(Ezekiel 48:35).

For each city God has a purpose - and a name. Why has God created this city? What does it contribute to God's purposes for mankind, and in history. What is the redemptive purpose for the city? It may be as a media center (Bombay, Hollywood), a financial center (New York, London) or even a sports production center (Jalandar in North India). Each city can be a gift to humanity. These cities are gifts to humanity -even if a little damaged!

And each city has a soul, an indescribable quality about it, a feeling, a value system, qualities, a life, multiple shared experiences that its inhabitants recognize as making it unique. That soul often gives it a name, or a nickname, or a slogan. Auckland: City of Sails, Calcutta: City of Kali, Bombay: City from the Sea.

But God also has purposes that apply to all cities.

He desires that all the people of the city may hear the clear message of the gospel and the full counsel of God, and that all may have the chance to be adequately discipled.

He desires cities where congregations are accessible, culturally and geographically, to every person and where churches are working in humility with each other, with individuals exercising their God-given roles in unity that upbuilds.

His desire is that there be continuous growth, renewal and revival movements in and from these churches. For all he made goes through cycles of growth and renewal, birth and death. And each species has a different process or renewal and growth.

He desires cities where all the people, structures and the inter-relationships reflect and are subject to the values of the Kingdom of God. As the city becomes increasingly under the influence of God there will be justice, peoples will have dignity, poverty, sickness and pain will decrease, it will be better planned, and there will be peace and beauty.

(Nehemiah 1:3,4).

Nehemiah understood God's plan for his city through weeping. He asked a simple question about Jerusalem . Hearing that the walls were broken down he begins to weep for his city. How long have you wept for your city? He fasted, prayed and mourned for the city. So God put on Nehemiah's heart His vision for Jerusalem. Discernment for the city comes after prayer, and weeping for the city .

Nehemiah asked the King for a city. What are you asking God for? Are you praying? For the honor of God is at stake. Are you praying for the full salvation of this city not just the establishment of 100 churches?

We find Nehemiah building the walls of Jerusalem. In chapter 2:12 we see God's plan for the city in the heart of Nehemiah as he inspects the broken walls. Do you know God's battle plan for your city? Do you know where the walls are broken down?

As well as a purpose, God has a battle plan for the advance of his Kingdom in each city. In the book of Joshua we read again and again, "The Lord gave that city and its King into Israel's hand" (Joshua 10:30). Just as in Joshua's day God still has an individual and unique plan for the taking of each city. It is our task to discern it. Listening, unity and timing are crucial factors.

The Lord told Joshua the battle plan for Jericho. It was to walk around 7 days, 7 times and on the 7th day blow the trumpets and the walls will fall down. That was an unusual strategy. It probably would not work in your city. So who is the Joshua for your city, and what is God saying to him? Or to several? To whom is God speaking in your city? He speaks through the scriptures but also of things to come through his prophets. Who then is the pastoral leader who can lead the pastors of your city into battle? Where are the prophets who are able to speak the prophetic vision or word to these leaders?

Along with the overall strategic goal, God has specific goals for the taking of smaller targets within the war.

Yet the scripture has few stories of cities that turned to God. They include an old patriarch who prayed for Sodom with great fervor, and God destroyed it for lack of righteous men and women. It includes the Savior of the earth who declares judgment on his own city, and forty years later, the very stones of the temple were torn down. It includes prophets who declare in detail the death of cities. Jeremiah, for example, laments over Babylon:

(Jeremiah 51:3,4).

This is a theme repeated again in Revelations for that greater Babylon, the symbol of the global urban culture, the international linkage of mega-cities that we see emerging today, the global city. We are to seek her peace, to pray for the peace of those in authority, but eventually the Lord calls us to:

(Revelations 18:4,5).

While always we are to be a separate people a holy people in her midst, and as holy people to be seeking the welfare of that city (Jeremiah 29:5-8), there comes a point where the extent of her rejection is such that we are to leave her entirely.

God's purposes may not look successful in the eyes of our peers. His battle plans may include judgment, even as we cry out for the balm of the city. Our task is to seek his face, perceive his plan and speak with his voice into the city. We do not determine the battle plan or the outcomes. He does.