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Flight Club | Charlotte Gambill

Next Level Church Podcast

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  1. Well, they were crazy enough to give me not one session today,

  2. but two, and I know we're sad that Irene couldn't be here, but

  3. I am glad to be able to fill that spot and speak to you one

  4. more time before our time here is done.

  5. How many of you are grateful for your pastors?

  6. Pastor Sarah Matt, thank you for their leadership, that vision to

  7. create moments like this, to invest in you, the women of the

  8. house, and all those that are visiting and joining the next

  9. level family. And I even get to be with you

  10. tomorrow on Mother's Day. I mean, I mean, I don't know

  11. where it is in the contract that a mother should actually speak

  12. on Mother's Day, but somehow it happens.

  13. So my kids released me. And so I'm excited about the

  14. whole weekend with you. But I really want to put this

  15. message into you before you go out of those doors, back to the

  16. world that you left, back to the family, back to the kids, back

  17. to all the responsibilities. And, and this is a message that

  18. God began to write on my heart a little while ago now.

  19. And it's become something I feel so passionate about that I've

  20. written an entire Bible study about it.

  21. I don't normally do that, but I really feel a mantle on my life

  22. to put this into the heart of women and then ask you to go and

  23. put it into the other lives of the women around you.

  24. It began by God reminding me of a story that I grew up with.

  25. We had certain fairy tales, certain stories as kids that

  26. were our favorite and one that I used to love that my mum used to

  27. tell me was a story known as the ugly duckling.

  28. I don't know whether you know that story or not.

  29. It's a fairy tale. And, and if you don't know the

  30. story, I'll, I'll, I'll give you the short version of it.

  31. But really the story is about a bird that is in a nest.

  32. And as all the little eggs begin to hatch, this particular egg is

  33. bigger than all the others, and eventually this egg in the

  34. middle of the nest begins to hatch.

  35. But when this bird comes out of the nest, it doesn't look like

  36. the others. In fact, the others look at the

  37. bird that looks grey and it looks a different colour than

  38. them and it looks a different build than them.

  39. And they label this one bird that has hatched with all the

  40. other birds, the ugly duckling. This bird is rejected by all of

  41. the others that have just been hatched out of their eggs.

  42. And it's shooed away from its nest.

  43. And the story goes that this little duckling tries to find a

  44. family. It goes over to a litter of

  45. kittens and seems to find if it can be adopted by them.

  46. But they reject the ugly duckling.

  47. They tell it to go away. It goes to the farmer's house

  48. and even the farmer and the farmer's wife ushers the ugly

  49. duckling out of the house. And so this story goes that the

  50. ugly duckling just finds itself alone, and it feels like it's

  51. been rejected by everybody. And it has this idea that

  52. there's nothing good coming to it in life.

  53. And as it shelters from the rain and as it lives a life of

  54. solitude, eventually it's on the water one day.

  55. And as on the water one day, it's admiring the incredible

  56. beauty of the birds around it. They're in the sky above it.

  57. And on this one particular day, as it's on the water, the bird

  58. looks down. And when it looks down on the

  59. water, it sees in the water this beautiful white swan.

  60. And it wonders to itself where in the world this white swan

  61. came from, because it thought it was on the water alone.

  62. And in that moment, the ugly duckling realizes the reflection

  63. in the water is its own reflection, and that all along

  64. this ugly duckling had been a baby that was growing up to be

  65. this beautiful white swan. And as it's realising this is

  66. who it is, the Swans that are flying above call to this bird

  67. to come and join them and fly with them.

  68. And the story of the ugly duckling at the end sees this

  69. duckling part of this family, this community of beautiful

  70. Swans. I was reminded of that story

  71. because I felt God challenged me to challenge you.

  72. That so often many of us have a poor reflection of who we really

  73. are. We must understand who God has

  74. made us to be. We have wrongly labeled who we

  75. are in Christ Because maybe, just like the ugly duckling, you

  76. too had an upbringing or maybe have gone through a season where

  77. you felt rejected or wrongly labeled.

  78. Or you felt like people didn't accept you for who God created

  79. you to be. And maybe somehow you've lived a

  80. life that has isolated yourself and you've not recognized your

  81. true beauty because of all the things that have been said about

  82. about you and to you. And I today want to help you get

  83. the right reflection before you walk out of these doors so that

  84. you leave this room understanding who you are, whose

  85. you are, your true identity of a daughter of the King, that you

  86. don't walk out of this door thinking that you are somehow

  87. rejected or somehow an ugly duckling in the family of God.

  88. We have to get the right reflection so we can live at the

  89. right elevation in life. The Bible tells us in James that

  90. the word of God is a mirror. It says this in James 122.

  91. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, but

  92. do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word

  93. but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his

  94. face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and

  95. immediately forgets what he looks like.

  96. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives

  97. freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard,

  98. but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do.

  99. What is the Bible saying? It's saying it's no good that

  100. you just come to the conference and take a glance in the Word of

  101. God and then walk out of here and forget what you look like.

  102. That's not going to change anything.

  103. It doesn't help that you just come to a meeting and you come

  104. even to the altar and you have a moment in the worship where you

  105. feel something, but then you walk out of the door and go back

  106. to your old habits and behavior. It's saying it won't work.

  107. It's not God's fault. It's our fault because we're

  108. glancing instead of living intently with this is our

  109. mirror. See where you look, where you

  110. stay there for your reflection is where you gain your

  111. direction. So when you spend more time

  112. staring at social media on your phone than you do in the Word of

  113. God, it's going to tell you which direction you go.

  114. When you spend more time on Facebook than you do in God's

  115. book, it's going to set a direction for your life.

  116. When you spend more time looking at the reflection of people

  117. around you and comparing yourself to how they're doing

  118. and how they're looking, it's going to tell you the direction

  119. that you're going in life. And God's letting us know before

  120. we walk out of these doors. I don't want you to just come

  121. and hear the Word. I want you to look intently into

  122. the mirror of God's Word until you actually see who you

  123. actually are. And some of you have lived under

  124. the wrong label for years and years and years and we're done

  125. with the label. You need to look intently into

  126. the mirror of God's Word. See, when I look in the mirror

  127. of God's Word, it tells me I am the head and not the tail.

  128. When I look in the mirror of God's Word, it says you are

  129. fearfully and wonderfully made. When I look in the mirror of

  130. God's Word, it says you are chosen and you are beautiful and

  131. you have plans for me. God plans to prosper me, plans

  132. not to harm me. When I look in the mirror of

  133. God's Word, it tells me I'm an overcomer, that I'm victorious.

  134. When you start to look in the mirror of God's Word, you try to

  135. find out who you really are. And I remember when our daughter

  136. was younger, because whether you remember it or not, whether

  137. you're aware of it or not, your kids are watching you all the

  138. time. And so I remember in England,

  139. when you go to high school, you go to high school at age 11.

  140. There is no middle school. So you go straight from primary

  141. school straight into high school with 18 year olds at age 11.

  142. And there's no school buses. You ride public transport.

  143. It's a big shift in the life of a young person.

  144. So I remember at age 11, our daughter is getting ready to

  145. transition into high school to go to school where everything is

  146. different. And I remember she must have

  147. been nervous about it. And I went up to her bedroom and

  148. I went to grab her laundry basket.

  149. And as I grabbed her laundry basket, I walked past her mirror

  150. and on her mirror there must have been 25 yellow little

  151. sticky post it notes. And on every one of the notes

  152. she had written a scripture about who she was in Christ.

  153. I had no idea she had been doing that, but I realized what she

  154. saw mum do is what she's doing. And at 11, she realized I'm

  155. about to go into an environment where everyone's going to try

  156. and tell me who I am. I'm about to go to high school

  157. where everyone's going to put pressure on me to be someone

  158. that I'm not supposed to be. I better know at age 11 who I am

  159. in Christ. I better know who's I am in

  160. Christ. And at 11 years of age, she was

  161. looking intently into the mirror of God's word.

  162. So she had no doubt who she was when people gave her other

  163. words. And if an 11 year old realizes

  164. she needs that, then a 21 year old and a 41 year old and a 51

  165. year old and a 71 year old. We all need to realise we've got

  166. to keep looking in the right mirror so we get the right

  167. reflection, so we understand our right behaviour.

  168. So as I was reading this, as I'm studying this, as I'm feeling

  169. this charge by God to remind people of who they are and what

  170. they look like, I'm like, well, God, you know, where shall I

  171. begin? And I felt God take me to what I

  172. knew was God because he took me to a passage in Scripture I had

  173. never seen before. And I've been preaching the word

  174. of God a long time. I started preaching at 21.

  175. I'll be 53 this year. And so a long time of preaching

  176. the word of God, right? And so I'm like, OK, God, how?

  177. I've never seen this before. God took me to a passage in

  178. Scripture and there's a contrast between two birds.

  179. It's not a duckling and a swan, but it's close.

  180. So this is God's version of the ugly duckling.

  181. This is the original version of The Ugly Duckling, and it's in

  182. the passage in Job 39 and in Job 39.

  183. It's that passage where where Job is questioning God.

  184. It's never a good idea to question God, but he's having a

  185. go and he's questioning God. And in answer to his questions,

  186. God just wants to remind Joe who he's talking to.

  187. And so instead of answering the question, God just begins to

  188. tell him and remind him of his greatness.

  189. And in the passage that we're about to read, he begins to

  190. contrast different animals. He begins to talk about his

  191. creation and their behaviour. And in this passage, he talks

  192. about an ostrich and an eagle. And I hope you realise by now

  193. that one of those birds is what you're supposed to look like.

  194. He ain't the ostrich. OK, the ostrich doesn't get many

  195. mentions in the Bible, but it gets this one.

  196. But all throughout the Bible we're told about the eagle.

  197. We're told that he is like an eagle, that God is like an

  198. eagle. And we're told in Ezekiel 10/14

  199. we know we're made in God's image.

  200. But in Ezekiel 10, it tells us about the faces of God.

  201. And one of the faces of God is the face of an eagle.

  202. So we know we're supposed to be like an eagle because that

  203. himself is the face of God. There is no face of God.

  204. That is the ostrich. We're called to be an eagle,

  205. those that lift and saw on the wings of eagle.

  206. So an eagle is a majestic image of who we are supposed to be in

  207. the likeness of. And yet in this passage, there

  208. is a direct contrast between the ostrich's behaviour and the

  209. eagle's behaviour. And I just want to give you a

  210. couple of the contrast and ask you today which one are you?

  211. Are you an ostrich? Are you an eagle?

  212. Because by the time I'm done today, you're going to realize

  213. your ostrich days are over. God did not design you to behave

  214. and act like an ostrich. These two birds both have wings,

  215. and yet the ostrich's life is defined by gravity.

  216. But the eagle is able to defy gravity, and some of you are in

  217. this room with an ability with the wings that God gave you, but

  218. your life is definitely more defined by gravity than it is

  219. defying gravity. There is a contrast in these two

  220. birds. It says in Job 39, verse 13, I'm

    Job 39:13

  221. reading from the message, it says this of the ostrich.

  222. It says the ostrich flaps her wings futilely.

  223. All those beautiful feathers, but they are useless.

  224. But the eagle in verse 27, the eagle soars at your command and

  225. builds its nest on the heights. There is one bird that flaps and

  226. there is one that flies. I wonder which are you?

  227. All those wings, but absolutely useless.

  228. Why? Because not one of the ostriches

  229. wings are used to fly, but they are definitely used to flap.

  230. And some of you came to conference flapping.

  231. Flapping about your children, flapping about your husband,

  232. flapping about your job, flapping about your finances,

  233. flapping about what's happening in the world, flapping about

  234. your circumstances. I mean, you flap, flap, flap all

  235. the time, and it's exhausting to flap.

  236. It takes energy to flap. But with all your flapping, you

  237. are never getting off the ground.

  238. With all your flapping, you are never getting above the

  239. circumstance. Why?

  240. Because the ostrich's weight is greater than its wings, and

  241. while ever the weight that you carry is greater than the wings

  242. that you unfurl, you too will be defined by gravity that comes to

  243. your life and mine. You too will be held back and

  244. held down by the weight that the life puts on you, instead of

  245. having a wingspan that is greater than the weight.

  246. The eagle's wings are far greater than its weight.

  247. They are far bigger in their expanse than the weight of their

  248. body. And when you have an overweight

  249. body and an under developed wing, you don't go anywhere.

  250. Some of you are not going anywhere.

  251. You're flapping your way through life.

  252. You're flapping your way through parenting, you're flapping your

  253. way through your marriage. But God did not create you to be

  254. an ostrich. He created you to be an eagle.

  255. Matthew, 11, says his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

  256. So if your weight is greater than your wing, something is

  257. wrong, something is off. You are carrying things in

  258. correctly. The ostrich has all these

  259. beautiful feathers. This is an ostrich feather.

  260. It's so beautiful. But here's the thing, you can

  261. order them on Amazon. You can go on Amazon and you can

  262. get yourself some ostrich feathers.

  263. Why? Because it can't get off the

  264. ground. It's very easy to pluck, and

  265. when you don't get off the ground with what God has placed

  266. within you, it is very easy to pluck from your life too.

  267. Pluck your energy, pluck your confidence, pluck your clarity,

  268. pluck your ability, pluck your peace, pluck your joy.

  269. You're very easily plucked by whatever passes your life

  270. because you never get off the ground.

  271. People know all I have to do is walk by and ruffle a few

  272. feathers. Pluck a few feathers and I'll

  273. leave her with less than she realises she has.

  274. You can even order off Amazon. An ostrich feather duster.

  275. Behold, I show you some of your lives.

  276. I'll just dust that situation now.

  277. I'll just dust off my marriage and hope it's better.

  278. I'll just dust my problems away. I'll just dust the situation.

  279. I'll just dust down my children. I'll just dust down my anxiety.

  280. I'll just dust down my dysfunction.

  281. I'll just dust off my friends. I'll just dust off that issue.

  282. You go around dusting. Well, you know the problem is

  283. with dusting, don't you? That the dust will go up for a

  284. moment, but what goes up is coming right the way back down.

  285. And some of you are incessant dusters, never getting a

  286. breakthrough because you always are trying to flap your way

  287. through, never getting the next season off the ground because

  288. you're too caught up in the current season and all of the

  289. dusting it's requiring from you. But the eagle does not dust.

  290. The eagle feathers are not plugged.

  291. In fact, it is actually illegal to own an eagle feather.

  292. If you actually found A and the eagle feather on the ground and

  293. you kept it, you could actually be procrastinated by the

  294. government because they're so rare they have a value on them.

  295. Google it. You can't own an eagle feather,

  296. but you can own an ostrich feather in a duster because it's

  297. so easy to pluck and it's so common to come by.

  298. You are not made to be common. You are not made to be usual.

  299. You are not made to be plucked. You are made to fly.

  300. You're made to have something so rare about you that is modelled

  301. in the one that made you. We have to understand if we are

  302. flapping all the time, it means we are not flying any of the

  303. time. And if you're flapping your

  304. mouth, if you're flapping your panic, if you're flapping in

  305. your home, you will create children who think flapping is

  306. normal and now they won't know their true identity because the

  307. mirror you're showing them is now the mirror they use for who

  308. they are in Christ. You are not an ostrich.

  309. You are an eagle. Another reason why the ostrich

  310. can't fly. It's amazing what you study when

  311. God calls you to preach His word.

  312. But another reason that ostrich can't fly is because it does not

  313. have a preening gland. You say, well what does that

  314. mean? Well, a preening gland is what a

  315. bird requires in order to keep its wings free of pests, A

  316. preening gland. Another word for the preening

  317. gland is the oil gland. The ostrich can't fly because it

  318. has no oil. In fact, the root word of oil,

  319. the root word that is used there is actually a Latin word called

  320. Unger. And Unger literally means to

  321. anoint. In other words, the ostrich has

  322. no anointing gland. You can't get off the ground if

  323. you have no oil in your hands. You can't get off the ground if

  324. you have no oil in your wings. You can't get in the air if you

  325. have no oil with which to keep yourself protected from the

  326. pestilence that is around you. And we have a lot of people that

  327. are on the ground and they are flapping because they have no

  328. oil of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

  329. Flowing in and through them so they can't keep their wings free

  330. of all the things that the oil would protect you for.

  331. You are called to be a bird that flies, and any bird that flies

  332. has to have an oil gland. Have you got your oil gland?

  333. I'll tell you how you know if you've got your oil gland

  334. because Psalm 23 verse 5 says you prepare a table before me in

    Psalms 23:5

  335. the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head with oil and

  336. my cup overflows when your enemies show, show up.

  337. If you have an oil gland, you're not flapping because you have

  338. oil, and the presence of the oil of God on your life flows on and

  339. through you, and it keeps you above the flapping that the

  340. ostrich spends their life doing. Isaiah 61 tells us that He gave

  341. you the oil of joy instead of mourning.

  342. Have you got a preening gland? Have you got Unger, an anointing

  343. oil? Without it you cannot fly.

  344. Without it you cannot rise above.

  345. You are built by God. You are designed in His image.

  346. And some of you have run out of oil and you need fresh oil

  347. before you walk out of those doors, so that when you go out

  348. those doors you can fly where you used to.

  349. Flap goes on to say about the ostrich.

  350. I found this part strange, so I had to really dig deep with God.

  351. But he says about the ostrich that she lays her eggs on the

  352. hard ground and she leaves them there in the dirt, exposed to

  353. the weather, not caring that they might get stepped on and

  354. cracked or trampled by some wild animal.

  355. She is negligent with her young, as if they weren't even hers.

  356. She cares nothing about them. I was like, God, what do you

  357. mean? I mean, I put it in the analogy

  358. of me and my offspring or me and my life.

  359. I'm like, God, you saying that if I'm an ostrich, I don't care

  360. about any of that. I don't care about the

  361. generations. I don't care about legacy.

  362. I don't care about getting out what's in me.

  363. And so I began to study ostriches and how they nest.

  364. Well, because ostriches are great land bound, they can't get

  365. off the ground. They can't do what the eagle

  366. does. Because it says of the eagle

  367. that she puts her nest in the highest heights, that her nests

  368. are up on the rocks and on the pinnacles.

  369. So her nest is way up high away from any danger.

  370. But because an ostrich can't fly, there's only one place she

  371. can lay what's within her, and that's on the ground.

  372. And because ostriches all fight for the same space when you

  373. study it, when they nest, ostriches have to put their eggs

  374. in a communal nest. And the story of the ostrich

  375. goes that whoever is the most dominant female make sure her

  376. egg is pushed to the centre and everyone else's eggs are pushed

  377. to the edge. And if the egg is on the edge,

  378. the chance is that the stampedes that come through or the

  379. predators that come through will crush the eggs that are on the

  380. outer point. So in other words, the word is

  381. saying the ostrich grows so tired of watching what is in her

  382. be trampled by someone around her that she doesn't dare even

  383. attach herself to the possibility of what is in me

  384. living. And I have met so many women who

  385. had a dream at one point, who had an idea at one point, had a

  386. God thing on the inside of them at one point.

  387. But because of how mean other people have been or because of

  388. how much they've been pushed aside or criticized, they've

  389. even detached from birthing anything for God.

  390. Like, why would I try if she's going to shut me down?

  391. Why would I try if they're going to criticize?

  392. Why would I try if I don't even get to have a say about this

  393. thing living on the inside of me?

  394. And some of you have wrestled and fought to try and just get

  395. the smallest thing out of your life.

  396. And now you're living in a place where you say what's the point?

  397. But you're not an ostrich, which means you don't have to try and

  398. force your way into the centre. You're not an ostrich so you

  399. don't have to try and make it happen by yourself.

  400. You're an eagle, which means what God placed in you is going

  401. to be birthed through you. But you have to come up higher

  402. and stop laying it on the ground in a sense of surrender.

  403. I remember when I first stood up in a small church that we were

  404. part of in the UK and I was 1920 years of age and I knew God was

  405. putting something on the inside of me.

  406. And I remember just sharing a small little idea.

  407. Well, I think God's asking me to do prayer meeting.

  408. There's probably only 20-30 women in the room and I'm just

  409. getting this like idea this guard thing out.

  410. I'm scared, I'm nervous, I'm an introvert and so I'm trying to

  411. say something and I have a red rash all the way up my neck from

  412. the nerves. And I'll never forget 3 rows in

  413. there were three women that were there and they were all senior

  414. women in the church and they were married to people that were

  415. in positions of influence in the church.

  416. And as I began to share it, these three women began to

  417. audibly Boo me out loud. And then they stood up and they

  418. said, if you were leading, we're leaving and walked out the room.

  419. I was 19, turning 20. I was trying to get out

  420. something that I knew was in me. I did not expect the women in

  421. the room to trample on what it was that I was trying to let

  422. live. And I remember in that moment,

  423. feeling so stood on, so cut up, so criticised.

  424. And I remember going back to my bedroom and crying and thinking

  425. church people are mean. And then I remember God saying

  426. what you going to do about it? And I remember saying, OK God,

  427. if for the rest of my life I have to stand up to find other

  428. Charlotte's in the room and let them know.

  429. I don't know what they said to you, but what God says to you is

  430. I put it in you. So get it out of you.

  431. Some of you need to let your dream live again, find your

  432. voice again, get involved again. But the ostrich, she cuts off

  433. any feeling, any attachment from anything within her because

  434. she's just so fed up of whatever she tries to push out being

  435. something that people trample on.

  436. You are not an ostrich. God has placed in you ideas,

  437. things to write, dreams to incubate.

  438. It's placed within you a gift of encouragement.

  439. It's placed within you skills and talents.

  440. He put them within you because He created you to be an eagle to

  441. fly. And God asks all of us to take

  442. what is in US and put it higher, bring it to a level that is off

  443. the ground, that trusts God. The Ostrich versus the Eagle

  444. goes on to say that there is one thing that the ostrich is good

  445. at, and it's the same thing some of you ostriches are good at.

  446. It says of the ostrich. It says, oh, she doesn't have

  447. much understanding, but when she runs, oh, how she runs, she can

  448. outrun the swiftest horse and its rider.

  449. And I want to say to some of you in the room today, it's time to

  450. start running. See an ostrich knows the only

  451. way I can get away from some stuff, the only way I can avoid

  452. some stuff is if I outrun some stuff.

  453. I'll just try and outrun the problem.

  454. I'll just try and outrun the rejection.

  455. I'll just try and outrun that area in my life where I feel

  456. isolated and alone. I'll just try and outrun this

  457. season that just feels so uncomfortable.

  458. Some of you are amazing runners, but God did not call you to run,

  459. He called you to reign. And it says of the eagle that

  460. the eagle is perfectly at home. Verse 28 on the high Cliff, she

  461. builds her nest in the hearts perfectly at home on the high

  462. Cliff face, invulnerable on pinnacle and crab.

  463. From her perch she searches for her prey and she spies it at a

  464. great distance and that her young gorge themselves on a

  465. carrier and she's a bad. You know what?

  466. You know what I'm saying? She ain't running out running

  467. somebody. She's already spotting the

  468. enemy. She's already seen those that

  469. are prey potentially, and she's feeding her young on the things

  470. that tried to feed on her. She's teaching the young.

  471. This is who we are. We don't run away from things.

  472. We face things. We don't have to come beneath

  473. things. We are above things.

  474. She is not frightened. Some of you need to take a good

  475. strong look in the mirror of God and face the fear that has been

  476. dominating you for way too long. Like you're not an ostrich,

  477. you're an eagle. There's only one predator or one

  478. nuisance that tries to bother the eagle.

  479. I think I have a picture to show you on the screen.

  480. If we can put it up, it's a crow.

  481. And when I did the research, I discovered that crows will try

  482. to attack eagles. And how they do it is they jump

  483. on their backs when they're in flight and they start pecking at

  484. their ears and they start pecking at the back of their

  485. necks. But here's what I want you to

  486. know. The eagle doesn't even

  487. acknowledge the crow's presence. Some of you brought your crow to

  488. conference. It's been pecking at your neck

  489. the whole time you've been here, been pecking at you the whole

  490. time you've been sat in sessions.

  491. You brought your crow to conference.

  492. You're talking to your friends about your crow.

  493. You're showing them the social media from your crow.

  494. You and the crow have got a conversation going on, but

  495. eagles don't talk to crows. I'll tell you why, because the

  496. eagle knows something that you should know.

  497. The eagle knows there is an altitude at which the crow can

  498. no longer breathe. So the eagle doesn't waste his

  499. time talking to the crow. The eagle just keeps going

  500. higher, knowing eventually the crow will not be able to breathe

  501. anymore. You don't need a conversation

  502. with the crow, you just need to come up higher and the crow will

  503. fall off your back. You don't need to enter the

  504. debate, you just need to come above it and the crow will find

  505. there's nothing anymore to engage with.

  506. The crow cannot breathe at a higher altitude and I'm tired of

  507. seeing women of God lower themselves to a ground way of

  508. living when God called them to above.

  509. So I'm tired of seeing the interactions on social media.

  510. I'm tired of hearing the backbiting and the small talk.

  511. I'm tired of all the offences and people get and upset and

  512. leaving churches. Why?

  513. Because a crow got on your back? Are you kidding me?

  514. I don't have time for crows. I've got stuff to do.

  515. I don't have time for crows. I've got places to go.

  516. There's another reason, finally, that the ostrich can't fly, and

  517. that is because it doesn't have a fercula.

  518. Somebody like, what in the world is that?

  519. It's exactly what I said when I researched it.

  520. Check this out. A fercula is the technical name

  521. for the wishbone. In other words, without the

  522. wishbone, it can't get off the ground.

  523. And without a dream, you can't get off the ground.

  524. Without a greater vision for your future, you can't get off

  525. the ground. Without something bigger in your

  526. peripheral vision than the problem that you're currently

  527. surfacing, you can't get off the ground.

  528. And the reason why so many women of God that were designed by God

  529. to be an eagle, stay grounded like an ostrich is because

  530. somewhere on the journey, the wishbone got snapped.

  531. The dream didn't get fulfilled. Prayer that they prayed didn't

  532. get answered. The friend that promised them

  533. the world betrayed them. Something got snapped.

  534. And in the snapping of that wishbone was the stopping of

  535. your flight. Today, some of you need to get

  536. your wishbone back, get your dream back.

  537. Some of you need to change your company because you're hanging

  538. out with a bunch of ostriches and you need to hang out with a

  539. bunch of eagles. See, ostriches have a lot of

  540. time to chat. I mean, they just have a lot of

  541. time to talk about everybody else's business.

  542. They just have a lot of time to flap about all the situations

  543. going on. Ostriches have tons of time to

  544. be on social media making comments.

  545. Ostriches have loads of time to tell you all the things that you

  546. could be doing better, should be doing better, would do better.

  547. You know, ostriches have a lot of time because there's nowhere

  548. else they can go but the ground that they're on.

  549. But eagles don't hang out and chat very much.

  550. They're not really big into chatting because they're too

  551. busy soaring. In fact, when eagles gather,

  552. it's kind of rare, but they gather for two things.

  553. They gather, one, to protect each other's young and two, to

  554. share each other's kill. I kind of want to be in the

  555. Eagle company. I want to gather with women to

  556. protect the next generation, and I want to gather with women to

  557. take an enemy down. I don't have time for the

  558. chitchat on the ground. In fact, when eagles gather,

  559. it's rare, but you know what it's called when eagles gather,

  560. it's called the convocation. And it's it's time for a holy

  561. complication. It's time for a holy gathering

  562. of eagles talking to the next generation about their true

  563. identity. It's time for a holy gathering

  564. of women in the air, soaring above things that used to keep

  565. us grounded. It's time for us to stop being

  566. plucked by life and time for us to come higher to higher

  567. heights. And when I developed this in my

  568. heart, I was so strongly led by God, I began to write a Bible

  569. study. And I'm like, I need the women

  570. to gather, like sit in a group with the next generation, get

  571. older, get younger in a room and say, let's look in the mirror of

  572. God's word. Let me tell you who you are 11

  573. year old. Let me tell you who are 20 year

  574. old. Let me tell you who you are.

  575. Let me tell you that you were given wings to fly, not to flap.

  576. Let me tell you that your mate and birth something.

  577. So come up higher. Let me tell you, the crows don't

  578. belong in your conversation. But there is a convocation of

  579. women that God has called to gather.

  580. It's time for us to be those that gather.

  581. The flight club is what I called it.

  582. I need a flight club. We need a flight club.

  583. We need a flight club of women that are like, let's go.

  584. Instead of people that keep each other down, let's be women that

  585. pick each other up. It's all across the room.

  586. We want us to stand to our feet. You're about to leave this arena

  587. and you're about to go all the way back into your circumstance.

  588. And I, for one, don't want anyone going back flapping.

  589. Don't you dare walk in and flap at your husband.

  590. Don't you dare flap at those children.

  591. I need you to go back into that home, into that workplace, into

  592. that household. I need you to go back into that

  593. community as one that doesn't flap, but one that saws, one

  594. that's had a revelation of who they are.

  595. It is demeaning to come down to the level of an ostrich when God

  596. made you an eagle. It's insulting to who God is to

  597. spend our time talking with crows that he told us to keep

  598. flying higher than let's not waste our energy anymore.

  599. So in this room, I would love to see a whole host of women lift

  600. their hands like wings. I'd love to see all of our arms

  601. in the air because that's what God designed us to be.

  602. I'd love you right now in this moment to close your eyes.

  603. I'd love you to think of your family and your responsibilities

  604. and the circumstances right now you're dealing with.

  605. And I'd love for you to see it from an eagle's vantage point.

  606. I, I know some of you need to get your wishbone back, your

  607. dream back, your vision back, Some of you right now as you

  608. lift your hands, you just need to get above the crows that you

  609. brought with you to conference. Some of you right now, you just

  610. need to begin to saw. Instead of running, stop trying

  611. to run. It is time to reign in the name

  612. of Jesus. So every woman, lift your hands

  613. high. God, we thank you that you made

  614. us in your image and you made us to soul.

  615. God, you designed us to be women that would take flight.

  616. God, you have called us to higher heights.

  617. God, you have destined us to come above and not beneath.

  618. God, I pray tonight there will be an army of women in this room

  619. today and their wings would be extended again.

  620. For everyone that feels plucked by life, For anyone that feels

  621. their wings have been clipped. Holy Spirit, right now would you

  622. literally be the wind beneath these wings?

  623. Would you lift these women to a whole nother elevation because

  624. of this revelation of you made us to be?

  625. Come on right where you are. Let's begin to lift our voice.

  626. Let's begin to worship Him. Let's begin to be the eagle He

  627. made us to be. Lift your voice.