"Give Me Liberty Or Gove Me Death!"
St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA served as the legislative assembly hall for the House of Burgesses. It was in this historic building that Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech on March 23, 1775 that would earn him the title as the “Voice of the Revolution.”
“Give me liberty or give me death,” was the cumulative statement in a speech urging the use of military force against the British Empire in order to establish independence for the American colonies.
“Taxation without representation” was one of the primary issues that served to kindle the fires of REVOLUTION in the heart of this revolutionary.
A year later the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and a war for freedom would ensue that would last until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
TODAY we are nearly 250 years removed from that historic moment in time and once again in desperate need for “Voices of Revolution” to arise and call out “Give me liberty or give me death!”
“...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY.” 2 Corinthians 3:17
Churches across this nation are praying for “revival” to sweep across our land. Prayer towers have been built that stand as impenetrable fortresses where the saints gather and cry out for a move of God to somehow come and fix everything.
“Send in the harvest O’Lord!” “Bring the provision!” “Cure societies ills!” “Bind up the oppressor!”
JUST DON’T make US leave our ivory towers of denominationalism, dead religion, self-gratifying pseudo-spirituality and powerless phony-faith! I have found that there is very little that resembles the liberty or freedom that the Word of God speaks of present in what we call today’s “Church.”
“Taxation without representation” drew the ire of Patrick Henry in 1775 and it draws the ire of this revolutionary in 2007! NOT the “taxation” that is associated with government entities or the “representation” obtained through elected officials—–I speak of an entirely different “taxation without representation” than this.
To “tax” something is to place a burden, demand, or excessive strain upon something or someone.”
To “represent” is to stand as an example of something or someone.
In today’s “Church” there are just way too many demands being placed upon people without leadership providing any real examples to follow! They are taxing the Body of Christ with their religious bondages while being anything but a true and genuine example of the ministry of Jesus!
Where have our representatives of brokenness for a lost and dying world gone? Where have our examples of self sacrifice been hidden away? Where is the liberty to worship Jesus with a reckless abandon? Where is the compassion to set the captives free and to bind up the brokenhearted?
Where is the VOICE OF REVOLTION that preaches a message that causes the armies of the Lord to rise up stand against this tyrannical enemies of the Cross?
When Patrick Henry finished making his famous speech, it was followed by a moment of deafening silence!
Revelation 8:1-5 says, “When he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven...I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints... And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and THERE WERE VOICES…”
If you read the next few verses, it may appear that all hell is breaking loose, but in reality all heaven is breaking loose! The silence in the House of Burgesses was fractured by a clarion call of “To arms! To arms!” as the assembly hall erupted into a unified chorus finally coming to the decision to take the necessary action of REVOLUTION!
“There were voices…” said the Revelator. “There are voices” declares the Revolutionary!
The Colonist were faced with the difficult decision to utilize military force to obtain the type of freedom that they had long sought. They knew that this decision would come at a great cost and would place enormous demands upon each of them personally. They were being faced with the realization that genuine liberty demanded that they put their lives on the line!
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:25
Revolution needs Revolutionaries and “revolutionaries” lay down their lives!
Revival will not be seen in the Church until after there arises a Revolution. The Body of Christ is just not ready for a genuine “revival” to take place in their midst. We have created a spiritual atmosphere that is not conducive for it to take place.
Revival is an intrusion into normalcy. I sat with the pastor of a larger church a few years ago as he told me, “Our desire is to see revival break forth in our city.” I interrupted him and said, “Pastor, I don’t think you really are.”
What the pastor wanted was not revival but instead survival. He wanted the work that he had started to survive and at the very least maintain the level of success that it had experienced up to that point. An intrusion into these things would just not fit into the program!
During the American Revolution there were a group of people called loyalists that were adamantly opposed to what Patrick Henry spoke of. This was a relatively small group (15% of the people), but they were the ones that stood to lose the most as a result of revolution.
They already “had theirs.” To revolt against the establishment would only put in peril the things that they had built up for themselves; reasoning that they had nothing to gain and everything to lose. What is ironic is that they were called the loyalist—when their loyalty only went as far as their own comforts, goals and ambitions! Were they really loyal?
Luke 5:37-39 “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, The old is better.”
“Revolution” is by definition: A radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure; especially one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence.
The only way that TRUE REVIAL will be seen in the Churches of America is if a spiritual REVOLUTION takes place first! We have become too loyal to the “old wine skins” and have hoped that we could somehow have the best of both worlds—–but instead of seeing the new wine “overflow” we have created an environment where it is “spilled out and wasted.”
This “Revolution” or radical and pervasive change that occurs suddenly and often accompanied by violence” is the catalyst for last days revival.
REVIVAL IS THE REVELATION OF THE KINGDOM.
“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand.”
“”But seek first the Kingdom…”
“Jesus...preached the Gospel of the Kingdom.”
“The Kingdom of God comes not with observation...it is within you.”
If you are EVER going to experience REVIVAL then you are going to have to understand the KINGDOM and the only way that you will experience His Kingdom is through a REVOLUTION against the “kingdoms” or “old wine skins” that have claimed “representation” yet have failed in truly being representative of Jesus Christ in this world.
“The Kingdom of Heaven suffers
violence and the violent
take it by force.”
“To Arms! To Arms! To Arms!”
While the “give me liberty or give me death” phrase is the most remembered line in Patrick Henry’s speech, the rest of the sentence is what really brings it into context.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Are you being held in the chains of slavery to dead, tired religion? Have the chains of compromise bound you to the old wineskins and loyalty of something that promises life but only wreaks of the stench of something that has long expelled its final breath?
“Forbid it, Almighty God”—– I love that! It was as though Patrick Henry was saying, “Please dear God—don’t let me sell out to these things!”
“I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”
Joshua 24:15 “Choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
God is raising up and calling out a generation of REVOLUTIONARIES in this late hour who will cry out “To Arms, To Arms” against the subtle, yet destructive bonds of man-made and man-centered religion.
True LIBERTY in Christ Jesus can only be realized through a TRUE COMMITMENT to “representing” His interests instead of our own.
Blessings,
Pastor Troy D. Bohn
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