Building Bridges, Taking Cities

by David Fritch

Never in my life have I heard the kind of radical, faith-filled language that I am now hearing everywhere I go. People are finally thinking beyond their local congregations and personal ministries and are talking about taking entire cities for Christ, and reaching entire unreached nations with the gospel in our life-time. I believe this explosive, language of faith has been ignited in the furnace of vertical worship and prayer over the last five years and will continue to grow as our view of Him grows. This “city taking” paradigm has been one of the first and necessary shifts that has taken place in the body of Christ to prepare us for the greatest days of harvest that we have ever seen. As our hearts have been stretched to think and dream God-sized dreams he is now releasing revelation, principles and strategies from heaven to get the job done. God has released certain “keys” that will unlock this end-time destiny and we are using those keys to a certain degree. However, there is more that God is saying and doing that we must enter into before the foundation is laid to release the kind of power that can take cities.

Convergence and covenant are two words that we are hearing a lot today and I believe these two words are containers of much revelation that God wants to release.  From the very inception of the Burn the idea of 24-7 worship and missions has been a vital part of our DNA. It is so amazing to hear so many talk about the divine merger of missions and worship in the last couple of years!

I recently heard Mike Bickle preach the same message on the Convergence of Night & Day Worship and Missions from the pulpits of both Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship and the YWAM base in Kona. He mentioned that last year at the Call 2 All in Orlando that over 400 key Missions and Prayer movement leaders gathered to discuss role of 24-7 prayer in completing the Great-Commission.  It is staggering to think about the explosion that is getting ready to happen in the earth as result of this union.

I am amazed at the kind of humility that is being displayed as we are realizing that we cannot finish the task the Lord has delegated to us without the rest of the body of Christ.

Recently, the Lord has been speaking to me about how Honor builds bridges to the rest of the body of Christ.

The Lord showed me that in every city there are churches that have unique and powerful gifts that usually reflect one of the 5-fold ministry gifts. For example, some of our churches are more prophetically gifted or evangelistically gifted. As a result of this unique call God has released a measure of revelation and favor for that local fellowship to move in that gift. Unfortunately the tendency has been to slip into spiritual elitism and judge other churches and ministries that aren’t moving in our particular gift and revelation.

The sad reality is that when we judge one another we close the door from receiving the powerful gifts that God is pouring out to them and as a result we stifle our groth and our ability to impact the city on the scale God desires.

However, honor builds a bridge. Honor says that you don’t have to be like me and know what I know for me to esteem you and need you.  Jesus wasn’t able to do very many miracles in his hometown because they were offended by his humanity. They couldn’t honor him as the supernatural son of God because of their familiarity with Him as a man.  Like-wise we can be so focused on the humanity of other’s in the body that we miss the glorious hidden treasures of the Spirit that are housed in earthen vessels.

On a practical level honor means focusing on the gift, and strengths of others in the body first and not letting their shortcomings, faults or differences keep us separated. This is why the Burn is so important! It is a worship movement but it is also a unity movement.  In worship we prepare the way in the heavenlies but without unity we will never walk out the prophetic promises that have been released. We cannot do it alone! That’s the point! We need the rest of the body!

We will not fulfill our mission as the Burn unless we contend for a divine convergence of the multiplicity of gifts and anointings that God has delegated to men and women to reach our cities. The Burn is a movement that builds bridges and we cannot build those connections without honor. I believe this year we will see a supernatural wave of unity in our cities that goes beyond lip service to true and genuine covenant relationships. Out of these relationships we will emerge with one heart and mind to see our cities shaken with the glory of God!

Nehemiah walked this road and has much to teach us! He found a supernatural surge of faith to rebuild the ruins of beloved Jerusalem and then he unified a hopeless, hurting, scattered band of rebels to rebuild those ruins and revive a nation in 52 days! If we stop at big dreams and faith for cities we will miss it! If we stop at contending for breakthrough just in our own churches and ministries then we will miss it! We must unify, converge and covenant with one another and then nothing will be able to stop this force of the Body of Christ moving together as one man! Get Ready!