It’s not always the devil disrupting your life—sometimes it’s God busting your nest! In this message with Jentezen Franklin discover what’s keeping you in the nest and unlock your potential to fly. It’s time to launch out, break out, and soar!
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A nest is a safe place. It evokes feelings of security and comfort. That’s why we use the term “nesting” when we speak of mothers preparing their home for newborn babies. But God doesn’t intend for us to get so comfortable in our nest that we don’t want to leave. Even mother birds have to ruffle their nests to get their young to fly on their own. God will do the same for you and I. When we get too comfortable, too content, too complacent, God will bust up our nest to teach us to fly.
The female eagle picks her mate in an interesting way. First, she takes a stick and flies to about 15,000 feet before dropping it. Then the male comes flying, chasing after her, and in His attempt to prove himself to her, he swoops down to catch the stick. Eagles can fly up to 200 miles per hour, and he must get close nosediving from 15,000 feet to catch that stick mid-air, then bring it back to her.
Next, she chooses a much larger piece. She goes from a stick to a log and flies up to about 5,000 feet. When the male comes soaring, trying to impress her, she drops the bigger stick from a lower level, sending it racing to the ground. The suitor has to go even faster this time to catch the stick and return it safely to the female.
Just when he thinks he's finally impressed her, she swoops down and picks up an even bigger piece … basically a small tree! Then she flies to about 500 feet. Now he knows what she's about to do. She drops it. And flash! he takes off, diving down at record speed, scoops up the small tree, doing everything he can to keep it from crashing on the rocks. Then with all the grace of an eagle, he delivers it back to safety.
The question is, what is this test? What is the female looking for to convince her this is the right guy to be the father of her children? Here's the beauty: It’s the loving, caring nurturing mother who will one day stir up the nest where her little eaglets rest. And it’s the father eagle that encircles and keeps them safe. She's got to know that when she busts up the nest, and they go tumbling, falling, squawking, about to hit the rocks, that the father eagle is powerful enough, fast enough, and strong enough to catch them. THIS is how they learn to fly.
What seems most cruel can become most beneficial in our life. Some of those eaglets would never fly if momma didn’t bust up that nest. If she didn’t rustle their feathers, and push them to the edge, they would never take that dive and learn to soar the heights that only eagles know. We want to blame the enemy for interrupting our picture-perfect lives, when sometimes it’s God saying, “Take the risk, leap out, trust Me.” If we don't learn that lesson, we’ll misunderstand and think God is being cruel when the truth is, He's pushing us to go higher.
You may feel like you’re tumbling and falling; like your nest has been busted, the bottom has fallen out, and your comfort zone is out of sight, but you have a Father who can fly faster than you can fall. You may fall, but you will not be destroyed. You may be cast down, but you will ultimately find the loving arms of God rescuing you, and taking you up where you belong. So don't lose heart! Don’t just run … fly! Don’t just glide … soar!
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the heights of the land … (Deuteronomy 32:11-13).
A nest is something a bird builds to live in and hatch its young. Like a nest, our home is a place of rest. But have we developed nesting syndrome? The nest is far too comfortable. We stay in the nest when God is calling us to fly. God is coming to rustle-up your nest because there are still things the Lord wants to do with your life. You are teeming with promise; you are full of potential. Even if it takes busting your nest, God wants you to see that you were born to fly to higher ground.
Key Points
1. Your calling is heavenly, not earthly. God has not called you to an earthly calling, but a heavenly one. You are called to greater things.
2. God pulls the comfort out of your nesting place. Discomfort is the tool the Lord uses when He is bringing you to a better place.
3. The discomfort brings the discovery that we can stand and not just sit. Before you can fly, you have to learn how to stand.
4. Between you and your purpose, there are problems. But it’s the problems that make you stronger.
5. There comes a time when you have to stand on your own feet to make faith your own. Your heavenly Father will catch you when you fall, but it’s in the falling that you learn how to fly.
6. When you fly, there are times you will look foolish. But you can’t worry about what others think. You have to keep trying to fly, even if you look foolish when you are trying to learn.
7. It is better to fail trying to fly than sit in the nest and die. Risk is required if you are ever going to do something amazing for the Lord.
8. Retirement just means it’s time to do something else. It is not the time to rest.
9. All God has for you is up where flying is required. But you must fly higher than the other birds to get what God has for you.
10. Be careful when you tell the Lord your plans for your life. God blesses you to take you higher, not for greater rest. God doesn’t need your plan because He already has a plan.
11. Some nests are of our own making. Nests of your own praise, your own preaching, or your own comfort zones in the faith can keep you from flying to NEW places.
12. Problems are the platform where you go to take flight. You can’t cling to the things of earth and fly to greater heights.
13. If your nest is blessed, remember where that blessing came from. Praise Him for everything God has given you.
When God forces you to a place of faith and trust, then blessing is right around the corner. Trust Him in ALL seasons. It’s not by might or power, but by His Spirit.
Final Thoughts
You weren’t made to nest. You were made to fly. Be careful not to tell the Lord what you will or will not do. He has a plan for your life and His plan is always better. The nest is so comfortable that it can bring a fear of change, but God will mess your nest up if that’s what it takes to get you out of that nest. We were made to be flyers … not nesters. Launch out. Break out. It’s time to fly.
When you feel discomfort—it’s not the devil disrupting your life—it’s the Lord rustling up your nest. It’s time to fly.
