Being a Christian does not mean the same thing to everyone. Some Christians attend a church service occasionally and feel that is enough. Some feel they are only required to live good moral lives. Many Christians sense a need to be disciples, but their views of discipleship vary greatly. Within the discipleship group are those who hold to the idea of walking with God. Of course, there are always those who feel that wherever they are in their relationship with the Lord they are walking with Him. Some of them understand that a walk with God means continual progress, and what that progress means also varies greatly. Everyone chooses what kind of relationship he wants with the Lord, and how much he desires that relationship depends on whether he gets it or not. For, you see, your hunger determines your relationship; your desire for the Lord determines how much of Him will be in your life. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
Job 28:7-8 There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye
hath not seen:
8 The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.
There is a path (a path of righteousness) that no fowl knows and the vulture’s eyes have not seen. The demonic spirits cannot reach you there. It is a state in the Lord where the downward pull of the flesh nature no longer exists. It is the “high way” Isaiah spoke of (Isaiah 35:8). In some places it is called “the Sabbath Rest.” The majority of Christianity, though, is living in the realm of conflict where the flesh wars against one’s spirit.
Many Christians are not able to enter that place of Sabbath Rest in God. Why is that? It is because they have to pass through the realm of the fowl and the vulture and the fierce lion.
“Can’t we just repent and wait for the Lord to take us to heaven? Why can’t we just bypass the fowl and vulture realm? Why do we have to go through it?”
We can’t bypass it because it is in us. Man is in a fallen state. He is born in that realm. Many never become aware that they are in the fowl and vulture realm because they have never set their hearts to really know the Lord. The Christian that merely goes to church occasionally is not aware of it; neither are most of the others. As long as he is primarily passive in his relationship with the Lord, he finds himself living in defeat, “tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14).
Acts 14:21-22 And when they (Paul et al) had preached the Gospel to that city,
and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to
continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into
the Kingdom of God.
It is commonly taught that the Kingdom of God is in the distant future and is preceded by a seven-year tribulation period. That is not what Paul is speaking of here. He is referring to tribulation that precedes a Kingdom relationship with God. Anyone that enters into this Kingdom relationship with God does so through tribulation. He passes through the realm of the fowl, vulture, and lion. The Apostle Paul speaks of this tribulation in II Corinthians 4:8-12 and 7:5. This tribulation is not on a time line; it is in you. The tribulation is your carnal nature warring against you. It cannot enter the Kingdom (I Corinthians 15:50), and it doesn’t want you to.
Press on through the tribulation. There is a path which no fowl knows and the vulture’s eye has not seen. The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. We can be more than overcomers! We can experience the glory of the Lord in us! For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18.
Copyright © 2007 by Henry DuBose