God Decided It Would Fly Again
“We will sing for joy over Your victory, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.” Psalm 20:5
I was introduced to the Appeal to Heaven flag in 2013. In 2020, a dream was sent to me in which George Washington, who commissioned the birth of the Appeal to Heaven flag, presented me the original and said, “It still works.” Given the fact that God has now resurrected this flag, we should learn more about it.
At the end of 2013, I realized I was ending a 13-year spiritual journey. It had started during a prayer and ended with a flag - an old and forgotten flag, forgotten by everyone, it seems, except God. He had kept this banner in hiding for a couple of centuries, waiting in the wings of history until He was ready to reintroduce it.
And reintroduce it He has!
This flag now hangs in thousands of homes, prayer rooms, churches, government buildings, and even businesses. A church in Indiana made their own version - fifteen feet by thirty feet - then made me one! Another congregation decorated the Christmas tree in their foyer with dozens of small Appeal to Heaven flags. Thousands of people have small ones tucked in their Bibles, tacked to bulletin boards, or conspicuously sitting on their desks. Others display them as lapel pins, wear them emblazoned on shirts, show them off on bumper stickers and at least one person has the flag tattooed on his arm! Governors display the flag, as do judges and congressmen. One was spotted in the U.S. Capitol, another was recently flown over the Capitol of Arkansas. The other day I saw an Appeal to Heaven flag streaming behind an 18-wheeler - it’s going viral!
The flag is associated with America’s founding, to be sure. However, it seems God doesn’t intend it to be used only by America. It can be seen flying in the Himalayas - the highest point on the planet - where it is fittingly raised above dozens of Buddhist prayer flags. It has flown on the plains of Ninevah (the place of the first region-transforming revival), in South Africa, Panama, and more recently in Cambodia where it was used in prayers against human trafficking. Who knows where it will turn up next?! This international use seems especially appropriate, given America’s God-given destiny of being a spiritual light to the nations.
In times past, flags carried more weight than they do in our present day. Their symbolism was usually understood, from the color to the design, enabling a flag to tell a story or make a strong statement. Many flags are sacred - people swear allegiance to them and die to protect their honor. Banners, as they are also called, were often intended to make declarations. For example, an early colonial American flag had a picture of a coiled snake with the accompanying phrase, “Don’t Tread On Me.” It was a warning to Great Britain: “Be careful; step on us and we strike!”(1)
My journey involves a different flag in America’s past, one that is especially relevant to our God-given purpose and destiny. Modern-day progressives, historical revisionists, liberal politicians, and humanistic professors would scoff at the notion that America was established by God for a divine purpose. They would also mock the assertion that our founders believed in and honored this divine-human partnership. As John Adams said, however, “facts are stubborn things…”(2) These modernists may not like our origins, but they can’t change them. Yahweh, the God of the Bible, was indeed involved in America’s founding and He did so for His unique purpose.
When General George Washington commissioned the Appeal to Heaven flag to fly over our naval ships in the Revolutionary War(3) - don’t look for that in our modern-day American history books - little did he know that 240 years later God would ordain that it fly again. This time around, however, it wouldn’t fly over a fledgling nation being born, but over the most powerful nation in the world being reborn. This rebirth isn’t literal, of course, but is a spiritual and moral renewal that will resurrect America’s God-given calling, purpose, and greatness.
In the days of the flag’s genesis, the American colonists had no chance of winning a war with the world’s greatest empire, Great Britain. “Chance,” however, was no longer a relevant term once they chose an appeal to heaven. The matter would not be left to fate. When those ill-prepared and poorly equipped revolutionaries appealed for assistance to the Giver of inalienable rights, the tide turned. When they agreed to come under God’s governance and honor His ways, He who “governs in the affairs of men,” as Ben Franklin stated at the Constitutional Convention, did just that. Affirming the Lord’s governing intervention, Franklin also said, “All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending providence in our favor.”(4)
Today, let it be said of our generation that when a nation teetered on the edge of destruction, having lost the ancient path of truth, we answered the divine call to war for its restoration. Let it be said of us, as it was of our forefathers, that in the face of overwhelming odds, we took our stand in the celestial courtroom, appealing to the Judge of all the earth for His saving grace, mercy, and sustaining power.
Let us appeal to heaven…it still works!
Pray with me:
Father, the world looked on in amazement as 13 unorganized, army-less, upstart colonies defeated the world’s greatest empire. It seemed impossible, yet they succeeded. And we know how they did it: they asked for and received Your help. They actually put the request on a banner and raised it over the battles. And You responded, coming to their aid - the appeal worked.
You have now resurrected this flag and are re-energizing the appeal. It worked then; it will work now. The same phenomenon that birthed our nation will now rebirth it - an appeal to heaven. Breathe on this, Father. Energize it with Your Holy Spirit. Make it live again in America and around the world.
We appeal to You for worldwide revival. We appeal to You for the destruction of strongholds. We appeal to You for the uncovering of truth in our land and in other nations. We ask for grace and mercy, but we also appeal for justice.
In this land, America, pour out Your Spirit in a great deluge of power and glory. Do this until we are once again a light to the world, a carrier of the life-giving gospel, and a beacon of truth. We decree this shall be so, in the mighty name of Jesus! Amen.
Our decree:
We decree: It still works!
Portions of today’s devotional were taken from my book An Appeal to Heaven.(5)
Click on the link below to watch the full video.
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The U.S. Navy's Jack.” Naval History and Heritage Command, 21 September 2021, https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/heritage/banners/usnavy-jack.html. Accessed 2 February 2021
Adams, John. Argument in Defense of British Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials. 4 December 1770.
Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Buner Hill, Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1849, p. 261.
Benjamin, Franklin. "Constitutional Convention Address on Prayer." Philadelphia, PA., June 28, 1787.
Sheets, Dutch. An Appeal to Heaven. Dutch Sheets Ministries, 2015, pp. vii-xiv.
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