Remember the Covenant

The first week of November 2018 my prayer partner and I journeyed to Washington DC for a five-day prayer assignment. We sensed another call to travel and pray for our pivotal elections. I had the sense before we left that this was a “full circle” trip.It became an anniversary celebration of our first intercession assignment to DC two years prior. These trips have been full of God’s encouragement and direction. I am now convinced – more than ever – that God’s hand is guiding America. He has heard the cries of His people and He is moving this nation towards healing and freedom.

The Covenant

Before we left on our first prayer trip in 2016, God spoke to me a word for our nation. It was a phrase that was both surprising and intriguing. He told me to “Remember the covenant”. I was perplexed by this statement. God, as He often does, spoke something that required searching and digging.

So I asked Him which of the covenants He was talking about? Was it the covenant between Him and Abraham or Moses and the Hebrew people? Was it the covenant with King David or the new covenant established by Jesus? Perhaps it was more metaphorical and He was referring to an idea that God made a covenant with America? Immediately I had the sense He was referring to a covenant He made with the forefathers of this nation.

I began to scour the internet in hopes of finding resources to confirm my sense. After some research, I discovered that besides some articles from various conservative groups on the Christian heritage of our nation, there really was no reference to a covenant with America. So I stopped looking to the internet for the answers and figured He would lead me there by some other means.

For about a year I found nothing specifically referencing this covenant, but God continued to remind me of it. This all changed in early 2018 when I was introduced to the ministry of a couple based in Washington, DC. They had spent years laying the spiritual groundwork as they journeyed across America rediscovering exactly what covenant God had made with this nation. (It’s way too much to unpack in this particular post, but hope to do so in future reports). As I read their books and followed their years of research, the Lord confirmed in me what I had been hearing Him say for over a year.

Not only had God made a covenant with the American Founding Fathers, but He also made a promise (covenant) with some of the early explorers and initial settlers. Every one of them set out in search of freedom from oppressive religious and political conditions. A couple of examples of these early explorers are Jean Ribault, a French explorer martyred in Florida in 1565 and also the pilgrims on the Mayflower in 1620 who literally wrote a compact dedicating this new land to the “glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.”

Those same pilgrims would observe a meal of thanksgiving with some of the land’s native Americans one year later which largely shapes the celebratory meal we just remembered last week. I still have much research to do on the matter of covenant, but these stories (and others) provided me enough evidence to confirm the sense that God established a covenant between Him and our nation’s early founders.

The New Land

As I prayerfully prepared for my most recent trip to DC, He led me to Deuteronomy 11. The importance of this passage was confirmed on our second day of the trip when a friend messaged us and said God had highlighted Deuteronomy 11 for us. You can’t make this stuff up. I knew I was on the right track. The whole chapter is so rich as it is a story of God making a covenant with His people right before they move into the promised land. It reflects strongly where I believe we as the people of God are right now. We stand on the brink of moving in to inherit the promises foretold to our ancestors. Here’s what God tells His people in Deuteronomy 11:8-12

8 “Therefore, you shall keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land which you are crossing over to possess; 9 so that you may live long on the land which the Lord swore (covenanted) to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land [of great abundance,] flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot like a garden of vegetables. 11 But the land into which you are about to cross to possess, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”

In Deuteronomy, God told His people Israel that if they followed his commands and laws they would inherit the long-awaited new land. Not only would they inherit it, but they would also live long and flourish in it. It’s interesting that God also takes a moment to point out this new land isn’t like the old land of Egypt.

Egypt had to be tended to in the natural and represented to them both a spiritual and a natural slavery as well as a constant invitation back into idolatry. In contrast, this new land was loved and tended to by God himself; receiving water directly from heaven and prepared especially for His people Israel. However, the people were called to cling to He who tends to this land and to follow Him only. In this way only would they possess their inheritance.

But, precisely here is where things always go awry. Both for Israel and for America.

Ever-Faithful God

It is safe to say America has not kept her covenant with God. We have too often failed to cling to He who tends our land and we have rejected His Kingdom. As a result, we’ve abandoned His promises and been exiled – so to speak – from our promised land. Others have moved in and have dominated the spheres of influence. Those who have not loved and worshipped God. The Old Testament gives example after example of this happening as it chronicles God’s journey with the Hebrew people. And while God ALWAYS remains faithful to His covenants, longing for us to flourish under His life-giving blessings, we as stubborn and stiff-necked people struggle to remain steadfast.

But God.

He is SO faithful. So constant in His love. Two years ago when He said “remember the covenant” He was not just alerting me to the covenant He made with our nation’s explorers and founders. He was also inviting me into the blessing of keeping that covenant.

So earlier this month, as we walked all over downtown DC, and very specifically Capitol Hill, we worshipped Him just like the ancient Hebrews. As in the days of old when the Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant with them and before them, we marched forward through DC singing out and celebrating our covenantal God and His spectacular faithfulness and mercy. We carried His beautiful covenant in us and everywhere our feet went a divine proclamation was issued over the Nation: Remember the Covenant.