God Remembers Covenants Made With Him

Praise God for His faithfulness in fulfilling His covenants with respect to the United States and India.

Although these two nations have different histories and cultures, they are spiritually linked by the vision and many prayers of countless people who went before them and anticipated and participated in fulfillment of the Great Commission. It is no accident or coincidence that the ministry of India Gospel Outreach began in the US, just as it is no accident or coincidence that India’s greatest missionaries today are primarily other Indian men and women.

God created us in His image for relationship. God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. He made us in His image, expecting us to become covenant-making-and-keeping people as well, when joined with His purposes (read and study Isaiah 22:22 with Matthew 16:19).

He gave us authority over the earth and expects us to exercise it. When we exercise authority and covenant-making in God’s way, all goes well. When we don’t exercise our authority in God’s way, Satan takes over and fills the vacuum we leave. It took Christ’s death on the cross for us to retrieve what we lost. God’s original plan remains in force today. Paul plainly tells us in Romans 16:20 that He will crush Satan under OUR feet!

It won’t happen in the “sweet bye and bye," but here on earth. It will not only save souls for heaven but disciple whole nations until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea (Matthew 28:19; Habakkuk 2:14).

In passages such as Matthew 16 and 28, we see how Jesus expects us to work in human history as His redeemed people, to help bring about His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Throughout history, a remnant of God’s people have understood and taken this divine mandate to heart. This story includes the US and India. The story is a fascinating one, seldom if ever taught in our classrooms, and too little known, but we will share tidbits of it here.

For our present purposes, our story begins in the late 16th century with Richard Hakluyt, an Englishman, probably the most knowledgeable European geographer of his time, who avidly studied the maps and accounts of explorers to the New World from various countries. In 1584, he wrote “A Discourse on Western Planting," a treatise promoting the settlement of English colonies in “Virginia," now known to us as “North America."

Often ignored or suppressed by secular historians is that he was also an ordained Anglican priest with a Great Commission vision who understood his God-given authority and used it.

For him, the British people benefitted beyond measure when Roman Christians brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to England. The gospel ultimately transformed Britain’s people from disunited, illiterate and occultic tribes into a united Christian, literate and civilized society capable of influencing other nations.

Did not the British people owe a debt of love to other peoples of the world who could benefit from the same gospel of Jesus Christ as they had? This became one of his major motivations for setting up an English presence in North America. For years, it was his life goal, his constant prayer. Certainly, God must have moved him to have this huge dream that would affect many peoples and generations after him. The Jamestown colony is a major result of his actions.

By the time the Jamestown colony was established in 1607, Richard Hakluyt was too old to make the trip himself, but a younger friend and fellow Anglican priest, Robert Hunt, shared his vision and went as the first chaplain of the Jamestown settlement. The leadership of the new colony insisted on bringing with them a rough wooden cross to glorify God for their mission.

The ships made landfall at a place which they named Cape Henry in honor of the oldest son and heir apparent of King James I (he died in 1612). On the ship, Robert Hunt repeatedly emphasized to the men that they had embarked on a sacred mission. The moment had come to begin that mission. Before going ashore, he prevailed upon them to first spend three days in prayer to repent of sin and consecrate themselves before God.

Only after these three days did Robert Hunt lead the men ashore and plant the cross in the sand. With cold winds, crashing waves and loud seagulls overhead, everyone gathered around the cross, and Robert Hunt led them in the first formal English prayer service in the New World. That day, April 29, 1607, he claimed the land for England and dedicated the continent to the glory of God with these prophetic words:

“We do hereby dedicate this land and ourselves to reach the people within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to raise up godly generations after us, and with these generations, take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this covenant of dedication remain to all generations as long as the earth remains, and may this land, along with England, be Evangelist to the world. May all who see this Cross remember what we have done here, and may those, who come here to inhabit, join us in this covenant and in this noblest work that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled. From these very shores, the gospel shall go forth, not only to this New World, but the entire world."

After this declaration, he read the following Bible passage:

“All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the Kingdom is the Lord’s, and He ruleth among the nations" (Psalm 22:27-28).

This covenant before God, voiced by Robert Hunt, was the first official act by the English to establish a long-term presence on the North American continent. Was Robert Hunt thinking of India when he voiced this covenant with God? We cannot say, but certainly, India was included in this covenant when he declared that it included “the entire world." “Godly generations after us" and “all generations" invite our own generation 400+ years later to join their efforts.

This covenant before God had a strong impact over the coming years as increasing numbers of English settlers accepted the invitation. It was voiced in many different forms—repeated in the Mayflower Compact, in various colonial constitutions, in the founding documents of 106 of the first 108 colleges established in the country, and in many other documents, writings and sermons, long before the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in 1776 and 1787.

As most of us know, since that day, the US has played a leading role in the development of the mission movement around the world—praying, training, sending and giving to fulfill the Great Commission. It is no accident or coincidence that India Gospel Outreach had its beginnings in the US.

In India, the founding of India Gospel Outreach was preceded by the ministries and prayers of English people such as William Carey and Charles Grant. Though both men came from England, they dedicated themselves to apply Christian principles, not to turn Indians into Europeans, but to raise up an Indian society consistent with both its culture and the Bible. We don’t have the space to speak of William Carey’s innumerable contributions to
India’s future.

Charles Grant, Chairman of the British East India Company, advocated Christian missions and saw Britain’s duty, not to exploit India’s resources but to civilize and Christianize India, preparing India for independence. His visionary and pioneering efforts made possible India’s present educational system, health system and opened the door for thousands of missionaries to evangelize parts of India that had no previous Christian influence.

Pastors K E Abraham, Stephen Abraham, Valson Abraham and other Indian men and women like them come from this spiritual heritage and further its Indian roots.

Growing numbers like them envisioned a harvest force of Indian men and women committed to taking the gospel of Jesus Christ into all of unreached India joined in partnership with like-minded Americans and others around the world. They began with India Bible College and Seminary, and since 1984, IGO has launched Bible training centers throughout India. India’s harvest force continues to grow, voicing the Good News in word and power.

At the same time, many forces in the US and India, especially in the last century, have arisen to oppose the kingdom of God on earth. Some of those forces lie both within the church itself and outside the church. The US church has acted largely lukewarm and powerless. Only a remnant actively believes in the Great Commission. In recent years, Christians in India have faced unprecedented government persecution and the negative results of a massive pandemic.

In the US, younger generations, even many who have grown up in the church, have come to regard the church as irrelevant. They look elsewhere for answers to life’s questions. The future looks bleak as old foundations and assumptions are attacked and ridiculed by those in power. Young people are taught to hate their Christian roots. Most of them know nothing of the covenants their forefathers made with God to advance His kingdom on earth as in heaven.

But God is a covenant-keeping God. He is not deterred by clever plots and schemes of those who hate Him and submit to gods of this world, drunk with power and seemingly endless wealth, eager to cast off their Christian roots. But He has willed that people like us join with Him to complete what our forefathers have begun. In Hebrews 11, we have a list of men and women of faith through whom He fulfilled His promises during their lifetimes. However, the writer also notes faithful saints who did NOT see their God-given promises fulfilled in their lifetimes. They truly believed, but didn’t see their promises fulfilled. Why is that?

The writer tells us in Hebrews 11:40 the prayers and covenants of our forefathers would be completed and matured through future generations who received the baton of faith from their spiritual forebears. That is, people like us, the spiritual descendants of Richard Hakluyt, Robert Hunt, our Pilgrim fathers, and many others who shared their vision.

Our present generation has the opportunity to continue the callings God placed upon our forefathers. What God started through them He matures and completes through us and those who come after us. God does not necessarily think in terms of fulfilling promises and covenants in one generation but over multiple generations.

Dutch Sheets, a pastor who has also led a prayer ministry for many years, speaks of what he calls the “synergy of the ages." “Synergy," he defines as “the multiplication of power through a combined effort. In almost all cases in the physical world, one plus one equals two. But...when two or more people combine their efforts and strengths, power is multiplied—not just added to. God so prioritizes unity and agreement that He created a phenomenon through which power multiplies when people work and pray together!"

"Synergy," he continues, “not only operates in the physical realm; it also exists in the spiritual realm. Prayer is one obvious example. Spiritual synergy takes place when two or more people agree in prayer. The result is that through this multiplied power much more is accomplished than would have been had they prayed alone.

"Leviticus 26:8 teaches us about this power of multiplication, “Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before your sword." ... When we agree in prayer, power increases exponentially." He continues with this profound thought: “Synergy also occurs through generational connections. When the ways and spiritual strengths of one generation are walked in by the next, power and fruit multiply. Spiritual mantles, another word for callings and giftings, multiply in effectiveness through generational synergy (2 Kings 2:9). God’s plan is always for the present generation to build on and multiply the strengths of the previous. This is the synergy of the ages—multiplied power and fruitfulness through generational agreement and honor."

The writer of Hebrews is reminding us that we must not only agree in prayer with the people who pray with us but also with those who have gone before us because we are maturing and completing their visions and prayers. Did Richard Hakluyt and Robert Hunt think of America and India with the possibilities we see in them today? Most likely not, and that is why we are needed to expand their vision and prayers with our own.

Clearly, the vision has not been fully realized. Anyone going to India today immediately grasps that India has yet to become fully discipled, “filled with the knowledge of the glory of God." This is true in most parts of the world today, including our own, as godless agendas fight to claim ascendancy.

Will we take the baton of our forefathers and become part of the "synergy of the ages." Will we grasp a winning scenario with a big God who faithfully keeps His Word? Or will we embrace a losing scenario that allows us to see ourselves and the world as hopelessly trapped in a prison of evil, failing to see the doors that Christ has already opened at the cross? The decision is up to you and me.

In the end, God will win. Let our generation win with Him as we accept the invitation of our forefathers to seize Christ’s victory at the cross and take the gospel to the entire world, India included, where more than one out of six people live today.

Pray for the greatest revival and awakening to Christ in world history that fulfills the covenant that Robert Hunt and others made with God, above anything they could have thought or imagined, sweeping America, India and the rest of the world.

Pray for India and a world in which the knowledge of God will truly cover the earth as the waters cover the seas.

Pray that the best days of IGO lie ahead, fulfilling its purpose in ways unimaginable.

Pray that this awakening will become strong among all generations young and old.