told details of things I knew she didn't know things that had happened that I knew she did not know and I sent I sent it the next morning I brought it to Gina I said Gina go back and mail this next day and in the letter I said it's not important for you to answer me it's not important that you write me back because the Lord knows my heart and he knows your heart and I'm telling you when I got that letter in the mail I got a call the next day this might not mean a thing to you okay I mean this may be very insignificant from the largest book publishing company in the world perhaps in Christianity that said we want to meet with you to write books to put them in bookstores all over the world for our company it's a Thomas Nelson publishing company I didn't ask for that I didn't pray for that we'll see what God does with that but I'm saying to you I connect it to the fact that God can only take your blessings so far who am I talking to tonight I am really talking to some folks God can only take your spiritual blessings so far how many emails do I get where people say they're praying and they feel like they're just bump in the sky they're bumping they're not getting through God can only take your blessings and so far but when you're willing to say to the eagle I'm sorry I tried to pluck a feather and I shouldn't have I tried to silence your voice and I shouldn't have I tried to tie you down and I shouldn't have when you're willing to go to another eagle and humble yourself and make things right you know you know why people don't can I tell you why people don't do that they fear rejection well you know if I go to him that's pretty rough he's gonna look at me and say I don't forgive you you know what that's his problem not yours he will go under the disfavor of God after you've done what you're supposed to do but folks listen to me get this met get this simple word tonight in your spirit it's illegal to eat evil you must not devour other believers well I disagree with them well talk to them look at Mehnaz don't go behind their back sometimes in my office somebody will see something they don't like somebody's doing and they couldn't he said you know I think someone says no I said go talk to him don't look at me go face-to-face with them look at them share with them talk to them about it come on somebody help me preach for a minute we've got to help each other for the next few moments I'm going to tell you my mother's favorite all-time story I've ever told in 28 years of preaching I first heard this from a Baptist preacher that was ministering down in North Carolina near the Smoky Mountains he was preaching at a Baptist Church and an Indian from that area came to hear him preach a Cherokee Indian the Indian came up to the pastor he did a three night series on Eagles and he came up to this pastors minister and he said you know you're the first white man I've ever seen to do a study on Eagles that's got it down pat he said but you never did talk about the molting period some people call it the moping period he said well I've never heard of that he says well I can I can not only tell you about it I could show it to you he said really he said yeah meet me in the morning and we're going to take a trip into the wilderness into the heart of the Carolinas if we're gonna go we will go to no-man's land next morning they got up real early they took a jeep to a certain part of the mountain the Indians said now we're going to have to walk the rest of the way and they walked into this this you know this these Indians had known these trails for years and he they walked down these trails and they got into an opening and in this opening there was just a flat land it was like a little wilderness he called it there was there were trees all around the place there were huge cliffs as you know the Smoky Mountains are that way and this was a flat area and they and they looked and there were 27 little white crosses he said what are these he said preacher these are Eagles that are buried here he said I've lived here all my life he says I know their nest I know their rock but these are 20 he said what happened to him is did somebody kill him he said no they never made it out of the wilderness they never meant it out of the valley he says now you're going to really see what we're talking about come with me and they went a little further and sure enough not far from there was an opening if you were an eagle flying you could look down and see it and in this opening were five Eagles just like these there was a calcium deposit that was built over top of the beak the head of the eagle was hanging over the down here the talents right here or the claws as they call it were broken and dried blood was on him you could see it and they were just standing there and the preacher said good gracious what happened to these birds he said well preacher you know an eagle is supposed to fly in as long as it flies it keeps its beak smooth and the eyes are filled with water and the and there's a covering over the eye to protect it but said these Eagles got tired of flying and they decided to come down here and walk around like a bunch of turkeys and chickens and they got to walk it and their feet got sore and they stayed they they'd stay around to their feet got a little better but their feet kept getting sore because they kept on walking and then the calcium built up on the beak and they got and they didn't eat they lost their appetite he said look at him don't even have strength they wouldn't have straight to flap their wings to get out of here so the preacher said so they're gonna die he said mm-hmm they don't have to die he said what do you do feed him oh no he said now we got to get up on the mountain to see the rest of it because the birds won't show up if we're down here so they climbed the hill again it got up on a Ledge and they waited this of course the sun's coming up they had binoculars with them and they said just wait it's gonna happen and sure enough they noticed that there was an eagle coming and then another one coming and there were eight of them and as they would come they were flying they were flying way above these Eagles they got lower lower lower lower lower and all of a sudden they got above the trees and they looked and they had meat in their claws they'd been hunting that morning but they had been huntin for themselves they've been hunting for those birds down there that couldn't hunt for themselves and they got in a circle and they starts they started flying in a circle and they would drop that meat right in front of that bird and all the settle chunks of raw rabbit or squirrel starts falling from heaven and every time an eagle would drop it it would scream when it would drop it it would circle it would scream and it would circle and they were watching this through those high-powered binoculars they could see those Eagles what they were doing dropping the meat after those Eagles left they went back and they stood over the distance and the nd would say come on bird eating there's two birds we're making the effort to eat the other three worms he said come on Birds you gotta eat you'll make it you'll make it as long as you eat you'll make it the preacher said he got so curious he said to the Indian I want to know what's gonna happen to these birds he said well if you want to know what's gonna happen he said you come back we'll come back in a couple days and we'll Welsh we'll come back and we'll see what happens he was preaching another meeting so the Indian came back and got him said you ready to go back he said I've been waiting for you to come they went back to the spot they looked and he counted 30 crosses 30 crosses three of the birds never made it out of the wilderness they died there the Indian buried him he said now let's go back on the cliff and there's a there's a cliff right over here and there's a cliff over there and the preacher said no wait a minute here there's eagles all over this place he says all preacher you don't understand these birds I know him I've named him they don't ever leave the rock they were birthed on they don't go rock hump hoppin they stay on the rock their birthstone and he said that one's over there and that was over there says just watch and as the Sun got a little higher all of a sudden they looked on the ledge and they're come one of those Eagles he got enough strength to go up to the rock and beat his beak against the rock to knock that calcium deposit off got enough strength to get those wings working again and was standing as the wind was blowing and one thing they noticed about the Eagles in the wilderness is there were no no water in the eye because when the Eagle hits the wilderness it can't cry it doesn't cry but as the wind was coming and that covering went over top that Eagles eye those binoculars they zoomed in and you could see water like a tear coming right over its little beak right over to speak coming right down you could see that head was down head was up he could see that with water coming zooming in with those high-powered military binoculars he said no watch him watch what is gonna do he got the flapping you got the screaming oh and he hit the wind and that only Indian went crazy he said listen to him preacher he's got the victory again I've come by to tell you don't quit eating don't quit reading your Bible don't quit praying don't quit seeking God because if you can hold on somebody has already been the road your own some eagle has already crawled in the valley you're crawling in some Eagle has already made it back to the rock god I don't know who I'm talking to right now I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost in this place put your hands up with me please the Spirit of the Lord I feel an anointing of God in this house I feel the Holy Spirit coming to me to speak a word of what's called a prophetic word this is just an utterance inspired by the Lord it's not a sermon it's from the Holy Spirit and the Lord would say to you this day you have become very weary in well-doing you love me with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind with all of your spirit but you have become very weary in well-doing and there had been thoughts that have come into your mind that you've never thought before there have been feelings that you have had that you've never had before the enemy has seen the weariness and he has attempted to take advantage of the weariness of your flesh the Lord says he has even seen the spirit of discouragement grip you until it would choke the life out of you and you would find your mind wandering and you would say to yourself god I'm losing my mind God where are you but the Lord would say it is the joy of the Lord that your strength you need refreshed in my presence for one touch from the hand of your Savior will pick you up from the despair of your heart be not weary in well-doing for in due season you reap if you faint not and those things that you questioned me about and you prayed about I will work on your behalf and I will minister to you it's been a testing time it's been a crisis time it's been a time of evaluation but the Lord says don't be weary and give up hold on to the word hold on to the promises hold on or the prophetic words which have been given hold on to what I've spoken in days gone by to your spirits and my spirit will sustain you do not fear about your family do not fear about those that have seemed to drift away from me intercede call their names before my throne and I'll build a family memorial for you cease not to pray and intercede day and night but fear not for when you pray and seek me by faith then the enemy has no authority to step in who all I can say is whoever feels like the Holy Spirit's talking to get to the front right now just walk to the front oh I sense the anointing here this is what it's all about oh go ahead and let the tears come [Music]
