Wisdom From A Founding Father * Dutch Sheets * GiveHIM15 * 1/26/2024

[ronscarpa]

• • 6 min read      https://www.givehim15.com/post/january-26-2024

January 26, 2024

 

Wisdom From A Founding Father

 

 

Patriot and Founding Father Samuel Adams said the following:

 

 

“If ever a time should come when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”(1)

 

“It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail. The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their interests are interwoven; they cannot subsist separately, and therefore, they rise and fall together. For this reason, it is always observable that those who are combined to destroy the people's liberties practice every art to poison their morals.”(2)

 

“Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals.”(3)

 

 

 

Sam Adams is one of my favorite founding fathers. He was God-honoring, wise, bold, fearless, and right. His voice still rings clearly down through the ages, issuing warnings that are just as relevant today as they were two and a half centuries ago.

 

 

Not a day goes by that I do not grieve the condition of America and the world. That’s why I appreciate words of hope like Tim’s in yesterday’s post. The marriage of reality and faith is often challenging, as Abraham demonstrated. He had to hold fast to hope, with no human reason for hope, embracing an impossible promise while recognizing the reality of his and Sarah’s reproductively dead bodies (see Romans 4). But he held fast to hope, turned it to faith, and received his promise.

 

 

God doesn’t demand denial, and He understands our grief. He didn’t glibly deny the condition of His fallen human family. He acknowledged their condition, grieved their pain, wept over their cities, rejoiced not over their required judgments, was moved with compassion, and became human in order to accomplish their redemption, a redemption requiring excruciating pain and suffering. The path to victory is not denial; it is anchoring to hope in the midst of our grief. I have hope for America and the world because I believe in God’s heart, His redeeming love, His Word regarding pouring out His Spirit on flesh, and His promise of an endless, unshakable, ever-increasing Kingdom.

 

 

I also have hope because of His promise that His light can overcome gross darkness (Isaiah 60: 1-2), as also referenced in yesterday’s post. I was reminded again today of this passage. It was the theme of Intercessors For America’s recent 50th anniversary celebration a few weeks ago, where I had the honor of speaking. Their theme was “Preparing For the Coming Glory,” and they were reminding the IFA family that Isaiah 60:1 was one of the verses founder Derek Prince shared at their birth 50 years ago. Tears filled my eyes as I read the text, reminding me of this. Yes, I have hope.

 

 

Notice that the passage in Isaiah doesn’t just say that God’s light overcomes “darkness”; it goes on to say “gross darkness.” Here are verses one and two of Isaiah 60:

 

 

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” (KJV)

 

 

I am so glad Holy Spirit said He knew this was coming and assured us He could overcome the darkness with His light and glory. The Hebrew word “gross” in the passage, araphel, means “thick darkness, a dark cloud,” and yes, “gross darkness;” it can also be used metaphorically for “gloom.”(4) 

 

 

Most certainly, America has arrived at the “gross darkness” stage:

 

• Prioritizing pleasure and convenience over babies is darkness; ripping them apart in the womb as they struggle is gross darkness; killing them on the table of a botched abortion is gross darkness.

• All racism is darkness; excusing torture, rape, and the baking of screaming babies by terrorists is gross darkness.

• Creating decades of humanitarian crisis and suffering by opening borders for votes is darkness; allowing rape, the trafficking of thousands of women and children, and the killing of hundreds of thousands through illegal drugs while doing so is gross darkness.

• Promoting confusion-identity to further ideology is darkness; mutilating children’s bodies to do so is gross darkness.

• Rejecting God’s ways is darkness; mocking His ways is gross darkness.

 

 

There can no longer be any doubt that many leaders in America have depraved minds and seared consciences. There can be no doubt that half of our political system, the Democrat Party, now opposes the God of Scripture and that for which He stands. There can be no doubt that they hate our Judeo-Christian foundation and heritage, and are doing everything possible to destroy it. There can be no doubt that they want to weaken America and transform us from the roots up.

 

 

This is why we need both revival and reformation. Unless Holy Spirit changes my mind, I will talk more about this on GH15 in the near future. Though the terminology isn’t the issue for me, my concept of revival is people coming to Christ in mass, not just a few. Salvation changes the hearts of people, bringing salvation to them and writing God‘s laws on their hearts. This is our commission from Christ (not a suggestion) in Mark 16:15-20. When this occurs in mass, we have revival.

 

 

My concept of reformation is discipling nations, teaching them the principles of Christ’s Word and Kingdom, as He commanded in the commission of Matthew 28:18-20. Yesterday’s post said 2024 is a year of reformation. This cannot occur without revival, the changing of darkened hearts in mass. Surely, we have learned by now that we will never transform America only through the changing of laws; millions of hearts must change. But hopefully, the church has also learned that revival alone - leading many people to Christ, as occurred in the great Charismatic and Jesus People revivals - without also discipling the entire societal and cultural structure of the nation, will be short-lived.

 

 

Since these two work in tandem, and since the Lord said reformation begins this year, it also means revival will intensify this year. I believe two things will produce this: 1) hearts will become open through the coming shaking - please believe me when I say it is coming, and 2) the overwhelming light of God’s glory will be poured out (Isaiah 60:1-2). Do not fear the shaking; the praying remnant has sealed our land, and now we are protecting our other resources, as we have been warned to do. America will be saved, we will see worldwide revival, and yes, we will disciple nations.

 

 

I conclude with another quote from our fellow patriot and brother, Sam Adams, now in the cloud of witnesses: “We have proclaimed to the world our determination ‘to die freemen, rather than to live slaves.’ We have appealed to heaven for the cause of our justice, and in Heaven, we have placed our trust.”(5)

 

 

Stand, praying church, stand!

 

 

Pray with me:

 

Father, to our grief and shame, we now live in a land of gross darkness. Our arrogant rejection of You and Your Word has taken us to the edge of destruction. We appeal, not for justice but for mercy, doing so based on the Mercy Seat that is sprinkled with the blood of Yeshua Himself. We also do so with hope and faith based on Your promises, Your ability to do the impossible, and to change that which seems unchangeable.

 

We continue to ask for spiritual rain, for the wind of Your Spirit, for the storm clouds of heaven to replace the storm clouds of gross darkness and evil. Open eyes, save, deliver and transform. Send the disrupting fires of revival and the transforming truths of reformation. Give Your Son, and our Redeemer, the promised reward of Psalm 2; also, release the promised rod of iron to those who oppose you. Crush all adversity. Remove centuries-old and millennia-old strongholds of darkness throughout the earth through explosions of Your light and glory. Give Christ the reward of His sufferings and the fulfillment of His passionate and loving heart.

 

And as You instructed us, we pray for protection over our land and its borders, dams, ports, waterways, and water supply. We bind attempts to destroy, interrupt, and poison. We ask You to expose every plot and stop them. We accept any shaking that You know is necessary to discipline and turn this nation, but we reject all else. And we pray all in Yeshua’s powerful name.

 

 

Our decree:

 

We decree that the glorious light of the gospel and authority of God’s Kingdom will overcome the gross darkness covering the earth.

 

 

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Click on the link below to watch the full video.

 

 

 

 

 

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1. https://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/Samuel-Adams-Letter-24Oct1780.html 

2. https://1776patriotusa.com/quote-samuel-adams-1772/ 

3. https://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/samuel-adams-quotes-2.html 

4. Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville) and Thayer, Joseph Henry. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Reference number 6205.

5. http://www.samuel-adams-heritage.com/documents/speech-about-declaration-of-independence.html