There is a special mountaintop experience I had a while ago. It was related to one of my favorite Bible verses.
“They that wait upon the Lord will mount up with wings as Eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” (Isa 40:31)
The Lord gave me a personal illustration of this verse from the top of a mountain I had climbed one summer. The amazing thing about this experience was that I am a very strong person. I try to stay in good shape. Yet the winds from that storm were so strong that even I was hanging on to the rocks for dear life. For fear of being blown away over the edge. That is a pretty severe storm when one is on top of a mountain.
There I was at the top. I was looking out over the edge to the valley below. It was obscured by storm clouds in some spots. I could not see very much detail. Then, I saw something moving through the storm clouds into the sunlight above them, where I was. It was a great bald Eagle rising effortlessly through the dark stormy clouds into the light above.
I noticed something very peculiar about that eagle. He had his wings spread all the way out, and he was not moving his wings even a little bit. He was expending very little to no effort to rise above this storm. Why? Simply because he was born with the secret that he could actually harness the sheer power of that storm to rise above it. That amazing eagle used the power and strength of the storm to rise above it and into the beautiful sunlight above.
According to this and to our opening text, our self-centered, straining, driving efforts will never accomplish the work that God has given each of us to do. We can never do anything “for” God in our own strength. But in His strength, we do all things “with” God. God will use our storms as the path to the strength we will need to rise above them, and into the sunlight of His presence above.
As Paul stated it in Phil 4:19:
my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
The eagle of the Alps is sometimes beaten down by the tempest into the narrow defiles of the mountains. Storm clouds shut in this mighty bird of the forest, their dark masses separating her from the sunny heights where she has made her home. Her efforts to escape seem fruitless. She dashes to and fro, beating the air with her strong wings, and waking the mountain echoes with her cries. At length, with a note of triumph, she darts upward, and, piercing the clouds, is once more in the clear sunlight, with the darkness and tempest far beneath. So we may be surrounded with difficulties, discouragement, and darkness. Falsehood, calamity, injustice, shut us in. There are clouds that we cannot dispel. We battle with circumstances in vain. There is one, and but one, way of escape. The mists and fogs cling to the earth; beyond the clouds God’s light is shining. Into the sunlight of His presence we may rise on the wings of faith. {Ed 118.2}
Like the mighty Eagle, only God Himself who works without any strain, and who never overworks, can do the things He has assigned to His sons and daughters in their daily pilgrimage. (John 1:12) When we restfully trust in Jesus to do it, it will always be well done, and completely done. The way to let Jesus Himself do it, the way to let Jesus do His work through us, is to partake of Jesus so fully, by faith, that Jesus more than fills our life.
God admonishes us in Phil 2:12
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
Notice here, Paul is encouraging us to develop and work out our salvation, but not to work for our salvation. We can only “work out” what Jesus puts in. That’s why, in the next verse we are told
for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Phil 2:13)
The Psalmist puts it this way:
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalms 119:11)
God’s Word is “is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalms 119:105)
God will put something in you, only if you are willing to “work it out” (Phil 2:12)
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Jer 31:3)
This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Heb 8:10)
If our heart is not changed, following God’s rules will be unpleasant and difficult. We will rebel against being told how to live. The Holy Spirit, however, gives us new desires, helping us want to obey God (see Philippians 2:12-13). With a new heart, we find that serving God is our greatest joy. What God puts in us, we work out to others in our life paths.
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ” (Col 2:6-7)
Like the mighty eagle of the Alps, it is no effort to harness the strength of our storms to rise above them into the sunlight of His presence, because God has put something in us to work it out. To help us rise above it for we can do nothing of our own selves!
Once we realize this secret of rest in Christ, we will have the experience of coming to Jesus, and drinking of that “water of life” and we will never be thirsty again. Our new motto will then be “not overwork, but overflow.”
This overflow has made all the difference in my life. There is no effort in overflow. It is quietly irresistible. It is the normal life of omnipotent and ceaseless accomplishment into which Christ invites us today and always.
but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)
Many spiritual functions parallel physical functions. As our bodies hunger and thirst, so do our souls. But our souls need spiritual food and water. The woman at the well confused the two kinds of water, perhaps because no one had ever talked with her about her spiritual hunger and thirst before. We would not think of depriving our bodies of food and water when they hunger or thirst. Why then should we deprive our souls? The living Word, Jesus Christ, and the written Word of God, can satisfy our hungry and thirsty souls to the point where it overflows into the lives of all whom God sets in our path.
We all must seek to have an indwelling Savior, who will be to us as a well of water, springing up into everlasting life. The water of life flowing from the heart always waters the hearts of others.
The water that Christ referred to was the revelation of His grace in His Word where God makes every provision for us.
“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Psalms 119:105)
His Spirit, His teaching, is as a satisfying fountain to every soul.
God’s holy, educating Spirit is in His word. A light, a new and precious light, shines forth from every page. Truth is there revealed, and words and sentences are made bright and appropriate for the occasion, as the voice of God speaking to the soul. {COL 132.2}
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isa 55:10-11)
All of us dream and make plans for the future. Then we work hard to see those dreams and plans come true. But to make the most of life, we must include God’s plan in our plans. He alone knows what is best for us; he alone can fulfill his purpose for us and in us.
As you make plans and dream dreams, talk with God about them.
“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.” (Psalms 138:8)
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; (Heb 3:14)
this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: (1 John 5:14)
In Christ is fullness of joy forevermore. Christ’s gracious presence in His Word is ever speaking to the soul, representing Him as the well of living water to refresh our thirsting. It is our privilege to have a living, abiding Savior. He is the source of spiritual power implanted within us, and His influence will flow forth in words and actions, refreshing all within the sphere of our influence, begetting in them desires and aspirations for strength and purity, for holiness and peace, and for that joy which brings with it no sorrow. This is the result of an indwelling Savior. Not overwork, but overflow.