A CAPITOL PRAYER BRIDGE -- ALL THINGS WORKED TOGETHER

By James Wilson

(Part 1 of 3)

            I spent July 7 through August 3 traveling through the capitols of nine western states.  I met with local teams, praying and worshipping inside the capitol buildings.  I preached and taught in various venues along the way.  We asked the Lord to intervene in areas of concern to the whole state; in California and Oregon we prayed about the drought; in Idaho it was about illegal immigration and a spirit of rejection; in Montana and Wyoming a militant spirit of independence that leaves little room for God or human cooperation.  The journey became an extended demonstration of Romans 8:28, in which God promises to work all things together for good in those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.  He does not promise immediate or even uninterrupted bliss, just that sooner or later – one way or another – He will bless His people across the board.  He never lies.

Lots of people think vision is just a really spiritual sounding word for an imaginative plan.  But a vision is actually…well…a vision.  Anybody who thinks the Lord God cannot communicate with His people in literal visions does not get what it means to say He is the first and authentic source of every great painting, sculpture, and motion picture.  And what the Lord showed me – in the interior of imagination He creates – was a suspension bridge spanning the United States.  It was composed of local people praying and worshipping inside their selected state capitols.  I saw myself called to join them as guest, servant, and catalyst.

            When we begin – anything from new ministry to new business to new art – with a vision we are next called to use our God-given brains to posit a rational route to realization of the vision.  In the capitol prayer bridge I identified nine western states more or less surrounding California as the west coast anchor.  I spent six months networking one contact person at a time, beginning with friends and relatives I knew in some of the states and later asking ministry colleagues to connect me with others.

              I met people who have transformed a nightclub – once a center for drug dealing and human trafficking – into a place of gathering for Downtown Salem, Oregon, where good food and music are served along with uplifting programs and some of the trafficking victims have returned to receive healing for horrific wounds in body and spirit.  We prayed with representatives of the state government, finding bookmarks randomly placed on the same scriptures God planted in other people’s minds to shape the prayers.  We spoke of a budding partnership between Salem, Sacramento, and Olympia, Washington, of praying and having each others’ backs.  We saw miraculous healings – medically verified – from a heart condition to chronic skeletal issues and conditions of the heart.

            Even things that apparently went wrong became things that went righter than we could imagine.  In one state I was forced to visit the capitol alone – a one-eighty from my intention and what I thought to be God’s plan – because the organizer for that state was hospitalized and there was no team awaiting my arrival.  Yet separate (apparently) chance meetings with a tour guide and a member of the governor’s staff netted me as good information about topics for prayer as any team could provide.  And when I opened my Bible – seemingly at random – to see what God might reveal from His Word to shape my prayers it quickly became evident He was downloading information I would never have received listening to a team instead of opening my heart to Him.  I love to teach that we put our faith not in our ability to hear, but in His ability to speak.  It is true.

            The most dramatic convergence of God’ graceful pro-vision and pragmatic reasoning came when I committed to visiting the site of a 19^th Century massacre of peaceful Cheyenne and Arapahoe by white American militia. Two days before my planned visit to Sand Creek I got a call from an Arapahoe Elder who had welcomed me onto the land of Wyoming in that state’s capitol.  She had just learned through another (seemingly) chance encounter of my plan to pray at Sand Creek.  When I told her I did not yet have the requisite blessing of tribal elders to enter the land – nor any idea how to obtain it – she identified herself as a direct descendant of Chief White Antelope, murdered at Sand Creek.  She agreed to accompany me and welcome me onto that land as well.  God got glory; healing and reconciliation are well underway.  Romans 8:28 is again fulfilled across the board. 

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

Is it Time for More Gravity?

Last night we watched the movie “Gravity” again, but this time it left me with a different feeling and thought.

In the movie Sandra Bullock went outside the ship to work on something and accidentally got ‘cut off’ from her ‘security cord’ and then went floating off. She was filled with panic and fear of being lost in space. Her partner (George Clooney) came after her. He was not able to save himself as they struggled to get attached to the ship. He had to sacrifice himself once she was connected.

I felt her panic as she was floating away from the ship. I felt her desperation as she struggled to get back inside the ship, quickly losing consciousness because of her suit’s oxygen supply running out. What came to me is that:

One: How Christians get spiritually “disconnected” from their secure position in the Lord.

2 Peter 3:17-18 “Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”

Two: Being disconnected too long causes us to lose consciousness.

We can wander off so far that like Hebrews 6:4-5 says:

“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.”

It can happen! So stay connected to the truth and love of God.

Psalms 18:2-3 “The Lord is my Rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my Rock, in whom I take refuge (connected to). He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold (security cord). I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.”

Third: If we are temporarily disconnected – panic sets in. We begin to look around at all that is happening, and how it will affect us. We begin to feel confused and lost, just like Sandra Bullock when she was spinning around and drifting away.

I don’t know about you, but a few times over the last couple years I have had an almost panicked feeling as if I’m losing the point of my life here. But, immediately I pull myself back in with the cord of the Holy Spirit and reconnect to the truth and promises of God. At that moment I feel SECURE and hopeful about the future.

2 Corinthians10:5-6  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

I have to take my thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ; to what HE said, just like George Clooney kept telling Sandra Bullock, as she was spinning out into space, to listen to his instructions. This is a daily discipline I must keep hold of, or I will fall away, disconnect, fall from my secure position and get lost in all fear and panic due to the chaos and tribulation in our world.

As Sandra Bullock was disconnected from her supply source, when working outside the ship, so we can also be inadvertently disconnected from our supply source as we do our work - if we are not careful. We need to be aware of the devil’s schemes against us. He will throw things at us to knock us out of consciousness; to ruin our good conscience with God and then stop His work through us. He will set huge obstacles in our way for us to trip over, so that we become self-conscious instead of Kingdom-conscious (mindful and awake).  He will use fear tactics to put us in a panic state so that we won’t go another step with the Lord. But, we are told:

“For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.” Proverbs 24:16

Thank You Lord, for Your words of truth, wisdom, power and hope! Thank You for the Holy Spirit, the cord to my supply source and home with You.   

Carolyn Dietz

www.menwithfaith.com

SHALOM!

~Posted with permission by Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly

Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly is the author of Repentance—God’s Strategy to Bless a Nation and Zeal to Repent!—A Key to Personal and National Restoration 

–Both are available for FREE at The National Day of Repentance website: www.dayofrepentance.org

or by emailing him at

jdalylaw@aol.com

Despicable Me

You are probably aware of the recent ALS ice bucket challenge that went viral on social media.  Friends and family were seen on YouTube and FaceBook dumping buckets of ice-water on their heads and then calling out three other people to participate in the “challenge.”   The funds raised were designated to help fund research for an ALS cure (more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).   The first time I watched this, a chill literally went down my spine.  There was something disturbingly symbolic about dousing ourselves in ice-water and spreading this behavior exponentially.  But…what was it exactly?

We didn’t have long to wait for an answer as the Catholic Church was the first to blow the trumpet of warning…as they usually do when Pro-Life issues are at stake.  ALS funds support baby stem cell research.  We were thoughtlessly supporting the use of aborted babies as fodder for the studies.  Truly this was a coldness of mind (head) and heart (body) that was aptly symbolized. 

Yet again…still it bothered me.  Where have we seen buckets of water being dumped in the Bible? 

Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” 34 And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. 35 And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”

~1 Kings 18:33b-39

Are we simply preparing the sacrifice for the coming Fire from Heaven?  Hmmm….

In the news lately, we have seen Hamas using children as human shields.  We have also seen the ugly evil of ISIS beheading children.  Every sane American is outraged at the graphic and explicit YouTube video showing the beheading of journalist James Foley.   Perhaps this was the most effective news story of his life.  He was stationed there to document the brutality of the conflict in the Mideast.  Clearly, he revealed this violence in an unfathomable way. 

This is the worst sort of evil on the planet, right? 

Let’s examine another question.  WHY do we in “free societies” experience moral outrage at the beheading of James Foley?   At first it seems blatantly obvious why…it’s brutal, it’s evil, and it’s unfair:  it’s the taking of a human life that is helplessly unable to escape and innocent of any crime.

Yet, we blithely walk by abortion clinics that plunge their instruments of death into the neck of infants EVERY DAY in so called “Christian” or "free" nations.  This is a de facto decapitation of helpless infants.  If you can stomach it…go to the Internet and look at abortion photos.  More often than not, their head is detached from their body.

Nazi SS Physician Jozef Mengele experimented on children.  Today, we experiment on their leftover stem cells.  Like Hamas, these are our OWN CHILDREN.  Moral difference or moral equivalency?  While we decry the silence of "moderate Muslims" and the silence of the German public during WWII...have we taken a good long look in the ugly mirror of our own souls lately? 

We now have the stain of 60 million babies on our land.  This current administration seems hell-bent determined to put that stain on every American hand by voluntary complicit participation in our insatiable quest for more government freebies. 

We are all nauseated by stories of evil Nazis incinerating bodies, yet two recent news stories indicated that hospitals in the United States and England used aborted babies as heating fuel for their incinerators.  In the U.K. this process was called the “waste to energy” program.  Wow. 

Upon the liberation of the first Nazi death camp in WWII, General Eisenhower required all local Germans citizens near Gotha to view the atrocities there.  Germans were marched through the camps to view mangled and burned bodies  Many of the German citizens sobbed, vomited and fainted. The mayor of Gotha, along with his wife, went home and committed suicide by hanging. (Gotha sounds an awful lot like Golgotha doesn’t it?—aptly meaning the Place of the Skull). 

Judas also hung himself after he realized the depth of his wrongdoing.

With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.

~Acts 1:18

As a Pro-Life advocate, I am definitely not advocating physical suicide.  Yet, we need to “spill our guts” in a different way.  Let us vomit in revulsion at our National sins.  Let’s openly declare our participation or apathy which has allowed this evil to flourish.   

In this Universal movie of the same title as this blog “Despicable Me”, the plot described in Wikipedia is as follows:

Gru, a supervillain, has his pride injured when an unknown super-villain steals the Great Pyramid of Giza, an action that is described by his colleague Dr. Nefario as "making all other villains look lame."

Let us recognize this fact:  In terms of numbers and the defenselessness and helplessness of our victims…we are far worse than the NAZI and ISIS villains.  We make them look lame in comparison.  Let’s remove the log from our own eye so we can see clearly to assist someone else.

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

~Matthew 7:5

When we recognize that Human Secularism is no less dangerous than radical Islam, then we will actually advance to a more civilized society.  In fact, I propose that human secularism is actually MORE dangerous than radical Islam.  It is an “impure evil” so to speak—hiding itself under a cloak of freedom and liberty through a false agenda of “freedom of choice.” 

ISIS bestiality wakes us up like a bucket of cold water to the face.  In comparison, our Pro-Death abortion philosophies are secret and hidden but nevertheless create frozenness in our very souls and conscience.  As we spill innocent blood, ice-water continues to run through our national veins. 

While I despise the popular penchant for finger-pointing at America as the source of all global ills, I DO advocate finger pointing at our individual selves.  Repentance demands it.  We truly are despicable.

In college I supported Planned Parenthood.  Just writing this sentence is extremely painful to me.  It’s as if I just publicly declared that I was a member of the Hitler Youth and a Nazi sympathizer.

However, only when we confront our own evil first, will we have the moral authority to confront an evil like ISIS, and the even greater evil of Human Secularism.  May God forgive my soul for once supporting such unspeakable evil.  May God have Mercy on me.  May God have Mercy on all of us. 

ISIS converts by the sword.  In an unexpected analogy, Christianity converts by the “sword” also:

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

~Hebrews 4:12

We need to DIE to apathy.  Indifference is a force to be reckoned with.  I pray that we will all collectively have the courage to “spill our guts.”  

I also pray that we don’t have to commit National suicide first.

________________________________________________________________

“Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

- John Adams

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

~Revelation 6:4 

~by Debra R. Monterosso

Posted with permission by Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly

Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly is the author of Repentance—God’s Strategy to Bless a Nation and Zeal to Repent!—A Key to Personal and National Restoration 

–Both are available for FREE at The National Day of Repentance website: www.dayofrepentance.org

or by emailing him at

jdalylaw@aol.com

NO MAN LEFT BEHIND

            I believe the Navy Seals started it, but by now every branch of the US military service declares and reflects the spirit of the slogan, “No man left behind;” it reflects the spirit of the services themselves.  Unfortunately, the government under whom they serve does not reflect this spirit. 

            United States Marine Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi has been a captive of the Mexican Government.  His crime?  The Afghanistan war vet went to San Diego seeking treatment for his battlefield related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  He had three guns in his truck – legal in the States but not permitted in Mexico.  He made a wrong turn and ended up in a border crossing lane with no U turns.  The law abiding Marine found himself unintentionally in Mexico and went to a parked police vehicle.  He asked help re-crossing the border and volunteered that he had guns in the vehicle and no intention of violating Mexican law – or even being in Mexico.  He was promptly arrested, thrown in prison, and has spent the last few months in solitary confinement.  He has had access to Mexican attorneys but the administration of Barack Obama has been deafeningly silent.  There has been no trial, but two judicial hearings have resulted in his being sent back to solitary, a punishment reserved in all nations for particularly troublesome prisoners.  The kind who turn themselves in while asking for help, apparently.

            While the sergeant is abandoned by his national government the governor of California flies to Mexico City to negotiate trade agreements for California with Mexico’s President Nieto.  Governor Brown utters not a word on behalf of the war hero held in solitary, but he does a victory dance over the success of his trade missions.  He is negotiating with the nation that floods our land with illegal drugs and the illegal people whose passage and survival here it facilitates.  Mexico is known for her harsh treatment of illegals within her own borders, but gives safe passage to the Central Americans now crossing Mexico on their way here.  Many of these illegals are children and families, but many are notorious gangsters; still others are members of Mexico’s own drug cartels.  Should not Governor Brown say, “President Nieto, I will trust you enough to treat with you when you return the American citizen you hold without trial?”  Instead he invites Nieto to Sacramento for a grand celebration planned for August 26.

            Assembly Member Tim Donnelly plans a demonstration in front of the governor’s mansion at 11:15 AM, Tuesday, August 26. The mansion is located at 800 N Street in Sacramento.  Donnelly – readers will remember – ran a wildly successful primary campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination; he led all the polls until carpetbagger Neil Kashkari ingratiated himself with Republican money men and came in second in the primary solely through funding.  Donnelly plans to make a public demand for the release of Sergeant Tahmooressi.  My prayer is that thousands of Californians will join him in front of the mansion; I most certainly will be there with him.

            Tahmooressi is not the only Marine left behind in Mexico.  Corporal Armando Torres was kidnapped at gunpoint – with his father and uncle in May 2013 – by cartel members while visiting his father’s ranch near Ciudad Juarez.  Our government has been just as silent in his case.

            We sent in the SEALs to take Bin Laden without a care for another nation’s sovereignty – as we should – when that nation is harboring the murderer of three thousand Americans.  But why do we not send in the SEALs when captive Americans are alive and expecting their government to do its primary job of bringing them home from captivity?  If Mexico wants our respect, let her do the right thing; if not, let there be an international incident.  It would certainly clear the air.

              The Word of God says Jesus Christ came to set the captives free; it is a recurrent New Testament theme.  But, we say, that refers to spiritual freedom.  Reality is freedom is freedom, or it is not; it cannot be boxed or compartmentalized.  The Great Commission calls us to be ambassadors of this God of freedom, whether releasing others in Him from the bondage of sin, the bondage of an oppressive government, a rigged electoral or economic system, or a culture of self-indulgence.  It requires one thing from us and that is to choose to repent – re-focus and re-submit our lives to Him – so we can receive His earthquake life and live from now on not just for His goals but in His methods.  Only then will no man ever again be left behind. 

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

ANN COULTER: STOP HELPING US

By James Wilson

            Ann Coulter’s August 6 piece drips with arrogance and contempt for all that makes America great.  She imagines she is defending the nation, not to mention her Christian faith, but she is way beyond the pale.  She describes missionaries like Dr. Kent Brantly as idiotic and narcissistic – her words – for going to treat victims of the ebola virus and coming home infected with it.  She thinks she is helping all of us stupid and self-absorbed missionary types.  Ms Coulter, for the love of God, stop helping us.  Please. 

Coulter says Brantly cost his sending ministry – Samaritan’s Purse – more than the value of his service because they had to send two Gulfstream jets to bring the doctor and his nurse home for life saving treatment.  She wonders why he – and others called to the mission field – are not treating Hollywood power brokers right here.  She reasons that if he leads one of them to Jesus it might trigger a turnaround of the cultural mindset of the entertainment industry and help win the culture wars now contending for the soul of America.  And a resurrected America – she says – will do a whole lot more good for a hungry and desperate world than bringing medical care to a few African natives.

She throws gratuitous insults about the needy in our backyard before returning to her theme that Brantly – and any who think like him – should be spending their energies at home and – specifically – evangelizing through their services rendered here – the big money folks who can turn us on a dime with the re-application of their big bucks influence.  She actually accuses Brantly of grandstanding by going overseas.  As she puts it, he is considered heroic by a grateful public for leaving the comforts behind but his more valuable service in the slums of Detroit would be ignored and he needs the roar of the crowd to feel okay.

Never mind that nobody ever heard of Dr. Brantly before he contracted a life threatening infection in his chosen mission field.  If he went to Africa to become famous through martyrdom his problem is not narcissism; it’s a psychotic death wish.  Truth is Brantly is neither narcissistic nor psychotic.  He is a servant of Jesus who goes where the Boss says to go and does what the Boss says to do.  He is the warp and woof of what makes America the nation she is created to become.

 The Second Great Awakening began around 1800 in frontier canebreaks and fundamentally transformed American life over six decades.  It birthed and raised the Abolitionist Movement, the Temperance Movement, the free-for-all Public Education Movement, and the American Character that affords equal opportunity to folks raised in mansions and log cabins – the character so extolled in DeToqueville’s famous treatise, Democracy in America.  The core of our culture is that we are not about ourselves; we are about all God’s creatures, and to a large extent even when we reject Him.  Our culture is what His influence formed in us and without it there is nothing to win in a culture war.

Does that mean we only help those we see outside our borders?  Of course not.  People with a call to serve tend to go where they are sent and do what needs to be done.  I have made more than twenty overseas mission and ministry trips overseas and a good many more to various states.  Yet as a pastor I led ministries to local homeless populations and about seventy-five per cent of my efforts remain local.  Does Coulter spend time at her nearest shelter?  I have not heard about it.

I have heard the same contempt she gives Brantly from people who call themselves friend with no intent to have a friend’s back, and people who call themselves family with no idea of belonging.  I recall the uncle who berated me for my “vacations” to Fiji where I worked fifteen hour days in a mangrove swamp – real glamour stuff.  Then there was the radio sponsor who left his bill unpaid and blamed me for leaving the country.  I never saw them down at the rescue mission either.

The good news is most Americans either do the kinds of things I do or provide the support that enables them.  God made us such, and the worst danger we face is losing our DNA as givers and lovers – of God and of each other.  Jesus says – in Matthew 25 and elsewhere – when we do it for the least of these we do it for Him.  His help is indispensable if we would be real Americans.  Coulter’s we can do without.   

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