Appeal to Heaven Over Your Barrenness

Most Americans don’t know it, but America was actually born under a prayer movement. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington commissioned a flag to be created. It had a pine tree on it and across the top it said, “Appeal to Heaven”. He did this because the early American settlers knew there was no way they could possibly overthrow the rule of the British—the greatest empire in the world at that time. They didn’t have the weapons, the money, the training, or the organization. However, they latched ahold of a phrase by a man named John Locke, “When you’ve done all you can do, then you appeal to Heaven.” So, Washington had a flag made and put those words on it.

That flag flew over the ships and all the battlefields. It became the flag of the day before we had our stars and stripes. The flag disappeared into history for a couple of hundred years. That was probably the providence of God. He has reintroduced it to us today, because the same thing that birthed us as a nation is what it will take to re-birth us—an Appeal to Heaven. We need to seek Him for His mercy and for His help. 

I don’t believe the Lord would have brought this flag back on the scene now if he was not willing and ready to give us a re-birth. So, as we appeal to Him for His mercy and His grace, I believe He’s going to respond to us.

The Lord just took me back to Genesis 1 where it says the earth was without form and it was void. Those words are very strong in Hebrew. The best translation is “desolate” or “devastated” and “barren”. Yet, in that barren, devastated place, the Bible says Holy Spirit moved over that situation. The Bible uses the word “racaph”, which is a reproductive term and means “to bring forth or bear, as in bearing a child.” Holy Spirit released His power over the barren, desolate, devastation, and brought forth life. He did the same thing with Abraham and Sarah. She was barren, and it says Holy Spirit came and “rachaphed” around her. Any time you see a barren or devastating situation where there’s no life, no fruit, no ability to move forward or reproduce, what is needed is the hovering, “racaph-ing” presence of Holy Spirit. He’s never been intimidated by barrenness or devastation.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2; NIV)

Give Him 15 minutes in prayer:

• Ask God to heal our nation’s devastations. Let His healing flow across this land.
• Thank the Lord that His Spirit is hovering over America and birthing something new. 
• Appeal to Heaven for something extreme, supernatural and extraordinary to happen in our land.
• Call forth the hovering of Holy Spirit to racaph over our government, our states, over places where people are in unrest; over violence, over schools, and all across this nation.

A prayer you can pray:

Holy Spirit, Father God, and Lord Jesus, Head of the Church, we appeal to You now in our time of devastation. We appeal to You in this season where there is so much unrest, strife, and fear. Many in this nation have rejected You. That has caused barrenness. It has caused devastation. We’re asking You in Your mercy to hover over this nation, Holy Spirit. We’re asking You to overshadow this nation just as You have in past times when there is no sign in the natural that You are about to move. There was no sign when Elijah travailed, and You began to hover and birthed the rain and caused a nation to repent. There was no sign; not a cloud in the sky. 

Lord, there was no sign before Azusa that You were about to pour out Your Spirit. There was no sign before the Hebrides revival, the Welsh revival, or the Cane Ridge Revival. You come into barren situations that are lifeless and are devastated. All it takes for a turnaround is Your hovering and release of Your power. We’re asking You to do that over our nation right now. Release Your power over our government, over our states, over places where people are in unrest, over violence, over schools, all across this nation. In inner cities and in rural communities, we’re asking You to hover and to release Your birthing power over us. Birth another Great Awakening in this nation. We appeal to You. You are our only hope. We pray for our government. We pray for our leaders. Yet, our hope, our faith, is in You and we cry out to You, Jesus. We believe You are coming to rescue this nation. Amen.

Today’s decree:

As we appeal to Heaven, the Lord will bring every devastated place back to life!