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 19th 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
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