Alpha Cities Vision

In 2010, Kimberly and I went on a missions trip to São Paulo, Brazil. Upon arrival, I had an angelic visitation, which is described in detail in my new book, Visitation: Unprecedented Grace for the Final Harvest. The following excerpt from chapter 23 describes the vision:

For the first time since we landed, I was alone in the room. I was thirsty and found some bottled water in the nice hospitality basket the missionaries had prepared for us. As I reached for the water, an angel of God stood behind me and touched my back. The surge of divine energy was so strong, I immediately began speaking loudly in tongues. I went from being exhausted to being fully awake and aware of the power of God. The angel moved to my right so I could see him, then he showed me the other angels that were with him. They were just outside the windows of the hotel, creating a perimeter. The angel said, “We have been with you since you got off the plane, but this was the first time we could make ourselves known to you.”

Next, the angel began to speak strength into my spirit. God knew how low I was and how little confidence I had at the moment. The angel corrected my thinking: “Do not say you only have authority in certain places in the world. You have authority wherever you are sent. Everywhere you step, you have authority.” This was a heavenly response to the notion that I had never been to South America and didn’t think I had authority there.

As the angel spoke, I remembered the words spoken to Joshua (Josh. 1:3), and I was encouraged. Then the angel addressed a bigger issue in my spirit—Paris. The angel said, “It is no accident you are in São Paulo. You were sent here for the same reason you were sent to Paris. The bigger the city, the more anointing you feel. This has to do with your calling. Paris and São Paulo are alpha cities. You had authority in Paris, and you have authority here.” Then the angel gave me a shocking prophecy: “In the next decade, the alpha cities of the world will be reached—all of them!”

Revelatory knowledge began to flow, and I began to see the bigger picture. It was hard to grasp because the vision God was giving me was so vast. I didn’t want to question God, but I needed more answers. I knew what an alpha city was, because I had encountered the term in our preparation for the Paris crusade. I paused for a moment and then replied to the angel, “The vision God has already given me is large, and I have not accomplished it yet. Now God is adding this. How I am to reach the alpha cities?”

It was exciting to hear such a far-reaching prophetic word, but it also seemed daunting, especially because I felt that I had failed in Paris. The angel said, “You are an alpha man, and you will reach the alpha cities through alpha men.” Then the angel explained that his word would be confirmed by a sign. “Next year about this time, you will have a son.” We had waited fifteen years to have a son, so this would be quite a confirmation.

As the vision faded, I felt such favor from God. In some ways it was a Gideon moment for me; I felt small, but God was telling me that I was a “mighty man of valor.” Isn’t that another way of saying “alpha male”? I surely didn’t feel like one at the time, but I was encouraged. Now with a much greater sense of purpose and direction, I was ready to bind the strongman of São Paulo and spoil his house.

We had a tremendous move of the Spirit during that trip, and I have taken many trips to other parts of Brazil since that first meeting. God was with us, and we walked in His authority. The biggest confirmation of the prophetic word about alpha cities was the angel’s promise of a son. We had received that promise at the end of November 2010. Kaleb was born on December 11, 2011!

A Decade to Prepare

 From 2010 forward, I began to study the alpha cities and pray about this vision. I discovered there were four categories of alpha cities: alpha++, alpha+, alpha, and alpha-, making a total of fifty cities. This research is ongoing, and the list can change from time to time, so I encourage you to get the latest information you can.

The primary research about alpha cities is done by a think tank in the UK called The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC). This think tank studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It is based in the geography department of Loughborough University in Leicestershire, United Kingdom. GaWC was founded by Peter J. Taylor in 1998. Together with Jonathan Beaverstock and Richard G. Smith, they created the GaWC’s biennial categorization of world cities into Alpha, Beta, and Gamma tiers, based on their international connectedness, with economic factors being the most important consideration.

As of 2022, here are the latest classifications:

Alpha++ Cities

London

New York

Alpha + Cities

Beijing

Dubai

Hong Kong

Paris

Shanghai

Singapore

Tokyo

Alpha Cities

Amsterdam

Brussels

Chicago

Frankfurt

Istanbul

Jakarta

Kuala Lumpur

Los Angeles

Luxembourg

Madrid

Mexico City

Milan

Mumbai

São Paulo

Seoul

Sydney

Toronto

Warsaw

Alpha- Cities

Bangkok

Berlin

Bogotá

Boston

Buenos Aires

Dublin

Guangzhou

Ho Chi Minh City

Johannesburg

Lisbon

Manila

Melbourne

Munich

New Delhi

Prague

Riyadh

San Francisco

Santiago

Shenzhen

Stockholm

Taipei

Tel Aviv

Vienna

Washington, D.C.

Zürich

As I began to pray over this list, I knew the vision was far too big to accomplish alone. Anytime I met missionaries or national pastors in any of these cities or traveled to these cities, I would repeat the prophecy the angel gave to me. I got little traction for almost ten years.

By the summer of 2019, I was feeling frustrated. I had fasted and prayed over the list of alpha cities. I had preached about this prophecy and sought out partners, to no avail. I simply wasn’t taken seriously. I fasted and prayed again and repeated the prophecy back to God. I reminded the Lord that this was His idea. I stood on the promise and told the Lord that I believed in His word to me. The Lord said to me, “I told you this would happen in the next decade not this decade. I gave you a decade to get ready.”

The angel had appeared to me at the end of 2010. I had mistakenly thought he meant the vision would be fulfilled right away. I now knew that God had something big planned for the 2020s. We saw how Covid impacted the world in the spring of 2020. The alpha cities took the biggest hit from the disease. The greatest cities of the world stopped and trembled.

​Alpha Cities Movement

No doubt God was/is preparing the world for the greatest harvest the world has ever seen. I wrote Visitation in 2024. The year 2024 on the Jewish calendar is 5784. When you break down the meaning of the numbers in Hebrew, it means that 5784/2024 is the year of the open door. This is a transition year—a leap year. Let’s walk through this door together.

By God’s abundant grace, let’s reach our alpha cities in this decade. It will take God’s alpha men and women to fulfill this promise from God, but we—the global church—can do it together!

We believe that the next five years will bring extraordinary outpourings of the Holy Spirit around the world. We know it is impossible to reach the alpha cities without strategic partnerships. Our goal is to build an army of intercessors and evangelists to reap a net-breaking harvest before Jesus’ return.