Detroit is on the clock—will revival pass by this desperate city?

I had a dream last night, and as I woke from it I was so shaken that I had a hard time falling back to sleep.

The dream was very short, but it shook me powerfully. I was in a large public area, most probably downtown Detroit, and it was late at night. I wish I could describe the feeling of the atmosphere, but it’s tough. It felt incredibly cinematic—apocalyptic—and everything was dark and colorless.

Suddenly, the most terrifying, threatening and urgent alarm sounded in the streets. It was an air raid siren. People started running everywhere. This next part is a bit crude, but is significant to understand what God was communicating. I personally didn’t feel any urgency at all to respond to the alarm, but I did decide to go into a public bathroom. I didn’t really have to go, but thought it might be good to take care of business in case things did in fact get bad.

I was treating the entire situation in a casual manner. I felt the alarm was false, or at least not as big a deal as everybody was making it. The urgency of alarm should have resulted in immediate action, but I decided to focus on what was commonly necessary, though in reality I didn’t really have to do that. I could have, and should have waited. The situation was more fearful than I realized.

In warning dreams in the past, I have been a representative of the church. The same was true in my dream of being dragged to Hell (documented in my book The Terror of Hell). In last night’s dream, I (the church) was convinced that the alarm wasn’t important and that other demands of life, cares of life, should take precedence.

WILL REVIVAL PASS DETROIT BY?

I have been terribly disturbed over the last month or so at the slow response of the church to the alarm that has been sounded. Significant prophetic warnings and instructions have been given in Detroit, and the response has been casual at best. We simply have to understand that the outpouring and transformation that’s assigned to Detroit will pass us by if we don’t respond en mass! God wanted the Israelites to enter the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses, but instead of experiencing freedom, life, milk and honey, they experienced death in the desert! They were assigned breakthrough, but their lack of response invalidated that assignment.

Now, I must say that there is a very impressive remnant that has been responding in amazing fashion. You all are a blessing!! I’m amazed at your faithfulness and your constant, immediate response!

Brian Simmons recently asked, “If revival in Detroit depended on your prayer life, how close are we?”

The type of fire that was ignited in Dearborn Heights in February was so special and rare, and the instructions were clear and continually communicated that we must gather nightly to steward it. I have to admit, I can’t imagine hearing about a revival fire being lit and treating it casually, and focusing on other typical ‘demands’ of life.

Joel 1:14-15 (ESV) ¹⁴ Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. ¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

This rare fire should have grown into a revival that would have shaken the entire world if we simply would have gathered. The call was for the pastors of the city (elders) and all of the inhabitants of the land to gather and cry out! Do you realize, we could be in heavy, miraculous outpouring RIGHT NOW if we would have responded rightly!

We have to understand that the fire most probably won’t ignite in our local church. Statistically, with the number of churches in this region, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack if the revival did in fact launch from our own ministry. So, it’s imperative that we keep our eyes open and get ready to commit to serve in the place where the flame is found.

Will revival now pass by Detroit? Well, due to the fact that I received that warning dream, and that a remnant is still sensing the need to pursue revival, my guess is that we still have a chance. However, it’s been said that if Detroit doesn’t respond, God will move his focus to Chicago. We can’t allow that to happen! When is the deadline? Do we have another week? Another month to respond? We can’t risk waiting another minute!

I’d encourage you to re-read my article from last week—10 Threats to Revival. Ask yourself how you’ve changed since that prophetic message was released. What’s the call? What can be done next?