Most people today would recognize this guy as George Washington, and some might know him as the man who led the colonial Army through the Revolutionary War that gained America's independence from Britain, but most may not really know the real man, the real George Washington, the Christian, and the fact he was a praying man. He designed America's first flag an Appeal to Heaven flag that referred to the belief that our rights come from God and not from man.
He also designed the famous Betsy Ross flag that represents the early efforts of the American people to establish a new nation based on principles of liberty, democracy and self-governance. But it's this image, George Washington's prayer at Valley Forge that best represents a man who had his faith in God, and he was the right man in the right place at the right time. He truly was someone who stepped up to be the one in his generation and deservedly so, is called the Father of America.
His very first act as America's first president was to establish a covenant with God. George Washington. On this episode of Revival Radio, TV. In every generation there have been revivals, massive moves of the Spirit that changed the course of history. In every revival, there were believers like you who chose to answer the call to become the one in their generation. Discover your call to be the one in your generation. Today I want to tell you a be the one story that will take us on a journey.
A journey from a farm in Virginia through the Revolutionary War, past locations of hard won victories and discouraging defeats. And every step of the way, America and George Washington will move closer to a meeting with destiny. The very first act of America was to establish a covenant with God, a destiny that no other nation except Israel has done. You know, referencing the founders today has become almost a punch line for those on the left who mock the men and mark what they stand for.
But let's look into the lives of the founders and more importantly, listen to their own words and what they accomplish. These were the most brilliant and the most insightful political philosophers and statesmen in one place at one time in the history of the world. And here they were all saying it was God who used us to do this. So you have to ask yourself, were they all wrong? No, of course not. They weren't.
And none were more impressive than George Washington, not because of his philosophy or his depth of knowledge, but simply as a normal man like you and me. But he was firmly rooted and grounded in his faith, and he depended on God, a God who he believed was using him for his own purposes. And George Washington realized God had a purpose for him that was higher than his own.
Now, who better to tell you this story than another great American, Ronald Reagan, speaking from George Washington's home, Mount Vernon. 250 years after his birth. Washington's star shines brighter than ever. Our cause is noble, he said. It is the cause of mankind. Pursuit of liberty and justice under God is still the most inspiring, the most successful, the most revolutionary idea the world has ever known. Words alone cannot express how much we revere this giant for freedom.
Yes, he is first in our hearts and will be first for all time. If one word could describe all this man was and all he meant, it might be indispensable. He seemed to be carrying out a divine plan for America. Washington was gifted with a vision of the future. He dreamed America could be a great, prosperous and peaceful nation stretching from ocean to ocean. He hoped the deliberations at Philadelphia would end with a declaration of our independence.
He even designed and presented a drawing of the new American flag to Betsy Ross. 13 stripes and a circle of white stars on a field of blue. Never a passive leader. Never an armchair general. He was always in front of his troops and his nation. When the war was going badly, his courage and leadership turned the tide of history our way and our first Christmas as a nation.
In 1776, he led his band of ragged citizens shoulders across the Delaware River through driving snow to a victory that saved the cause of American independence. Their route of March, it is said, was stained by bloody footprints, but their spirit did not fade. Their will could not be crushed. Washington kept them going. After the revolution, he wanted to return here to Mt. Vernon, to be with his family, to farm, to hunt. But he loved his country, and his country needed him.
The 13 former colonies were impoverished. They were bickering. They needed a constitution so that they could become a union of sovereign states joined to a central government. The American political experiment was new to all human experience and the world expected us to fail If Washington had not stepped forward again, first at the Constitutional Convention, then as our first elected president, we might well have failed.
He was a man of deep faith who believed the pillars of society were religion, morality and bonds of brotherhood between all citizens. It has been written that the most sublime figure in American history was George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. George Washington. The farmer, the surveyor, the frontiersman and the soldier. Up until this generation, every school kid knew him as the first American hero, as the father of our nation.
In fact, his image in America is truly bigger than life. But the man goes beyond the myth because he wasn't a myth, and his honesty and his character and his sense of duty were all true. In many ways, George Washington embodies what's good about America's story. So the left wants to tear that down. Basically, they don't tell about the good he did things like he was the only founder to free his slaves and provide them with a pension for the rest of their lives.
In fact, it wasn't until the Progressive Era in the 1920s when this book came out that he tried to tear down the image of Washington and it spread the lie that he was not a Christian, but a deist. If you've ever heard the left's narrative that is now taught as history about George Washington, this is the actual book that began the lies about Washington. They were quoted by historians, and this book has no footnotes and no sources.
William E. Woodward, the author who introduced the word debunk into the English language and who created a new technique of biographical writing that is actually fiction or outright propaganda. Now, these books are the real story. In his own words from original sources and footnotes like the real George Washington, George Washington.
The Christian. The first inauguration. Well, I'm here to tell you and show you the real man, George Washington, who relied on God in prayer from real history in these books that show that the man using his own words. And there are footnotes to these sources. You see this little book. This is the rules of civility and decent behavior written in his own handwriting. Listen to this.
When he was 14 years old, he hand copied 110 rules or maxims he thought were important to master, to have good character and function as a man in a polite society. This is rule number 58. It says here, let your conversation be without malice or envy, for it's a sign of a tractable and commendable nature. And in all cases of passion and reason to govern. 14 years old, they'd actually be great for young people today, don't you think? They represent more than just manners.
They are small sacrifices that we should all be willing to make for the good of all in the sake of living together. These rules proclaim our respect for others and in turn give us the gift of self-respect and heightened self esteem. George Washington was interested in focusing on mastering his nature. He had a strong temper and took tremendous control to master it. Give me an example of that. Let me tell you a story.
William Payne was the only man who physically assaulted George Washington and got away with it. It was during one of the early elections that William Payne supporting Washington's opponent and their discussion devolved well into an argument. And all of a sudden Payne reaches up and he knocks him to the ground. Washington's fellow officers were quick to step forward, but Washington waved them off and said, No, it's okay, let him go. And he went back to the end where he was staying.
Almost immediately, he set down, he wrote a letter saying to Mr. Payne, I'd like to visit with you tomorrow morning. Well, Payne was scared for his life, as you can imagine, because if you're going to face George Washington and his physical power, then you might be scared, too. But when he showed up the next morning, Colonel Washington did something unexpected.
He put forth his hand and said, Mr. Payne, I'd like to apologize for losing my temper in an unprotected moment, and I hope we can still be friends. And they stayed friends the rest of their lives. You see this little book? It's a pocket sized copy of the Book of Common Prayer. Ever since the Reformation, Englishman and Colonials used these little books in lieu of a minister.
Their prayers for everything in here, from the cradle to the grave, prayers for repentance and healing and prayers for the government. In fact, after the Revolutionary War, George helped his wife, Martha, print a new American Book of Prayer that added praying for the president and Congress instead of King George, which was in the English Book of Common Prayer. But George Washington kept a personal prayer book with him at all times, one that was his own prayers written in his own handwriting.
Two prayers, one for mourning and one for night for each day of the week. This pocket prayer journal is actually reprinted in this book. George Washington, the Christian. He trained himself to be a surveyor, which meant he spent a lot of time outdoors in the wilderness, navigating the terrain, learning how to hunt and to shoot, camping in the wild and interacting with the native people. This made him an expert frontiersman, not your typical city boy.
Also, it gave him all the skills of an excellent soldier even before he joined the army. He served in the British Army during the French and Indian War. In fact, it was in a major battle in the wilderness that he earned the nickname Bulletproof George Washington, as documented in the book The Bulletproof George Washington. God was looking out for him and protecting him for a higher purpose.
Here is the Journal of Major George Washington, which documents his journey to deliver a message to the French during the French and Indian War. This book, printed during the war, made him a national hero. Even before the revolution, the harsh reality of the price for liberty and independence became immediately evident through blood and treasure as war broke out and Washington was called upon to lead the citizen army.
The revolution that began with self-evident truths immediately came up against the most obvious truth. The citizen army was up against the most powerful empire on the earth. And the beginning. There was no hope of victory. Yet there was hope in God. And the foundation of the cause was an appeal to heaven. I want you to listen to George Washington's prayer. Quote.
If it is thy holy will that we should obtain a place and a name among the nations of the Earth grant that we may be able to show our gratitude for your goodness. Bless us with a wisdom in our counsel and success in battle in our victories. Let me paint you a picture of how America almost died even before it was born and how George Washington saved it with God's help.
Wisdom and his character near the end of the war, hostilities had not entirely ceased with Yorktown, nor had the peace treaty been signed. So Washington in the Continental Army, had to remain vigilant. The men had left their farms and shops to risk their lives for independence. Not only had their farms and shops suffered neglect, but they were owed considerable back pay, land and pensions.
Many officers were on furlough for the winter, but a number of those who remained were seething with discontent. During that cold, cloudy March of 1783, several began to circulate a letter that called on the Army to march on Congress. Washington caught wind of the officer's scheme and quickly intervened, and he told them to assemble. Now, this story shows Washington's wisdom and leadership, and it demonstrates his character that inspired his men to love and to follow him.
This is what happened in High Noon as the officers were assembling probably three or 400 of them in the room. And the mood was ugly. Mutiny was in the air. Washington comes in the back door and there he is, the man. And as you know, the man is large for his time. And he always made an impression. He's showing his age now from the years of stress. And he looks out over the room and he sees anger and frustration on the faces of his officers. So he's thinking to himself, what can I do?
And so he he'll do this. He reached in his pocket and he pulled out this letter and he says, I have a letter here from the Continental Congress. And he looks around the room again and he says, Well, excuse me for just a second. And he pulls out a pair of spectacle style reading glasses out of his pocket and put those spectacles on for the first time ever in public. The point is, he puts on the glasses and the officers are startled. They have never seen this side of him.
He had always been their rock through good times and bad. And they were realizing in that moment that this man that we all know and love has perhaps sacrificed more than any one of us. And it's at this point that Washington delivers this incredibly simple but powerfully effective line. Gentlemen, I've grown gray in the service of my country. This immediately translated to their hearts. I also have sacrificed and given my all in the service of my country.
Also find myself growing old and needing glasses. It was then, at that moment, the tenor in the room began to change and Washington saves America an absolutely critical and desperate moment. One historian called this the most critical moment in American history. Washington was an inspired leader of men. This painting, the Prayer at Valley Forge, is a depiction of one of these moments of intense prayer. It's a true story, too.
It's said that the local British royals came across Washington praying in the woods. One cold, wintery day during that terrible winter of 1777. The story is in this book from original sources. According to the story, Isaac Potts, a local British loyalist. This is him here hiding behind the tree. He stumbled on George Washington in a moment of prayer. Witnessing Washington's devotion and resolve during these such trying times. With a deep impression on Potts. It left. This left.
This thing that stayed with him, leaving him to reevaluate his loyalties and even switch to the American cause. He went and told his wife, Honey, we're on the wrong side. In 1783, the American Revolution was finally over. The United States of America was free from British rule. Washington was a hero. Yet for Washington, what he had fought for was to be a free man. He simply wanted to return to his farm and be a private citizen. So he resigned from the Army and gave his farewell address.
It was some parting wisdom from the father of the new nation in the farewell address, he highlighted key themes. Forces he thought could destroy our democratic republic. It contained three important warnings against getting entangled with. Listen to this one. Hyper partizanship. Two excessive debt. And number three, foreign wars. Those are threatening forces we're wrestling with today.
George Washington warned in that farewell address that one who works to subvert or destroy a public role for religion and morality cannot call himself a patriot. One of Washington's favorite scriptures was from Micah, which says, Every man under his own vine and fig tree. He often referred to it as his goal to only return to his farm and live a simple life.
The phrase every man under his own vine and fig tree appears in the Bible in three places, describes the freedom and independence that God's people enjoy under his rule. To Washington, the phrase referred to living in peace and prosperity, enjoying their own property of grapevines and fig trees and the independence of the private citizen farmer who is free for military oppression. To read, meditate, pray, and converse together. George Washington was called the indispensable Man.
He wasn't allowed to go back to his farm for very long. Once again, his nation needed him to help draw up this new constitution. When asked to be the presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention, he said, Have I not yet done enough for my country? America is a new nation struggling to make its new representative government work in an ancient world still dominated by royalty and kings.
So when this new constitution was finally drawn up and there was a new executive branch of the federal government, of course, Washington was viewed as the only man who could establish and define what the presidency was. And he was unanimously elected as the first president of the United States. The man who could have been king defined what the peaceful transition of power looked like by stepping down after only two terms as president.
It was April of 1789 and retired General George Washington prepared to leave his farm in Virginia to set out for New York City. This is not the first time he's left the farm and loved ones behind. This man had already done more than his part because he chose to step up and answer the call and be the one in his generation. George Washington had a date with destiny, one that will change the world forever by establishing a relationship between God and America. Based on the Book of Genesis.
This was a day of making a covenant with Almighty God for the United States of America. A proclamation was made for the sacred gathering of Federal Hall. Quote, Come and see your President. Take his oath of office today that God will accept this land as his. At 9 a.m., the bells rang throughout the city. See what I have here? It's commemorating an amazing event that had never been done before.
This is the inauguration scene captured in sculpture George Washington with his hand on the Bible that's opened to Genesis in the story of God's covenant with Abraham. We have a copy of that Bible right here. It's George Washington's inaugural Bible. He didn't just merely open the Bible, he opened it up and laid his hand specifically upon the covenant God made with Abraham in the Book of Genesis and lifting his other arm up toward heaven.
Washington made a vow to lead our nation and honor the God of Israel and His covenant. After Washington invoked his oath and covenant under the Lord He sealed it with. So help me God. And the crowd roared. He then bowed his knee to the ground in reverence and kissed the Bible. Washington was deliberate in his actions that day, and he fulfilled his destiny to start America out based on the foundation of the Word of God. So the point of this story is this.
When you pray for our nation, every prayer has to be based on some kind of covenant with God. George Washington takes his place in history. He insisted in his humble way on just being called Mr. President. A revolution that began with self-evident truths had given birth to a constitution and a leader to preserve, protect and defend it. This was not the end, but just the beginning. And George Washington saw it as a beginning based on a covenant with the Almighty.
Immediately after the inauguration, Washington called the senators and newly elected officials to join him, and they walked arm in arm down the streets of New York to St Paul's Chapel. Once they were there, they bowed together, they prayed, and they dedicated this land, our beloved America, to God. The day when George Washington was inaugurated was the day the covenant was invoked and America belonged to God Almighty. The first recorded act of Congress was to make a covenant with God.
We have the prayers that they prayed. Now, not all, but some of them that were prayed that day. These are the prayers we should be praying in our church. When Ronald Reagan took the oath of office, he turned to the 17th chapter of Genesis, just like Washington. And I'm satisfied, knowing him, that he got that from Washington. The first president, the first Congress, the first covenant, the first act of government was to enter into a divine covenant with the almighty God.
America and Israel have always been closely knit together where covenant people's God made covenant with Israel, declared their borders, made them a nation. We became a free nation based upon the principles in the book, the principles of the Bible. And we made covenant with God. God never forgets His covenant. My covenant will not break, nor alter the words of God out from my mouth. We have a covenant with God. I pray for the nation. God remembers His covenant.
George Washington began this nation with a covenant and God's waiting on someone to use this covenant. So as Brother Copeland says, it's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and George. This is the prayer that we are praying. And I'm crying out to you in faith. The book of Exodus says his people cried out to hear him and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So we're invoking the covenant for this nation in Jesus name. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, even as George Washington stood there and prayed, Lord, we remind you of that covenant. We remind ourselves of the covenant that was struck that day. And, Lord, we thank you for this nation. We thank you for all that you've done for us, the freedom that we live in. And, Lord, we remind ourselves of the covenant you brought to us and our leadership. And we thank you for it.
In Jesus name, Amen. The Liberty Bell is inscribed with a quote from the Book of Leviticus that says, Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants. And as Brother Copeland reminds us that they rang that bell until they broke it. They cracked the thing. They rang in so hard. And that's what we plan to do proclaim liberty all through this land based on our covenants in the word of God.
Now, much of what we've talked about is highlighted here in this book by Brother Copeland and Greg Stephens. God, the covenant and the contradiction. You can go to kcm.org for more information on how to order. Thank you again for watching Revival Radio TV. Let's keep in mind all that God did for this nation as we go forward. Remember, be the one in your generation. We'll see you next time.