I’m convinced that sometimes God leaves obstacles in our way on purpose. If He removed them all ahead of us and we always had free sailing, it would be easy to think that we could do things without Him. When we get to the end of our rope, time and time again and God comes through with another miracle, it’s a constant reminder that it’s His work, not ours. This keeps us humble, knowing how much we need Him. I began to cast the vision of David’s Tent among friends, local pastors and, of course, with my own staff at Washington House of Prayer and Youth With A Mission DC. We have a great team at Washington House of Prayer and YWAM DC, and most of them fully embraced the vision right from the start. There was such an immediate excitement in the air that many caught the vision before I had even fully explained it. With others, however, I got mixed responses. The whole idea seemed pretty far-fetched to some, a bridge too long to cross. “Where are we going to get all the worship teams?” some wondered. “Where would we find enough staff?” Forty days is a really long time to do continuous worship outdoors under a tent. And what about funding? We began to pray for laborers and to use the phrase “David’s Rent for David’s Tent” as we stood before our Father in Heaven, asking Him to provide all the needed finances. One day I was on Capitol Hill meeting with Pastor Frazier White of Faith Tabernacle Church. This church is strategically located one block away from the Supreme Court and three blocks from the U.S. Capitol Building. I had just shared the vision with him and was about to ask if his building could possibly serve as a back-up venue in case of bad weather like a hurricane. 6 Just as I finished sharing about David’s Tent DC with Pastor White that day, his worship pastor, Michael Fisher, came into the office. I had never met him before. Knowing nothing of our conversation or of David’s Tent, Michael shared a dream that he had received from the Lord just a couple of weeks earlier. “I dreamed of an oval altar. People were coming by the thousands, and God began to dwell there, because the people began to give their hearts to Him. They began to worship and repent. In that posture of heart, the manifest Presence of the Lord began to dwell there. When I finally woke up, God said that He is coming to this area.” Pastor White and I were both amazed. An oval altar … That was the Ellipse. We both got it, and that day we coined a new phrase: “The Oval Altar by the Oval Office.” As you know, ellipse means “oval,” just as triangle means “a three-sided shape.” Michael’s dream was a golden confirmation for me. I could not deny that this whole vision was from the Lord. Or could I? The National Park Service having approved our application was only a first step. Countless other details would have to be discussed and approved before we would actually receive the final permit, and this would require many meetings with the officials of the National Park Service. Our first meeting turned into a disaster. We suddenly learned why the Ellipse was open for those forty days: No one else wanted to deal with all the regulations governing doing an event there. “Mr. Hershey,” an NPS representative now told us, “if you can do an event on the White House Ellipse, you can do an event anywhere in D.C. The Ellipse is the hardest place to do an event.” That statement was designed to frighten us. But one of our staff members turned it into a statement of faith: “We will be able to do an event anywhere in D.C.!”
The David’s Tent Story pt. 13 – Raising David’s Fallen Tent
