Truly a Celebration of Liberty
by Virginia Stafford
In April 2007 God in his mercy gave me provision to go to the east coast as a delegate from California to attend the 400 year anniversary of this nation. This was not the anniversary of our independence from England that we celebrated July 4th, but rather the anniversary of our dependence as a nation upon the One True Living God. For it was April 29th in 1607 when the Virginia Company, under the leadership of Reverend Robert Hunt, went on shore at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and planted a cross in the sand dedicating this land to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Virginia Company had the mission of ‘enlarging the glory of the gospel of Christ’ which they did in their establishment of Jamestown and their evangelization of the Indian tribes surrounding them. Within a 30 year period all the tribes around Jamestown had received the gospel of Jesus Christ and were established in the faith.
It was upon these righteous roots that Jesus Christ was established as the cornerstone of this nation, America, when it was birthed as an independent nation in 1776.
The planting of the cross was not entered into lightly by this Virginia Company. The men spent 3 days in fasting and prayers of repentance before they planted the cross establishing covenant with a Holy God on this land. Likewise those representing the church of Jesus Christ in Virginia Beach this April 2007 spent 3 days in corporate repentance for the sins of our nation prior to the renewal of the covenant between America and the One True Living God. There was repentance over the sin of slavery, over the wrong treatment of the Native Americans during the course of our history, over the shedding of innocent blood through abortion in this land. There was repentance for the church of Jesus Christ allowing the corruption and infiltration of unbiblical mindsets into our government, our churches, our businesses, and our homes. We turned our hearts back to the One True Living God in repentance for our sins as a nation and Jesus Christ himself met us there to renew the marriage covenant. The Lord lowered a scepter on that day to this nation much like Esther was given the scepter by the king demonstrating the king’s willingness to receive her. The Lord is willing to receive a repentant, cleansed America.
What was done at the national level in April is moving out into the land. On 070707, there was a gathering in Nashville, TN calling for repentance and prayer for our nation. Many other locations in the United States held prayer gatherings where the church of Jesus Christ gathered to repent of personal sins and the sins of our nation. The Celebration of Liberty held at the California State Capitol was one such significant event in taking back the state of California for Jesus Christ. Isaiah 26:21 says, “See the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her: she will conceal her slain no longer.”
The Lord showed up at The Celebration of Liberty 070707 and He had a plan of revealing and reconciling blood shed in the land of California. California became a state based on greed and mammon, the love of money, for it was 1849, the time of the California Gold Rush, when men motivated by gold claimed California as a state. They went ahead of the federal government in doing this. They did not establish California on the righteous root of “enlarging the glory of the gospel”. In fact the first governor of the state set a law in motion to exterminate all the Indian tribes in California. The blood shed on the land has kept California in bondage to a culture of death ever since. On 070707 a representative from California Senator Cogdill’s office, Cheryl Birch, was there to welcome as onto the Capitol grounds. Later, as a government employee of the state of California, she was used of the Lord as a willing vessel to repent of the sin of allowing this slaughter of the Native American people and to make a public apology to the First Nations people represented there that day. A Native American representing the First Nations people gave a public response of forgiveness and declared that her people were being released from sorrow into joy. There followed a time of joy and dancing, Native American style. It was the “Day of the Dance” for the Native Americans in California, a true Celebration of Liberty.
God clearly has guided us into a year of celebrating not only America’s roots in Christ but also a deliverance for the First Nation’s people of America. 400 years has Biblical significance for deliverance. The Israelites were in bondage for 400 years before they were delivered out of Egypt. There was a 400 year period of silence between the time of the books of the prophets and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ through his birth in Bethlehem. This 400 year period was a period of bondage that was ended by deliverance. The Israelites were delivered from bondage by the hand of God under the leadership of Moses. The Jews were delivered from a silent waiting time of depending upon the law which brings death when after 400 years the Messiah came to fulfill the law and bring life. This year at America’s 400 year anniversary we see that the First Nation’s people, the Native Americans, are being delivered from bondage. They are being honored as the gatekeepers of the land.
Just as they were honored in Virginia, we wish to give them honor in California. The Celebration of Liberty set forth a new call on the church of Jesus Christ in California to ‘enlarge the glory of the gospel’ among the Native Americans, to partner with them in the worship of the Lord, and to release them to their destiny call as the gate keeper’s of the land. The scriptures speak of how Jesus came for this purpose in Ephesians 2:14-18 “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” As a result of The Celebration of Liberty we look forward to many times of worshipping in one accord, Native Americans and Anglo Saxons, in the land of California.
I believe that on 070707, as we continued in repenting of our sins as a state, that the church of Jesus Christ in California and particularly the Native American’s in the church were being given a release of the Spirit of the Lord. As we met on the south Capitol lawn that day and declared Jesus Christ as Lord over California, we turned our hearts and our state over to the One True Living God. We repented for our sins of commission and omission against the Spirit of the One True Living God.
We said, “You are welcome here Spirit of the One True Living God. We ask you to come into our state like a flood and raise up a standard against the enemy.”(Isaiah 59:19) We said that we are repentant for going our own way and depending on man’s wisdom, counsel, and might. We declared and will continue to proclaim daily, “Come, 7 fold Spirit of God, come with Your wisdom, Your understanding, Your counsel, and Your might. Come with Your knowledge and bring us Your Fear of the Lord. Rest upon us Spirit of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:2) “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty!” 2nd Corinthians 3:17.
That day we exchanged the desire for man’s ways and gold in the natural, for the refined gold of the supernatural, the ways of God’s Spirit. In this the bride of Christ in this state and this nation will be cleansed and made ready for the bridegroom. We say, “Lord Jesus we love you and ask you to come to California, to America, and renew the covenant of our wedding vows.”
posted by Celebration of Liberty 070707 @ 9:38 AM
