By Chad Taylor
“Set the trumpet to your mouth, He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord…” (Hosea 8:1).
I was awakened in the middle of the night with the Lord saying to me, “The eagle, the raven and religion.” I saw a church building and on the altar was the bread of simplicity and truth. But as the people came forward to partake of it the ravens began to devour the bread. The people then left the altar hungry and famished for the simplicity of Christ. Then as they entered the world outside the church, they were powerless and helpless to fight the pending darkness that consumed their cities and streets. They had no strength because they were not allowed to eat the bread of simplicity and truth.
Week after week this unfolded until finally the people began to devour one another with backbiting and gossip. Each one wounded in the house of his friends. The ravens began to pick the festering wounds of the people and many were left for dead. The world outside could see the disease of disunity and they stood afar off and watched. Suddenly a sound could be heard above the heads of those inside and He said, “That they be one in Us Father, that the world may believe that You have sent Me…” (John 17:21-22).
Above the heads of the church a great eagle could be seen circling. Like lightning the Lord had come to His temple. Suddenly and swiftly the Eagle descended and began to tear at the ravens of religion that kept the people from the bread of simplicity and truth. The people that had once devoured one another began to fight against the ravens as Abraham once defended the sacrifice. They became defenders of the simplicity of Christ for the gospel sake.
As the Eagle of His presence devoured the ravens of religion the world began to gather at the doors of the church. They gathered and they came in, and the ones that once devoured one another began to lay hands on the wounds of the world and they were healed. A bridge between the church and the street had been built and the world came. By the millions they came, each inquiring one to another, “Who is this Jesus?” (Matt. 21:10). A spiritual awakening had occurred and the places of their habitations were expanded as they came.
A revival of love had begun and the oil of unity began to overflow into the streets and hedges of the city. Into the alley ways and hi-ways the oil and wine flowed pouring into the wounds of those left for dead. I then heard another voice, “Until My Father’s House is filled, until My Father’s house is filled, feed My sheep, feed My sheep, with the bread of simplicity and truth, feed My lost sheep. Leave the ninety-nine for the one that is lost, feed My sheep says the Lord, feed My sheep.
I will renew the youth of My church like the eagle and they will return to their first love. They will do the first works and the nations will turn to Me. They will do the work of an evangelist and the harvest will be reaped. I will renew their strength and they will run and not be weary. They will walk and not faint. I will give them the heathen as their inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth as their possession. They will offer up the bread of simplicity and truth and they will feed the multitudes. And then “pray to the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest…” (Matthew 9:38).