Kingdom Building Strategy Consultation with Linda Heidler - July 3, 2025

Date: July 3, 2025
Format: Phone conversation
Location: Gary in Orlando (final day of Prophecology conference), Linda at home in Denton, Texas
Context: Linda providing theological and strategic guidance on Gary's Christofuturist towns vision

Core Theological Framework: "Unlock vs Build" the Kingdom

Fundamental Principle

Linda's central correction to Gary's approach centers on the distinction between "unlocking" versus "building" the Kingdom of God:

"We don't build the kingdom. You cannot build the kingdom of God. You unlock the kingdom. And Jesus said, like, the kingdom is all around us. The kingdom is inside of us. The kingdom is not external. It's internal."

Sequential Process

Unlock First, Then Build:

"The way that we see the kingdom of God brought into the earth is by unlocking, not building. After you unlock, building occurs. So building is very definitely a part of it, but you cannot build and then expect the kingdom to manifest."

Individual to Corporate Transformation

Soul-by-Soul Foundation:

"The kingdom is in your eyes, like, soul by soul, almost, right? It's very much soul by soul. But in a corporate dynamic, it comes almost like a tipping point where it comes very corporate, but it is soul by soul."

Case Study 1: Auckland, New Zealand School Transformation

Initial Heart Revelation

Linda shared the story of a retired law enforcement officer and his wife who received a prophetic word:

"There are sometimes we just need to receive the heart of Jesus and manifest it into people."

This phrase "caught their attention" and led them to ask: "Jesus, what is your heart, and how do you want us to manifest it?"

Practical Implementation

Starting Small with Heart-Led Action:

• Identified the poorest performing school in Auckland
• Asked principal and counselor: "What can we do to help?"
• Discovered students weren't attending due to hunger
• Started with $500 to provide breakfast bars and milk 30 minutes before school

Transformation Process

Building Trust with Marginalized Students:

"When the kids first came in, they would not make eye contact. They would not talk. A lot of them, they were aborigines, they were Maori people. A lot of them had never had any contact with white people. They were terrified. Steve, the husband, was a very large, blond man, very white. They were terrified of him."

Gradual Relationship Development:

"But he would go from child to child and just ask them, 'How are you doing?' They would ask them if they could pray for them. And over a period of time, these children began to trust Steve and Brenda, and actually look forward to meeting them, warmed up to them."

Exponential Community Impact

Expanding Beyond Initial Scope:

• Social media sharing led to community donations
• Grocery stores began donating
• Added clothing donations and opened thrift store
• One mother got her first job managing the thrift store
• Same mother became teacher's aide at school
• Community garden established
• University soccer team provided sports camp and equipment

Government Recognition:

"Over the course of years... the school improved so much that it caught the attention of the government. And so the government began to ask them, how did you do this, you know, what's your program? Again, looking for how can we reproduce this? But the way they reproduce it was part of God. It wasn't necessarily, here's what you need to do."

Sustained Transformation:

"They had kids that got scholarships for soccer... But it started from their hearts hearing what God was saying specifically for that community."

Case Study 2: Japanese Community in Brazil

Post-WWII Foundation

Individual Heart-Led Beginning:

"After World War II, so early '50s, there were a lot of Japanese people that emigrated... And there was one man who emigrated to Brazil. And he really didn't have anything. He didn't have money or anything. He felt like he was a believer. He felt like God wanted him to go to a very remote area and begin to establish something there."

Starting with Available Skills

Bicycle Repair to Manufacturing:

"So he got on a train and took the train to the end of the track, last stop on the train. That's where he got off. And what he could do, what he knew how to do was repair bicycles. And so he started a bicycle repair shop and was able to support himself."

Kingdom Values in Business

Profit vs People Philosophy:

"Their promise always was, 'We're not doing this for profit. We're doing this to improve people's lives.' And so everything they did was geared around seeing how the lives of the people in the community and the lives of their workers could improve."

Holistic Community Development

Addressing Root Social Issues:

• Marriage Stability: "They began to have marriage seminars to help their employees learn how to resolve problems without violence, without divorce. Well, that resulted in more stable workforce. It resulted in stable families."
• Healthcare: "They opened a clinic where people could come, their children could come. And that also improved their workforce because they had healthier people."
• Education: "They eventually started a daycare for the workers. They grew into a school, which now is a university."
• Arts and Culture: "They began to give lessons for musical instruments, for dance. They have an award winning [program]."

Comprehensive Transformation Results

Community-Wide Flourishing:

"A community as a whole, not just their business, was thriving and growing. Their whole community is very prosperous, very stable, no crime, stable families. The elderly cared for... And they have effectively caused the kingdom, the will of God to manifest on earth."

Systematic Kingdom Unlocking:

"They're all Christians also. But through the ways that they... we can unlock industry. We can unlock education. We can unlock arts, culture. We can unlock health, to see the ways that they just unlock those areas and what they unlocked, then they could build."

Resource Recommendation: Sentinel Group

Linda directed Gary to additional research:

"Another source I'd really like you to take a look at, is a Sentinel group. It's run by a man named George Otis Jr. And he's done a series of videos called Transformations, and it's about communities around the world... where the gospel has gone in and the community gets transformed. And as a result, the gospel between and people's lives being transformed, then the building begins."

Strategic Correction to Gary's Vision

Validation with Reframing

Affirming the Vision with Proper Sequence:

"So I felt like your vision was correct, that is what God wants. But you don't build it first. You have to do the individual unlock first. Or you'll build a city that has no life in there."

China Ghost Cities Example

Gary acknowledged this wisdom with real-world evidence:

"I've seen a lot of, like, atheist billionaires invest so much money in, like structures, like you said, and then, like, no one's there, no one lives there... In China, for example, I'm sure you've heard of the term Ghost City. Just full of these empty. Completely empty."

Linda's insight on China's limitation:

"The biggest deficit... they've basically banned the kind of conversation like we're having right now. And so they make a bunch of mistakes..."

Linda's Personal China Connection

Speech Pathology Pioneer

Linda shared about her Chinese friend who brought kingdom principles to professional practice:

"God gave her a vision. She was getting her degree in speech language pathology... And she felt like God put it on her heart to bring that to China. But to bring it in a way that reflected the kingdom of God. Which meant she didn't bribe anybody... She didn't accept bribes. And she operated always with great integrity."

Kingdom Results in Secular Field:

"Now, she has... it's like she is a brand. Her products are a brand in China. They're like the gold standard for speech pathology... She's really seeing God's heart for these deaf children, beginning to be unlocked and released."

Biblical Foundation for Individual Focus

Jesus' Individual Ministry Model

Compassion-Driven, Person-by-Person Approach:

"Jesus was moved with compassion, and he healed. And when, one by one by one, when he healed people, and it was very, very close to, if they were touched by the compassion of God, and they knew that's what healed them... Jesus also was very individual."

Great Commission Reframing

Disciples Before Cities:

"When Jesus left, he said, 'Go into all the world and make disciples.' And he didn't say, go and build cities... Make disciples, then the building comes."

Gary's Response and Adaptation

Gospel Record Label Example

Gary shared how this principle could apply to his current conference context:

"The group came to a realization that... everyone knows that the music industry has not really served the people that have most contributed to it, black people... So there was a realization that they wanted to establish a community owned gospel record label."

Organic Growth Vision:

"Having, like a sort of a mecca for a particular kind of craft, where the outputs recirculate amongst the disciples, essentially... what I think would organically emerge is for more people kind of wanting to be in that orbit as much as possible and then enough desire and money flowing where they would want to create schools for their kids and whatever else is needed."

Commitment to Reframing

"I've heard you, and I'm going to think about how to reframe some things... I don't want you to build a ghost city."

Church Planting and Community Models

Sending Teams vs Moving Congregations

Successful Church Planting Strategy:

"I've never seen congregations moved. I've seen congregations send teams out... usually works best if they'll send like, 10 to 12 families. Because that way they have enough community to support each other and sustain themselves."

Warning Against Commune Models

Historical Lessons from Jesus Movement:

"We have stayed away from the all living together concept, and historically, that hasn't worked well... I got saved in the late 60s during the Jesus movement, and the whole thing was Communes... Not successful. Even though they were all believers, they all loved the Lord, when they came together to live together... there were disagreements, friction, they couldn't settle."

Salt and Light Theology

Integration vs Isolation:

"Jesus said, 'I'm sending you out into the world, I'm sending you to be salt and light in the world. And you need to be... you need to have some contact with the world for them to know who you are.'"

Glory of Zion's Growth Model

Organic Home Church Beginning

Small Beginning, Heart-Led Growth:

"Our church started... from a home Bible study in 1974... my friend's boyfriend got saved. And then his boss got saved. Anyway. It just grew from there. And then in two years, we incorporated as a church."

Community Blessing Philosophy

Outward-Focused Mission:

"The heart has always been, we're here to be a blessing to this community. We're here for outreach. We're here to let people know about God and the power that God has in people's lives to bring transformation."

Global Online Ministry

International Reach:

"Our church actually is mostly online... We have, I don't know how many people on a Sunday morning, but we'll have 10 to 12,000 online... all over the world, just in the U.S. Congregations, individuals all over the world."

Spiritual Atmosphere and Territorial Transformation

Presence-Driven Prosperity

Linda shared multiple examples of their church's impact on physical locations:

Pattern of Desolate-to-Prosperous Transformation:

"What I'm saying is that everywhere we went, it was like we went in and it was desolate. And just our presence being there and worship and the Spirit of God being there, brought flourishing, and that's another thing that you see, is just when the Lord comes in and is honored and is worshiped, it changes the spiritual atmosphere of physical territory, and it brings prosperity."

Current Facility Example:

"When we bought this building, it was scary. It had been empty for 10 years... But also, Corinth was not a prosperous area at that time, and there's just been a lot more building, businesses coming in... it's just a lot more prosperous over the last 10 years since we've been here."

Strategic Implications for Christofuturist Vision

Theological Foundation Correction

This conversation provided crucial theological grounding for Gary's vision, emphasizing that kingdom building must start with individual heart transformation rather than structural development.

Practical Implementation Framework

1. Heart-Led Initiative: Start with individuals receiving God's heart for specific people/communities
2. Small Beginning: Begin with available resources and skills, not grand infrastructure
3. Relationship Building: Invest in personal connections and trust-building
4. Organic Growth: Allow natural expansion based on proven results and community response
5. Kingdom Values: Maintain focus on people's wellbeing over profit or growth metrics
6. Spiritual Atmosphere: Establish worship and prayer as foundation for territorial transformation

Validation and Encouragement

Linda affirmed Gary's overall vision while providing crucial course correction:

"I felt like your vision was correct, that is what God wants. But you don't build it first. You have to do the individual unlock first."

The conversation concluded with prophetic encouragement:

"God has great plans for you... Great plans, brother."

This consultation represents a pivotal moment in refining the Christofuturist towns strategy, providing both theological foundation and practical methodology for sustainable kingdom-centered community development.