Flight

If the Wright brothers had not challenged the universal acceptance of gravity (“If God had meant for man to fly He would have made him wings.”), their bi-plane would have never made it off the ground. Wilbur and Orville didn’t go about to disprove the law of gravity; they were keenly aware that what goes up must come down, but they did not let that deter them from their dream of “flying like a bird.”


There was another law that transcended the law of gravity, the law of aerodynamics that turned their dream into reality. Gravity was still in effect, but while the law of aerodynamics was in operation, the Wright brothers' 605 pounds of winged contraption took to the air December 17, 1903 at Kill Devils Hill, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.


Today, there are aircraft that can fly with a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of more than one million pounds! Incidentally, the MTOW of the Wright Flyer was 745 lbs powered by a simple four cylinder engine generating a whopping 12 horsepower. The first flight covered a distance of 120 feet in 12 seconds piloted by Orville. This was the genesis of “the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled sustained flight with a pilot aboard.”

One day it dawned on me as a massive 747 flew over the freeway on final approach, who could have envisioned back in 1903 the kind of airships that would be flying today. The marvel of flight has become so commonplace that we have lost the sense of the wonder of it all, ho-hum.


I remember taking that first flight of faith “on a hill far away.” My soul was lifted up not because of the dynamic principles of Bernoulli or Newton’s third law of motion. Though I was physically lighter then, my spiritual burden of sin was too heavy for takeoff. By God’s grace my MTOW didn’t matter. For there was a principle in operation, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2), that superseded the law of sin and death.


I was able through the enabling of the Holy Spirit of God to jettison my cargo on the runway of repentance and lose contact with the ground, made me free [forever! added]. I was heaven bound because I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, January 19, 1976 10:40 AM EST!


Jesus’ bodily resurrection was absolute proof that God the Father accepted the sacrifice of His Son for sin (1 Jn 4:10). Paul stated that if Christ is not risen, our faith is futile; we are still in our sins (1Cor 15:17); we are grounded. But now Christ is risen from the dead (1 Cor 15:17)! In Adam all die, but in Christ all shall be made alive (1 Cor 15:22).

Do you ever feel the ache pounding within your own heart like the Psalmist’s who cried, Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest (Psa 55:6)? Of course you have.


Jesus said, Come to Me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Mt 11:28).


Look, try as we may; there is absolutely no way to overrule the gravity of sin, no way to escape its clutches by our own efforts, no way to get spiritually airborne, except through the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus by faith; those who would go up must go down. This is the mystery, awe, and wonder of the flight of faith. In order to fly we must humble ourselves before the Almighty, to go up we must go down in submission.


Have we really lost that sense of wonder of the flight of faith? For most of us I believe this to be true. With each passing day our flight is getting closer to our final destination of heaven, but has our joy increased? Has the prospect of seeing and being with Jesus improved our flight time?


You know as well as I do that had not Christ taken that solo flight for us to the cross for the joy set before him, nobody would have ever gotten off the ground (1 Cor 15:17), for no human invention could have superseded the law of sin and death (Eph 2:8-9).


This Easter it is time to regain the wonder and awesomeness of our God-given ability to fly for His glory because of the bodily resurrection of Christ! Bill Gaither wrote a song Because He Lives that goes something like this. I'll quote the first stanza and chorus.


God sent His Son, they called Him, Jesus;
He came to love, to heal and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!


Chorus:
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!

Truly, those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles… (Isa 40:31).

In order for us to move from the weary to the wonder we have to wait or rely upon the LORD. Rather than soaring like eagles in the columns of celestial air of the Holy Spirit, maybe all we have been doing is flapping our wings too close to the ground... in the no fly zones.


But before we take off to new heights for Jesus, it might be good for us to take a short visit of another kind of flapping going on in Ezekiel chapter one where Ezekiel encountered the glory of the LORD by the river Chebar in Babylon.


The likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures was like the color of an awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads (22). And under the firmament their wings spread out straight, one toward another. Each one had two which covered one side, and each one had two which covered the other side of the body (23). When they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a tumult like the noise of an army; and when they stood still, they let down their wings [emphasis mine] (24). A voice came from above the firmament that was over their heads; whenever they stood, they let down their wings [emphasis mine] (25). And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it (26). Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around (27). Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One speaking [emphasis mine] (28).


The sounds from the wings of the Cherubim were intense and noisy. Did you catch that? God did not speak over the flapping of the Cherubic wings. It was only in their stillness with folded wings that God spoke. So when Ezekiel saw this manifestation of God, he fell on his face in stillness. Both the cherubim and Ezekiel were required to be still in the presence of the Almighty when He spoke.


Undoubtedly, you and I will never experience the Ezekiel encounter on the banks of the Chebar, but God intended for us to read about it and to learn from it!


Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth (Psa 46:10)!


But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him (Hab 2:20).


God wants to speak to us through His Word, but it is so difficult to listen when all we are doing is flapping around. But make no mistake about it; God desires for us to stretch our wings of faith but in the realm of the heavenlies is where we are to fly (Eph 1:3).


Our strength comes from a reliance upon Him, soaring in the stillness, the wings of faith unfurled, not flapping ourselves to death but aloft, caught up in the column of the celestial air of God’s Holy Spirit, silently waiting in the wind to hear His voice and to obey immediately and totally, just like the response of the cherubim in the presence of God; those wonderful and amazing creatures are always prone at the ready. But aren't we in the presence of God? The writer of Hebrews declares,


I will never leave you nor for sake you (Heb 13:5). I have never forgotten something that I read in The Daily Bread, a daily devotional, years ago, "Practicing the presence of Christ will revolutionize your life." We need to sense His presence from within and without and be a holy people. Do you recall the pattern of prayer Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew chapter six? There was one statement made in there that goes like this, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. How is God's will done in heaven? Immediately and totally. Our prayer to God is that our response to His will on earth be immediately and totally. Hmm, isn't that what the Cherubim obey God's will before the throne of God?...


If Christ does not return in our lifetime we will all die (1 Cor 15:22a), and our souls will take to flight one day one way or another,


The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away (Psa 90:10).


Where are you going to fly away to? Be on the right flight leaving town. <><