The fires of revival that lit the fires of freedom in America.
“America, America, God shed His grace on thee…”
True words. These words are easily recognizable, taken from our national anthem. Most of us have sung these words in school, often times in churches, ball games or during election seasons.
Over the years we have watched as powerful forces have attempted to re-write the history of our country, seeking to diminish the spiritual influences and power that led to the American Revolution. Various schools of thought have arisen on the scene to claim that the founders of America were largely deists; acknowledging God’s existence but largely denying His involvement in the affairs of men. We have been told that our beginnings as a country owe more to enlightenment values than we do to the hand of God.
I forthrightly disagree.
While I have no doubt that there were strong forces attempting to shape the destiny of our nation, the strongest was the first Great Awakening. This movement started in the 1720’s and lasted into the 1740’s, but the overall impact is still felt today.
Prior to the Great Awakening, religious feeling and fervor in the colonies was at an all time low. Many ministers felt that religion was going to die in the colonies, and they had begun to lament its passing. But, as always, the hand and heart of God had other plans. Many puritan ministers were warning their congregations weekly that ineffectual preaching was weakening the nation and leaving people miserable and bound in their sins.
More and more puritan Christians began to seek the Lord. They cried out for their children, their neighbors and their friends. Many of them prayed for the increasing tyranny from their motherland, England, to cease. There existed a general sense of warning for many around the colonies at that time. Those who prayed were convinced that a great move of God was needed and that powerful reform was necessary to preserve the colonies and her people.
The Lord of Hosts began to move in answer to fervent prayers. Preachers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield and others thundered across the colonies with messages of redemption, salvation and healing coming through our Savior. For years, many other ministers arose and preached whenever and wherever the opportunity arose. The young came to the Lord. The old repented and turned back to Him.
The ideals that arose out of the first Great Awakening had a tremendous impact on what would become known as the American Revolution. One scholar stated “If we call the American statesmen of the late eighteenth century the Founding Fathers of the United States, then the Pilgrims and Puritans were the grandfathers and Calvin (the theologian) the great grandfather.”
Later, as the years unfolded, political leaders and preachers influenced by Calvinism preached obedience to God rather than to man, and spoke out against the tyranny forced upon the colonies by Great Britain. The people of that time came to understand that freedom is a value promoted by and through the Kingdom of God, and that if we favor righteousness then we must oppose the evil that leads to political tyranny. They came to understand that continuing to support a government that had grown increasingly unjust was not the right thing to do.
It wasn’t merely the fires of rebellion that fueled the American Revolution. It was the fires of revival. And they are starting to burn again. People worldwide are crying out to God for freedom spiritually and it is that spiritual freedom that insists on political freedom as well. One ushers in the other.The year 2020 saw wells of revival and awakening beginning to spring up around the world despite heavy opposition.
Yet, still, at the end of the day our calling isn’t just to refute oppressive government overreach. It is to be on our knees praying, asking our good Father in heaven to judge what is happening in the earth, expose the evil, lead us to revival, and restore our nation to its constitutional principles. America is called to be a light of freedom to the nations.
In the United States of America, our spiritual heritage has framed our political heritage with the light of not only the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also with the powerful knowledge that our freedoms are derived directly from our God in heaven, and that we owe no man an explanation for our allegiances to freedom. Freedom is a priority for heaven, and it remains one of heavens most consistently articulated values for humankind. In short, we were made to be free and freely living in relationship with our Maker.
Those who founded our nation repeatedly stressed to anyone who would listen that we, as a country, owe our existence to our Maker. That without His repeated involvement in our founding, America would have been no more than a short-lived idea on the world stage. John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and even Benjamin Franklin acknowledged the steady hand of God at our formation as a country. They were correct then, and nothing has changed now. God is still involved with America.
America is a Christian nation from the perspective that it was Christian values and ideals that formed the protective umbrella under which anyone could live according to the dictates of their consciences, with God or without Him. While we, like all other nations, have not perfectly lived out our values, they are nonetheless the values that formed the foundations of freedom.
So, we go back to the beginning. “America, America, God shed His grace on thee…”
As it was then, so it is now. God is not asleep at the wheel. Do not be dismayed by the forces arrayed against freedom in our nation today. The God that we serve is not silent. He is not unaware. He is moving. He is marching. He is confronting, and we as His people can call on His name and expect great things.
The way forward is through revival.
We are calling upon the Lord to answer our prayers in this day and time and to show us His great and mighty deeds yet again! And call upon Him we must! There is no God like Him. He stands alone and unique and His heart beats with love for us and for our nation.
So, we don’t give up. We pray until He answers, and then we pray some more.
We stand firm until justice is once again embraced, until those who don’t know Him are restored to Him, and until men stop asserting that their will and insight is greater than the Lords. We stand until His heart is expressed fully in the way that He desires, and we stand until the Gospel is preached from shore to shore in this great and wonderful nation. We stand in prayer for our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, children, towns, cities, states, our nation, and finally the world. Remember, the scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ has inherited all the nations. They are His. As are we. We don’t let go of the hand of heaven until the will of our Father is fully implemented in the earth. For this 4th of July, may we all find ourselves moved yet again to prayer, seeking the Lord for revival in this great nation. May our patriotism be informed by the events and power that led to our formation as a country, and may we seek the blessing of the Lord fearlessly upon us all.
Pray, pray, pray. God is here and He is good.
May this start afresh in our lives today. Let’s stand with our Maker. He is God. He is moving.
He is the Way. Let us walk together in Him.
Original writing by REVIVALin2020©