Using History As Our Weapon
I disliked history class in school. I must have had boring teachers—it couldn’t have been my shallow thinking. I’m not sure when this changed for me but it most certainly did. And if you suffer from the same issue I was plagued with back in my high school days, well, I’m about to help you!
In previous posts, we have studied the question David asked before he faced Goliath, the giant of his day: “Is there not a cause?” We’ve discovered that the Hebrew word translated “cause,” also means “history.” Therefore, David was very possibly asking his brother and fellow Israelites, “Is there not a history [to write]?” But David may also have been referring to past history. “Don’t we have enough history with God to give us confidence in His faithfulness? And are there not promises from Him in our history that we can stand on?” Roots are essential; foundations are critical.
Can we actually win today’s battle through the power of our yesterday? We can. In fact, we must use history to fight our battles and take out today’s Goliaths. As we will see in a later post, David’s most powerful weapon when facing Goliath was, in fact, his history. I can almost hear the shock in some of your cynical, history-adverse minds. Nonetheless, it is true. Before exploring this, however, let’s find out what makes history so powerful. This will make David’s story much more meaningful.
In my book An Appeal to Heaven, I mention an important phrase spoken to me several years ago by Holy Spirit: “the synergy of the ages.” This phrase was shared with me during a season when Holy Spirit was emphasizing the importance of connecting with past generations. In short, the synergy of the ages is multiplied power through generational agreement and honor.
Scriptures clearly teach that the generations are connected, with both blessings and curses flowing from one generation to the next (see Deuteronomy 5:9, 7:9). Like it or not, Adam’s sin—and resulting sin nature—was, in fact, passed on to you. God sees the generational connection so literally that He routinely makes a promise to one generation, knowing it won’t be fulfilled until a future generation (see Hebrews 11:39-40)! Bloodlines are so connected spiritually that the tithe Abraham paid to Melchizedek was credited to his great grandson, Levi: “...through Abraham even Levi...paid tithes,” (Hebrews 7:9). What my ancestors have done—my family history—affects me, and what I do impacts those who come after me. That is staggering in its ramifications! On the negative side, this is why we must understand identificational repentance, which we spoke of in yesterday’s post. It disconnects us from yesterday’s sins.
Put Yourself In The Storyline
The power and importance of understanding this connection to history can be seen through a stirring dream given to Julie Meyer, an internationally known worship leader and seasoned intercessor. Julie, in fact, gave me the word from Holy Spirit that resulted in Give Him 15 (see the April 19, 2021 Give Him 15 post for the whole story). As the dream began, Julie saw 7 ambulances lined up, each with lights flashing. Growing very concerned, she looked into the back of one of the ambulances and saw a non-responsive person on a gurney. Next to the patient was an attendant working feverishly to revive him.
Julie immediately knew the attendant was an angel, who looked at her and said, “I can’t find a heartbeat.” She went from one ambulance to the next, finding the same scenario—patients on gurneys with angels attending them, trying to restart their hearts. Suddenly, one of the angels looked directly at Julie and confided, “It’s the intercessors.”
Many intercessors have prayed years for revival, but revival hasn’t materialized, and some of them have experienced what Proverbs 13:12 refers to as “hope deferred.” And as this verse teaches, hope deferred has made their hearts sick. Traveling across America, I can attest to the truthfulness of the dream.
As Julie’s dream continued, suddenly one of the angels shouted, “I found a heartbeat, but it’s very faint!”
The other angels grew excited and inquired, “What did you do?”
The first angel’s response was surprising. “Tell the old stories. When I started telling her stories of what God did in the past, her heart began to beat.”
With that, these heavenly attendants began speaking to the intercessors about the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, and other Holy Spirit outpourings—right up through the healing revivals and tent meetings of the 1940s, 50s, and ’60s. As they did so, the hearts of all the intercessors started to beat again. At this point in the dream, an angel looked at Julie and insisted, “Tell the old stories of what God has done in the past.”
This was powerful to me. The angelic messenger then added instructions that stirred my heart even more: “Tell the intercessors to put themselves in the storyline, because the old stories are also their stories.” What a profound and intriguing thought.
Who among us really thinks this way? But we should. God has one overarching plan for humankind; we’re all part of the same unfolding drama. Our generation’s role in history is simply another act of yesterday’s play; our battles are conflicts in one ongoing war. Every revival in history is but a sequel in Holy Spirit’s ongoing series of outpourings, and every soul saved enters the same spiritual family. Our stories, though many, are one.
Put yourself in the storyline, because the old stories are actually your stories!
Synergy, Not Segmentation
For too long, we Christians—even those who are students of church history—have viewed accounts of past moves of God as, well, history. We love those old stories, but we certainly haven’t thought of them as something we can agree with in prayer, connect to, or draw power from. And we’ve certainly never thought of them as our stories. They are past tense, a dead history. I had never thought of Wesley and his Methodists as my movement. Finney’s awakening certainly hadn’t been my awakening, and William Seymour’s Azusa Street outpouring wasn’t claimed as mine. Most of us simply don’t think that way.
Our shortsighted reasoning has stolen from us the synergy of the ages. We’ve not put ourselves in the storyline. Since we don’t typically align with past movements or agree with past prayers, this has all too often led to the segmentation of the ages, forcing each generation’s intercession and effort to stand on its own. Actually, the results are more devastating than that: God says that when the generations disconnect, it creates a curse (Malachi 4:6).
However, putting ourselves into the storyline God is writing allows us to tap into the strength and life flowing from what He did years ago. We begin to understand the eternal purposes of God, not just the purposes we feel are for our present time. When we do this, He then can continue through our generation what He began with previous generations. And according to Hebrews 11:40, those who came before us, now watching from the balcony of Heaven, can finally see their promises fulfilled.
Reinforced by Julie’s dream, this revelation opened my heart to a myriad of storylines we, as a generation, needed to identify with. History came alive. I knew we could insert ourselves into the storyline of Charles Finney, believing that city-changing revivals would be rekindled in our day. We could agree with the powerful prayers of Rees Howells for revivals that would shake nations. We could join the efforts of Martin Luther King, Jr., and see his dream of racial healing in America reach its intended goal. The great cloud of witnesses had finally become more than mere spectators and cheerleaders to me; they were an earlier leg of a relay race, waiting for someone to grasp their baton.
This truth pierced my conscience. God began the process of connecting my heart and actions with those who had lived before me. My life began expanding, being defined not just by an eighty or ninety-year destiny, but also by an inter-generational purpose. I realized I was part of a historical chain, planned by God and built with human lives. “Back to the future” took on a new meaning: Like Elijah’s servant, Elisha, I would need to connect with the past in order to find my future. The power Elisha needed today was hidden in his yesterday (2 Kings 2:14- 15). Reaching back would not only bring added significance to my life, but also to the lives of those who had lived before me (Hebrews 11:39-40). And God’s love of relational connection would find fulfillment, causing Him to release an entirely new level of spiritual power—the synergy of the ages.
Incredible.
Putting Myself Into America’s Storyline
I immediately began processing this revelation in the context of my calling to America. It was obviously relevant to praying for nations. I now could connect with America’s story more personally, joining my heart to the prayers and dreams of pilgrims, colonists, pioneers, and every other generation who helped write our story.
Whatever the cost, I determined to do my part in keeping the dream alive.
When David said, “Is there not a history?” he was doing more than remembering; he was referring to more than preserving historical roots. David was reaching back, putting himself in the storyline. He was declaring that promises made by God hundreds of years earlier were his guarantee of victory today. David was staking his faith on the synergy of the ages... and he knew the stone would find its mark.
Stay with me. In Monday’s post, I’ll prove it.
Pray with me:
Father, to our harm we have not understood the power of connecting with those who ran the race before us. The costly result is that each generation starts over in its pursuit of spiritual power and authority, rather than experiencing generational momentum.
But revelation has come. And we understand how important it is to You that we honor, connect with and build on the efforts of those gone before us. Their stories are our stories. And this day, we put ourselves in the storyline, we agree with their decrees: “In God we trust!” “One nation under God.” “For the propagation of the gospel to all the nations of the earth.”
We now understand why satan and his partners try to steal our history. They lie about it, distort it and rewrite it. Satan tries to steal our history with You because he knows there is power in it - power in the destiny You gave us, power in the covenants and promises our founders made to You and You to them. But we agree with the great Winston Churchill, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”(1) And we pledge to You this day, we will war for - and with - our righteous history.
Our Decree:
We decree as the Ekklesia of Jesus Christ in America, we are now in the storyline. We are connected to the evangelism well of Cape Henry, the ringing of the Leviticus 25:10 Bell of Liberty in Philadelphia, and the Appeal To Heaven flag of 1776. With these and other weapons from our past, we WILL take out the giants trying to destroy this nation.
Today’s post was taken from my book Giants Will Fall.
Click on the link below to watch today's full prayer:
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https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/winston_churchill_129864