THAT IDOLATRY THING -- ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

By James Wilson

             By secular standards Herod the Great is one of the greatest kings Judea ever had.  He produced public works from aqueducts to arenas, kept most people working, and had enough foreign policy savvy to keep Roman occupiers at arms’ length.  Of course prophets reject Herod as an enemy of God because he kills any who cross him and puts himself in the place of God for all practical purposes.  Jesus tells his disciples to reject the influence of both Herod and the Pharisees in Mark 8:14-21.  He rejects these influences because they are idolatry, which is nothing but the elevation of our creations onto a throne reserved for the real Creator.

            The Pharisees – dominant religious authorities – were no better.  Their idolatry was to elevate their law, inspired by Ten Commandments but bloated to nearly seven hundred commandments of their own invention, to obsessively cross every T and dot every I they could imagine.  When Jesus heals on the Sabbath – in fulfillment of God’s Old Testament admonition to show mercy at all times – the Pharisees demand an accounting.  He violates their law – which they worship – mistaking it for the God they reject.

            In the Garden of Eden the first people disobey God by eating forbidden fruit despite His admonition to leave it alone.  But their sin is to place their will to know and understand on the throne of the One who already does.  Idolatry goes back a long way and it keeps on returning to the prominence it demands for itself in California.

             During California’s Gold Rush we placed our will to strike it rich ahead of God’s commands to love one another, treat one another honestly, and steward the environment of the most wonderful place on the planet.  We slaughtered Native inhabitants – and any Euros we considered to be rivals – while we stole claims and goods from one another and raped the environment to get at the gold.  We enslaved Natives, Blacks and Asians even after California was admitted to the Union as a free state because we decided our legal rights (the 13^th Amendment had not yet become law in 1850) trumped God’s word that His Son sets all free.  Today the state government – through taxpayers – funds thirty thousand annual abortions; we place our love of self-determination in all things above the overwhelming witness of science that every pregnancy is against all odds.  California leads the nation in abortion and suicide disproportionately to our share of the population; this is the fruit of militant self-determination.  That’s right – abortion AND suicide.

            Today we adopt laws denying young people seeking to escape same sex attractions the right to counseling and – in the same spirit – adults the right to work if advocates of small fish or opponents of fossil fuels are offended.  We mandate the end of privacy for school-aged young people in misguided efforts to help the gender dysphoric feel better about themselves despite the fact these measures help none.  And we preside over an economy so dysfunctional through over-regulation that five of the ten most difficult US cities for young people seeking work are in California.  This is the fruit of idolizing the human will to make things and people better.  This is sin of which we in the Rain and Reign Coalition repent on behalf of ourselves and the state we love.  But what do we need to do; what is the practical outflow of repentance after prayer?

             That outflow should re-focus our attention on God Himself and His vision for our state – any state – as a place that maximizes opportunity for all and places a premium on permitting each of its citizens to “work out your own salvation in fear and trembling,” as Paul writes in Philippians.  The outflow of that is to stop honoring the expressions of our idolatries from the Gold Rush to politically correct thought and from the slaughter of the unborn to the excesses of the environmentalist movement.  Our laws should reflect stewardship of the human and physical environment without the manipulation of it.  Thus ends the influence of Herod.

            Those churches and leaders who absent themselves from public affairs because their concern is otherworldly need to get a clue: this is the influence of the Pharisees – don’t look and don’t touch because you might make a mistake.  Jesus calls us to walk on water; Peter is repenting when he begins to sink and calls on His Lord to save him.

            What is required of us is both difficult and risky.  But it is not complex and it is our participation in the Kingdom of God in California if we choose to believe.  

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

SHED BLOOD AND A CULTURE OF SACRIFICE

By James Wilson

I met Jesus in April 1970 in an encounter both dramatic and intimate while proctoring an exam in a public high school in San Diego, California.  Two years prior I helped two friends abort their pregnancies; I found a doctor willing to perform (then) illegal abortions and borrowed the money from a relative. I had nothing to do with creating these pregnancies but in my mind there was no higher value than having your friends’ backs; I did what I believed needed to be done.  When I met Jesus He did not condemn me for what I had done in 1968.  It did not come up at all for a few weeks.

            In a Holy Spirit show of irony this hippy (me) was led into one of the most traditional and structured denominations; they even practiced “going to confession.”  When I asked the pastor what I should do next – as a new member with no previous experience of church – he told me to show up for confession the coming Saturday.  When I asked how I should prepare – seeing as how I lacked even a grasp of what might be called sin – he told me to write down everything I could think of in my past that might stand between me and God.  He said I should include even the apparently trivial and then he said something I thought odd but encouraging.  He said if some sinful incident came to mind after my confession I was not to worry about it; if the Lord had wanted me to deal with it then He would have brought it up in time for the confession.

            I was surprised at how much I remembered of clearly out of bounds behavior even to someone as clueless as myself; I had a laundry list by the time I got into that little booth I had only seen in movies before.  Midway through the exercise I heard a voice as clear as my own saying, “Don’t forget the abortions.”  There was no condemnation of me as a murderer of the unborn; neither were excuses offered on account of my ignorance.  There was only the instruction.  I walked out of that confessional convinced of two things.  Abortion is murder – the unjustified killing of a human being – and I dare not condemn those who have done what I did; I must speak the truth about this heinous act in love and humility.

            California leads the nation in elective abortions; our lead is far in excess of our share of the national population.  Our legislature recently adopted a law permitting even non-physicians to abort pregnancies despite the fact I could not abort my dog unless I have a doctor of veterinary medicine perform the procedure.  In each case we are doing – as I did – what seems the only realistic option in the face of emergency.  But we are so committed to aborting all unwanted pregnancies we forget Ludwig Von Beethoven was an unwanted pregnancy; we forget God knows more about what is both best and most realistic than we do.  And we forget substitution of our best for His is key to many sins. 

            Shedding innocent blood is sin that – when it becomes a social pattern – pollutes the land and atmosphere under and over wherever it is welcomed.  California taxpayers fund thirty thousand abortions yearly – on top of the multiple thousands paid for by the panicky parents seeking them.  It always seems like the only way out of a bad situation until we consider the overwhelming medical odds against any one pregnancy resulting in a live birth.  Truth is there is simply no way a pregnancy comes to term without the intervention of a loving God; if one were truly unplanned it would self-abort.  With the large numbers of couples desperately seeking to adopt there is no way a woman must be saddled with raising a child she does not want.  When we choose to bail out on a baby we are shedding innocent blood and spitting in God’s eye at the same time.  But what should we do?

            The first thing is to adopt the 40 Days for Life approach.  Bless and do not curse those with whom we disagree.  The second is to repent of our role in creating a culture where dealing death is so easily rationalized.  The silence of pastors, leaders, and everyone else is the reason it flourishes.  And last is to commit to a lifestyle in which we sacrifice ourselves for others – as Jesus did and does – instead of expecting others – whether unborn children or the driver one lane over – to sacrifice for us. 

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

RAIN AND REIGN -- A SUNDAY FOR REPENTANCE

By James Wilson

            I wrote in my last posting that the high pressure ridge keeping precipitation from the state hovered over us sixteen months and counting.  As the good rains of March and April came about that ridge began to disperse; it reappears, but for more natural spans, since a large cross-section of the Body of Christ has begun a particular process of sustained prayer and repentance over the state.

The Rain and Reign Coalition is a gathering of some thirty-five California ministries agreeing with each other to pray repentance – understood as re-focus of attention on God and His Kingdom – on behalf of ourselves and the state we love.  That re-focus includes renunciation of California’s historic sins.  We renounce shedding of innocent blood – from the unborn to Native peoples to victims of gang violence – and the idolatry of human ingenuity without reference to God’s vision and provision, the sexual sin of a state hosting the pornography industry and closing its eyes to human trafficking, and the many broken covenants past and present – from treaties with tribes to abandonment of families by their heads.  We do not dwell on sin, but we do commit ourselves to seeking opportunities to eliminate its presence and legacy.

The coalition is committed to daily prayer asking God to break the drought cycle, thanking and praising Him for the rain He has sent.  Some reservoirs are full and the hillsides are green already.  But we recognize that rainfall is hovering around half normal levels for this time of year even as the natural rainy season draws to a close.  The snowpack on which we depend for sustained water is less than a third normal depth.  We serve a God Who answers prayer quickly, and this is a deposit on His promise to bless the state.  Our resistance to accountability for past and present behavior is still in His Face, effectively blocking the fullness of His blessing.  Ongoing drought – and make no mistake the drought is indeed ongoing – comes not from divine rage but from God’s love which says He is absolutely determined to see us become all that we can be.  And so the coalition continues to pray and to call for prayer.   

Why do the heathen rage?  That is the question in Psalms 2.  The heathen are those who do not accept God as authoritative; it is an archaic term with no judgment in it.  But those who reject the notion that God’s Son died for them and so bought their abundant life often rage at any hint of accountability to a higher power.  Throw in the notion of responsibility for their ancestors’ acts and the rage becomes monumental.  (Never mind that we cheerfully accept the passed-down benefits of ancestral achievement.)  Frankly, I am not writing to or about the folks who reject God and His claim on our lives.  It is the Body of Christ God calls to repentance.  When the fruit of our repentance comes into the bin is time enough to look to a clueless world and ask if they want to share the bounty through joining us in repentance.

 National Day of Repentance is calling on churches across the nation to name May 4 Repentance Sunday.  Those who accept the call will engage some form of corporate repentance or re-focus on God and His Kingdom – as depicted in the Scriptures and not as we imagine it to be.  The willing are exhorted to renounce participation in the categories of sin cited above.  This is no call for sackcloth and ashes, much less self-flagellation, but for a humble acknowledgement that we have messed up and it is time to fess up.  Then and only then can we credibly ask God to lead us in the transformation of our communities and states into provinces of His Kingdom in the power of His Holy Spirit.  Then and only then can we say we are preparing for the Fourth Great Awakening in our land that He promises.

In the meantime, many claim there is nothing you can do about death, taxes, and weather.  They are wrong; we can pray and then walk through the doors we see opened only after concerted prayer.  Others travel the state claiming the drought is over.  They are wrong; we pray they – and we – become filled with God’s humility.  (Coalition members have committed to repenting until even secular authorities affirm the drought’s end.)  What is right on is the certainty God loves His people more than life itself.  There actually is a pony under all this…drought.

The next four postings deal separately and respectively with the patterns of historical sin in California.    

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

THAT HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE-- A SPIRITUAL AND SPATIAL REALITY

By James Wilson

(Editor’s Note:  The coalition described below has been praying daily and God has

dispersed the ridge and sent rain.  However, the drought is far from over.)

Meteorologists say the worst drought in California history is caused by a high pressure ridge of air in the upper atmosphere that has hovered over the state for more than a year.  The ridge deflects storms.  Such ridges are natural phenomena when they coalesce for days or even weeks; to hover over the state for sixteen months – and counting – is simply not natural.  It can only be called supernatural.  And if it can only be called supernatural it must be addressed in supernatural terms.

            The Bible provides that address.  In 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 God tells the Jewish People whenever He shuts down the heavens so that no rains fall they ought to “humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from your wicked ways.”  His promise is to hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. 

There are a couple of caveats before we proceed.  One is that God is not vindictive, but He is a God who stops at nothing to get our attention – even to shutting down the heavens.  The other is that the Hebrew word ra, or wicked, means literally inadequate or dysfunctional.  God is not judging us for inadequacy; as human beings we are naturally inadequate.  But the state of inadequacy becomes the sin of choosing dysfunctionality when we worship it, placing human efforts and understanding ahead of God.  California leads the nation in elective abortions – at a rate exceeding our share of national population; biblically that is shedding innocent blood.  California is a national leader in breaking all kinds of covenants, from the marriage covenant to holding Native American slaves in our early years to statewide officers refusing to enforce our laws and constitution; we are in denial of these things as a state.  California hosts the pornography and sex trafficking industries as just two examples of the sexual sin that is rampant here.  And California pays tribute to pagan deities by placing their statues in public buildings and worshipping them in some of our religious buildings; that is idolatry in Biblical parlance.  In each case we believe we are doing what must be done to cope with an inadequate world.  We place our understanding above what God says in Scripture.  That especially is idolatry – at its most subtle and most damaging.

These four categories of sin – if we believe the Bible – are adequate to literally pollute land and atmosphere.  Most people believe human moral choices cannot impact the environment unless they literally target it, but we have already demonstrated our drought is not of natural causation.  I recommend believing the Bible – not just for explaining the problem, but for solving it as well.

The Rain and Reign Coalition is a gathering of approximately thirty-five extra-parochial (not limited to one denomination or congregation) ministries committed to praying for an end to California’s drought.  We are committed to prayer for more than just relief.  We pray repentance – first and foremost for ourselves – and then in identification with our fellow Californians.  We repent of the sins cited above and beg our God to release His blessing over our state – first in the restoration of relationship with Him that we Californians have stretched to the breaking point, and second by releasing the rain and snow we so desperately need in such a way that everyone will know it comes as a gift from Him.  Those who think our prayers and repentance silly need not join in.  For those who see wisdom – if not logic – in prayer of this type, please add your voices to ours.  We ask nothing more than that prayer be daily and heartfelt.

 On my recent ministry trip to Malaysia I went out one evening with a small group of young adult leaders to do some stargazing.  Heavy cloud cover hid all but a handful of stars.  As we sang praise songs and enjoyed each other one of us suggested we point our index fingers at the sky, count to three, and blow.  When we did this the clouds visibly moved.  After the third repetition the sky was cleared and we watched with wonder the stars as we praised the Lord.  And no – none of us is so foolish as to imagine our counting and blowing actually moved the clouds.  But we do serve a God who loves to play with His children if we will just let Him draw near enough to take hold of us.  He waits for California to get that message.

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

COVENANT AND CONSTITUTION CONNECTED

By James Wilson

            The next scheduled National Day of Repentance is Wednesday, April 30.  President Abraham Lincoln called for a day of Prayer, Fasting, and Humiliation April 30, 1863.  People prayed only in the North, the South being at war with the North and disinclined to do anything at the behest of Lincoln.  Now I would never contend that God was on one side or the other in a war; His aim is that we come onto His side.  But He does have a habit of responding to heartfelt prayer, and He surely hated slavery.  Two months after this day of repentance the two sides fought the Battle of Gettysburg and the tide turned permanently in favor of the Union.

            Some would say, “Well, if God hates slavery would not the tide have inevitably turned,” and the answer would be a resounding No.  God hates lots of things that abide in our world.  But He has a habit of responding to heartfelt prayer.

            April 30, 1789, our first president, George Washington, took his oath of office and gave his first inaugural address.  Washington led the members of government onto their knees in prayer.  He dedicated the fledgling nation to God, like his New England forefathers building a biblical “city on a hill.”  Some would say, “Just a minute; Washington was a Virginian and everybody knows the Virginia colony was a commercial venture with plenty of exploitation of black slaves and native people.”  They would be right about that, but they would be wrong to ignore the reality of Washington’s life – a life bathed in prayer, worship, and repentance as a lifestyle – a life that shows his spiritual forefathers to be the Pilgrims and the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, men and women who introduced the concept of covenant to the Americas.

            Washington led a nation that was weak, disorganized, and virtually bankrupt.  Bathed in prayer and dedication to God, it survived and prospered to become the greatest nation on earth and the one most blessed by God after Israel. 

This year National Day of Repentance officially links arms with National Day of Prayer, one day later on Thursday, May 1.  NDP’s theme is One Voice United in Prayer; it comes from Romans 15:6, in which Paul calls the Body to be One in prayer and praise to the Lord Jesus.  We link arms unofficially with Washington: Man of Prayer, an event set to occur in the congressional Statuary Hall one week later, May 7.  All three observances will focus on loving God and answering His call to repent – re-focus – on Him.  We do not believe God will reward our humility by lifting us out of the national quicksand in which we seem trapped.  We believe, rather, that He has never abandoned us, but that we must return to the shelter of His wings if we would give Him the kind of access to us that permits His blessing and healing to occur.  That is what He says in His own Word and American history supports as His pattern.

In California alone we have seen two kinds of drought healed through prayer-led action.  The last drought in California began in 2008 and hundreds – a critical mass for that time – prayed daily asking God to break it.  Prophetic words were uttered in the state that God would break the drought in its third year if people prayed – and that is precisely what happened.  In a man-made drought a federal judge – relying on bogus science – threw the state into economic chaos by closing the pumps in the Sacramento River Delta and costing some forty thousand jobs.  Suits were brought and presentations made – and again prayer was offered daily that hearts might be softened.  After some eighteen months Judge Oliver Wanger announced he was unimpressed by the science for closing the pumps and the water again began to flow in the delta.

At this time God is calling for a thoroughgoing repentance in His Church for California’s history of leading the nation in shedding innocent blood, covenant breaking, sexual sin, and idolatry.  He does not want a pound of flesh from us, but He does require a ton of re-focus.  In the National Day of Repentance we are calling on all churches – across the nation – to set aside May 4 as Repentance Sunday.  The day can be observed in any way each congregation and ministry desires – but as one Body.  Let this prayer be the beginning of restoration of Constitution and Covenant.  Let us repent not because it “works” but because it is right.  Let God be the one who works as we get out of His way.

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net