We are in an important place in history. I call it a hinge. We are swinging from one mode of operation to another. At critical times in history, passages of Scripture were quoted as if they were hinges. Isaiah 61 is one of these chapters.

Jesus read Isaiah 61 in the temple and then stood up and proclaimed, “today this has been fulfilled in the reading.” This passage, Jesus is pointing out, is a critical word to understand the times they were in. It is also critical to understand the times we are in now. Jesus was telling us that what God wants to accomplish is incomplete without Isaiah 61. Broken hearts must be mended, believers must become oaks of righteousness, and everyone must live in favor. Much more is said: these are just examples. Jesus quote is in Luke 4:18, the beginning of a gospel narrative. It quoted a passage from the longest book in the Old Testament. See what I mean by a hinge?

There was a time in my life when I assisted wild birds to nest in my backyard. I erected three large birdhouses sized for purple Martins, migratory swallows from the Amazon basin. Even though they were not pets, I did many small things from a distance that nurtured them. “Flying the nest” was the peak period of danger and was chaotic. We are in such a time.

The parents nurtured and protected the little birds well until the flying started. Then a change occurred. The parents would move away and seem disinterested. Then they would fly toward the babies and nearly knocked them off the railings. But the birds would perch for hours confused about this new life. Then they would fly. This is what favor looks and feels like-peril then power. The stakes are higher.

It seemed like a miracle. What had been a tiny egg only a few weeks earlier was now flying with no training: it seemed like a miracle and truly for a man it would be. Problems occurred. Hatchlings would fly short distances and hang out on my house roof. Predatory birds could easily pick them off my roof. Others would fall attempting to fly, and hang out on the ground.

Outside the nest on the ground, other predators lurked. Neighborhood house cats eat nearly half of hatched baby birds each year in cities. I asked my neighbors to keep cats inside during this week. This helped. Some were eaten.

One day I was horrified. I saw a garden snake had just gripped a bird on the ground by the head into its jaws. Immediately I took a shovel and struck the snake behind the jaw and the baby popped out! I put it back in a nest after washing it off. It lived yet was perhaps blind in one eye. Yet unusual coloration let me know that bird went back to the Amazon and came back to my house and nested the next year. What a great example of what God is doing in the world today. Embrace the new.

The flying of the nest is a hinge event.

I think we are going through this as believers today. God wants the believers to come to maturity. He wants us to be anointed as Jesus proclaimed in Isaiah 61. “The Holy Spirit has come upon me… to preach the gospel..heal hearts…” We are torn. We want to remain in the nest and be fed, yet we are created to fly. We see danger. And there are dangers that we do not see. Yet the good Shepherd is watching just as I shepherded the birds. Nothing is more miraculous than healing a broken heart. Broken bodies get mended often, yet no one but God can take bitterness, grief, anger, resentment, hopelessness etc. from hearts completely. We have successfully avoided that in the Western Church for generations. Now we fly.

We are in a paradigm shift. Like the little birds we are confused. Suddenly our old way of life shifted before us. Some of us are uncomfortable and afraid. Yet we cannot proclaim liberty to the captives if we are still captive ourselves. So God is brushing us out of the nest. It seems cold. It is a blessing. Some people will not make the transition to power. I pray all will. I will watch carefully for predators, yet there is risk when we are empowered.

A paradigm shift is a new process of thinking for doing something. In Mark chapter 2, we see examples of the old paradigm questioning the new:

1) God wanted healing, but the old paradigm questioned Jesus words, and his authority to heal. They were quibbling over words. They were not interested in healing, only in doing it “by the rules.” God wants healing, transformation and cities rebuilt from rubble not powerless talk. We are dying from this now as they were in the first century.

2) Jesus proclaimed the gospel to the poor; he ate dinner and associated with corrupt government officials (tax collectors) and famous sinners. These are the hungry spiritually, yet the old paradigm thought this was “spiritual tainting.” God did not agree. The change was occurring. One group understood and embraced it; the other group held to the old things-resisted the change-and missed out.

3) “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If done, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.” Jesus gave them two examples of harm that comes from mixing old things with new things that cannot mix. Old wine skins burst when filled with new wine. Old garments rip when mended with new cloth. The old worn out “rules” had not worked-they did not serve God’s agenda but actually prevented it. No more. Our wrong thinking rules that have made us impotent are out. No more helplessness, no more dependency for spoon feeding is allowed. Chicks cannot live in the nest but a few weeks. Then the crucial test comes. Birds must fly. Christians must proclaim, bless the dark places, free the captives, and give sight to the blind.

When sitting on a hinge we must simplify things. We must see the point of the structure-the purpose, the essential elements. Read Mark chapter 2 and you will clearly see examples of this. Jesus selected certain events to explain the essential heart of God and how it differed from the thinking and the rules that men established which conflicted with God’s purposes.

So we simplify it. The old and the new don’t mix anymore. I wrote yesterday, “the bar has been raised.” We cannot be little chicks anymore. We must fly like the Eagles. Yet the transition feels uncomfortable and it is fraught with peril. We must learn to fly under the protection of the Good Shepherd or we are doomed. There are predators. There is danger. The stakes are higher. In fact, for most the new direction of this new paradigm for your life will feel like jumping off a cliff is imagined to feel. Most people have never done it. I have. The fear was greater than the sensation of not being supported.

I jumped into water a a kid from a height of ten meters. It was scary. That is what the training to fly feels like for most. God will give attack to areas of stronghold in your heart: He is letting the educated and rich jump into trust with money; the poor are tested to speak in public; the shy are asked to pray for miracles. All of these people feel like the little fledgling swallows in my back yard. By the way, the year it peaked I saw my Martin population grow from one nest in year one to my count of 75 total birds at the end of a breeding season a few years later. They come back to the same place and multiply and that is God’s purpose. He wants us to reproduce. All 75 birds in my yard had to go through the test of flying the nest. A chick is not a bird until it flies.

So, to review, in my recent posts, I have said to expect more from God, God is expecting more from us. Now expect to have power that is supernatural. If you fear teaching, it might happen supernaturally through you anyway. Most people fear public speaking on the same level as the fear of death, so look for power where powerlessness has nested. If you fear helping people, God will be with you to do amazing things. If you fear praying for healing, God will minister through you anyway removing the fear. Yet, fly the nest.

The reward is much greater. So where are we? We are in a time that allows us to fly. Joel Chapter 2 says a time will come when the old (and young) see visions and dreams and speak the word of God with power. How do we know we are there? Then the old wine, the old paradigm will say what they said in Mark 2:12 when a paralytic walked, against the rules: “We never saw anything like this.” (ESV)

Thanks to Diane Broos for sending this little video link about birds flying the nest: http://bit.ly/2nNhyl