Cities Under God's Glory

CITIES UNDER GOD’S GLORY
Charlie Robinson & Kevin Paterson




God is a God of cities. Throughout scripture, it is obvious that He places great emphasis on cities. After the exodus from Egypt , when the Israelites were about to move into the Promised Land, God commanded them to invade and occupy the heathen cities one by one. The apostle Paul writes a number of his letters to the churches—such as the Corinthians or Ephesians—according to the cities in which the people lived. When God speaks to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, He addresses them by the names of cities they lived in. For instance: “the church of Philadelphia ” or “the church of Laodicea ”. Even in heaven, as described in scripture, God has built a “city” called the New Jerusalem.

Just as God loves cities or, more specifically, the people within cities, He wants us to cultivate a heart for them too. In the same way that He emphasizes cities in His plans, so too, God wants us to reach the lost with His city-taking strategies. I believe that God wants His people to realize that the city they live in belongs to the Lord. According to Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.” Many of us have read good books about taking our cities for God and others have been actively involved in spiritually mapping their city. Yet the success stories seem to be few and far between.

However, I believe that we are on the verge of seeing whole cities affected by the power of God. In order to encourage you and give you vision for your city, I want to share some of the mighty things the Lord has done in our city and province over the last few years as we have prepared to see the glory of God fill our streets.



Believing God for your City

When God first began to speak to me about my city, I was unaware that he was even interested in it. Of course, I knew he loved people, but cities? Then I thought about how much he agonized over Jerusalem for not recognizing its hour of visitation. He wanted to gather them (the city and the people within it) to himself, as a hen gathers her chicks to itself. I believe that the Holy Spirit literally wants to come and settle down over my city. I believe he wants to "cover them with his feathers" as it were. I am firmly convinced that we will eventually see whole cities come to Christ. However, such dramatic awakening will only happen when we begin to believe what he has to say about cities.

For many years the Spirit has spoken to me saying I would see “the glory of the Lord in the land of the living”. I didn't know, until years later, that these words were in the Bible. David said, "I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." (Ps.27:13) That Hebrew word "goodness" is the same word used when God promised to show Moses his glory. So, in effect, the word goodness means the glory of God. In my ministry, God is asking me to believe Him for ONE THING—the glory of the Lord in the land of the living. I'm to believe for His glory to be revealed now, not just when we get to heaven. God's glory is not just for Christians, it's for everyone to see. According to Isaiah 60, when the world sees the glory of God upon the church, the lost will come to its rising. God has shown me that if I will believe him, He will give His people the wisdom to work with Him to see the glory manifest. So, over the years, I have learned to believe God for the promise of His glory.

The Bible tells us that "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him as righteousness" (Rom. 4:3). As Christians, we all know that when we believe God's promises, we reap tremendous results. The problem is, we don't know HOW to believe. We strive, we try to keep our confession right, we battle unbelief, and when we don't see the desired results, we feel condemned and give up. I don't know everything there is to know about faith and believing God, but I do know one thing. True faith is not found in striving, the number of prayers you pray or the amount of noise you make. True faith and belief in God is found in resting. In Hebrews 3 we are told that "He who enters into his rest ceases from his own labors." This was a key I found, unfortunately, after much unnecessary perspiration.

In the early eighties, God spoke to me about a powerful move of His Spirit that would occur in Abbotsford. He gave me angelic visitations, visions and powerful heavenly experiences over a period of about eighteen months. During this time, God showed me a mighty wave of his Spirit that would crash upon our city and touch every soul. I saw an army of youth hitting the streets with signs and wonders happening everywhere. I saw gigantic revival centers where Christians were being sent to the nations to bring this flood of his glory to the ends of the earth. I was so moved and transformed by these supernatural experiences that I immediately began to preach everywhere about the coming revival that would hit our city.

My wife and I started a home group and we saw God visit us in a powerful way. We brought in speakers and had meetings. We saw God touch many people - and yet the whole city was not impacted by the power of God like he had shown me. I began to wonder if there was more I could do. So I began to read books and listen to tapes about city taking. One day, after reading a book about bringing down the demonic principalities over cities, I decided to walk the streets and command these principalities to "come down and leave my city". I didn't know it, but this exercise was about to change my life and destiny - but not the way that I thought it would.

An Encounter with God's Wisdom

As I walked the streets of Abbotsford, I prayed earnestly for my city. I looked up and shouted out at the principalities over my city to "come down immediately". I bound, I loosed, I yelled and I pounded my feet. I even shook my fist. This city belonged to God, I thought to myself, therefore I have a right to demand that the devil take his hand off it. Right then and there, the Lord spoke loudly and clearly to me. He said four words that changed my life. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" You know you're in trouble when God doesn't even know what you're doing. My shoulders slumped and I remember feeling embarrassed. "But I'm taking the city for you, Lord. I'm breaking the enemy's power over this region, just like I read in the book." Then God had mercy on me. He showed me that what I had been doing was completely based on human zeal and that I was actually doing more harm than good. Without any wisdom whatsoever, I had engaged the enemy from a carnal mind and not with the mind of Christ.

Then the Lord began to give me His wisdom for city taking. He showed me that when a civilized army goes to war against another army, they do not start by bombing the schools, the day care centers and hospitals. He told me that my kind of "scatter shot" prayers were like bombs landing indiscriminatingly on everything—without any planning, my spiritual assaults were doing more harm than good. No, when a civilized army goes to war, they strike military targets. They zero in on the enemy's strongholds and send in pinpoint missiles to destroy them.

Bombing Strategy from God

Then he asked me what I was praying for. I replied that I was praying for the city. He told me to be more specific and tell him what I wanted most to see changed in this city. I told him I wanted to see him touch the youth in our city. He asked me what I thought was the number one military instillation that affected our youth. Then it just came out of my belly. The arcades! I want to see the arcades closed down! We had three arcades in our city. They were like snake pits. They were dark and dreary and all three of them were known drug dens. Then the Lord said this to me: You pray and I will close all three down. It was that simple. I knew, the moment he spoke those words, it was done. All I had to do was keep up my end of the deal and we would witness a miracle.

Understanding the power of agreement, I asked three other people to pray and agree with me. At the end of the first week I was on my way to church when I noticed one of the arcades had been emptied of its' machines. I stopped and walked up to it. A crude sign was taped to the front door. It read: CLOSED BY POLICE BECAUSE OF DRUGS. The following week the biggest of the arcades was closed down permanently. Again, we found out about the closing when we drove by and saw all the machines removed. It took another two weeks and the last arcade was closed for good. All three arcades were closed in less than a month! Why? Because God loves our cities and desires to see real change come.

Unfortunately, we get in the way of this transformation process—we often operate out of human reasoning. We take the Bible and then try to apply human wisdom to see promises fulfilled and to get the job done. But any wisdom that does not come from God is "earthly, sensual and demonic"(James 3:15 ). This is why it is imperative that we walk only in the wisdom of God. If we do, we will begin to actually see good fruit in our lives and ministries and then we will finally see God move powerfully in our cities. "But the wisdom that is from above is... full of mercy and good fruits"(James 3:17 ).

The Power of God's Manifold Wisdom

It takes the wisdom of God, and then ACTING on that wisdom, to destroy the strongholds of demonic principalities over your city. How do I know that? Ephesians 3:9-11 says that the Father, "…created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." God has an "eternal purpose" for your city—that purpose is established when you receive part of the "manifold wisdom" of God for your city and then act on that wisdom.

Acting upon that wisdom will defeat the enemy in that particular arena of conflict. Every time! You will notice that in this scripture it uses the word "manifold" or "many folded" to describe this kind of wisdom. This wisdom is like an accordion filing system. It looks like a big manila envelope until you open it up and it springs wide open, revealing many hidden pockets. To the casual Christian God's manifold wisdom looks like two dimensional words on a page. But to the one who seeks and desires it, His wisdom takes on a third dimension—a spiritual dimension, not only of truth, but of POWER able to change the world you live in.

Let me speak one word of caution for all the lone rangers out there who may be tempted to go off on their own and "win their city for Jesus" by themselves. There is safety in numbers. Surround yourself with good men and women who love God and have a kingdom vision. You are not the only Christian in your city and neither is your church the only church. There are a lot of Christians in churches in Abbotsford who may not like everything I do or even believe everything the way I believe it. But they love Jesus and many of them may have paid a greater price than I have to see God revive this city. A body has many parts and just because we have had some great experiences or more revelations than others, does not mean that other believer's roles in our city is any less significant than ours. In fact, those Christians from “other streams” may just have the missing keys that you need for the transformation of your city.



Hail, Hail, Lion of Judah

Let me share a powerful example of what can happen to a city when God speaks one word of his manifold wisdom to our hearts. A number of years ago, while working with Patricia King's ministry, Kevin Paterson and myself lead a youth tour across Canada . We had a tremendous time, seeing the Lord move in power through these young people wherever we went. One of our stops was at the Toronto Airport Church , where I ended up on the floor, roaring like a lion. As I lay there, my hands felt like lion's paws and I could see a vision of a map of Canada with veils hanging over each province. In intercession, as I began to tear at these veils in the spirit, I could literally feel the lion of Judah tearing the veils of religion that held each province in captivity. After some time the experience waned but I was left with a real expectancy that God was about to do something earth shaking. Upon leaving Toronto , we headed west again, back to B.C. On the way to one of the last cities we were to visit on our tour, some of the young people began to pray and travail. As they did, the power of God hit both Kevin and I. I immediately began roaring like a lion as the Spirit of God rose up with a great cry from my inner man. Suddenly the Lord spoke to me. He told me that there was a spirit of religion over that city we were entering and that the demon power's headquarters was in the church we were going to! I thought, “Great, what do we do about that?!”

Then the Lord dropped a word of wisdom into my spirit. He told me that we were called to bring that spirit of religion down from over the city and then He gave me a strategy. I was to forget all the messages I had planned to preach at this church and I was to preach on "Having a Form of Godliness but Denying its Power" (2 Tim. 3:5). He told me that I was to look at the people when I preached but that my words would go straight up into the heavenlies and the power of his word would bring this stronghold down. I was about to tell Kevin what the Lord had just told me to do when he looked at me and said that the Lord had just showed him that we would have to deal with a religious spirit over this church.

The following day I was motoring along, preaching what the Lord gave me, looking at the people, but knowing that my words were going straight up. Later I found out that two of the intercessors traveling with us on the trip had been doing a prayer walk around the church when they felt that something broke in the heavenly realm. They came back in during my message. Then, in the middle of that afternoon session, it happened!! A great storm began to shake the area, the sky opened up and hail fell from heaven. Boy did it come down. Now, we're not talking cute little white puffs of hail here. We're talking hail the size of ice cubes and bigger, landing in a three city-block area of the church, with us in the middle.

The hail came down with such violence that it broke both the side mirrors and sky light on our van. The cars in the parking lot looked like someone had tipped them sideways and driven hundreds of golf balls into them. The huge church skylight was broken and water was pouring into the main sanctuary through the light fixtures in the ceiling. Unfortunately, there were three car dealership lots within a three block radius of the church. A month after this incident the provincial auto insurance company reported three million dollars in insurance claims as a result of this incident.

It was an incredible, awe-inspiring sight. Outside the church the hail was piled up everywhere and we knew that something had broken in the heavenly realm, but we weren't quite sure just what it was, yet. Right at that moment a fire truck, sirens blazing and lights flashing, came racing into the driveway. The firemen jumped out and told us that they had been informed that the church was on fire! At first, when they saw our Catch Fire t-shirts, they thought we were playing a joke on them. Well, after the firemen discovered no physical fire was in the building, we had a team picture taken with the firemen while we stood around the fire truck with hail on the ground. And this powerful event took place in the middle of August! Later, the Lord began to reveal scriptures to us that spoke of God judging His enemies with hail, lightening and fire! All, I could think about was the song “Hail, Hail, Lion of Judah!”

City-Changing Prophetic Decrees

The next morning I felt very impressed to ask the youth pastor, a fine man of character, if he felt there was a spirit of religion holding back the Spirit of God in his church. When I asked him my question, he began to cry and told me this story: he said that for fourteen years their church had never had one soul come to Christ at any of their services (and this was a fair-sized church). He told me that his pastor would not allow anyone to call him pastor because he didn't have a college degree. He said that over the last fourteen years, every time the Spirit would begin to move in power in the church, the pastor would stop it immediately. On top of that, the young man was thinking of stepping down as youth pastor because the church wouldn't pay him much because he lacked the credentials they required. I told him that both Kevin and I felt that God was going to do something significant in the service that night.

At the end of the evening service we went to pray for the youth pastor. As I stepped forward I felt like I walked right into the Spirit of God. I looked at this man and told him that three things were about to happen. First, I told him that within a month an outside youth ministry would come, asking him to take some leadership and that they would pay him a partial salary. God wanted him to take this position because it would allow him to remain at the church because God was about to do something there. Next, I told him that God was going to remove his pastor from the church and He was going to do it fast. Then I turned around and pointed up into the top of the a-frame church and said, "You foul spirit of religion that has been harassing and mocking these people all these years, come under this man's feet!" I pointed at the youth pastor's feet because I believed God wanted to put that spirit under his feet. When I said that, the youth pastor went down under the power of God—you could feel the victory in the spiritual atmosphere.

About eight months after this event, Kevin and I were contemplating another youth trip across the province. We thought it would be good to visit this church again so we gave the youth pastor a call. He told me that he was about to call me and let me know what had happened since we had ministered to him. He said that within one month of our visit, Young Life youth ministry approached him about coming on part-time staff, so he took the position knowing it was a part of God's plan. Not only that, within a short time of our visit there, the church board held an emergency meeting and voted to let the senior pastor go after fourteen years as pastor. The Sunday after the vote, for the first time in fourteen years, somebody gave their heart to the Lord during the morning service.

However, the most amazing thing, he said, was that just the week before my call the organist of the church came to talk to him privately. She said that for eight months she had held onto some information, not telling anyone because she thought that people would think she was weird. Eventually she decided to tell this youth pastor because he was the only person she figured might understand. She went on to say that for fourteen years she had played the organ during worship in that church and that every single Sunday, as the people would begin to sing, she would feel two evil eyes staring down from the top of the church and mocking them. She said that although she felt the same thing every single Sunday for fourteen years, the experience stopped the Sunday following the meetings with our youth team. And the evil demonic eyes had not come back since then! After this heaven and earth-shaking encounter the city experienced a mighty move of God among the youth. Youth from a variety of churches were getting together and a harvest of souls began to come in. Praise the Lord!

Just as He shook this small Canadian city, God wants to invade cities all over the earth. He is looking for people who love their city and who will stand in the gap until his glory fills its borders. Is your city wicked? Remember that Abraham pleaded with God for mercy on a very wicked city. In the same way, God is looking for people who will wait on him and receive the wisdom they need to change their city. It's time to shout with praise, because the Lord has given you the city. In "Cities Under God's Glory” part two, I will share with you the amazing things that God has done to prepare us for a great deluge of his power!

PART II

By Charlie Robinson

God has a great plan for your city. As mentioned in the previous article, God's ultimate desire is to fill your city with the His glory and touch the hearts of every living being within its borders. The enemy has set up camp and has done everything he can to oppose this end. There is nothing you can do in the natural realm to bring God's will to bear in your city and change the atmosphere in and around it. However, if you understand two things, you will be on your way to seeing the destiny of your city changed, and the destiny of the people within it transformed. First—you don't know what to do. Second—God does.

Although simple, few people understand the power of embracing these two spiritual facts. Most of the time, we read a good book or listen to a good tape; then we start out in battle with a handful of principles and someone else's experiences. When we don't see the revival move of God begin to happen as we had planned, discouragement sets in and we begin to doubt God's abilities. Too many times we have faced the enemy with a doctrine and a principle without hearing the voice of the Lord for strategy specifically for our city or situation.

Look at the life of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles; his entire nation was under siege and he was faced with a battle he could not possibly win. After proclaiming a fast, and with the whole nation standing before him, he came to this conclusion : “O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You” (2 Chron. 20:12) Basically, he was saying, “God, we don't know what to do, but you do.” Look what happened immediately after this declaration from the lips of the king. The prophet spoke and delivered the prophetic word for the hour! The wisdom of God, from heaven, was made known to God's people. As a result, later in the story the Lord himself wiped out the armies of the enemy and saved an entire nation from destruction.

However, the people needed to obey one more admonition from the king before winning the battle: “…Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe his prophets, and you shall prosper” (2 Chron. 20:20 ). The king knew that nothing would take place without believing the word of the Lord. Churches need to admit to God that they don't have the answer to the problems of their city, and only the manifold wisdom of God can show them how to see their city transformed by the glory of God. It took the wisdom of God to win the battle. The victory manifested only after the nation humbled itself and admitted it was powerless without God. Let me share with you some victories that God has given us in our city after we listened to the word of the Lord.

DREAMS AND VISIONS

In 1984 and 1985 I received a series of visitations concerning a coming move of God in my city, Abbotsford , British Columbia , Canada . These visitations lasted for a period of about 18 months. The first one happened in March of 1984. I was working at a dump truck manufacturing company in Langley , B.C., a town about twenty miles from Abbotsford. The business owner, a wonderful Christian man, was on the board of directors of Kenneth Copeland Ministries. During that month I had three very vivid dreams. In each dream, Kenneth Hagin would visit me and talk to me for about two hours concerning the move of God. In each dream, after Kenneth finished talking to me, I would fall out under the power of God. Then I would wake from the dream bathed in the most wonderful presence of God. For quite some time, I never told anyone about these dreams. A few weeks after these dreams, a co-worker informed me that Kenneth Hagin had phoned the company's owner to tell him that he was praying for his business and his employees during the month of March!

During this time, God showed me visions of how he would begin the revival in our city. He would begin with young people and move with great power in their lives. He told me that unlike the adults, who were stuck in their religious ruts and traditions, the youth would come together when God poured out His Spirit, regardless of their church background. He showed me the intensity on their faces and their great zeal for God. In one vision I saw the contorted face of a young man and I thought for sure he had a demon. But when I looked closely at this face, I realized it was the intensity of the Holy Spirit working through him. In those days, the Lord told me to be very careful how I judge what I see happening in the church in the years to come because He was going to move on people in a way that the church was not comfortable with.

Over the years, I have prayed earnestly and done many things to try to bring revival to our city. But it seemed the more I tried to do, the more I heard God calling me to simply believe what he told me. Revival will come to your city. Yet, the more time passed, the more impatient I would get. I wanted to see it happen NOW! So I would start doing stuff, with little success. Then God would come to me and tell me that the battle wasn't mine, it was His and the only fight I was to fight was the good fight of faith. He told me that I was to believe what he told me would come to pass. Period! Just believe Him and act only on what He told me to do. I began to understand Hebrews 6:12 , which tells us that we receive the promises of God through faith AND patience. I learned how to stand in faith daily, believing God to bring a visitation to my city. Then the miracles began to happen…

A NEW NAME

Our city was not always called Abbotsford. In fact, not that long ago, it was called Matsqui, a native word meaning “high place”. (You may remember what God commanded the Israelites to do to high places.) Abbotsford was actually a very small part of Matsqui. One day the Lord spoke to me and said, “I want to change the name of the city.” He told me He wanted to change the name of the entire city to Abbotsford, and I was to pray to that end. I remember going to my friend, Kevin Paterson, and saying “God wants to change the name of our city! Let's get together and believe God for it.” He told me that he felt it was God, so we began to pray. Can you imagine asking God to change the name of your city?! We did it because we were absolutely convinced that God had spoken. Well, lo and behold, in the midst of our praying, the surrounding towns (three in all) decided to amalgamate. Then came a public referendum to decide the new name of the city. And what name do you people voted as the new name? You guessed it—Abbotsford. Later, we actually did a study of the meaning of that name. The word Abbot, in the Gage Canadian Student Dictionary, comes from the Hebrew word Abba, which means Father. The word ford means to cross over a river. I believe the Lord has shown us that Abbotsford is destined to be a forerunner for the apostolic move of God and to help the body of Christ cross over to the promised land of revival. I believe that God is calling this city to be a place which reestablishes the Fatherhood of God in the church and allows His love to flow freely to the world.

THE SIGN

Several years ago I was working in a classroom at a local school, making calendars for a special needs classroom. I used to work as an artist, so I was often called upon to make posters or signs for classes and teachers. This particular day I was putting the finishing touches on the month of November. For every month I had made a different symbol with a date of the month on each one. For the month of November I made thirty little white clouds, with a blue outline around each one, and a yellow lightning bolt coming out of it. As I was finishing this, I began to think about the promises that God had given me concerning my city. I thought about the young people He would raise up—those who would shake the earth for God.

As I sat there, I began to pray and go over in my mind all these wonderful things. Then I said, “Lord, tell me just one more time that I'll be there. Tell me one more time that when the great explosion of Your power hits the earth, I will be there.” Immediately the word of God exploded loudly within me. “WHEN IT STRIKES, YOU WILL BE THERE!” Instantly I began to weep, completely forgetting the fact that I was in the corner of a classroom with a bunch of other people in it. All I could do was look down at these thirty white clouds, with blue outlines and yellow lightning bolts and think: “Thank You Lord. When it strikes, I will be there!

When the class finished I packed up and headed home. On the way I stopped at the Mohawk Gas station on McCallum Road . As I walked into the store, I froze in my tracks. In front of me was a big Lotto sign hanging on the wall—on it was a picture of a giant cloud with a blue outline on it. It had a big yellow lightning bolt coming out of the cloud. Underneath the picture, I read: “WHEN IT STRIKES, YOU WILL BE THERE!” I stood there for minutes, just looking at this thing. Standing there, I realized how serious God was about visiting our city with power. And the best part about it was – I was going to be there to see it!

THE LIGHTNING STRIKES

Never would I have guessed the sign God was about to give as further confirmation. It happened at Patricia King's house. I have had the privilege of ministering with Patricia on a number of occasions. In fact, her and her husband Ron lived about ten minutes from us for many years. They have a wonderful family and international ministry. One day, I received a phone call from Patricia, asking me if I wanted to join her and a few others for prayer at their house that night. She said she felt very impressed to gather a few people together and seek God. I was about to say yes when I remembered that I was going to a renewal meeting that night with a few friends. She asked me who I was going with, so I told her it was Kevin Paterson, who had also worked with Patricia's ministry, as well as a young guy that Kevin was working with in a small youth ministry. I asked her if we could bring him along to the prayer meeting. She said we could, and so all three of us all ended up at her place.

While we were worshipping the Lord, this young guy cries out, “I just got hit by lightning!” After a few minutes he asks, “Did you see that? There's lightning in the room, I just got hit again!” Then I realized it – THE LIGHTNING! It's here! But I didn't see it at all. Patricia saw it. The young guy saw it. But I didn't see a thing. Still, I knew it was happening and that we were being visited by the lightning of God. Afterwards I complained to the Lord that I didn't see it and others did. He told me that He never told me I would see it, only that I would be there when it struck!! Not long after this experience, the young man was invited by Patricia to a woman's meeting on Mother's Day. At the meeting he was released into full time ministry and is now touching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You may have heard of him—his name is Todd Bentley.

GOD USES PEOPLE

God uses ordinary people for extra-ordinary purposes. When you pray for revival, always be prepared for God to use you. In fact, EXPECT God to use you and be available to work the miraculous on His behalf. But you also need to realize that God will use others as well. The problem we have in most cities is that every church is doing their own thing and we don't recognize others in our city who God has also called to bring His glory to our area. Remember this important fact: when God releases His glory in a city, He will use a man or woman. Are you praying for the glory of God to fill and impact your city? Then look for those who are carrying the anointing to get the job done.

I believe there have been countless men and women whom God has raised up to lead cities into revival that have either been rejected by the church or not recognized for who they were. Even Jesus lamented the fact that Jerusalem did not recognize its redeemer and had missed its hour of visitation. How many other cities around the world have missed their hour of visitation and rejected the anointed men and women of God sent to bring His blessing. Many times these people are not accepted because of the package they come in, the way they minister or because they are not a part of particular groups. “There's no way God could use them to bring about the purposes of God!” some may think. As Jesus said, “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees!”

In 1 Kings 8:16 we find out how God looks at bringing His presence into a city: “Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there, but I chose David…” When we pray for our city, God sends us a man. What does this man have to do? He has only to do what's in his heart. Verse 17 says, “Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel .” Too often we stand around waiting for God to do something. Many times He is waiting for us to do what's in our hearts. God is looking for men who will live out of the abundance that's already on the inside of them. (The kingdom of God is within you!) God is raising up an army of such people—people who will bring life and vision back to the church because they simply live out what is already within them, placed there by the Spirit of God. God is giving us gifts in the form of anointed men of God who will not only proclaim, but demonstrate His glory in the earth.

PART III

By Charlie Robinson & Kevin Paterson

In the first two parts of Cities Under God's Glory we talked about God's heart for cities and how we can believe God for wisdom and strategy for seeing our cities transformed for His glory. In this final part, we will examine some practical steps in preparing your city for revival and we will also talk about some keys that some people miss in their battle plans for their city. My friend, Kevin Paterson, has co-written the last two parts of this article with me—he has worked together with me in ministry for years and has been part of some of the city impacting events I've already described. He was also involved in the beginnings of Fresh Fire.

During the last 20 years or so, we have seen God release powerful teaching and revelation to His people about how to impact their cities and prepare them for revival. Many Christians have read the powerful book Taking Our Cities For God by John Dawson or other similar books, including writings, like those by George Otis Jr., Peter C. Wagner and Cindy Jacobs about spiritual mapping of cities.

First, I (Kevin) would like to give a brief overview of some of these teachings, then Charlie and I will discuss some principles that are often forgotten in city-taking efforts. Here's a brief summary of some of the powerful revelations teachers on city-taking have brought to believers to help them bring revival to their cities:

1. Redemptive Calls Over Cities: John Dawson, in Taking Our Cities For God , explains how the Lord has placed a redemptive call on each city. However, in every case, the enemy tries to pervert that call. For instance, Los Angeles (The Angels), named after God's messengers, is called to bring God's pure message to the world. Yet, the enemy has perverted the call so that this city spews the impure, godless message of Hollywood around the world. Another city, Salt Lake City , Utah , had a role in providing provisions and blessing for the pioneer's before their wagons rolled west. However the enemy has perverted this call through false religion. God wants to restore these redemptive calls on cities.

2. Gates of Cities: as already mentioned in previous parts of this article, every city has gates or entry places for spiritual influences. Gates can include sins committed in the city, religious practices, political decisions made (good and bad) and traumas to the city like some type of natural or man-made disaster. By studying the history of the city, Christians can repent for past sins in the city and prayerfully break strongholds.

3. Territorial Spirits: The scripture talks about principalities and powers (Eph. 1:15 ), demonic forces which have authority over certain regions or cities. Each territorial spirit assigned to a place is responsible for enforcing a specific evil agenda in that area such as materialism, lust, fear, violence or unbelief. Scripture tells us about Daniel who prayed for 21 days before two angels overcame the demonic prince of Persia and brought the answer (Dan. 10). These same kinds of demonic forces oppose God's will and hinder revival in regions throughout the world today. New York City is in bondage to a spirit of mammon, Chicago is controlled by a spirit of violence and the nation of South Africa is oppressed by disunity and separation (through the apartheid system). As God's people begin to discern the nature of the attack in their city or region, they are more equipped to overcome in prayer and get strategy for action.

4. Spiritual Mapping: As already mentioned, through Spirit-led study, believers can spiritually map a city, find out the nature of demonic strongholds and pinpoint geographic locations of sin needing cleansing. This method allows Christians to strategize and, through prayer walks, praise and intercession, prepare their city for revival.

5. Unity: As teachers on strategic prayer warfare emphasize, unity among believers is very important in preparing a city for the invasion of God's glory. Usually, the more widespread the unity among lay people, intercessors and leaders, the better. As religious/denominational walls come down and as offenses are dealt with, Christians in a city gain the authority necessary to fully empower their prayers and actions.

6. Worship: Just as Jehoshaphat in scripture routed the enemy by sending the worshippers ahead of the army into battle, so too, Christians today can destroy strongholds through worship. As we worship in faith, the Lord's forces begin to route the enemy over areas. There are many stories of impacting strategic worship in places like the red light district of London, the desert of Mongolia and an island in the South Pacific. Such worship has led to the exposure and judgement of sin, the breaking of curses and the salvation of thousands of souls.

7. Wisdom/Waiting: In getting strategy from the Lord for taking cities, it is vital to spend time waiting on the Lord for wisdom. First we should get wisdom from heaven, confirmed in the mouths of many, before acting on it. City-taking principles are not enough—we need to clearly hear from God how and when to apply them

8. Identificational Repentance: Just as Daniel, as a righteous man, identified with his people and asked the Lord for forgiveness on their behalf, so too we can ask for forgiveness from the sins affecting our cities. Such repentance allows the Lord to spiritually cleanse the land and remove demonic strongholds which bar the way to revival.

9. Overcoming Evil with Good: This principle is based on Paul's teaching which says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 8:1). Jesus' also taught us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us. In our cities we can activate this truth by walking in humility when the predominate spirit is pride; by living with zeal when the enemy has enslaved people with apathy; or, by cultivating vital relationships when the prevailing spirit is isolation. As we to live in these ways, we begin to weaken and defeat strongholds of the enemy.

10. Covenants with God: As we know from scripture, God is a God of covenant—He always honors covenants and keeps His promises to His people. In the book of Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants which continues to be fulfilled today. Today, we can also make covenants with God for revival and salvation in our cities because He truly does want the people of our cities to be saved. Just like Isaiah, God wants us to say, “For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns” (Isaiah 62:1).

11. The Power of Travail & Intercession: Certainly the power of fervent, unified prayer and fasting must be one of the most powerful aspects of preparing a city for a visitation of God's glory. Jesus teaches about the power of tenacious prayer with the stories of the persistent widow and the importunate neighbor. God is looking for those, who like Daniel and Nehemiah, will stand before God on behalf of their city, until the victory has been won.

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Throughout the years, while ministering in different churches, we have talked with many Christians who have heard or read these teachings on city taking we have just summarized. They told us how they had eagerly implemented these principles yet had seen little or limited fruit. In fact, many of them had suffered great spiritual attack on their lives, family and churches. Some had experienced spiritual burnout, while others had left their churches as a result of a church split. We have come to see that believers often try to use the principles in books or the strategies that various revivalists or city/nation shakers, both past and present, have used—most often with little success. We have begun to ask the Lord, “What are Christians missing? And “What do they need to know to see breakthroughs in their cities?”

In recent years we have begun to recognize some vital keys that many believers tend to overlook:

• Loving Unity

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:13)

“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one… that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” (John 17:22, 23)

Scripture is very clear—love must be the motivation of everything we do and it is only when we are unified, one in love, that the world and our cities will be invaded with the Glory of God. Many Christians pray for revival or fight spiritual battles for their cities, yet their prayers are not fueled by love.

Years ago I (Kevin) was in a meeting with a group of Christian leaders—we were all asking questions of a well-known Argentinean revivalist. Charlie and I had been in a season of getting strategy from the Lord for our city and doing some strategic intercession and spiritual mapping. So I decided to ask the revivalist this question: “What is the most important word of advice you could give to people who are praying and believing for revival in their city?” I expected him to talk about prayer and fasting or to give some advice regarding strategic warfare. His answer surprised me. He said something like this: “If you want to see revival come to your city, the most important thing is that you first have a deep love for your city; that you weep for your city. Your prayer and strategic warfare will be ineffective without this burning love of God in your heart for the place you live.”

Today, these words still ring in my heart. I believe this passionate love for the people of our cities is often missing when we pray for revival. Many Christians pray for all kinds of reasons other than love—because they've read a good book; because they want to see change; because they want to look like a powerful Christian; because it seems like a good thing to do; because they are around others who are doing it … or a multitude of other reasons. Not all these motives are necessarily wrong—they're just not the primary heart motive necessary to get the job done. The bible tells us that all things are possible for those who believe (Mark 9:23 ). However, scripture also tells us that faith (or belief) works through LOVE (Gal. 5:6). We must have love for mountain-moving, city-taking faith and prayer to work.

About two years ago, while I was working one day, the following phrase continued to go round and round in my mind: “Make love your greatest aim.” I knew God was speaking to me—these words continued tumbling through my mind for hours. Eventually I said Him: “Lord, I've got the message already! I am trying to make love one of my goals in all I do.” The Lord's response to me was quick and straightforward. “Kevin, I don't want you to make love one of your goals. I want it to be your greatest aim, your highest priority. Love should be the motive of everything you do.”

For weeks and months after this, God began to reveal to me the motives for many things that I did. He showed me how, for years, truth was my greatest aim. I wanted to have my doctrine correct, to know scripture well, to understand all the scriptural principles for Christian living and to grasp the full gospel that the Spirit was speaking to the church. During another season of my life, power was my greatest goal. I wanted to learn about and walk in God's supernatural power. I wanted book of Acts Christianity restored to my life and the church. At another time of my life, revival was my greatest aim. I studied and read everything I could lay my hands on about revival—I prayed for it and I went everywhere I could where God was touching down powerfully. But now the Lord was saying that it wasn't truth, power, revival or prayer that was to be my priority—God wanted love to fuel and motivate everything I did. He began to shine His light on my motives in everything I did and said. As I began to recognize my bankruptcy in the area of love, I began to groan and cry out to the Lord to change me.

Then the Lord showed me how that every believer, movement and denomination had different aims or goals. Just like me, some built their world view, ministry and actions around truth or power or revival or evangelism or a multitude of other things. However, as this revelation began to drop into my heart, I began to realize that until God's people lined up their hearts with love, God's great priority, then none of our efforts to extend the kingdom would be fully effective in releasing the great harvest. I realized that motives are so subtle—many people may, at first, think their priority is love until the Spirit begins to illuminate the true motive of their hearts. The phrase continued to permeate my heart, yet I had not found it in any version of the bible. Then one day, Charlie and I were ministering in the U.S. when I stumbled upon a living bible and read, in 1 Corinthians 14:1, the phrase the Lord had been speaking to me for so long. I knew that God's message to “Make love your greatest aim” was a vital last days' message. When I shared this word with a prophetess overseeing the meeting, she was excited. She began to tell me about how that the Lord had told her that the last days move of God would begin with power but that it would be a move of “Transforming Love” that would usher in the great harvest throughout the world.

This message of transforming love began its workings even in the early days of Fresh Fire. I remember, many years ago, when a group of youth pastors and I began to pray for our city and its young people. For years we prayed regularly together for revival. When we started, our group consisted of about 30 youth pastors from various denominational backgrounds. Over the years, for various reasons, many of the pastors dropped out of these Youth Arise meetings, until finally, it was down to three of us who continued to meet for prayer. However, by this time, we were not as much concerned for revival as we were for each other. Yes, we were still praying for our city but we mostly just enjoyed coming together because we had begun to love each other. We were committed to each other even more than we were to our city. I realized later that the Lord was putting a love in our hearts for the youth of the city, but even more that that, He was loving our city through our love for one another. After standing and praying with each other over the years through many personal battles, we had become ONE in our love for each other and the city, we had begun to fulfill John 17:22, 23. And according to that scripture, the world was about to know that the Father had sent Jesus!

It was in that atmosphere of unified love that we decided to start some youth revival meetings called Fresh Fire. We agreed that we would believe for God to start a fire in our city that would impact many lives and then go to the nations. We started with a small group of on-fire youth. We would worship, preach and pray with a passion to see God touch the lives of youth in our city. Within a short time one of the youth pastors introduced to us a 22-year-old passionate street evangelist by the name of Todd Bentley. We asked him to give his testimony at one meeting and then had him preach another time. God visited so powerfully, that we decided to ask Todd to continue to minister in other Fresh Fire meetings.

Soon Todd embarked on a three-month soaking season with the Holy Spirit which involved various prophetic and angelic visitations. We continued to encourage Todd and pray for him as He grew in anointing and faith. He had many questions or even fears along the way, but we just continued to stand with him. We included Him in our loving community; now there were five of us. God amazed us at what He began to do through Todd. At our youth meetings, we had powerful visitations—the Holy Spirit would fall on everyone in the meeting with prophetic experiences, intercession, healing, joy and drunkenness in the Spirit. Within about five months Todd had an opportunity to speak at a meeting organized by a local prophetess. The Holy Spirit visited powerfully at that meeting too and the prophetess was led to publicly pray over Todd and release him into the ministry. Shortly afterward he began to get speaking invitations and was soon traveling to the nations with a powerful healing and prophetic anointing. Our local youth ministry, Fresh Fire, was launched to the world. The rest, as they say, is history.

Many people today still wonder, when they soak for hours and press into God in the same way as Todd did, why they don't find themselves having similar experiences, being launched to the nations or shaking cities. I do believe that God, in His sovereignty sometimes chooses certain people for specific tasks (to be discussed later). However, scripture also tells us that many are called but few are chosen. Not everyone responds to the call. However, most people don't understand the circumstances surrounding Todd's launch into ministry—I believe we can learn much from examining them. Remember, Todd's soaking and visitation season didn't take place in a vacuum, or while he was waiting on God on his own, in isolation. Years of loving, unified city prayer had prepared the way for this sign and wonder to be birthed. Not only had Todd served faithfully for years in his local church, where he was discipled, but he came into the ministry alongside a group of youth pastors who were walking in love, unity and faith for a revival that would go to the nations. God was faithful to answer our prayers; the answer just looked different than the way we initially thought it would. Our small local youth revival was eventually launched to the nations through a young man called Todd Bentley, under the banner of “Fresh Fire Ministries.”

PART IV

By Charlie Robinson & Kevin Paterson

In part three of Cities Under God's Glory we began to discuss some of the city-taking keys that Christians often overlook. Here are the final keys:

• The Wisdom of God

“Wisdom is the principle thing, therefore get wisdom.” (Proverbs 4:7)

When it comes to seeing cities touched by the power of God, I (Charlie) believe that one of the greatest deficiencies is almost always in receiving the wisdom needed to get the job done. Another man's vision for his city is not the principle thing. Your fasting and prayer is not the principle thing. WISDOM is the principle thing (when received through a heart of love as described above). Sometimes we are so busy praying that we don't hear the Lord when he speaks. Sometimes we are so busy doing the stuff we have read about that we don't hear the Lord when he speaks. Study the prophets; they moved only when God spoke. The warfare over your city is not only incredibly powerful, it is incredibly complicated—to the human mind. But when God looks at what the devil is doing, He laughs! (Psalm 2:4) He knows exactly what it will take to win the victory—every time.

So what's the problem? We are the problem! If you and I operate by a list of principles, rather than the principle thing, wisdom, we will not accomplish the task we set out to complete. Oh, we might win a few skirmishes here and there, but in the end we lose the war because we don't wait on the Lord to hear his directives and initiate his strategies.

I had an amazing vision last year to illustrate this point: In this “interactive” vision, I was sitting alone in a dug-out, watching a baseball game. The score was nine to nine in the bottom of the ninth. Our best player was up to bat with a full count and the bases loaded. Suddenly the manager called time-out and told me to take our best player's place at the plate. Up to that time I was very content just to watch the game unfold as a spectator. Now I had to grab a bat and get in the game. When I got to the batting box, I suddenly realized that our team's name was called “The City Takers”. I also realized that we had never won a game. We had had some good innings, hit a few home runs and struck out a few opposing players, but we had never won a game—ever. It didn't matter how well we played during the game, we always found a way to lose in the end.

As I stood there facing the pitcher, I realized that he was the devil. He looked overpowering, with his huge muscles and a mean-looking smirk on his face. His piercing eyes glared down at me and my whole body felt like Jello. I suddenly realized that no city-taking team had ever beaten him. He had won every single game. His specialty pitches were the sinkerball, the screwball and the lowball. To make matters worse, with a full count on me, I knew I only had one chance to get the job done and drive in the winning run. I stepped away from the plate and contemplated what I would do. The word then came to me, “Swing for the fences…or bunt.” I thought to myself, I'll be the hero and hit a home run! But wait, if I bunt I might take them off guard and beat them by my craftiness. But if I miss—my name will be mud! Swing or bunt? I didn't know what to do and I wondered why the coach would take out our best player and put me in there in the first place.

Suddenly I had a revelation. If the coach put me in this position, He must believe that I was able to get the job done, even though I didn't believe it myself. So I got real quiet and ignored all the confusion in my mind. I figured that if God sent me up here, he had equipped me for the job. So I listened for that still small voice. Suddenly I knew what to do! I knew at that moment, we had won the game. Should I swing for the fences or bunt? I wasn't going to do either. In fact, I was not going to swing at all. I would stand there and watch the pitcher throw ball four and we win the game. Why? Because the still small voice of the Lord told me that the devil CAN'T THROW A STRIKE. Every single person he had struck out had swung at a bad pitch. The mightiest of them all were SURE they could hit his best pitch, but in the end they struck out because they leaned on their own understanding. Oh, the pitch looked good for a while, but in the end it always ended up in the dirt. He CANNOT throw a strike. The devil is the father of lies, he cannot tell the truth. He is counting on the church to continue in its' own wisdom and swing for the fences. But without God's wisdom, we swing at shadows. Without His word we are always guessing—and we ALWAYS guess wrong.

There's nothing like being the hero who wins the game by hitting the big homerun. What power! What amazing ability! If that won't work, what about the humble bunt? Perhaps this would be the strategy of the wise, crafty player who outsmarts the competition and takes them completely off guard.

But how much glory can a man get when he doesn't even swing the bat and wins the game anyway? Where is the glory in that? Exactly. God will not share his glory with anyone and we are certainly not going to defeat spiritual powers through our own plans. Remember…. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. " (1 Cor. 2:9) Joshua, Gideon and Jehoshaphat all won victories when they followed God's unconventional wisdom in battle. The disciples, after fishing all night, drew in a large catch of fish when they obeyed the wisdom of Jesus to throw their net on the other side.

Are you tired of fishing all night and catching nothing? Maybe you're sick of striking out in the big game. You need to sit at the feet of Jesus and enter into his rest. You need to hear his voice, not only for the preparing your city for revival, but for your relationships, your finances and your own walk with him. That doesn't mean you stop reading good books or praying earnestly for revival, but you must hear the voice of God in these matters. Remember, wisdom is the principle thing, therefore get wisdom.

• Individual Authority Limits

Every person is called by God to fulfill a divine purpose while they are on the earth. Each individual is uniquely fashioned by God and equipped to carry out his or her calling. We must, however, understand that there are offices and levels of ministry that not everyone will walk in. Some people think that because another person walked in a specific anointing that they can also lay claim to their anointing and duplicate their ministry. Although this duplication phenomenon does happen for some people from time to time, it won't be the norm for every person. The Word of God tells us to "eagerly desire spiritual gifts" but the outworking of those gifts will be unique to the individual.

I (Charlie) have had a number of people come up to me and say something like this: "I spent three months soaking in God's presence like Todd Bentley, I listened to all of Todd Bentley's tapes and I prayed that God would anoint and use me like him. Two years later I'm still not in the ministry; I don't see the miracles he does and I'm extremely discouraged. What is wrong with me?"

"The answer is easy,” I tell them. “You're not Todd Bentley. You are unique to God. You should soak in God's presence—it's awesome that you want to be anointed and used like Todd and see God do miracles through your hands. I want that too! But I'm not Todd Bentley either.” As Todd's friend for a number of years, I know a few things about him that you may not know. For instance, I know the kind of price Todd paid for what he has. I used to hang out with him during his "soaking period." I remember going to revival meetings where he would sit there under the power of God listening to the speaker. He would be completely drunk in the Spirit and half slumped over. Every now and then he would raise up his head and say something that, half the time, I didn't understand. I knew God was doing something but there were times when I wondered what the heck was going on. I mean, how can a guy be completely overpowered by the Spirit day after day—come on! I have to admit that sometimes I wondered what people were thinking about me hanging out with this seemingly perpetually drunk person.

Remember, at that time, this was not Todd Bentley the international evangelist—no, this was Todd, the young guy who was always sloshed! But he didn't care! He was too in love with Jesus to even think about it. His hunger for more of God had overtaken him and God's hunger for more of Todd became unquenchable. Together they let the world pass by as their intimacy grew, until one day God just had to release him to the world so that we could get a glimpse of what it's like to touch God in the secret place. Do you have such a consuming hunger for God that you are willing to lose your dignity and find your entire fulfillment in God? Will you allow the Lord to fuel your heart with a love for him that is greater than a love for ministry? If so, you can begin to ask God to anoint you like Todd. You can also believe that your life, along with those you partner with, will be used to shake your workplace, neighborhood, city or nation.

As you already have the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead living in you, you are off to a great start. Having said this, understand where you are at with Christ. If you are asking God to give you a worldwide evangelistic ministry with signs following—are you being a witness first to your friends, family and neighbors? Are you praying for the sick wherever you are? If you are asking God for a revival in your city, are you sowing seeds of revival in your home? Are you loving, praying and fasting for your family, coworkers and friends? Are you loving your wife and training up your children in the things of God? Those of you who are believing God for the wealth of the world to come into your hands… are you giving generously to the poor and those that faithfully minister the gospel? You will reap what you sow. When I first met Todd, he had been saved less than a year. Do you want to know what he did in his spare time, almost every day? He went to the skateboard park and witnessed to teenagers. After he was married, Todd, along with his wife, mother-in-law and another man spent the summer witnessing at Mill Lake in Abbotsford almost every week. He was doing the stuff whether anyone noticed him or not. He loved the lost.

This article is about winning your city for Christ. Therefore, it is vital that we realize that God chooses different people for different jobs. You need to recognize those whom God has called to lead in strategic spiritual ground-taking. There will be those who are gifted and released to bring others together to win cities. Unfortunately, I believe that many times these people are either taken out, distracted into other ministry or, more commonly, not received as a person that God would use to this end. Jesus said that Jerusalem missed her hour of visitation. Why? Because she failed to recognize the one God had sent. You need to pray that GOD would send HIS laborers into the harvest field.

Also, you need to realize, as I wrote earlier, that you are not going to do it on your own—you are part of a team. Get rid of the super-star attitude that commonly affects much of the charismatic church. Humility is at a premium here. How about esteeming OTHERS higher than yourself like the Bible says? Begin to pray that God will raise others up into their ministry—don't just pray for your own ministry. Understand the authority that you have in Christ AND the authority that you have in your city. Those two things are not the same! I know of a woman in a large city in Canada who is allowed into the mayor's office to pray almost any time she wants to. And the mayor is not even a Christian. If I tried to walk in there and pray they would throw me out on my ear. Why? I don't have the authority that she has received.

As Todd says, you may have as accurate a gift of prophecy as he does but you may never get invited anywhere to speak. Why? Because you don't have the platform and thus the authority and favor from God to minister in the places that he ministers. He is walking in an office and calling that opens doors for him. He has been given a PLATFORM to minister from. We need to understand our individual authority limits. Too many of us head out to build a tower and give up before the job gets done. Why? Because we failed to count the cost. Some people go out to war without taking into consideration the size of the army they are up against. The devil is not going to roll over and quit just because you read a good book. When the authority of the kingdom of God is brought to bear upon the enemy—then, and only then, will the enemy loose his hold. If you have a heart for your city, pray that God will send his mighty warriors, those he has prepared for the battle. Also, prepare yourself and ask God to use you. I believe this is the hour that God is raising up deliverers to bring his kingdom to earth. Don't be fearful, but don't be presumptuous, either. Follow the Spirit and be a part of what God is doing in the earth today.

Truly God is raising up an army of believers walking in loving unity, with the wisdom and mind of God, who know their place in the battle and who will be part of great city-taking efforts. These last days' spiritual campaigns will bring transformation and harvest to cities and nations throughout the world.

Charlie Robinson is a Canadian revivalist who releases the glory of God wherever he goes. His life is a testimony of how God can move supernaturally in the daily life of a believer. He ministers in a prophetic teaching anointing and has a strong call to help bring in the end-time harvest. He also has a passion to see prophetic intercessors raised up and encouraged in the Lord.

Charlie ministers regularly with Todd Bentley at conferences, healing schools and crusades and is an itinerate minister with Fresh Fire Ministries. As well, Charlie is the leader of the Fresh Fire Worship Band and he ministers in prophetic worship at conferences and healing schools in the U.S. and Canada . He also ministers with Patricia King on her Extreme Prophetic Television programs.

At home, Charlie is on the leadership team at Abbotsford City Fellowship, where Todd Bentley and his family attend. Charlie resides in Abbotsford , British Columbia , Canada with his wife Shirley and their son Samuel. You can book Charlie for your event by contacting Angela at angela@freshfire.ca .

Kevin Paterson is a youth/young adult pastor in Abbotsford who worked with Todd in the beginning days of Fresh Fire's blaze. He has also worked for years as a public school teacher. Today, Kevin does much of Fresh Fire's writing and editing work. He is gifted with prophetic teaching ability and speaks at churches, youth groups and other meetings. Kevin is available to minister on topics such as: "Raising a radical Elijah generation", "Apostolic Fathering and mentoring", "Revival of Grace", "The Father Heart of God" and “Transforming Love.” He can be contacted by e-mail at: wavesofgrace@canada.com


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