“A People in Covenant with God”
Why We Declare and Decree
According to Psalm 110:1-3, Christ has given the Ekklesia His scepter of authority. Isaiah 22:22 references this authority as a key, as does Matthew 16:19. One of the ways we release this authority is through verbal commands. As we do so, Psalm 110 says we are making Christ’s enemies His footstool. The passage states that we do this as part of Christ’s “Melchizedek (King-Priest) Order,” of which all believers are members. As kings, we decree; as priests, we petition and appeal. When we decree God’s plans for America, we are releasing His purposes and cutting off satan’s plans; we are wielding the sword of the Spirit. We are also participating in the synergy of the ages, tapping into “history past” and writing “history future.” Here are some great quotes from America’s history to use, which you may not have seen:
Peter Bulkeley
Peter Bulkeley was the Puritan leader who established the city of Concord, Massachusetts, in 1636. In his only publication, The Gospel Covenant, also known as The Covenant of Grace Opened, Peter Bulkeley stated:
“We are as a city set upon a hill, in the open view of all the earth... We profess ourselves to be a people in covenant with God, and therefore... the Lord our God…..will cry shame upon us if we walk contrary to the covenant which we have promised to walk in.”(1)
Using Deuteronomy 28:10 and Isaiah 61:9 as his sources, Bulkeley continued:
“Let us study so to walk that this may be our excellency and dignity among the nations of the world among which we live; that they may be constrained to say of us, only this people is wise, and a holy and blessed people; that all that see us may see and know that the name of the Lord is called upon by us; and that we are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.(2)
Laws
America’s original laws and constitutions were based on the Scriptures. Here are a few examples:
The Massachusetts General Court, in 1636, resolved to establish a code of laws that would be: “agreeable to the Word of God.”(3)
The Connecticut General Court, in 1639, established under the Constitution of Connecticut, issued the order: “that God’s Word should be the only rule for ordering the affairs of government in this commonwealth.”(4)
The Fundamental Orders (Constitution) of Connecticut (January 14, 1639) was the first constitution written in America, and established a pattern that all others followed, including the United States Constitution.(5) So important was this work that Connecticut became known as “The Constitution State.”(6) The committee responsible to frame the orders was charged to make the laws: “as near the law of God as they can be.”(7)
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather was an American colonial clergyman and educator. He graduated from Harvard in 1678 and joined his father, Increase Mather, in the pastorate of the Second Church in Boston in 1680.
He helped found Yale University and, in 1721, became President of the Connecticut College. He authored 450 books and was the first person born in America to be elected to the Royal Society of London.
Cotton Mather was regarded as the most brilliant man of New England in his time. Among his many accomplishments was the introduction of the smallpox inoculation during an epidemic in 1721.
In 1702, Cotton published Magnalia Christi Americana (The Great Achievement of Christ in America), which is the most detailed history written of the first fifty years of New England. In it, he stated:
“The sum of the matter is that from the beginning of the Reformation in the English nation, there had always been a generation of godly men, desirous to pursue the reformation of religion, according to the Word of God...[The Puritans were] driven to seek a place for the exercise of the Protestant religion, according to the light of conscience, in the deserts of America.”(8)
Jonathon Trumbull
Just one year and a couple of months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, on April 19, 1775, in a Proclamation of a Day of Fasting and Prayer for the Connecticut Colony, Governor Jonathan Trumbull beseeched that:
“God would graciously pour out His Holy Spirit on us to bring us to a thorough repentance and effectual reformation, that our iniquities may not be our ruin; that He would restore, preserve and secure the liberties of this and all the other British American colonies, and make the land a mountain of Holiness, and habitation of righteousness forever.”(9)
Declaration of Independence
And last but not least, the Declaration of Independence. The very last line leaves no doubt as to where our Founding Fathers placed their faith and gained their resolve:
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”(10)
Pray with me:
Father, as we declare from America’s past, we do so to see her restored and realigned with Your divine purposes. As a great symphony of declarations and appeals rises to You, merge them with the early voices that declared Your plans and purposes. Use the decrees to shake down evil and reestablish righteousness in our land. From these quotes:
We declare America “to be a people in covenant with God.”
We declare that America is “a city on a hill” and that the light of truth will once again shine from our shores…in order that “all who see us may see and know that the name of the Lord is called upon by us; and that we are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.”
We declare that America will have laws “agreeable to the Word of God…that His Word will be the only rule for ordering the affairs of our government.”
We declare that “God will graciously pour out His Holy Spirit on America again to bring us to a thorough repentance and effectual reformation, in order that our iniquities may not be our ruin; that He will restore, preserve and secure the liberties of this nation, and make the land a mountain of Holiness, and habitation of righteousness forever.”
We declare that “our support of the Declaration of Independence is with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.”
Now, Lord, we ask You to strengthen, bless, and lead intercessors throughout America. Remind them of their authority in Christ, the power of their words, and how incredibly noble is their cause. Remind them of the millions of souls coming into Your Kingdom because of their prayers. Encourage each intercessor regarding their worth and importance to You. We pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen.
Our decree:
We decree that Christ’s enemies are becoming His footstool.
Click on the link below to watch the full video.
Montesquieu, Baron Charles Louis Joseph de Secondat. 1748. Baron Charles Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, 1748, Anne Cohler, trans. Cambridge University Press, 1989. p. 157.
Ibid.
Massachusetts, General Court of. 1636. Massachusetts Colonial Records, 1:174. Benjamin Fletcher Wright, Jr., American Interpretations of Natural Law. Russell & Russell, 1962. p. 33. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution - The Faith of Our Founding Fathers. Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987, 6th printing 1993. p. 32.
Connecticut, Fundamental Orders (Constitution) of. January 14, 1639. Old South Leaflets, No. 8. John Fiske, The Beginning of New England. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889, 1898. P. 127-128.
Ibid.
Connecticut, Fundamentals Orders (Constitution) of. January 14, 1639. Old South Leaflets, No. 8. The World Book Encyclopedia, 18 vols. Field Enterprises, Inc., 1957; W.F. Quarrie and Company, 8 vols., 1917; World Book, Inc., 22 vols., 1989. Vol. 3, p. 1675.
Connecticut, Fundamental Orders (Constitution) of. January 14, 1639. John Wingate Thornton, The Pulpit of the American Revolution, 1860. Reprinted: Burt Franklin, 1970. p. XIX.
Mather, Cotton. 1702. Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, (The Great Achievement of Christ in America), 2 vols. The Banner of Truth Trust, 1702, 1979. 1:26. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story. American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993. p. 47.
Trumbull, Jonathan. April 19, 1775, as Governor of the Connecticut Colony proclaiming a day of fasting and prayer. Verna M. Hall, The Christian History of the American Revolution. Foundation for American Christian Education, 1976. p. 407. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America. Garborg's Heart°N Home, Inc., 1991. 3.22. Marshall Foster and Mary-Elaine Swanson, The American Covenant - The Untold Story. Foundation for Christian Self-Government, 1981. The Mayflower Institute, 1983, 1992. p. 120.
“Declaration of Independence: A Transcription.” National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript. Accessed 15 July 2024.
Comments