Santa Rosa & Petaluma Spiritually Reconcile

February 1 2002 As we boarded the bus at Foothill Community Church a spirit of anticipation fell on the 16 passengers. This month's city wide prayer meeting was being held at Petaluma Valley Baptist Church. We all were talking about how to get there, and there were as many different routes as there were passengers. Dr. Sam Tillery pulled out a map from the web site and said, "Just leave the driving to Joe." We were all wondering about what God had planed for the meeting ahead. We have been praying for a very long time for revival and reconciliation in Sonoma County. Harry Skandera often refers to us as 'white-knuckle warriors' reminding us that it only takes a few to get Gods attention. The attendance at the City Wide Prayer meetings generally varies from 10 to 200, with more participation in the warmer months.

Approaching the church our hearts immediately lifted as we saw cars stopped on the street with their turn signals blinking into the parking lot. People were flowing everywhere. We looked at each other and said, "turn off the lights so they can't see how few we are." Someone said "God is awesome" It was an amazing sight to see so many people coming to a city wide prayer meeting. We quickly filed into the spacious church building and noticed that a lot of new construction was under way. Yeah were in the right place!

Dr Sam Tillery opened the meeting with a brief introduction and we were then led into a wonderful spirit filled worship by a group of talented church musicians from Petaluma. We sang, "Let the Glory of Lord Rise Above Us", the Holy Spirit quickly covered the entire group of some 300 attendees. A new spirit inhabited the dwelling place of Gods people.

A deeper understanding of the history between Santa Rosa and Petaluma was brought into the light. On January 7-10 2002, Petaluma and Santa Rosa Pastors and Wives held a Prayer Summit at Zephyr Point, Lake Tahoe. This meeting is a direct result of God placing a burden on the hearts of His appointed representatives the Pastors of the earth and in particular our leadership in Sonoma County.

Harry Skandera a Christian schoolteacher is an excellent local historian and has contributed greatly to the spiritual mapping of Sonoma County. Harry is also an elder at Santa Rosa Christian Church; Harry then proceeded to read from Pastor Jim Argue's report containing many details of the Prayer Summit held in Lake Tahoe.

Each Pastor was allotted a small amount of time to bear witness and provide testimony of how they have been affective by the Tahoe Prayer Summit. "God has made clear to a number of spiritual leaders the devastation this has caused across our country. The root sins that have resulted in this harm include arrogance, deception, indifference, manipulation, presumptuous jealousy, pride, robbery and slander."

As Pastor owned up to their contribution to history between Santa Rosa and Petaluma the people of God in attendance rose to the feet applauding the courage of their leaders to publicly confess the sin and sins of our fathers.

Many were emotional moved and heard weeping, as the Pastors spoke about new convents new relationships. The crowd cheered as announcements about upcoming events for the other cites in Sonoma Country such as Sonoma and Healdsburg are scheduled to hold joint events and City Wide Prayer Meetings in the months of March and April 2002.

Spiritual mapping removes the ignorance that the Devil likes to keep us in. Of special note was the presentation of banners to Pastors in Petaluma. Harry Skandera briefly explained the power of banners in worship and brings to the light why people use them and how they effect events in the unseen battleground of the spirit world.