PROPHETIC ACTS TRUMP
DECLARATIONS IN THE PROPHETIC COMMUNITY

By James Wilson, Coordinator

PrayNorthstate

In 1984 Roger Ralston had a dream in which God called him to found a ministry of care for women caught in unintentional pregnancy – and for the men in their lives. God said that if he would be faithful the ministry would one day span three counties and occupy the building of an abortion referring agency. The Lord instructed him to cooperate with the prophetic word by prayer walking the property that was already leased to the other agency. Ralston and his wife, Joann, walked and prayed, and went on to found the Crisis Pregnancy Center on another piece of property.

By 2005 the center had known several executive directors and scores of dedicated volunteers. The staff had cared for thousands of clients and gone from one day of operation each week to four. They had a mobile unit in Trinity County and an ultrasound machine for which they had no funds but a mighty God. The director, Sharre Littrell, heard God say that now was the time to move into Red Bluff in Tehama – the third county. She continued to the evening worship service led by a prophet named Joe Cicchino. When Cicchino spoke that night he stopped in the middle of his message to speak the same word to Littrell that she had heard in her car earlier.

The next morning a girlfriend gave her the identical word she had received twice on the previous evening. She called the Salvation Army in Red Bluff and they offered space in their already overcrowded building; within weeks the ministry – now Carenet Pregnancy Center of the Tri Counties – moved into two rooms in the Salvation Army building, hired a Tehama County director, and opened for service. (Eighteen churches came together in support.) In 2006 the facility expanded to a three bedroom house and three days a week of operation; in early 2007 the Redding branch of the ministry began operations in the former family planning clinic building. Family Planning offered them the facility when they lost government funding. The change was friendly and full of mutual blessing.

It is exciting and impressive to watch a prophetic word first delivered in 1984 come to fulfillment in 2007. But that word could not have come to pass without the faithful obedience of two generations of servants of the Living God – most of whom never heard the word uttered. The staff – past, present, and yet to be anointed – of this ministry acted prophetically to pave a straight highway in the desert for our God. That is to say they acted in accordance with God’s Word for more than two decades while He established fulfillment of a specific word – given to successive leaders and confirmed by others – on the shoulders of their faithfulness. Their service has resulted in a full-service medical clinic and a full blown men’s ministry in addition to the prophesied developments. God gets all of the glory and the rest of us have the privilege of partnering with Him to establish another outpost of His Kingdom.

In the Old Testament God created a community in which prophets sometimes resided. These prophets spoke whatever words God laid on their hearts and often acted in accordance with what they uttered while the people watched in awe – when they weren’t stoning the prophets. In the New Testament God has created a prophetic community in which the Spirit of the Living God is progressively poured out on all flesh. Many prophesy and many more act on the prophetic word. It is the unfolding activity of the prophecies – sometimes over many years and through multiple groups within the community – that is truly prophetic in the New Testament Body.

The difference between the two covenantal communities is the difference between a spiritual economy in which the prophets are the members responsible for announcing the coming Messiah and one in which all of the members are responsible for establishing the Kingdom won by the Messiah on the Cross. Although prophets still function in the New Testament community – and we should thank God that they do – their primary role is now to mentor and manage the prophetic release into the whole community so that all of the members can become the prophetic people God has called forth. The books of the New Testament contain as many prophetic utterances as do the pages of the Old, but they are usually spoken by Christians who do not hold the office of prophet – from Peter and Paul to the Ananias who breaks the scales from Paul’s eyes. And it is the Church acting on the prophetic words – as when Paul and Silas are sent to Antioch and Philip is sent to a lonely road in the desert to minister to an Ethiopian eunuch – that provides the excitement and action.

In Redding PrayNorthState will organize a prayer project called Paah-ho-ammi in the first week of May. 2007 will be the third incarnation of this project in which teams of Christians pray for issues of Kingdom significance – like violent crime, traffic fatalities, and unemployment levels – for approximately ninety day periods. Statistics for the issues prayed over are then compared to the same period a year earlier and the resulting changes are proclaimed in a very public manner. In 2006 more than two hundred Christians committed to daily prayer for their assigned topics. Crime was reduced in the county areas by twenty-two per cent according to the sheriff’s office. Traffic deaths went down by forty per cent according to Highway Patrol figures, and county officials logged about a one per cent decrease in unemployment. The shape of the project was given to a pastor in Nevada County – first conducted in 2003 – and the name was given to me by prophetic revelation. But the action was performed by dedicated people who went before the throne of God every day – and that action is what gives God glory and His people cause for celebration.

PrayNorthState was called to organize a reading of the entire Word of God over the city of Redding in conjunction with National Day of Prayer ceremonies. More than three hundred people from some forty churches have come out each year since 2003 to read the Bible in fifteen minutes increments. We obtain a permit from the city and set up shop at City Hall. The project is called The Bible: Up Close and Personal and it goes on round the clock for three and a half days. (We begin this year at 6:00 AM on Monday, April 30.) We believe that many of the cooperative activities in which churches are partnering with government and business in our city are facilitated by the atmospheric changes brought about by simply seeding the city in this way; we know that a zone of the peace that passes all understanding is palpable at City Hall during the reading and this is confirmed by believers and non-believers alike from city workers to the film crews that cover the event. As it is with Paah-ho-ammi, the prophetic word to launch the reading was uttered by several; the action that shapes and empowers it is undertaken by the Body itself.

Last year in California a several communities outside of Redding held their own Bible reading marathon. More are planning for this year, and we look forward to seeing Paah-ho-ammi spread throughout the state as well. The word is wonderful but the action that springs from it trumps mere declaration every time.

The Walt Disney classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea remains one of my all-time favorites. Within the story of three castaways attempting to escape from the tortured genius, Captain Nemo, and his nuclear powered submarine seeking vengeance in the South Pacific there is presented a stark contrast between a prophetic community and the best that technology and human genius can achieve. Captain Nemo is more articulate and more organized than any of the castaways will ever be. Everything aboard the Nautilus is ship-shape and designed for maximum efficiency. Nothing ever happens that he cannot ultimately bring to heel. The castaways, on the other hand, bicker and bump into one another. They cannot seem even to agree on a simple plan. But in Nemo’s world only he is even permitted to speak – it is all about him and his crew has abandoned the freedom for which Christ has set us free in favor of allegiance to the one who makes all of their decisions for them. The castaways ultimately live for one another – as God both commands and demonstrates in the Son and in the Spirit. At the end of the day the submarine is a suicide and the castaways enter into a larger life.

The Kingdom community that Christ founds on the Cross and the Spirit launches on Pentecost is not efficient by human standards – or even by Old Testament norms. There are too many moving parts and they all too often march to many drummers. But when God decided to pour out His Spirit on all flesh He also determined to accept no substitutes and no shortcuts. His word – delivered in Scripture and through the mouths of men and women just as in Bible times – gives birth. But it is the action in response to His word – in which the whole Body is called to participate – that trumps the mere declaration of His word every time. And for that we can praise Him in the highest.

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