A powerful prophetic word and picture for now!
THE EAGLE IS BALDING:
WILL THE CHURCH UNITE TO SAVE THE
NATION?
By Doug Stringer
In April I received the news from my doctor that I had stage
4 lymphoma. My aggressive chemotherapy treatments began on June 16, right after
I returned from serving as coordinator of The Response South Carolina in
Charleston. Surrounded throughout this
time by the love and prayers of so many friends, my family and I are so
thankful that the adverse side effects have been minimal.
One thing I have not escaped, however, is the loss of hair.
It first became obvious on Friday, July 3, as I was preparing for a prayer and
fasting event for our country the next day.
By the time Saturday evening came around, I had lost most of the hair on
my head. But the Lord has a way of taking these kinds of circumstances and
using them as “prophetic dramas,” where we live out in the natural a word He is
giving us in the spiritual. Our life experiences then become a life message
that is bigger than ourselves, a message beyond the circumstances we’ve been
through. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our
testimony.
After realizing the hair loss was a reality that Friday
night, I felt the Lord speak to my spirit. “The eagle is balding,” I said to
Lisa. I was half joking, trying to make light of things. As Proverbs 17:22
says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine.” Yet I knew the Lord was also
placing something in my spirit that He wanted me to share the next day.
Our
National Symbol
America’s national bird is the bald eagle, representing
strength and courage. They have incredible eyesight, with the ability to spot
predator attacks on their nests from miles away. According to the book The
Eagle Story, published by Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life
Principles: How to Conquer Habits, “The eagle has exceptionally sharp vision
because it has two ‘fovea,’ compared to only one in the human eye. The cones in
an eagle’s fovea are small and tightly grouped, allowing the eagle to see very
small details from extreme distances. For example, an eagle can spot an object
as small as a rabbit from a distance of up to two miles!”
The book goes on to explain that the eagle has two sets of
eyelids: conventional eyelids as well as a pair of clear eyelids called
nictitate membranes, which can be shut for protection while not inhibiting the
eagle’s ability to see. While some experts say that no creature can stare at
the sun without going blind, others argue that the extra eyelids on the eagle
allow it to look into the sun with no damage. Regardless, when feeling weak and
weary, with their eyesight dimming from age, eagles will soar toward the sun to
rejuvenate themselves. This is what
Scripture speaks of when it says, “But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew
their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and
not be weary, They shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
A few days before the Lord began speaking to me about the
eagle, one of our intercessor friends and her husband were awakened in the
night by the sound of an eagle’s cry coming from the alarm of a cell phone that
was not even turned on. She prayed about what God was saying to them, then
wrote to me after they heard about what I shared at the July 4 meeting: “The eagle represents America,” she said,
adding that it also stands for rational things, instruction in truths, renewal,
resurrection, the prophetic, leaders, seeing clearly, and wisdom. “We believe
your personal battle parallels the battle for America.”
The
Roots of Freedom
How disheartening it has been for so many of us who have
prayed and cried out for our nation to see the highest court in the land
setting itself up as god in the house of God. These are the people we trust to
interpret the law, yet they have totally re-defined the nation’s constitution
in a manner so far from what our Founding Fathers intended. They have crossed
the line, assuming to dictate to God, the highest of all authorities, what is
law and what is not law. Truth is truth, no matter who tries to change it.
Our nation’s first president, George Washington, said in his
first inaugural address, “We have God to thank for America’s birthday!” Then he
said, “No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand,
which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States.
Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent
nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”
How things have changed.
President Ronald Reagan said this: “Freedom is never more
than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in
the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do
the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our
children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were
free.”
Like our Founding Fathers, Ronald Reagan understood that
freedom naturally decays as societies expand unless people of principle defend
it. That tendency has been true at every point in human history and always will
be. Government has the necessary role of defending our liberty, free speech,
the right to property, but virtue can become a vice when it attempts too much.
We must be watchful to ensure that the government’s good intentions don’t
become the overreach that becomes tyranny.
We’ve recently seen the tyranny of overreach from the
highest court of the land, so we now appeal to the greatest courts of heaven,
to the most Supreme Being –the Creator of the heavens and the earth, unto whom
every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Jesus Himself is the one we fix
our eyes on. Though at times we feel weak, we know that when we wait upon the
Lord, He will renew our strength. We know that when we fix our eyes on the brightness
of the Son of God Himself that we will not to be blinded, but we will come back
and be awakened as a Church to impact the soul of our nation.
United
to Save the Nation
Shortly after leaving the July 4th prayer gathering, we
received numerous encouraging messages from people who were touched by this
word and sensed it was a word in season. One person after leaving the meeting
wrote to say that it was an uncanny confirmation when they saw the headline
banner on the front page of the Houston Chronicle that read, ‘Long Live The
Bald Eagle...Our national symbol Is on the rebound’.” The article accompanying
the headline read, “A nation unites to save the bald eagles”. The same thing
can happen to our nation; it can experience awakening and revival, but only if
the Church unites under Christ.
A few days later, I went to a hospital in Clearlake to see
and pray for a young man who is also battling cancer. As we arrived and walked
down the hallway, they turned and saw Lisa and I through the large waiting room
windows. Just as one of them exclaimed, “The Eagle has landed” some of his
family in the waiting room suddenly heard the loud shriek of an eagle and
looked up to see a program on the television about bald eagles. Some of the
family had heard me share at the July 4th prayer gathering about regaining our
strength as the soaring eagles. They personally received this as another
confirmation and encouragement for them personally.
In 2011, Houston hosted The Response, a day of fasting and
prayer for our nation, at the request of the Governor of Texas. As of this
writing, we have helped facilitate The Response prayer gatherings on behalf of
the Governors of Louisiana, and South Carolina; and are working on gatherings
in several more states.
Who would have thought The Response South Carolina on June
13th would gather the Church in South Carolina to pray in unity just four days
before the tragedy at Mother Emanuel AME Church? The initial reaction of many who participated
in that prayer gathering was disbelief that this would happen after so many
came to repent and pray for their state and their nation. Yet, as we began to
engage in conversation with the pastors and intercessors there, we were
reminded that God’s timing is perfect.
Many leaders of various racial and denominational
backgrounds in the Charleston area believe The Response was a providential
gathering as we crossed denominational, racial and generational barriers to
meet at the Cross of Christ together in Prayer, Worship, and Fasted-ness for our
nation. Who would have know what horrific tragedy would take place just four
days later at Mother Emanuel AME Church? In fact, we did not initially intend
to hold the gathering in Charleston, but it turned out to be God’s providence.
Thousands of Christians united after the tragic shooting in Charleston to
become a coat of many colors, standing up for their brothers and sisters,
unlike other cities where we’ve seen riots break loose. Even when the outside
agitators came, the Church in that city became an example for the rest of the
nation. From the leadership of the AME denomination to the local congregations,
the Church of Charleston sent a message to all of America on forgiveness,
healing, and hope.
Of course, we only built on a foundation laid by generations
of prayers and intercession that had gone before, but God allowed us to be part
of a catalytic moment and to see an answer to the prayers of reconciliation and
unity we had prayed just days before. The Church comes in great numbers, linked
arm in arm, in authentic love and unity. What the enemy intended for evil, God
is turning into opportunities for good, because the Church of Charleston and
South Carolina is demonstrating intentional love through unity, forgiveness and
healing.
Unity is what God desires for His Church across America,
especially now as we see the erosion and unraveling of so many of our moral
foundations. I’m not talking about lowest common denominator unity, but unity
in Christ. Authentic Unity is not Uniformity, but Unity that comes from our
Unique diversity, yet common relationship in Christ and His Word. He desires
for His Church to come together and soar above the many distractions that keep
us divided.
A
New Generation
True intercession is not just hiding in the prayer closet.
It’s standing in the gap between the living and the dead, like Moses and Aaron,
as they grabbed the censers of incense (symbolic of intercession) and ran to
stand in front of those who were perishing, begging for God to stop the plague
of sin. They cried out for mercy, for God to move on behalf of their people.
Likewise, many of you have prayed, some of you for decades, crying out in
intercession, “God, stop the plague of sin! Stop the lies of the enemy over
this nation!” God is hearing your cry. He hears the cries of His people, and He
is still on the throne. He didn’t bring us to such a time as this to leave us
hanging.
There is a cleansing taking place. Many pastors we’ve looked
up to and leaders in politics and business are falling and failing. But in the
midst of the cleansing, God is raising up a new generation of Samuels, Esthers,
and Ruths, a generation of Deborahs, Daniels, and Josephs. They are a new,
prophetic generation of righteousness. Just as God exposed the sins of Hophni
and Phineas and raised up Samuel as a righteous judge and voice of truth in his
generation, so is He now going to expose unrighteous judges and raise up a new
generation of judiciary. God is raising up prophetic voices who are not just
prophesying for their own self-adulation and their own gain, but because they
fear God and seek His Kingdom first.
When
the Lion Roars, The Eagles will Soar!
On July 24th, while speaking at the 60 years of ministry
celebration banquet for Bishop Roy Kossie, Jr, I shared that when the lions
roar, the eagles will soar. I envisioned that when the a lion roars in the
jungle, all the animals listen, the birds take flight, and eagles soar. We need
the aged lions to roar again, stirring up the church, and provoking even the
weary eagles to take flight and regain their strength. The Lion of Judah has
released a resounding roar from His Holy Habitation, awakening the eagles of
the church, calling them to action (Rev. 25:30-31, Jeremiah 25:30-31). These
eagles must soar towards the light and hope of the SON if they are to make an
impact and unite to see Awakening in the Church and Revival in the nation. We
are a generation that needs strength to come into our destiny. Only the
brightness of His presence will reveal the greater reality and greater authority
God wields. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we can soar above our weakness and
renew our strength. Then we can fulfill God’s call and destiny in our lives and
nation. God still has plans for America, if we as the Church will unite to His
purposes.
We cannot be informed only by what we see and hear on the
news. We cannot let the circumstances around us dictate who we are. God has the
final word. Who will we believe? I
choose to believe the word of the Lord. He never waivers. He is the same
yesterday, today, and forever.
One
in a Thousand
There is a spiritual cancer in America. Many leaders are
experiencing an attack in the natural realm that mirrors the spiritual state of
the nation. But I believe for many the sickness is a lie of the devil to distract
them and the Church from the spiritual war that rages right now.
There are those in governmental leadership who still
recognize a higher authority. Some bold and courageous men and women are rising
up to speak into the very core of what’s happening in our nation—like those
even in government who are not afraid to say, “Our nation needs prayer!”
Let us not forget, however, that our nation will only be
restored to its God- ordained destiny by the Church uniting in intercession
(and action). When Abraham cried out for Sodom, he pleaded with God to spare
the city if there were 10 righteous people in it. Various commentaries have
different estimates of what the population of Sodom was at the time of Abraham.
I know there are still righteous men and women in our land, but even if there
are only one in 1,000, the church must still unite for the nation. Church, you
and I are the hope of Christ to the multitudes who are shipwrecked in the sea
of despair and in a tumultuous world. We are God’s chosen ambassadors, to be
the tangible expression of Jesus, to demonstrate truth in love, a love the
world does not understand. It is not a love that tramples the sacred blood of
Jesus, but a love that shares the truth uncompromisingly in the spirit of grace
and mercy. Only then can those who hate and oppose what we stand for see the
beauty of His Holiness and the Glory Due His Name.
As I have been writing this article, several of my sons in
the faith have messaged me saying God has given them a scripture for me during their
times of prayer. That scripture is Malachi 4:2, “But unto you that fear my name
shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.”
The SON of righteousness is rising, and He will bring
healing to the nation.
Even as the eagle in its time of weakness regains its
strength by soaring toward the Sun, we the Church—and the nation—in our time of
need must fix our eyes on the SON and soar together toward the brightness of
His presence. As we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith
(Hebrews 12:2), we can believe for awakening in the Church in America and for
revival to spread throughout the land.
As the nation unites to save its
national bird, the bald eagle, the question we must ask is this: Will the
church unite to save the bald eagle nation? Or, in other words: Will the church
have a heart awakening, so we can be conduits of revival that will impact the
soul of our nation?
Jonas Clarke (1730 – 1805), was an American clergyman and political leader who had a significant and passionate role in the American Revolution and in shaping the 1780 Massachusetts and the United States Constitutions. His pulpit, like many others, was the site of rallying calls to freedom.
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