Branham Stories
The Flight Training Of The Eaglets
This old mother eagle flies into the nest one day all ex--unexpected to the little eaglets, and as she comes in... Oh, how I've laid and watched them and weep like a baby, with my binoculars trained on them, my horse tied off somewhere, watching them. And she'll fly into the nest, and she'll take those great wings, and she'll give them a great shower of wind. It shakes every loose feather out of them. Because she's fixing to give them their first little solo flight. And you can't have loose feathers when you're solo flying for the Lord. She flies in, and they have a mighty rushing wind. They never felt it before, because they were born in the cleft of the rock. Why? They are eagles. But God changes it, He gives them something new.
As the Church was borned in the cleft of the rock we cannot be satisfied there; God stirs up the nest sometimes, comes in with a mighty rushing wind like He did on the day of Pentecost, and all the old worldly loose feathers fly out. He sends a Pentecostal revival and shakes up the nest.
Then He gives a certain scream. Oh, all the little eaglets know something is fixing to happen. They're eagles; that's the reason. When you see a shaking time come, eagles are ready for a blessing. The Church is ready for something, the true Church of God, when they see a shaking time coming.
The old mother then throws her wings out, and those little baby eaglets somehow knows by nature; just like a little calf he knows when he's born, to get up and go nurse the mother. Nothing there to tell him, but it's God that tells him. Those little eagles know just how to place their little feet in her wings, and take their little beak, and hold on to a big strong feather; God tells them.
And the Church of the living God knows how to take a hold of the Word of God, those great strong wings of His deliverance and hold on to every Divine promise, when a mighty shaking strikes the place. They know how to hold. Something just tells them. The world might say, "Fanaticism," but they take a hold of the wing, and they hold on, because their nature is eagles. They know what to do.
And this old mother, when she turns her proud head and sees her brood on her wings... I've often thought what God would do when He sees His Church take their position at the Word, to claim every promise that God made. How He turns His proud head to look and see how He loves them with real love. Sees every member of the body positionally take his place, the Christian businessmen at their place, the minister at his place, the prophet at his place...
Then that old mother lets out a certain scream for her heart is thrilled, and she's full of joy, for her little eaglets knows their place and they're all ready. And she lets out a scream and takes to the sky. Oh, what a day, when God gets His Church on the Word, and there comes a certain hour that we fly away on the wings of the great Speckled Bird, the great Eagle of God, the great Holy Spirit, anchored in the Word.
Now, it's a very peculiar thing what she does then. She goes just as high as she can go, where... Those little eaglets not murmuring a bit. They got their little beak set in them feathers, they just can't murmur. And that's--that's the way God takes His Church. If you're really set in the Word, you don't murmur, you just hold on. If God made the promise, God can keep His promise.
So they just hold on. And she--he--she takes them into places they never thought they'd ever be, when she's soaring up. On she goes into the bright blue sky. And now the strange thing, when she gets up there, she shakes them every one off, right up in the middle of the air.
That's the way God does His Church, shakes them off; fly for yourself. And the strange thing, as she shakes them off, she doesn't leave them; she makes a big circle, and goes out, and flies around watching them. And there those little fellows knowing what to do, for the first time they're flopping their little wings. Oh, they're turning over somersaults and everything else, but they're flopping anyhow; they're making some kind of an effort. And if there ever was a time that the Church needs to do some flopping, it's now.
Now, the little eagles are not wearied, because they are altogether aware. She just flies down, swoops right under him, picks him up and brings him back into grace again. That's our great Mother, the Holy Spirit. So don't be afraid of fanaticism, or wild fire; our Mother is watching over us.
She makes those circles, and is she fast? You should see her. And the thing of it is, she can pick as many up, and if a little fellow is exhausted, just turned over and over and over and can't catch his breath, she can catch one with a foot and another with a foot or catch it in her mouth. Oh, the little eagles are so carefree, because they are not resting in their own ability, but they are resting in the ever Presence and the ability of their mother who's watching over them.
Oh, my. As long as He's a watching, as long as it's His Word, as long as He's packed you out here, what are you scared about? They're just having an old fashion Pentecostal jubilee up there, just a flopping, trying to act just like mother. And she's watching over them because they're hers. Oh, how beautiful.
Then when she gets done with them, having all their fun, when they're get down kind of low, she runs and spreads her big wings and all of them just a rejoicing, the convention's over. And they--they set their little beaks back on her wings and like this, "Oh, mama, what a great time we had." And she takes them right down to something new again. Sets them down in a great big green place. They've never had their feet in them places before. So they jump off and just have another jubilee. And they're just there picking just as carefree. And when she gets through, she flies way off to a great high peak, and there she sets watches over them little eagles. Oh, woe unto a coyote that would ever come around. No hawk had better not try to do anything. For she's watching over her own.
That's our Christ tonight. When He died for us at Calvary, He climbed the great ramparts of glory, and He sets at the right hand of the Majesty, He's watching over us. What do we care what this world says, what the people think? Just have a wonderful time; rejoice yourself. The world's full of neurotics. I find out today, that some of these great comedians, I could call names, Elvis Presley, Arthur Godfrey, many of them; they have to have three or four psychiatrists to keep them going. But brother, if they'd just forget that thing and change them dirty jokes into a good old fashion praise of God, I will introduce them to Somebody Who will watch over and protect them; they won't need any psychiatrist. That is right.
So how easy; they just at ease; they're having another jubilee, just picking green grass that they'd never thought ever growed. If you don't believe God's got things for you that you don't know this world can't produce, just come one time and take a ride. That's right.
She watches over them, she... That's her heritage; that's her loved ones. That's the ones that she'd die for; she's watching. And sometimes when a storm comes... I was laying here not long ago in Colorado; I was watching an old eagle take her little ones out for the first flight, their test flight. And when she taken them to the valley, she went up. There come a northerner; the skies turned green a little bit, Brother Ford knows what it means to see that turning dark over the mountains; it isn't very long until the great winds are sweeping down the valley.
And she watched them as long as she could, because the breeze a blowing, and then she let out a great scream and come from the top of that rock into the valley; she throwed out her big wings and every little eagle jumped on. And as she spread her big wings, and that wind coming nearly forty miles an hour or better, down that mountain, she just pierced that wind and went right straight into the rock with them, to safety.
I laid there; I cried like a baby. I said, "Oh, Jesus, You have purchased Your Church; You set them by the still waters and the green pastures. They have a wonderful time rejoicing and praising You. And You climbed the ramparts of glory; You're watching over them. And someday You're coming again to spread forth Your wings to take them back into the heavens above, out of the great tribulations and things that's coming upon the earth"
