By James Wilson
About two dozen Christians representing Washington, Oregon, and California gathered in Washington’s state capitol to worship, pray, and hear about California’s Day of Repentance. We took a call from a Hawaiian leader who shared his conviction that God was calling for a trifecta of repentance in the three west coast states.
Trifecta is a well known term. It means someone has picked the horses to finish in the first three places in a race – and in the correct order. More traditionally it refers to any event that reflects perfection in its symmetry; sometimes it refers to three-way shared authority like what we see in the Trinitarian Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
By the time we concluded we were committed to observing a trifecta of repentance in our states. California’s day is September 9 – our state’s admission-to-the-union day. Oregon will observe the 10th and Washington the 11th – 911 around the rest of the nation. Delegations from each state will participate at the capitols in all three and we will stand with one another during the run-up time.
There is plenty to stand for and against during this run-up time. Repentance – in terms of renouncing sin and re-focusing attention on God and His plans for our states – is needed in each of four master sin patterns. Oregon and Washington have assisted suicide laws on their books and California is poised to follow; each has high rates of elective suicide and abortion, and bloody records of massacring Native Americans. The shedding of innocent blood is despised by God since Cain murdered Abel.
Each of our states has a long history of worshipping its own ingenuity from Silicon Valley to aerospace to making and serving coffee. Anything we put in the place of God constitutes idolatry, yet human ingenuity is not the only thing we worship in the place of God. In my own city of Redding we have a statue to the Hindu goddess, Kali, in front of our old city hall and (Roman goddess) Minerva can be found in our capitol rotunda. Similar atrocities grace the capitols of Oregon and Washington and we people of faith have rarely had a problem with any of it.
America’s porn industry is centered in Southern California and we are a choke-point for human trafficking; the Salem (Oregon) House of Prayer is housed in a building once used to exploit victims of trafficking and Washington has a similar legacy. Sexual sin needs repenting.
All three of our states have a long and sad history of breaking covenants with everyone from Native American tribes to farmers, not to mention our shared and deplorably high rate of divorce and other family destructive trends. The legalization of same sex marriage in all three states completes the trifecta of broken covenants.
Actually there is amazingly good news here. God would not be bringing these issues so starkly to our attention as starkly through record breaking droughts in each of our states were He not determined to forgive and heal – “If my people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways…” If a critical mass of believers actually commits to a season of seeking His face – instead of explaining away the obvious signs of His distress – we will find the Great Awakening birthed in our midst a blessing to all of Biblical proportions.
The commitment to stand with each other as the West Coast Trifecta of Repentance is bigger. One of the leaders had a Hebrew calendar with her. She found September 9 is the 25th of the Hebrew Ellul. On this day Nehemiah completed the fifty-two days of restoring the Jerusalem city wall. If we backtrack fifty-two days we come to July 20 – anniversary of the first moon landing and Neil Armstrong’s, “One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” Accordingly, leaders in each state are calling for a time of fasting and prayer from July 20 through September 9.
People participating may fast in whatever way God leads them. A fast is simply the sacrifice of something we think we need and God thinks we do not. This season is a wonderful opportunity to stand before God on behalf of ourselves and our state, whichever of the west coast states we call home. It is a chance to build a wall of sacrifice and praise the length of the West Coast. Our states were founded in the love of Christ, whatever revisionist historians may think. We have a chance to return to our first love if we humble ourselves.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships, The Holy Spirit and the End Times and Kingdom in Pursuit – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at praynorthstate@charter.net
