On Wednesday, February 4, 2026, believers gathered in Pennsylvania’s State Capitol—joining with those assembled in Washington, D.C.—to repent, pray, and worship together. This sacred time of prayer and praise rose as a powerful anthem to our Lord, imploring Him to hear our cries of repentance, offering thanksgiving for His faithfulness and goodness, and humbly asking Him to heal our land.

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During the service, a prophetic act took place as the Appeal to Heaven flag was placed over the keystone in the Capitol. General George Washington commissioned the use of this flag during the American Revolution for naval and early American forces. Inspired by the philosophy of John Locke, the flag symbolizes an appeal to God for justice when earthly authority fails—a declaration of dependence on divine righteousness and sovereign guidance.

PA Senator Doug Mastriano shared a compelling word during the service filled with historical stories. He quoted 1 Corinthians 1:27: “God uses the foolish to confound the wise and the weak to confound the strong.” He shared how he felt the Lord had called him into government despite his not wanting to do so. He emphasized the importance of answering God’s call because it could be one’s Esther moment. He shared that General Von Schleicher in Nazi Germany could have stopped Hitler, but he chickened out. He had missed his Esther moment, and God had to raise a deliverer from elsewhere, taking 10 years to get to that place of deliverance.

He went on to say that William Penn gave birth to the nation and not just the colony known as Pennsylvania. In 1667, a wealthy young kid touring the properties of his father in Ireland, a completely lost soul who stopped to listen to a street preacher (Thomas Lowe), heard that you can be forgiven of your sins by Jesus Christ if you accept Him as Lord and Savior. That young man was William Penn. That day, he became convinced, as Quakers say, and became very bold about his faith.

In those days in the UK, you could not talk about Jesus without a permit. You had to be licensed, but William Penn would have none of that, and he preached everywhere, landing in jail six times for talking about Jesus without permission from the king. One time, King Charles II, who was a very close friend of William’s father and was ashamed of him, kicked William out of his house. A painting depicting this hangs in the governor’s reception room.

Penn had a vision of something like Pennsylvania. He was writing books while in the Tower of London on freedom and freedom of religion, framing our Constitution and Bill of Rights in so many ways. He did this all the while he was in jail, 100 years before this country existed.

Because the king liked Penn’s father, he offered to let him out of jail if he toned down his preaching about Jesus. Penn said he’d rather die in jail than deny the Lord. Senator Mastriano went on to reference Jesus’s teaching in Matthew on being faithful in small things and how God rewards you. Penn, he further explained, was faithful in small things, and before you knew it, he inherited his father’s land and fortune as well as the debt that the king owed to him due to his father’s passing.

The king could not pay back the debt but gave Penn this chunk of land across the sea that would be named after his father – Pennsylvania, Penn’s Woods, and he was appointed governor. He shaped and framed our form of government right here in Pennsylvania. The Bill of Rights came from his own experiences of not wanting anyone to be imprisoned for their faith, nor talking about Jesus, or having differing political beliefs.

Senator Mastriano referenced the banner of George Washington that hangs on the wall of the Senate, which states, “Let us raise a banner that the righteous may rally around it.” He said it is right that the Appeal to Heaven Flag was raised on this date at the keystone of our nation.

He talked about how Pennsylvania won a victory in mitigating and restraining the overreach of the governor during the pandemic lockdowns. He expressed that more and more vindication is coming regarding the stolen 2020 election. He quoted Jesus when He said, “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” He stated that we stand in the shadows of giants like William Penn and George Washington.

He regaled us with a story about George Washington during the French Indian War, where he was almost killed three times around Butler, Pennsylvania. Once during an ambush on the way to Fort Duquesne, the chief told his fighters to kill the only white man on horseback (George Washington). His warriors shot at him and missed every time. George Washington got off his horse and found 8 holes in his tunic. The chief told him that the Great Spirit had His hand upon George Washington when they met later on. The chief had told his warriors to stop trying to kill him since God was protecting him. There was an incident where George Washington almost drowned near Butler, and a third time, an Indian scout volunteered to try to kill him in the 1750s. The Hand of Providence had protected him.

He referenced the “stuttering fool” (as he was called) from Maine during the battle of Gettysburg. This man was told he would never amount to anything, but God healed him of his speech impediment and told him to sing out the words he had trouble saying. He became one of our greatest orators. God used the foolish things to confound the wise and the weak to confound the strong.

This man, who was told he’d amount to nothing, led a bayonet attack at the base of Little Round Top and drove the Alabamians and Texans back when they were on the cusp of victory against us. The Fourth and Fifth Texans under Major Rogers would say that they won every battle until God stopped them on Little Round Top.

He went on to say this nation was preserved by men and women who, in the eyes of the world, were foolish and weak. God chooses to use broken people like us in our weakness and in our frailties.

He explained that we were the first colony that banned slavery in the 1700s, thanks to the missionary work of a weak, frail man from New Jersey called John Woolman, who traveled all 13 colonies discussing the efficacy of Christians owning other people because Jesus came to set the captives free. How can you set people in bondage? And thanks to his work, it ended peacefully in Pennsylvania.

He further stated that across the sea in England, they had William Wilberforce, who dedicated his entire life to fighting against the slave trade and prevailed because of his Christian faith and witness. He was led to the Lord by John Newton. Amazing Grace.

Further, when he got saved, Wilberforce said he was going to quit politics and become a preacher, and thank God, John Newton essentially said, ‘Oh, no, you’re not going anywhere, brother.’ We need Christians in politics. That shadow lay across America during the Civil War. That was the hand that kept the French, British, and Spanish from entering the war earlier because of slavery…because of his work against the slave trade and exposing the horrors of it.

Senator Mastriano continued, and then we fast forward to Pennsylvania once again on September 11th, 2001…. Flight 93, Todd Beamer, and so many others, 40 passengers, innocent victims. They heard about the World Trade Center; they heard about the Pentagon. They knew their plane was headed to a bad place. And so he (Todd) tried to call his wife, Lisa, but got the operator, who happened to be a Christian. They prayed together, quoting from the Psalms of David, and then the Lord’s Prayer, and his last words were ‘let’s roll’.

His speech culminated in the following powerful admonition. So, as we roll into the 250th birthday of America, let’s roll into a new birth of freedom. And we remember where the light of liberty was lit in 1776, the new birth of freedom in 1863, and in 2001. Let’s roll. This is our time, brothers and sisters; this is our day. Let’s rise up and stand firmly and boldly as William Penn did in those dark days when he was thrown in jail for speaking his faith about Jesus, and all this, we’re saying in Jesus’s name, Amen.

During Senator Mastriano’s profound and prophetic speech and throughout the entire service, Ricardo Colon, a prophetic worship artist, quietly painted his prophetic vision granted to him by our Lord. I had the privilege of sitting down with him to hear his story.

He shared that he is known as “The Silent Preacher,” explaining that his art does the preaching for him—and that it speaks very loudly. He testified that the Lord speaks to him through the Scriptures, which he then translates onto the canvas. Often, he receives a vision that he paints, followed by the interpretation that brings everything together as a prophetic declaration.

He emphasized that prayer always precedes his work. Before he ever begins to paint, he seeks the Lord, and God responds by giving revelation, Scripture, and insight that guide each piece. In this way, his art becomes both an act of worship and a visual proclamation of God’s truth.

He shared that he has been worshiping the Lord through prophetic art for more than 30 years, beginning in the Bronx, New York City. Early on, he approached his pastor to ask if he could quietly paint during worship services in the back of the sanctuary. Instead, his pastor told him he wanted him positioned up front, where the congregation could see what God was doing through the artwork.

During one service, he received a sobering vision of Jesus leaving the church—an incredibly difficult message to convey to both the pastor and the congregation. After receiving and weighing the word, the church responded with humility and repentance. They entered into a season of a cappella worship and committed to a 21-day fast. This time culminated in a powerful outpouring of God’s presence, marked by six hours of uninterrupted worship, repentance, tears, prayer, and praying in tongues as the glory of God filled the church.

He went on to explain that he also creates personal prophetic art and shared a powerful testimony connected to this ministry. A woman whose husband had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer commissioned him to paint a piece for her husband. The artwork depicted the man swimming upstream through a cascading waterfall, struggling against the powerful current as salmon swam past him. In the painting, the man could not see what lay above the waterfall, as the rushing water obscured his view. What was hidden from his sight, however, was an angel standing above the falls, reaching a hand down toward him.

The man’s wife brought the painting to the hospital, where she gathered members of their church around her husband. Together, they prayed over him. Through this powerful moment of faith, the man was completely healed of stage 4 cancer.

Mr. Colon’s heart is to encourage and uplift, but God takes it to a whole other level. He takes his work very seriously and listens to the Lord as to what He wants to impart to the person for whom he is painting. The art is geared to individuals, but he has also painted during concerts and worship services. He expressed that as he prays, the brush moves.

Mr. Colon’s prophetic art piece at the end of the service is titled: WE RISE.

He offered this prophetic declaration from America Prays at the Pennsylvania State Capitol. “In the spirit, I saw the hands of God reaching down into the miry clay, and He lifted up an eagle. In the talons of that eagle was the American flag, muddy, torn, yet still held. As we gather here in the Capitol of Pennsylvania, a seat of government and history, the Lord says, “I am the One who lifts.”

“As the eagle rose, the mud began to fall away. What clung to it could not remain. What was hidden was exposed. What weighed it down lost its grip. This mud represents the darkness, division, scandal, civil unrest, confusion, and deception that have covered this nation. And the Lord says, “It will not go with you where I am taking you.”

“Today, as America Prays, we declare that prayer is not passive; it shifts atmospheres. As worship rises, as intercession goes forth, heaven responds. The Lord says, “This is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit. This is a lifting season.”

“As America approaches her 250th year, God is restoring identity. The flag in the eagle’s talons declares: “You are still Mine. You are still called. You are still held. What is being restored here is the foundation. A return to the Rock. A return to righteousness. A return to faith. And through this art exhibition, the Lord says, “I am speaking without words.”

“This art is not decoration, it is declaration. It is a silent preacher, releasing truth into the halls of influence. The Lord says, “From this place, I am lifting vision. From this place, I am cleansing what has been stained. From this place, I am calling My people to rise.”

“Those who wait on the Lord will mount up with wings as eagles. They will not remain in the pit. They will not be defined by the mire. What I see over this gathering is mercy in motion. Not collapse, but ascent. Not abandonment, but the hands of God still holding America.”

“And as He lifts…WE RISE!!!”

May we receive encouragement and a breath of fresh Holy Spirit wind as we persevere in our intercession for this land…the land of the free and the home of the brave…one nation under God. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings too closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Hebrews 12:1. “Let us not grow weary in our well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9

Share your thoughts and prayers in the comments.

April Walker is a new contributor to Intercessors for America and is involved in the Pennsylvania state prayer group. Photo Credit: J. Passepartout – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138870527.