GOD’S COVENANT WITH AMERICA
Kevin Martin
Gina’s Gholston reported on a dream which the Lord used to direct her understanding of a journey which led to a covenant with America. She wrote: “Our true history records that God placed a longing in the hearts of men and women in England for a homeland where they could be free to live productively and worship Him without restriction. They left everything, and with huge steps of faith, set out on a long, arduous journey of discovery. The journey led them to the eastern shores of what would become one of the greatest nations on earth. Her greatness would be because She was established as a nation ‘under God.’ We must settle in our minds the indisputable fact that God has not led America this far for the purpose of allowing everything He has said and done to crumble and fall.”
I cannot help but see a parallel with the story of Abraham. God put it in the heart of Abraham to leave his country and travel to a land he’d never seen with a promise saying, “Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation . . . And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Let’s look at the significant covenants God has struck with men and nations to understand His covenant with America.
God’s Covenant with Abraham
Paul distinguishes the covenant God made with Abraham from the covenant He made with the nation of Israel through Moses.
Galatians 3:6-9 NKJV
6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
In Genesis 15:18 God specifically uses the term ‘covenant’ to define the promise He made to Abraham, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2, 3) New Testament writers called the covenant God made with Abraham a “covenant of promise.” It was entered into by Abraham by faith in God’s word and nothing else. Faith in God’s word alone is what moved God to declare Abraham righteous. This was not a covenant of law, but a covenant of promise.
Galatians 3:10-14 NKJV
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
God’s Covenant with Israel: The Law of Moses
The covenant with Israel is referred to as the Law – meaning the 10 Commandments given through Moses and all the 613 additional laws based on the 10. That covenant is not based on faith – but on obedience to the law. The details of this covenant are spelled out very clearly in Deuteronomy 28. Verses 1, 2 and 15 are the key points of comparison between those who are to be blessed and those who are to be cursed.
Deuteronomy 28:1, 2 NKJV
1 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:
Deuteronomy 28:15 NKJV “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
Then we come to Galatians 3:13 and we see the complete difference Christ, by His reconciling sacrifice, has accomplished for all who will believe in the simple way Abraham chose to believe God, and enter into a covenant of promise rather than a covenant of earning the blessings of God by good performance.
Galatians 3:13, 14, 16-18NKJV
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. 18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Romans 3:20-22NKJV
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.
The Covenant with David
2 Samuel 7:12-16 NKJV
“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”
Psalm 89:3, 4 NKJV
“I have made a covenant with My chosen,
I have sworn to My servant David:
‘Your seed I will establish forever,
And build up your throne to all generations.’ ”
This covenant was and is also a covenant of promise, not of law.
Jesus now sits on the throne of David as God promised.
The New Covenant In Christ
The New Covenant began at the cross as Jesus shed His blood of the Covenant. But it’s up to us what we allow to have power over our lives; the Law of sin and death (Rom 8:2) or Grace by which we are saved through faith alone (Eph 2:8).
John 1:17 (NKJV) For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, He spoke to His disciples in covenant language and declared His blood to be the blood of the New Covenant.
Matthew 26:28 NKJV For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
The bread and the cup of the Last Supper signified His body and His blood. After this portion of the covenant meal was finished and after Judas left to betray Him, Jesus spoke the only new commandment of this New Covenant.
John 13:34 NKJV A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
The New Covenant Made The 1st Obsolete
The New Covenant began at the cross as Jesus shed His blood of the covenant.
Hebrews 8:13 NKJV In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Hebrews 9:15–17 NKJV And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Blood is required to ratify a covenant. It was so among men. It was so between God and Moses for the sake of the nation of Israel. It was also so between Jesus and Father God for the sake of all mankind.
The Old Covenant began at Mount Sinai as Moses oversaw the shedding of the blood of bulls and goats; the blood of the covenant.
Without the shedding of blood no sin is covered and no punishment is removed.
Hebrews 10:3, 4 NKJV
3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
When did the old covenant of the Law cease to function? (Study the events of AD 70 to understand.)
Hebrews 9:11–16 (NKJV)
11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, . . . 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats . . , sanctifies . . the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
God’s Promise To His Son
Psalm 2:6-6 NKJV
“Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have begotten You Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
[God’s covenant with His Son was based on His fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. How that covenant affects us is not based on the Law, but on God’s promise to His Son. As we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, by faith alone, our performance under the Law is not considered; nor ever will it be. It’s based on the Promise God made to Abraham and the above promise He made to Jesus, knowing He would fulfill the Law that we were never capable of keeping.]
God’s Covenant With America
Gina’s Gholston’s Comments from a Dream: “We must settle in our minds the indisputable fact that God has not led America this far for the purpose of allowing everything He has said and done to crumble and fall… ’Our true history records that God placed a longing in the hearts of men and women in England for a homeland where they could be free to live productively and worship Him without restriction. They left everything, and with huge steps of faith, set out on a long, arduous journey of discovery. “The journey led them to the eastern shores of what would become one of the greatest nations on earth. Her greatness would be because She was established as a nation ‘under God.’
On April 29, 1607, Robert Hunt landed on a beach in Virginia we now call Cape Henry. He instructed his men to cut out a portion of the ship’s beams from the hull. The landing party took those timbers and erected a cross and drove it into the beachhead proclaiming this land for God; for freedom.
“Reverend Robert Hunt stood and offered this prayer, ‘We do hereby dedicate this Land and ourselves to reach the people within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations, take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this covenant of dedication remain to all generations as long as the earth remains, . . . May all who see this cross remember what we have done here, and may those, who come here to inhabit, join us in this covenant and in this most noble work that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled. From these very shores, the Gospel shall go forth, not only to this New World, but the entire world.’”
Psalm 22:27, 28 KJV
‘All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the Kingdom is the Lord’s, and He ruleth among the nations.’
As Robert Hunt released his prophetic prayer, then and there, God revealed His purpose for the United States of America. At the very beginning of this nation, God was anchoring her deeply to His prophetic declaration, ‘America shall be saved!’
For over four hundred years, American leaders have produced documents of faith and freedom like the Mayflower Compact in1620 in which they declared, “For the glory of God and advancements of the Christian faith.” In the Declaration of Independence, the Founders declared their dependence on God for His help and guidance, as the only Sovereign Who could secure our freedom to worship Him. Still, at times we’ve been more divided than we’ve been united.
God has always had a praying people who have taken their place working with Holy Spirit, to see that America stayed on track with His purposes. Today, God is gripping the hearts of people who are willing to work with Holy Spirit in this hour and follow Him into a tremendous last-days harvest.
Our nation’s values have seemingly been usurped by the devil’s own agenda. Evil has raised its ugly head, to silence, discredit, and dismantle – the greatest threat to his schemes; the awakened Church. No one in government is drafting a document like the Mayflower Compact. Instead, those in positions of power are using propaganda to promote a socialist, anti-God worldview.
As we determine to take a bold and committed stand against godless, lawless agendas, first remember our battle is not against people, but against evil principalities. We have supernatural weapons that are mighty through God for the pulling down every stronghold and casting down every argument and every high thing that seeks to exalt ?itself against the knowledge God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4, 5).
America is not lost. But we are going to have to fight with those supernatural weapons for it, alongside people we don’t totally agree with—even the ones sitting next to us at church.
[This last section, God’s Covenant With America, comes entirely from segments of GH15 (Give Him 15 minutes) daily posts in the months of June and July 2023. GH15 posts are daily encouraging posts from the ministry of Dutch and Ceci Sheets (DSM) in which many wonderful intercessors (like Gina Gholston), prophets and pastors from across America have contributed.]
God Always Honors Covenant
Psalm 89:34 NKJV My covenant I will not break,
Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.
God has always kept His word.
He kept His promise to Abraham and made him the Father of Faith; which releases the blessings of faith to believers in every nation today.
He honored the covenant with David and Jesus now sits on his throne.
He honored the covenant of Law through Moses until it was perfectly fulfilled by His Son, Jesus, setting us free from condemnation under the Law; by faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
He honors and upholds the new covenant with Jesus, to receive every believer in Jesus into His family and give them free access to Himself through the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:17, 18 NKJV
And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
He received and honors the covenant declarations of our founding fathers to preach the gospel of Christ to all nations, as we continue to do today.
And so we sing:
God Bless America land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her thru the night with the light from above
From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans, white with foam
God bless America my home sweet home
God bless America my home sweet home