December 10, 2025

The Power of Our Covenantal History, Part 2

Review

In yesterday’s post, I shared that David used the strength of his covenantal history with God to defeat Goliath. We in America can do the same. The passage depicting this battle begins by telling us that the land Goliath wanted belonged to the tribe of Judah and had been given to them by God. David was part of this tribe, meaning the land belonged to him.

Then, David emphasized that he was in covenant with God while Goliath wasn’t, as seen in the fact that he refused to call the giant by any name other than “Uncircumcised Philistine.” Circumcision was associated with being in covenant with God.

These two historical facts guaranteed victory, but David continued to brandish his history with God, testifying of the supernatural ability God had given him when facing a lion (1 Samuel 17:34-36): “I seized him by his beard, attacked him, and rescued the lamb,” he said. As if that wasn’t amazing enough, David also killed a bear! “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine,” David decreed (verse 37). This small, physically insignificant young man had faith that was anchored—not to his own abilities—but to a history of God’s faithfulness.

It is significant that David stated this history. There is power in giving testimony to past victories. After teaching on the power of history recently, I was asked by a Messianic Jewish rabbi if I knew the meaning of the Hebrew word for “testimony.” I did not.

“The word doesn’t mean simply to convey something from the past,” he informed me. “Its literal meaning is ‘to repeat an action or do it again.’ We Hebrews believe,” he continued, “that when we share what God did in the past, it releases the same power once again into the present...in other words, power is released to ‘do it again.’

Whoa!

My head was spinning.

He continued, “That’s one of the reasons we share with our children the stories of what God did in our Jewish history. It isn’t only so they’ll know their cultural history; it is also so the power in that history can be released to them today. For example, when we tell them about Passover and the Exodus, we believe God’s delivering and saving power demonstrated back then, will be released to save and deliver our children from bondages they may have today.”

Whoa times two!

The rabbi went on to tell me that he and his congregation had been experiencing healings from repeatedly sending believers to sick individuals and having them recount healings they had received in the past. When they testified of their healings, God’s power was released to “do it again.”

This drove me to my lexicons. While studying the word “testimony,” which meant exactly what the rabbi had said, one dictionary sent me to the Hebrew word for “remember.” Similarly, it doesn’t mean simply to think about something from the past; it means to do what is being thought about.(1) This is why God tells us in Isaiah 43:26, “Put Me in remembrance...” He doesn’t require this because He sometimes needs a reminder. Rather, He is instructing us to ask Him–based on something said or done in the past–to take action today.

God “remembered” Hannah, who had been barren, and she conceived (1 Samuel 1:11). He “remembered” His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and commissioned Moses to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 2:24). For God, remembering involves action.

This was life-changing revelation for me. I finally understood why God said we overcame satan by “the word of [our] testimony” (Revelation 12:11). And I believe this is why David stated his testimony of the lion and the bear!

After doing so, David then grabbed his staff, five stones, and his sling, and approached the giant (see 1 Samuel 17:40). Why would David want to be encumbered with his staff when fighting Goliath? In those days, men carved symbols depicting their history on their staffs; it was their journal, of sorts. David’s staff no doubt depicted pictures of a dead lion and a dead bear—his testimony, his history with God.

David made one stop on the way to the battle, visiting a nearby brook to gather stones as ammo for his sling. Even this seemingly insignificant act was connected to David’s history. The root Hebrew word from which “brook” is derived actually means “inheritance.”(2) That may seem strange, but Hebrew is a pictorial language, and this word pictures receiving something, then possessing the authority to control where it goes; thus, it is an “inheritance,” or a “streambed.” Actually, it is perfectly logical for Holy Spirit to use this symbolic picture of an “inheritance.” After all, it WAS David’s land, his inheritance. David held his “history” in one hand, reached into his “inheritance” with the other, then ran to face the giant.

And yet, there is still one more connection to David’s history which played a part in this battle with Goliath: his Judah nature, his DNA. Many Christians know that Judah means “praise.” That, however, is a derived meaning. In this pictorial language, the Hebrew word actually pictures the extending of the hand. This is why the word is used for “praise” – we raise or extend our hands when we praise. However, because Judah means to extend the hand, it also means “one who throws a stone.”(3) In his history, David was from “the tribe that throws stones!” I sometimes imagine David as a young boy, spending countless hours alone, watching his father’s sheep. He obviously turned those times into many hours of communing with God. Early in that season, he must have thought, What weapon do I want to become proficient with? A bow? Somehow, that didn’t seem appealing to him. Perhaps a sword is what I should learn to use, he may have thought. No, that isn’t me, either. Suddenly, from somewhere deep in the heart of this young shepherd boy, a thought began to waft up: I’m from the tribe that throws stones.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

I don’t need a sword or spear, David thought as he prepared to face the uncircumcised Philistine. The land he’s trying to steal was given by God to the stone-throwing tribe - my tribe! What I need to do is reach back in my history and deep into my DNA.

We believers in America, are going to defeat the giants invading our nation, and will do so in part using the same weapon David used: our spiritual history. The God who formed and preserved America in her past will fight for her today. As you pray for our nation, boldly declare His past faithfulness, believing in the power of testimony. Speak of our birth; declare about the revivals of the past; wave the Appeal To Heaven flag.

Here are two quotes from John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States and son of John and Abigail Adams, that you can use as weapons:

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” (John Quincy Adams, July 4, 1821)(4)

In 1837, at the age of 69, in delivering a Fourth of July speech at Newburyport, Massachusetts, Adams said: 

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?”(5)

Pray with me:

Father, we thank You for the many victories You have given America over the years. Thank You for Your supernatural help when we were created as a nation. You aided us in this endeavor when success looked absolutely impossible. We have inscribed that history not only into our history books, but also our hearts. Like David with his staff, we carry that history with us into today’s battles. 

We refuse to fear today’s giants. They are small when measured against You. We wave the Appeal To Heaven flag, as did Washington and his troops, and declare Your faithfulness.

We wave the flag over abortion. We wave it over idolatry. We wave it over unrighteous government. We wave it over our godless education system. We wave it over dishonest media. We wave it boldly and declare, “You are saving America!”

Our decree:

We decree that America exists for the glory of Christ. We will war with that truth, and overcome the spiritual giants trying to rule our nation.

Yesterday and today’s posts are taken from my book Giants Will Fall.

Click on the link below to watch the full video.

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1. Strong, James. The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Red-Letter Edition. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001). Reference no. 3034.

2. Ibid., ref. nos.  5157 and 5158.

3. Ibid., ref. no. 3034.

4. William Federer, America’s God and Country, FAME Publishing Inc., 1994, p. 18.

5. Ibid.