The
Story of the Caged Chickens
I told this story several
years about some chickens that we bought from a poultry farm. They were chickens
who had lived their entire lives in a cage. We took them out to the ranch and
turned them loose to freely run in the chicken yard and go in and out of the
chicken house at will. As we placed them on the chicken house floor they didn't
move. The poor little things had lived in cages all their life so they just
stayed right in the chicken house. They didn't even know how to roost. They
didn't even get up on the roost at night. They stayed huddled together on the
floor. They were used to sleeping under a light because the poultry farmer kept
a light lamp on them to make them lay more eggs. Men have devised ways to get
the most out of everything, no matter if it's good for the animal or not.
Because they were used to the light, they would sleep outside huddled under the
moon on the ground.
They didn't even know how to
drink water the regular way because they had drunk water out of a little bottle
with a little red tip on it. They had always gone over and pushed that little
tip and gotten their water out. Here they had fresh running water yet they
didn't even know how to drink. One of them almost drowned trying to learn how to
drink. These chickens didn't know what freedom was. I don't know if they would
have ever enjoyed their freedom without someone to teach them what to do. But we
had some older chickens that were already there and after the new ones watched
them for awhile they discovered a new way of living. Living with the older
chickens for a time and learning from them they got liberated, Hallelujah! They
found out that they could go anyplace in the barnyard. But it took them a while.
Humans are the same way. We
are creatures of habit. We don't realize it, but we do things out of habit.
Sometimes God is wanting to break old habits and old things in our life. Many
Christians bring them over into the Christian walk. God begins to show us a
better way as our old habits are not fitting for God's kingdom or His house. He
has brought us out of the devil's house and put us in His house. Now if somebody
comes and visits your house and they have bad habits you'll tolerate them on
short term bases. If they just come for a day and during their visit they're not
very neat and they do some things that you don't like you will usually tolerate
it. Most of the time out of the graciousness of your heart you won't say
anything, you just put up with it and when they leave you clean up behind them.
You will tolerate the messes they make on short term basis. However, if somebody
comes to live with you, the rules are different. You may say, "Wait a
minute. We have rules in this house. Here is how we live here. We do not do
these things in this house."
It's the same way with our
Heavenly Father. When we come to God's house with some bad, filthy, nasty
habits, He begins to show us the way out of bondage. He brings us into a new
kingdom and now that we are living in His house His rules are different. God
gives us commandments and some rules so that we know what is acceptable in His
house. In our house, if someone came to live with us, there would be certain
rules they would be asked to follow. It would not be acceptable to throw the
towels down on the bathroom floor. There would be certain things that we would
expect of them. We would expect them to make up their beds when they got up in
the morning. They would help with cleaning up the dishes. We would not leave
dirty dishes in the sink because this is a rule in our house. We like our house
neat and clean.
And God likes His house neat
and clean too. So He says those filthy things that you used to do are not
acceptable in His house. That is the reason He gives us some rules. The laws and
commandments of God are given so that we might live a blessed life in this
earth. However, it is important to remember that keeping the laws do not get us
to heaven. Only faith in Jesus does that. Keeping God's commandments is the
evidence that we are Christ's children as we desire to obey Him. Many of God's
people when they first come into the kingdom don't know how to respond to this
new freedom. We have walked the old way for so long. We have bad habits. We are
used to the old ways. God is saying to us in His Word that He now wants to show
us a new way. That way is by faith, walking in the Spirit and trusting God to
break the old habits. He give us His Commandments so we might be blessed and
live in harmony with one another in this earth.