Right away, after the vision, I started hearing God better. Within a week a family of missionaries shows up from Canada to volunteer at my for-profit business because God told them. I didn't get a "prayer language" - I got screaming and groaning. Nothing else would come out and if I didn't let SOMETHING out, I felt like I would explode. During this time I was writing a lot. Things like the Declaration of War Against the Forces of Darkness and The Open Letter of Apology to the World.
Then God says that the website (WhatHaveWeDone.org) isn't what He wanted, that it was my idea. Yeah, I didn't ask. So what does He want? Fellowship Of The Martyrs. Ouch! Ik now right off that's going to get me into trouble! Really, Lord? We're like in the middle of the Second Intafada in Israel with guys calling themselves "martyrs" and strapping bombs on their chests and getting on public buses! Are you sure, Lord? Yep, turns out He was sure. He says that's what the "church" is supposed to be - the koinonia, the comradeship, the bonding of the witnesses that won't change there story and are already dying to self. We're to walk the Via Dolorosa daily with Him, not just once at the end. In the Great Commission He sends us out to be His witnesses unto the ends of the earth. That word witness in the Greek is "martus" from which we get "martyr". Literally He is saying to go be His MARTYRS to the ends of the earth. And we're to be One as He and the Father are One.
So then I'm writing stuff like the Fellowship Of The Martyrs Battle Plan and "Wanted: Revival Positions Available." Some of my writing start going out on Andrew Strom's email list to 10,000 people. People start hearing God tell them to move to Liberty, Missouri. We start having prayer meeting at my furniture store in the evening and we're doing deliverance and people are getting healed.
In the Summer of 2005, God started leading Doug to meet more people who had a heart for revival in Kansas City. One after another would tell him about how God had told them that He was going to give them the fallen mantle of Mike Bickle to bring revival. Then God would test them - and one after another would fail. One was told to tell John Wimber, when he first came to visit, that he should run away from the place - but refused to do it. One was supposed to pick up the pieces, asked if he would press on if it cost him his family, said no - and instantly the lot fell to another. One was so viciously religious about never going to doctors and ONLY relying on divine healing that he lost everything and couldn't be used to unite people. And then meeting people or hearing stories of people many years or decades earlier that had tried to bring unity to Kansas City or to Liberty.
Then one day, out of the blue, I heard God say, "Listen, I don't want you to get full of yourself. You're not my first choice for this job. You're the backup of the backup of the backup of the backup to bring revival to Kansas City, but we're out of time and you're the end of the line and you couldn't screw it up if you tried." I wasn't discontent with my life, I wasn't looking for a ministry, I wasn't trying to compete with anyone - but I said, "Here am I. Send me." And I meant it.
The Lord started shaking everything that I thought that I knew, but was in fact, tradition or teaching of man. He started talking about what the Church is supposed to be. There are only three choices; 1) me, the individual, a temple not built by human hands, 2) the Bride, the universal church, and 3) the city church, one body per city under His headship with local elders, autonomous and independent. Reading Revelation 2 and 3 we see that all the letters from Jesus are to the entirety of the believers in each city - Church of Ephesus, Church of Smyrna, Church of Laodecia, etc. Each with unique issues, each with local leadership, all autonomous, all with different instructions from the Lord based on their situation. Paul addresses the one church in Corinth, but the church(es) of Galatia - because Galatia is a region, not a single city. Even when Paul addresses "the church that meets in your house," it's not a seperate, discrete unit then the rest of that city, it's just those who are OF Christ that live or meet there. It would be extremely rare for the whole of the Church of Jerusalem to all meet in one place. There were 3000 the day after Pentecost and 8,000 shortly after that! That's a BIG potluck dinner! Wherever they met, they were always SUPPOSED to be One. (More on that on our Churchianity page and the Do It Yourself City Church Restoration book.)
To the Church in Ephesus (Rev. 3), Jesus threatens that they've lost their first love and if they don't get back to it, that He will take away their Lampstand. I thought, "Lord, I can't imagine any city where they haven't lost it." He took me back to the original vision of utter blackness across the US and Canada. I wept and wept. I know that in church history, during the great revivals whole cities lit up. There are stories of the hand of God being so strong on a town that you could NOT curse inside city limits. Or of the police finding people unconscious on the sidewalk and having to roll them over and sniff their breath to see if they were drunk or had been to the revival. I want THAT! Any price I have to pay is worth it just for the POSSIBILITY of seeing that again! It's what the world needs more than anything else! (Right about that time God started talking about an internet communication system to restore the Bride in every city everywhere. More on that later.)
We prayed and fasted (those first two years were about 200 days out of the year without food or water, in stretched of 6-8 days at a time), inquiring of the Lord how to fix all the Lampstands. He said, "Don't worry about ALL of them. Just fix the one in your own backyard." In Judges 6 Israel is being oppressed (because they are all worshiping Baal) and an unnamed prophet calls them to repent (Bless him, Lord). Evidently enough people repent because God raises up Gideon to drive out the Midianites. But Gideon can't be used by God so long as their is an altar to Baal in his own backyard. He doesn't knock down EVERY altar, just the one. Rebuilds it the right way with undressed stones, cuts down the Asherah poles (pointy fertility symbols - like steeples), sacrifices his dad's bull and offers a proper sacrifice. Then 300 men with God on their side wipe out 135,000. And then ALL the altars of Baal are destroyed and they live at peace with God (until Gideon dies).
So, the Lord said that our focus should be on The Church of Liberty. So we need to start one? No, as long as there have been Christians in Liberty, there has always BEEN one - you just need to ACT like it. (This might help - Parable of the Bonfire)
So we asked the Lord how to light a lampstand. The formula is in Joel 2. When the locusts have eaten everything, what do you do?
Joel 2 - 12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God? 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? 18 Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.
I don't know how to "sanctify a fast" or "sanctify the congregation." The Lord said, "You're already doing the fast. You're feeding and clothing, you have a homeless lady living above your furniture store, you're having meetings and opening your arms to all the brethren - even ones that disagree with you on secondary things. You're already doing that one." Wow! Thanks, Lord! How do I sanctify the assembly? "You don't. Just invite everyone you can think of and I'll make sure the sanctified ones are there." So He called a meeting for August 14th, 2005 and three people showed up - myself, the guy that brought us canned goods and a guy I met at a Chamber of Commerce meeting that loved Jesus. And we hit our faces and wept for the sins of the city, of the forefathers, of the leaders of the church - for division and greed and the particular sins of our city (like making a murder like Jesse James a tourist attraction and hero - and not caring for the poor). We cried until the Spirit lifted. As it turns out, the Lord called a meeting on the Ninth of Av in the Hebrew calendar - a day of weeping and repentance and mourning. (It also happens to have been on my birthday in 1967, so I know my calling is about weeping and repentance). If you don't know about the 9th of Av - look it up.
Following that prayer meeting God said to circle the city seven times on seven Sundays. When we got a map out, He was clear that we were to circle the School District, not just City Limits. (Good reasons for that. Not enough room here.) The seventh Sunday was October 31st. As we were circling that morning, the Lord said, "My eye has moved North of the river. The ark of the covenant has moved North of the river." Previously Grandview (IHOP) is on the very South side of Kansas City (6 o'clock), but Liberty is North of the Missouri River on the Northeast side of Kansas City (1 o'clock). Later that night, on Halloween, on a New Moon, the darkest night of the year, the Lord said that Liberty got a Lampstand. And it's still burning.
The following year God sent me out driving all over the country (on faith, led by Him only) to see what He was doing, to pray for or against different things, but also to meet city-reachers all over and pray with them for the Lampstand in their city to light. It was like an Olympic torch runner traveling around lighting more flames. I didn't plan it, had no idea where I was going, just listened to the Lord and watched Him do stuff. (The story of that trip is HERE.)
For two years I visited over 300 congregations, watching, listening and trying to talk to pastors about unity. Many places where God wanted to start a revival - but they got in the way, controlled it, denied it - and God moved on. I'm still banned for life from a bunch of churches around Kansas City. HELPFUL TIP: Don't ask a pastor if God REALLY told them to build a new gymnasium instead of a homeless shelter - or how much treasure they think they're going to get in heaven for the million dollar chandelier they just put in the sanctuary.
In the Spring of 2007, God provided a donation of $130,000 from a lady in Australia and we buckled down to do the hard work of the Gospel and care for the homeless, hungry and lost.
