FAITH COMES BY HEARING – UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

By James Wilson, Coordinator

PrayNorthstate

Scripture teaches that God acts by the speaking of His own Word. He called light forth from darkness with a spoken word. He called life into being in the same way. He called revival from His people with the reading of the words of the Covenant by the pillar of the temple in Jerusalem during the reign of King Josiah. In the New Testament He simply tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God spoken.

In the first week of May the Word of God will be spoken over the city of Redding in what has become an annual event. Known as The Bible: Up Close and Personal, this Bible-reading marathon is held in the breezeway connecting the Redding City Hall and the City Council Chambers. Some three hundred readers representing about forty churches will take turns reading the Scriptures out loud over the city. The reading goes on round the clock from 6:00 AM on the Monday preceding the first Thursday in May and it concludes at Noon on that Thursday – just in time for the National Day of Prayer observance that takes place in the patio area just beyond the breezeway. The event is conducted with the blessing of city officials with the sole purpose of blessing the city and region by speaking these words of life over them. People often want to know how I managed to obtain permission to do this on public property, and I always give the same simple answer: I asked.

God has not been banished from the public square, although there are those who would have us believe it. The enemy of all life was ever a liar; he cannot have his way with the power he so clearly lacks, and so he tries to make us think he has won what he has actually lost – the war to possess and reign over the world. At the same time, God Himself is always reminding us that when we fight for Him we are required to use only His weapons of warfare. In the Word of God even a man like the Egyptian Pharoah of Moses’ time is given the honor and respect of being asked politely – after each plague that is the consequence of his rejection – “will you now let my people go.” Honor and respect are two of the principle weapons God employs in His war to win the hearts and minds of all of the people for whom He gave His own life in the life of the Son. It is not too much to ask us to come in humility to those whom God has set over us in our communities.

How is this proclamation of the Word organized? Readers are given fifteen minute shifts based on their preference to read during morning, afternoon, evening, or night hours. The reader does not know which book will be in progress at that time because different people read at different speeds and where we will be at a given hour is impossible to predict. (It is only a vicious rumor that we deliberately assign passages from Leviticus and 1 Chronicles to people we don’t like much.) The reader is asked to report in fifteen minutes prior to the assigned time. When it is time to read the reader simply steps up to the person already at the podium, who indicates the stopping place, and the new reader picks up where the old reader left off. Upon request readers can be assigned a doubt shift, but they are given fifteen minutes off between them because continuous reading – even of the Word of God – is pretty dry work for anybody’s throat.

Site captains are those approximately thirty servants who agree to stand a three-hour watch. They supervise the process, check in the readers, let people know where to find snacks and restrooms, and step in as substitute readers in case anyone does not show up at the assigned time. As anyone might imagine, the hours between Midnight and 6:00 AM are the most difficult to staff for both captains and readers – yet these are usually the hours that attract the most listeners and everyone agrees that at these times the peace of God is the most poignantly palpable.

We don’t use a PA system for the reading. We are absolutely convicted that our opportunity is to speak the words of life regardless of whether they can be heard with the ears on the sides of our heads or with hearts only. We know that people found new hearts beating within them when they heard the apostles’ preaching. But we also know that a world came into being when there was no one to hear – and it was resurrected when no one was listening. We want people to hear what God is saying through this read-a-thon – but we place our faith in His ability to speak.

What happens in a Bible reading marathon? The peace of the Lord is palpable and people feel it regardless of whether or not they know Him. The first time we read at City Hall local media came out to interview city workers about their attitudes in the face of this event in their midst. Without exception they said that they had never experienced a more peaceful and enjoyable work week.

Each year seems to develop its own character. During the first outing the Lord established a zone of healing about twenty feet out from the podium on all sides. Anyone stepping into that zone and asking for prayer was healed of whatever was bothering them. Last year it was a zone of worship – people were simply drawn into the area and began to praise the Lord. Some were extravagant while others were very quiet – but equally fervent in the stillness. Some came just to pray for the city and region that God would permeate our life with His life. One of the beauties of coming back for a third year will be discovering what God decides to do with this time and this space that we give to Him.

What is abundantly clear as we continue the overall process of making a straight highway in the desert for our God – as the prophets have called out from Isaiah to John the Baptist – is that this event is becoming both cause and effect of the changing atmosphere over the city. Our ministry in PrayNorthstate is to lay a blanket of prayer and blessing over our communities through the prayerwalking we do, through the protocol and honoring of one another in which we participate as we come alongside many co-laborers, through speaking the glory of God in our media activities on radio and television, and through this annual speaking of the Word of God over this city.

There are many partners and partnering ministries in this mission of preparation for the coming of the Kingdom to Northern California. The Bible: Up Close and Personal is catalytic to that mission. Any readers who would like to participate in 2005 may contact us at the phone or e-mail listed below. Let us know the name of your church, your phone and postal mailing address, and what portion of the day (morning, afternoon, evening, or night hours) works best for you. We will write back with your assigned time and we will call you if necessary. All Christian denominations are welcome to participate. We are one in the Spirit and we need to remind ourselves and a hungry and thirsty world that God is loose in our land.

PrayNorthstate can be reached at 530-941-3470, or at praynorthstate@charter.net