Jun | 02 | From The Beak Of The Eagle

Dream Word – SEE

Psalms 141:2 Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. NKJV

From The Beak Of The Eagle

As the British Empire began to close up shop, today in 1953, it would appear that the last of the well-loved, most recently respected and most dignified of British monarchs, was crowned the Queen of the peoples of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon, and other Possessions and Territories of the falling Empire. The Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II took place today in the Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster.

The form and order of service for that ceremony is as awesome as was her Royal Majesty on that day. From that right Royal ceremonial text, much can be drawn for our edification. However, it is from part 7 of the service, entitled ‘The Anointing,’ from which tonight we ourselves can get some instruction and unction from heaven. I say from heaven, because the very vessel, the golden eagle from whose beak is dripped the oil for the anointing of monarchs, the ‘Ampulla,’ as it is called, had apparently been delivered from heaven, via the hands of Mary, to Thomas a Becket himself. Upon the delivery, whilst getting Becket’s signature for said same heavenly package, Mary also declared that all Kings anointed with said oil, should become ‘Champions of the Church.’

The Ampulla, hidden and then lost in France for a couple of centuries, was eventually ‘rediscovered’ through a dream given to a holy man. Its subsequent propaganda use, for the reclamation of lands then lost in that fair land of France, made its ceremonial coronation use of inestimable value to any British monarch seeking the justification of heaven for the temporal conquests of any piece of earth, especially French earth.

The importance of the Ampulla became evident, when in its first use in the Coronation of Henry II, it is was given its very own chariot in his Coronation procession. Indeed, whilst being covered with a damask cloth, it was carried by no less an important figure than the sacristan of the Abbey of Marmoutier himself, the Ampulla being drawn to the Abbey of Westminster, by a milk-white steed.

Legend and propaganda apart, it is to this same Ampulla, to this same oil dripping beak of the golden eagle which we now turn attention. For in the ceremony of the anointing of Elizabeth, the Archbishop with one hand on the Ampulla and another on the consecrated Queen, says

Strengthen her, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter;
Confirm and stablish her with thy free and princely Spirit,
The Spirit of wisdom and government,
The Spirit of counsel and ghostly strength,
The Spirit of knowledge and true godliness,
And fill her, O Lord, with the Spirit of thy holy fear,
Now and for ever;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Now we come to the important bit, the instructive bit, the apple of burning gold set in a frame of shining silver, for just before the Archbishop shall anoint her hands, her breast and her head with the sign of the cross made with the heavenly anointing oil, something of vast and vital importance is done. It is written in the liturgical order of service for the day as follows:

In the mean time, the Queen rising from her devotions, having been disrobed of her crimson robe by the Lord Great Chamberlain, assisted by the Mistress of the Robes, and being uncovered, shall go before the Altar, supported and attended as before.

“Arising from her devotions, disrobed, assisted, uncovered, going supported before the altar.” I tell you tonight, that there is no better way, probably no other right way, that either a Prince or a pauper, can be begin to set upon ANY work for which they are commissioned by heaven to do.

Do you see this? Have you thought about this? Have you begun to be devoted to God’s will in this? Attentive to His voice, ready to receive His great commission for you? Have you laid aside your crimson robe yet and approached the altar of all Heaven’s Sovereign Power, naked, supported, aided, needy? If you haven’t, if all you have done is gripped a bunch of bright coloured paper, university degrees and smiled with glee at flashing photographs, whilst looking up at the tumbling black, academic mortarboards falling down from a blue, thrown-into sky, then may God help you, and may God have mercy upon any congregation to which men have sent you to shepherd and rule over, for you shall always be a chump in the church and never a true ‘Champion of The Church.’

You see, public humbleness and expressed and naked need before the altar of the Lord, always precedes the dripping of the oil form the beak of the eagle, always precedes a successful rule, yes, and I mean always. Without it, you shall never know, neither shall you assume, your rightful and powerful, authoritative presence in the church of Jesus Christ.

Listen: - Then Zadok the priest took a horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the horn, and all the people said, "Long live King Solomon!" And all the people went up after him; and the people played the flutes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth seemed to split with their sound. 1 Kings 1:39-40 NKJV

Pray:- Lord send the eagle of Your heavenly commissioning and may we feel its sharp talons, like a crown of thorns, pierce our cranial flesh, break our skulls, and stab our minds and then O our King, when we gaze to Your heaven for relief, drip from its screaming beak, the oil of Your commissioning upon our desperate and heavenward gazing heads. In Jesus name we pray, amen.