The Fowl of the Air – Part 2

[Study Aired April 19, 2026]

God’s elect know the difference between gifts of the spirit and fruits of the spirit. You may heal the sick and cast out devils without having Christ living His life in you (Luk 10:8, 9, 17).

Luk 10:8  And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you:
Luk 10:9  And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

Luk 10:17  And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

Christ sent out the seventy two by two long before He said this to Peter:

Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

You may truthfully prophesy what will happen in the future, and not have Christ living His life within you:

Deu 13:1  If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Deu 13:2  And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Deu 13:3  Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

How do we know whether we truly love the Lord?

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

However you cannot and you will not have “the fruits of the spirit” governing your life if Christ is not living His life within you. You will not and cannot love your enemy without Christ being in you.

Christ warns us not to follow after signs, miracles and wonders right here in Matthew 24:

Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs [G4592: ‘Semeion’, miracles] and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Right after telling us that false Christs and prophets shall show great miracles and great wonders, Christ makes this statement:

Mat 24:25  Behold, I have told you before.
Mat 24:26  Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.

“Secret chamber” would certainly include a ‘secret rapture’, and according to Christ we are to “believe it not” because this is what it will actually be like when He does appear again:

Mat 24:27  For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:28  For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

“I have told you before” is old English for ‘I am telling you in advance’ not to fall for any variation of the false ‘secret rapture’ doctrines nor any variation of a ‘place of safety’ theory. There is nothing ‘secret’ about being caught up to be with Christ in the air. That event will be “as the lightning shineth from the east even unto the west.”

Luk 17:23  And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
Luk 17:24  For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.

Look at what precedes this statement:

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

What Christ is telling His elect is that if they are granted to remain vigilant and diligent to the end, and to serve as the flesh and bones of Christ’s “earthly tabernacle” in this present wicked age, then they will be glorified with Christ at the time of His appearing to rule the kingdoms of this world for one thousand years, before judging angels and the souls of men in something called the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/ second death (Rev 20:7-15).

Rom 8:18  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.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

I get so many letters asking me, “How does one know they are God’s elect? How do you know you are going to be saved and be in the first resurrection?” The answer to the first question is that God gives you the faith that you are indeed His elect. The answer to the second question is that you don’t know you will be in the first resurrection to the point of being able to take your election for granted. That’s why The Lord admonishes us to ‘be vigilant, be sober.’

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Be on your guard every moment. Christ tells us that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into:

Luk 12:39  And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Luk 12:40  Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

The whole point of Christ telling us that we are to stay vigilant and “ready” is so we will always be on our toes. The apostle Paul gives us the same admonition:

1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

The Lord does not want us to ever become complacent and take our salvation for granted. Completely rid your heart and mind of the ‘once in grace always in grace’ false doctrine. Realize that there is a great and pressing need for vigilance. That spirit of vigilance is all part of God’s plan. Replace that false doctrine with this doctrine:

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Continuing with Christ’s words “which are spirit” in Matthew 24:

Mat 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

I’ve entitled this study the ‘fowl of the air’ because of these eagles. They are unclean birds, and they eat the carnal meat which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, as Christ clearly states:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

It is our rebellious, carnal-minded old man who is “devoured up” by the eagles and the fowls of the air:

Pro 30:17  The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

Luk 17:36  Two men [our old and new man] shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Luk 17:37  And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

We must be willing to give up the life of our carnal-minded old man. We must come to see that “the man of sin, the son of perdition” is our own carnal-minded old man who has all his life been deceived by all the lies of all the false ministers of the churches of Babylon. That is the negative application of what these eagles, “the fowls of the air” do:

Mar 4:3  Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
Mar 4:4  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Christ tells us the fowls “devour [us] up” at that stage of our walk when the seed of God’s Truth ‘falls by the way side.’

Mat 13:3  And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
Mat 13:4  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls [Eagles over a carcass] came and devoured them up:

Eagles eat dying dead meat. That ‘death’ and dying is at this time a process we must endure to the end. It is “through death” that a new man is conceived:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die [become a carcass], it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

The Truth is counterintuitive to our natural carnal mind.  We cannot just naturally connect the death of our old man with the life of our new man. Nevertheless, we are commanded to offer ourselves up to the Lord as a “living sacrifice… dying daily”:

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Paul sets us the same ‘dying daily’ example which Christ left for us to follow:

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

We are “crucified with Christ… daily.”

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Our dying old man is dead meat for those unclean “birds of the air.” The positive application of “where the carcass is there will the eagles be gathered together” is that as the adversary devours up our old man, Christ is coming into our lives. As we die to the flesh, we are giving up the flesh, but it is not a pleasant thing to do. We don’t give up the flesh willingly. It takes a catastrophe in our lives to drag us to Christ:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: ‘helkuo’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

That is the positive application to ‘the fowls of the air… devouring us up.” For the few who the Lord opens their spiritually blinded eyes to see the dying of our carnal-minded old man and being devoured by these eagles is essential to the birth of the new man who is even now being formed out of the same lump of clay:

Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel [our ‘new man’] unto honour, and another [our carnal minded old man] unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: [Our old man]
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, [our new man] which he had afore prepared unto glory,

Exo 19:4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

The Lord is patient and merciful toward us and “endures with much longsuffering” the rebellions and the disobedience of our carnal-minded old man. In time, if we are granted to abide in His Word, “of the same lump” of this same “earthen vessel” He begins to form a new man which will in time truly be made into His likeness and His image. While He is in the process of transforming us into His image, He Himself dwells within us as “earthen vessels”:

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure [“Christ in us the hope of glory”, (Col 1:27)] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

It’s through this dying to the flesh that God brings us to himself. I’m going to repeat John 12:25.

Joh 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

King David used the positive application of the word ‘eagles’ to eulogize the death of the Lord’s rejected anointed King Saul:

2Sa 1:23 Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

In their death, they were not divided. Jonathan could not bring himself to leave his father, and yet he actually helped David just as our flesh, “the same lump”, actually helps us to become a new man. As Jonathan who could not separate himself from his father, we, too, are in these clay vessels, our flesh, which cannot inherit the kingdom of God and is not discarded until physical death. May the Lord grant us to be willing to die daily to our old man as our new man increases within us.

The story of Jonathan’s love for David, yet dying with his rejected father, King Saul, “…happened to him and [it is] written for our admonition” (1Co 10:11). We must realize that it was God who created Babylon. It is God who calls Nebuchadnezzar His servant:

Jer 25:9  Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

Jer 27:5  I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
Jer 27:6  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

God is the one who is responsible for all things; he ‘works all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph 1:11). Our wicked old man is nothing more than the Lord’s servant to bring us to the Lord.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

That is what “the fowls of the air” generally represent, especially unclean fowl like vultures and eagles. They signify all the false doctrines of our heavens which “devour us up.”

The ‘eagles’ of Matthew 24, just like Nebuchadnezzar, are the Lord’s servants. Matthew 13:4 and 19, tell us what these “fowls of the air signify”, and 1 Corinthians 5:5 tells us exactly what they do:

Mat 13:4  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan [“The prince of the power of the air”, (Eph 2:2)] for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

These ‘fowls’ are false doctrines. The ministers who preach them are the adversary’s false ministers who come to us as an angel of light (2Co 11:14-15) and then “devour [us] up” (Mat 13:4). Another way scripture expresses this process is the story of the earth opening up and swallowing Korah (Num 16:28-33). The earth opening up and swallowing Korah is simply a type of us being swallowed up by the false doctrines of the churches of this world, signified by the earth, the ground:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

We are dying daily to that earth, the world. The story of Korah signifies the people of God who are brought up out of Egypt but who are not doing the things which the Lord tells us to do (Luk 6:46). We are spiritually being devoured by the birds of the air. That’s what these eagles, the Lord’s servants, do in His service when He is using them to judge us.

When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s baker’s dream he demonstrated the spiritual significance of ‘the birds of the air.’

Gen 40:16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation [of the butler’s dream] was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and, behold, I had three white baskets on my head:
Gen 40:17 And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
Gen 40:18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
Gen 40:19 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
Gen 40:20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
Gen 40:21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand:
Gen 40:22 But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Gen 40:23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.

These birds ate the baker’s flesh; they destroyed his flesh. Where did Joseph get the idea that this is what this meant?

Joseph knew what “the fowls of the air” ate, and the Lord gave Joseph to know what it meant when the baker told him that ‘the birds did eat the bakemeats, meant for Pharaoh’, out of the uppermost basket on the baker’s head. Pharaoh was prophesied to hang the chief baker who would then be eaten by the fowls of the air, and that is exactly what happened.

The creatures of the sea, the fowls of the air, and the earth itself are all scriptural types of mankind, and they all typify the Lord’s people:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

Most of mankind are not God’s elect in “this present time.”

Rom 8:18  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.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

The minds of God’s anointed, like King Saul who was God’s rejected anointed, are first filled with the doctrines of the fowls of the air. That is where fowls live. They live in the heavens of our earth. They were not created on the sixth day with the beasts of the earth. The fowls of the air were created on the fifth day so that all of the spirit beings were created just ahead of men, the day before, to serve as the Lord’s servants to provide the foil against which the Lord would show His elect what He is doing with His creatures. It was on the sixth day that mankind, who the Lord refers to as “earth, earth, earth” (Jer 22:29), was created as the incomplete image of his Creator. It is at this point the Lord begins His sovereign work with mankind, showing us our relationship with our God. Mankind was created on the sixth day because Adam was the unfinished and the not yet completed son of God.

Lam 4:19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

It is in the wilderness that we are persecuted. We are persecuted by those who are swifter than eagles.

Mat 13:31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven [Christ in us, (Col 1:27)] is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
Mat 13:32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

This is the parable of the mustard seed. What are all the parables? All the parables are about the kingdom of God within us from now until Christ appears. The principles revealed in the Lord’s parables will still be applicable to His saints when that day arrives. The heavens of the kingdom of God must be “purified” (Heb 9:23) because they are full of the false doctrines of the fowls of the air.

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. [Christ’s sacrifice for you and me is much better than the blood of animals]

Rev 12:14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

This is “the fowls of the air” again, the unclean fowl doing what they are ordained to do with the Lord’s people. We read back in Exodus where God said, I brought you (Israel) up out of Egypt on eagles’ wings:

Exo 19:4  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

When God brought them out, he said, “I brought you unto Myself.” God did not take Israel directly from Egypt into the promised land. He took them ‘on eagles’ wings… into the wilderness” for 40 years. What happened in the wilderness? The woman that brought forth the manchild was given eagles wings to go “into the wilderness”. Her “manchild” son was caught up and seated with Christ in the heavens, but she herself was given two wings of an eagle and was taken into the wilderness. The great whore of Revelation seventeen is also “in the wilderness”, because she is the woman of Revelation 12 who brings forth the manchild:

Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. [Eph 2:6]
Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Just 50 days after leaving Egypt ‘on eagles’ wings’ Israel, God’s own people who eventually “brought forth a manchild” named Jesus Christ, also committed spiritual fornication against her husband by making a golden calf and proclaiming it as ‘thy gods which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt’:

Exo 32:3  And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Exo 32:4  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

That is the beginning of the history of Israel in the wilderness. They continued to complain and rebel against their own God for the next forty years. It all signifies the function of the great whore of Revelation 17. This “great whore” is not just any whore. This is the Lord’s own unfaithful wife who “brought forth a manchild” and then was given the wings of an eagle to fly into the wilderness where, just as the Lord sustained His unfaithful wife, Israel, this woman is also “nourished” while the Lord deals with her “in the wilderness”.

Rev 12:14  And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

This ‘time, times and half a time’ is the same amount of time as the time spent by the two witnesses in the streets of that great city, which ‘city’ is what the great whore is called:

Rev 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

The two witnesses witness for Christ and against the works of that great city for a time, times and half a time. In the streets of that great city the two witnesses are witnessing for Christ and against this very woman of Revelation 12 who appears in the very next chapter. The two witnesses are going to speak for a 1,260 days against this woman which is the same time the woman spends being nourished from the face of the serpent there in the wilderness.  A time, times and half a time is the same as 1260 days, and the woman who brings forth the manchild is the same woman as the great whore of Revelation 17-18. In both chapters 17 and 18 she is referred to as “that great city”:

Rev 17:18  And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

It is all the same time, it is just hidden so that 1,260 days tells us that this is the time of our witnessing to the people of God, and this is the time of their hearing us witness. It is the same period of time. What happens during this time?

Num 14:22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
Num 14:23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
Num 14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

Notice what is in this ‘great city’ which was taken into the wilderness on eagles’ wings:

Rev 18:2  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. [“Fowls of the air”]

What are the fowls of the air? They signify the false ministers who are the purveyors of all the  false doctrines of that great adulterous woman.

We will conclude this study with a few admonitions about the work of these ‘fowls’:

Mat 13:4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Matthew 13:19 explains that.

Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.