Will you imagine with me for a moment?
In your mind, can you imagine a live Turkey? Picture it. Got it?
Now, will you please imagine a thousand Turkeys?
Listen, in a way that only God would know, an Eagle egg found itself on a Turkey farm and was hatched and cared for among a thousand Turkeys. This Eagle puppy began life believing he was a Turkey. As he grew, he copied all that he saw Turkeys doing. He ate feed from off the ground and in containers, as all around him were doing. He grew beautiful and strong, yet because he was raised with Turkeys, he never flew higher than a foot or so, and that not very often.
One day an older Eagle happened to be flying over the Turkey pen, and he spied the young Eagle foraging and competing with the Turkeys for food from the ground. He could not believe what he was seeing, so he began to circle over the pen getting lower with each rotation. As he got closer to the ground he began to screech causing the young Eagle to take notice. The older Eagle asked the younger, “What are you doing down on the ground with the Turkeys?”
The younger responded, “This is how we Turkeys spend our days.”
The airborne Eagle squawked all the louder, “You are not a Turkey! You are a proud and powerful Eagle like me! Get up off the ground and soar to the heavens!” And then he flew up and away, laughing out of sight.
The amazed Eagle puppy watched as the older Eagle flew up into the clouds, and he pondered. He pondered and he looked around at the many Turkeys on the ground. He looked up and then all around him. Then he caught a reflection of himself coming off the water as he drank. He looked at himself and then the Turkeys near to where he was, and he exclaimed, “I am different! I am not like these Turkeys; I am like that strange and beautiful bird flying high in the clouds.” And he thought a big thought. To which he exclaimed as he took flight for the first time: “I am going to be what I was created to be!” And he soon disappeared in the clouds!
Beloved, that is the problem with too many Christians today. They spend all their time living in the world among Turkeys! And, when trouble comes they try to apply Turkey solutions to Eagle problems! Think about it; what does a Turkey have to look forward to in life?
As Christians, we are to live differently from the world . . . we talk different . . . we act different . . . we think different . . . and when it comes to problem solving, we have a totally different resource—God!
Well, what is it that makes us different?
First of all, the Christian is one who has been redeemed—born again—saved by the Blood of Christ Jesus our Savior and LORD. However, it is much, much more. Jesus said:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5)
God, in Christ Jesus, desires—expects—this kind of relationship with you, as a believer!
Imagine this, if you would: Christ as the vine/tree—you as the branch—the Holy Spirit as the life-giving sap flowing from the root system to the tree body, and finally to you as the branch. You, the branch, is to “Abide” in the vine/tree on purpose, with strong intent. The word, “Abide” has this understanding as definition: “To stay in a given place, state of mind, relationship, or expectancy;” “To continue” . . . “To remain” . . . “To be present”.
Why? So the branch (you) will “bear much fruit.”
What kind of fruit?
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)
The fruit that will be apparent in the “Abiding” believer will be all the fruit of the Spirit listed above. Remember, the Abiding is referring to as the deep, personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ our LORD. The Word and prayer is the channel that carries the life-giving sap (fruit of the Spirit) to you, the branch connected on purpose!
And, yes beloved, even in these difficult and troubled days, the fruit of the true believer in relationship with Christ must be seen, felt, and heard before all the world.
Christian, you are not a Turkey (of the world); you were created to soar with the Eagles. Will you say in commitment to the LORD this day: “I am going to be what I was created to be!” ? Pray On!
