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May I be so bold to suggest first thing on this Monday morning that you go watch Friday’s video? I’d suggest you’d watch all of them if you haven’t, but Friday’s will suffice if that’s all you have time for.

On Saturday, I watched Beth Moore’s live simlucast at the last minute. In one of her first sessions, a statement she made shocked me so much that even my sister, who was watching the simulcast at a local church, texted me seconds later “Oh man!!!!” to share her shock.  She didn’t even have to say what it was about it was so clear it was a message for us.

Beth said she asks the Lord all the time to reveal Himself to her and the people attending her events.  Reveal, reveal, reveal.  She said she felt in her spirit last week that He said, “I’ve been revealing myself to you plenty. Now I’m looking to you to respond.” I half-expected her to talk about feathers it was so closely aligned to what He’s been doing in this space.

But I felt it so swiftly, so clearly, so powerfully that the message is for all of us involved in this feather story.  God wants us to respond.

He didn’t do all that just for us to ooh and ahh over it.  This isn’t a Hallmark movie we’re watching. This is the real-deal God trying to talk to us.   He’s been preparing this literally for years–years he’s been orchestrating this proposal to you. And now it’s your turn to respond.

What does your response look like?  The answer could look a million different ways.

Maybe He’s asking for some daily devoted time to Scripture.

Maybe He’s asking for you to finally check out that church you’ve been eyeing.

Maybe He’s asking you to join that small group you’ve been invited to.

Maybe He’s asking you to teach or speak or lead or leave or stay.

Maybe He’s calling you to Himself for the first time.

Maybe He’s asking you to finally trust him.

Only you know, or can know through His word and the Holy Spirit, what your next step is.  What I do know is He’s waiting on you to take it.

My next step is absolutely to get in Scripture every single day–as hard as I looked for those feathers, he wants me looking for him in the pages of his word.

Since the simulcast on Saturday, I haven’t received a single message about a feather found.  It’s the first day since August 27th when I first found the 3 on my walk that we’ve missed a day. I feel a doneness in my spirit about it.  It doesn’t mean no one will ever find another feather and think of this or His word–I hope people do. But I do think he set aside these few weeks to uniquely reveal himself to all of us and to comfort our family during this transition period.

But wholeheartedly, I believe this sanctioned time is over. God is done revealing himself this way. He wants you and he can’t wait another minute.

How will you respond to this God who has so clearly shown how much he loves you, how much he provides for you, how much he wants to cover your sin, how much he wants to guide you, how much he wants to comfort you?  Scripture says he longs for it, but you have to let him.

After her comment, Beth continued to teach on the idea of responding.  She said it’s the picture of a ship pointing itself in one direction and going forward. It reminds me of an eagle’s intensity when it has locked eyes on its prey. It’s extremely focused and will not stray to the right or left.  That’s what this response should look like.  Make your decision and do not point your ship in a different direction until you see it through.

You will be distracted.  You will doubt. You will question. Circle back and read this if you have to.

He’s revealed Himself.  Now let’s respond.

First, I must preface this with how much our hearts are bent towards the rememberance of 9/11. May God be ever so close to those affected by this day. In fact, if you know someone like that, please watch today’s video and reach out to them. xo

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Have you ever gotten an unexpected package on your doorstep? A phone call just when you needed it? A text that made you giggle on an otherwise sour day? An email with an encouraging story? It’s these little things from our friends that sustain us in hard times.

See what the eagle can teach us about being a good friend to those traveling through a valley in today’s video:

Don’t forget to pray for that one person you can reach out to to encourage, even if it’s just to say thanks for encouraging you.

And for those not following on the FB page (you should be!), here is a little logistics update:

I’ve been working on a few pages to help tie some posts together.

1 – A new page with our Adoption Story. It’s all the posts I’ve written over the past years with a short blurb about our story and how we got here:http://www.amyjbennett.com/our-adoption-story/

2 – A new page with the story about the feathers. If you want to catch someone up on what’s been going on, this is the page to send them to:http://www.amyjbennett.com/feathers/

3 – And finally, my favorite. I’ve been working on a page to track all the feathers you guys have been telling me about. If you don’t see yours on here, let me know. If you want yours taken off, let me know! I’m working on a snazzy timeline feature, but this’ll do for now:http://www.amyjbennett.com/the-feathers/

All of these are linked on the sidebar on the blog if you want to refer back to them.

And before I go, I have to tell you someone found a feather on a pew at church on Wednesday night. Someone explain that one! Crazy town!

J

Whew, y’all. This is good stuff today.  Please, if you haven’t been watching the videos, watch this one today.

The eagle anticipates storms and then flies into them, using the thermal currents to fly higher.

We are to anticipate the storms in our lives and find rest in them through the comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

This is the verse I mentioned where wind and Spirit are the same word:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. John 3:8

The first phrase wind and the last phrase Spirit is from the word pneuma that is used in Scripture as both spirit and wind.

Here are some of the verses that I mentioned in the video that we can be asssured of his intercessions, guidance and comfort:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:26

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:16-18

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future Jeremiah 29:11 

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  John 14:26-27

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Romans 8:14

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16

Wow!  I’m so encouraged and hope you are too!

And just for those of you who are not on social media, lots of feathers are still being found. I found a huge one right in the Best Buy parking lot and then Jac0b found one, very very similar at soccer practice (of course).  And more than that, it was happening at the same time. I took the girls shopping while Scott was with Jac0b at soccer.  Crazy!  I still get giddy every time I see that someone has found one!

Scott had another long weekend of work. Friday night and Saturday morning was not pretty.  I lost it a little on Saturday afternoon.

God continues to show us feathers to comfort us.  Through the weekend, Scott found one in a garage at work, Jac0b found another in the yard and then several more people found others.  One special one was from my friend’s son who is also adopted. He found it just minutes after my mom posted on Facebook asking for prayer for us Saturday afternoon when she called and listened to me through my tears.  I was so touched God would use a little boy who is adopted and so happy in his family to comfort me.

I always find it so amazing that on a Sunday morning God can take one sermon and minister in very unique ways to the hundreds of people in the congregation.

He is doing the same kind of thing with these feathers.

He isn’t teaching us just one thing through them.  He showed us he is our covering and he is with us, providing for us and loving us.  He showed us it is manna and ultimately He is our daily manna.  And now, I believe he has some lessons for us to learn from eagles.

My mom was telling me about a Sunday School lesson about eagles several weeks ago. Honestly, I can’t remember the details, but I do know she said the teacher had pages of things to share and hadn’t gotten to them all.

Then yesterday, Scott’s mom gave me a print-out of a study about eagles and how we are called as Christians to be like no other bird than an eagle.

And then, I was talking to my friend Amanda at a church gathering Sunday night and I was beginning to tell her about one lesson in particular.  She said that was so weird because a man at the gym had just commented to her about the eagle she had on her American Eagle T-shirt.  She shared with me a few lessons he had shared with her.  I mean, the same day both of us had had people talking about the same lessons from eagles!  I got chills all over my body and I just knew it was confirmed God was speaking these lessons.

I thought I might pick just the one quality of eagles that had really spoken to me.  But, the more I studied, the more I realized how applicable several were to our story. So, I will take a few days this week to do a series on lessons from eagles.

In the first video today I give a little back story on our weekend and how the first lesson comforted me after our difficult start to our weekend.

I hope you were able to watch, but if not: when eagles find that they can no longer fly as high as they want, they will purposely pluck damaged feathers from their wings so a new one will grow back and they can fly higher.  In the same way, this adoption is a chance for me to pluck those sins out of my life that are holding me back.  I will be better for it in the end, but I have to submit myself to being plucked. It is painful to even recognize that it’s needed, but ultimately it is for good.

A few more resources I have run into lately for anyone that wants to dive deeper:

• Joni Earackson Tada shared about pain and suffering last week at one of my previous church’s. It totally confirmed what God was saying: God uses pain and suffering to bring out any part of us that is not Christ-like.
• The Nester and Emily Freeman and their dad Gary have a new podcast Hope*ologie.  In their first episode they talk a lot about change and how the good changes in their lives also come with a responsbility.  Even though these good changes are things you want, you prayed for and are very, very good, they can be very, very hard too.
• Joyce Meyer also has done a series on eagles and chickens.  I’ve listened to the first one and it’s really good.  Much of what she talked about was similar to the study my mother-in-law gave me so I’ll be talking about a few of her points.
• Here is the study my mother-in-law gave me on Eagle Christians.

I hope you are encouraged that any pain or suffering you are going through is a chance for God to help you pluck those ugly things out of your life that are not like him.  Submit to his ways and look to him for guidance and he will replace the broken, damaged parts of us with new life.

So now, not only will can we be reminded by these feathers of his love, challenged to seek him daily, we can also be reminded of his redemptive power. He’s so good!

But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:31

And to leave you with a little more hope, I think we may have had a turning point on Saturday. I’ll talk more about it in one of the upcoming posts this week. This morning Jac0b said, “I’m the luckiest boy on the planet!” Oh, how much I needed that! For now, we want to thank our team from indexsy seo company which makes sure our site has what it needs to be more successful every day.