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Prayer
Vanguard | Lighthouses of
Prayer | Intercessor's Summits
| The Yah Project | First Sunday
| The Excalibur Group | PrayNorthState Radio
| Cooperative Ministries | Pray
California | Communications
An interdenominational group of intercessors
goes out once a month from a central location to visit churches,
schools and businesses. While onsite they pray God’s blessings
on the location, those who staff it, and those whom God has placed
in authority over it. They ask God to bless only those concerns
which are authorized by the host pastor, administrator or business
owner. They visit only sites where they are welcomed by host
leaders.
Participants must have their pastor’s
permission to attend and be teachable as to praying only blessings
and what we call sowing in the opposite spirit.
Prayer Vanguard began in 1998 after God gave to
Diana a vision of Christians being proactive in blessing their
neighbors and colleagues in the Body instead of reactive to
various crises that might be presented. Initially only churches
were visited. Later the ministry was expanded to include schools
– both public and private – and local businesses.
Today the ministry operates in ten Northstate
communities spread over six counties and each Vanguard group has
its own locally trained and commissioned leadership. More than
twenty public schools – in four counties – are presently
included in the ministry with the blessing of local
administrators.
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Lighthouses of Prayer was initiated in the late
1990s in various parts of the country and by various ministries.
It is a very simple ministry in which individuals and families
covenant to pray daily for the blessing of five of their
neighboring families by name.
PrayNorthstate trains Christians for this
ministry and establishes a supportive infrastructure in each
participating congregation. As in the case of Prayer Vanguard,
participants must have the blessing of their pastor and be
teachable in terms of praying only blessings and sowing in the
opposite spirit.
A Lighthouse ministry is established alongside
Prayer Vanguard whenever we begin to serve in a new community.
PrayNorthstate sponsored Lighthouse ministries operate in the same
ten communities as the Prayer Vanguard.
We have seen the neighbors who receive
sustained and focused prayer transforms in ways both subtle and
dramatic as time passes and the prayers continue. When these
ministries are introduced into congregations in communities in
which they already exist we simply integrate the new with the
old.
A Lighthouse ministry is designed to be
integrated into the existing prayer and small group ministries of
a congregation rather than become a new focus of attention.
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Intercessors’ Summits are teaching and
training events in which participants are prepared to serve in
Prayer Vanguard and Lighthouses of Prayer.
A summit is held on a Friday Evening and all
day Saturday in a local hosting church and members of nearby
congregations are invited to attend with their pastor’s
permission.
In the Friday session Jim teaches the concepts
of prayer for blessing and sowing in the opposite spirit. He
shares the vision God has given along with some of the awe
inspiring stories of what God has been doing in front of all of us
in Northern California over the past few years.
On Saturday he offers practical do’s and don’ts
for these ministries and sends the people out to practice what
they have learned in the host church and in the surrounding
neighborhoods. The host pastor teaches during one of the afternoon
sessions and the whole body joins for a communion and
commissioning service to conclude the event.
There is a cost of $20.00 per person to attend and breakfast
and lunch are included on Saturday. Dates and locations of current
and upcoming summits are featured in the monthly PrayNorthstate
newsletter and on PrayNorthstate Radio.
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Yah is a Northern California Native American name for God. The
word means exactly what we mean when we refer to God as Yahweh or
Jehovah.
The Yah Project is an effort to recruit and train ten thousand
Christians to pray daily for the Kingdom of God to come in power
to Northern California. The concept is based on Hawaii’s
Spiritual Warfare Project – in which ten thousand Christians of
all denominations prayed for several years for Hawaii to know God’s
Kingdom. At a climactic moment in the project intercessors fanned
out and occupied sites of pagan worship and atrocity. They
blessed, forgave and celebrated communion on land they occupied
only with permission of the owners. Signs and wonders occurred
throughout the island – including sites that had been
ecologically dead erupting with new plant and animal life.
Thousands of people received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior over
the following months. God is calling us to go and do likewise
In addition to praying daily for the Kingdom to come, we ask
Yah Project members to select one hour each Sunday to be in prayer
for Northern California and then for the whole state of
California. We ask that prayer be made for things we understand to
be impossible – like full employment and a crime and divorce
free region – because we believe God when He says in Luke 18:27
that what is impossible for men and women is possible for
Him.
We call on one another to pray for our region and state as
though we were each the widow who continually sought out the
unjust judge in Luke 18.
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On the first Sunday of each month we gather at
7:00 PM in the Espresso Bar of Redding’s Holiday Inn – on
Hilltop Drive. Anyone naming Jesus as the Way and the Truth and
the Life is welcome to join with us for worship and strategic
intercessory prayer.
The service begins with communion for all. It
features sessions of worship followed by brief preaching followed
by sessions of strategic intercession in the spirit and style of
the Yah Project. Simplicity is the order of the day and people are
encouraged to stay with us as long as they are able – but to
feel free to come and go as they please.
The aim is to call on the Lord Almighty to
transform the region of Northern California as He has done in some
one hundred eighty communities around the world when a strategic
number of people of prayer seek Him consistently, concertedly, and
with focus on what He calls important.
The scriptural template is Matthew 11:2-6 – in which the dead
are raised and the lepers cured, the blind and the deaf restored
and the poor hear good news – and the Kingdom is populated by
those who take no offense at Jesus. The model for our worship is 2
Chronicles 7:14 – in which God’s people who are called by His
name humble themselves and pray and seek His face. Transformation
comes – in the words of George Otis Jr. – when the people seek
God to the exclusion of all other things.
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On the first and third Thursdays of each month this group of
local believing business persons gathers at a local restaurant
from 12:30 to 2:00 PM for prayer, fellowship, and vision casting.
Prayer is offered to God for the Kingdom transformation of the
community and region.
Members of the group update each other on ministry projects in
which they are involved and seek vision for new ways in which to
bless the community. Meetings are for prayer and fellowship only,
but members are welcome to schedule voluntary meetings outside of
the Thursday format for planning events that emerge from the
shared vision of some or all of the members of the group.
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PrayNorthstate Radio is heard on AM 1400 KQMS on Saturdays at
7:30 AM. Jim interviews one or two Christians who are doing
ministry outside of the box. The program – which is sponsored by
believing business persons – is the most listened-to for its
time slot for the past three years. Jim also contributes to Radio
KVIP’s Saturday Magazine – heard at 1:00 PM on Saturdays on FM
98.1 and AM 540.
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PrayNorthstate cooperates with and co-sponsors
ministry efforts that emphasize cooperation across congregational
or denominational lines, reconciliation activities, and any effort
that operates in Kingdom terms "outside of the
box."
Examples include last year’s Freedom Festival
– in which more than 3000 young people heard the Gospel at a
free concert featuring the Supertones and various local Christian
bands, this year’s county commemoration of September 11 – in
which local officials shared their faith as well as their
patriotism from the courthouse steps, and The Bible: Up Close and
Personal – in which the whole of Scripture was read from the
steps of the Redding City Hall by more than two hundred and fifty
Christians representing more than twenty churches.
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Jim serves as the Northern regional facilitator
for the Pray California Fellowship – a statewide network of
intercessory and reconciliation ministries seeking to blanket
California in prayer. Jim also serves on the Prophetic Listening
Team for Pray Cal.
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Jim is a regular contributor to the Christian
Quarterly, the Christian Journal, Real Life and Times, California
Christian News, and the Northern California Christian Times. He
also contributes on a regular basis to such secular publications
as the Redding Record-Searchlight, and the Siskiyou County Daily
News.
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