It is said that the sons of Issachar were “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32, NIV). I would never proclaim myself to be one of them, but, like you, I certainly aspire to be like them. I guess if we all were a bit more spiritually tuned in, perhaps our nation would be swinging more quickly toward reformation. Although many of our churches and ministries are flourishing, somehow our cities and nation are still quite broken. Washington, D.C. has experienced some very encouraging growth in spiritual maturity, as well as in church attendance in recent years, and yet our crime rate is staggering. This reality of brokenness haunts me. Even in the midst of seeming revival movements, we have not yet achieved true societal transformation. As an intercessor, this keeps humbling me and keeps me crying out to the Lord in desperation. Let us not get puffed up with pride when our church, business, ministry or movement is expanding and is seemingly successful. Instead, let us ask: “How is my city doing as a whole? And what about my nation?” Let this become our measuring stick. It was the fall of 2011, and I was still in Washington, D.C., with a calling to be an intercessor for America. I was on an extended fast that had been ordained by the Lord. Part of my spiritual desperation was that the next election year, 2012, was just around the corner. Presidential election years create conversations about the direction of our country like nothing else can. In prayer, I began to seek the Lord: “How do I make intercession for America? How can I pray and intercede so that we will turn to Jesus and make Him central in our lives?” My heart yearned stronger than ever for America to turn back to Jesus. During that time I was led to another question: “When Israel was at her best, what were the people doing?” All of Israel’s history before David was leading up to the time when they would be in their Promised Land and God’s presence would be where He desired — in Jerusalem. The fulfillment of that dream only lasted during the reign of David. By the end of the life of his son Solomon, there was already a prophecy foretelling the kingdom being split. And Israel has never been the same since. Was it a mere coincidence that the centerpiece of David’s administration was a continuous 24/7/365 worship tent that employed 4,000 musicians and 288 singers? The Lord began to impress upon my heart to gather the nation to do the same in our capital city. “Do like David. Call the nation to gather in the Capital to worship.” I began to dream of our nation gathering in Washington, D.C. just to worship — for no other reason than because Jesus is worthy of our praise. I knew that this could only be done under the umbrella of unity, where all Christian denominations could participate, and this convinced me that we could not host such an event in any church building in the city or even the House of Prayer that I had, by then, pioneered. We would have to meet on neutral ground. As I meditated on this, my heart settled on a tent to be erected outdoors, just like David had done. In time, a vision began to take shape: • David’s Tent in Washington, D.C., outdoors, on neutral ground. • A gathering of 24/7 worship and praise, as ministry unto the Lord. • To be conducted in our Capital City for forty days leading up to Election Day 2012. Why forty days? The worship around the Ark in King David’s tent in Jerusalem had gone on twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, so I knew that this could not be just a one-day affair. It had to be longer. For whatever reason, forty days, in the Bible, seemed to be the length of time involved when the Lord wanted to do something serious, dramatic or drastic. For forty days and nights it rained during Noah’s flood. Goliath taunted Israel for forty days until young David stepped up to the challenge. Even Jesus started His ministry with a forty-day fast. Believing that this event was to be one of His serious, dramatic or drastic moves, I sensed that it needed to last for forty days. What did I mean by serious, dramatic or drastic? The Google Online Dictionary defines drastic as “likely to have a strong or far-reaching effect; radical and extreme.” Yes, that was exactly what we needed. So we would do nothing but praise God for forty days. This would be a fast from our selfishness and unbelief. It would be a joyful expression of His Lordship and our faith in the assurance of His deliverance as we celebrated His rule. During those days we would abstain from gazing on the things of this world (including the latest news headlines), and, instead, fix our eyes on Jesus. We and He would become like two lovers, gazing at each other.

          In 2008 I headed to the polls to vote in the presidential election. I was living then in the Inner City of D.C. in a completely African-American neighborhood. I think our community house held the only Caucasians in the precinct. That year the African- American demographic came out in force for our current President. I’m not going to discuss the politics, but there was a great moment that happened as I was leaving the polls. An elderly African-American woman gave me one of the deepest, now-you-listen-to-me-son looks as I was coming out the door and asked sternly, “You made the right choice, right?” For a split second, I didn’t know how to reply. What if I hadn’t made the choice she thought was right? Then grace came down, and I replied simply, “Don’t we all, ma’am? Don’t we all make the right choice?” She smiled at my smart-aleck answer, and I kept walking to my car. Have you ever wondered why God chose David to be the next king after Saul? David didn’t have his Political Science degree. He hadn’t made his mark in business and hadn’t yet served in the military. And it was later that he would serve in the king’s court as a musician. He was still a mere boy, a shepherd, and yet God, through Samuel, anointed him to be the next king. Some might say that David must have exhibited good leadership skills as a shepherd, but I don’t buy that at all. You can’t tell me that a young boy had been tested enough to know for sure that he would be a good leader. The man who knew young David best, his own father, Jesse, didn’t even bring him up for consideration when Samuel asked to see his sons. After King Saul fell into rebellion, God sent Samuel to anoint the next king. With the ache of time setting in, do you think God might have been looking for someone who had the conviction and the nerve to make God’s dwelling the centerpiece of his administration? As God looked for a new leader, His eyes settled on a young boy whose heart was fully devoted to Him. David had a harp in his hand and a heart full of love for the Lord. And God voted for this psalmist David to be the next king and sent Samuel with a horn of oil to anoint him. There was much that David could not have yet understood, but he must have at least understood the value of God and loving Him with all his heart. Samuel lifted up the horn of oil and anointed the boy. God had found His man, and, of course, David delivered — big time. After defeating Goliath and doing lots of other warfare, David became King of Israel at the age of thirty, and he ruled for seven years from Hebron. Then David finally found the place God was looking for. According to 2 Samuel 5, the new king conquered the land of the Jebusites and became the founding father of the City of Jerusalem. He moved there and made Jerusalem the governmental capital of Israel for the first time. David then went to the house of Abinadab in Kiriath-Jearim and got the Ark of the Presence of the Lord and proceeded to triumphantly bring it into Jerusalem. I can imagine that the hosts of angels must have been going wild about then, as history was being made. David’s first attempt, however, ended in bitter failure. The Ark began to slip, as it was being carried on an ox cart (which was a violation of the Mosaic Law). A man named Uzzah put out his hand to steady the cart (another violation of the Law), and God struck him dead on the spot. David was understandably taken aback by this, and so he pushed the pause button. I’m guessing that those hosts of angels all sat back in disappointment at that moment, like the home crowd at a hockey game when their team misses an “empty netter.” So close and yet so far away! David now handed the Ark over to a man named Obed-Edom and watched as Obed-Edom’s household received nothing but blessing for the next three months. This caused the king’s heart to be stirred again, and he decided to give it another shot. If the Ark had brought such favor over one man’s house, might not a whole nation be blessed if it was brought into its rightful place? But David wasn’t going to make the same mistakes again. After three months passed, he made absolutely sure everything was done according to God’s protocol. This time, he was careful not to put the Ark on something man-made like an ox cart. Instead, he placed it on the backs of men, priests. There is a great lesson to be learned from this: God desires to dwell in men, not in things made by men. David followed the instructions of the Law to the letter, having priests transport the Ark on poles. And then, with many sacrifices and much dancing, he finally brought God home, into Jerusalem, into the capital city. After five generations, God had found His resting place. I can only imagine the heavenly celebration and the great exhalation of relief. That exhaled breath of Heaven made the next thirty-three years of Israel’s history “The Golden Years.” To this day, the reign of David remains the high-water mark of Israel’s existence as a nation. In spite of a couple of seasons of brokenness, due to David’s moral failures, God just seemed to breathe His favor over everything about the nation. The Ark’s transition, from Obed-Edom’s house to the capital city, carried its blessing from one household to an entire nation. David’s crowning achievement (pun intended) was that he had made the Presence of the Lord the central, primary issue of his life, even when he was a shepherd boy. Later, this same virtue manifested on behalf of his nation through his administration as king. But it wasn’t enough just to bring the Ark to Jerusalem; David’s devotion was deeper than that. David put the Ark under a tent beside his palace in the capital city, and he commissioned a grand total of 4,000 musicians and 288 singers to continuously — day and night — minister to the Lord. Even when he sent armies out to war, the king kept this band of worshippers in place back home, their sole duty to minister to God. Their song of love never stopped. David made God central in every way. His Tent, or, as it is often called, the Tabernacle of David, was the precursor to Solomon’s Temple. Can you imagine what it would have been like to be hired by the king to minister to the Lord? Your full-time job every day would have been to show up at the tent and sing songs of thanksgiving and adoration, “to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord” (1 Chronicles 16:4). Oh, glory to God, I want that job! How do I apply? I want to worship every moment of my life, so that, in eternity, I will already have an experienced résumé. The priests who served in David’s Tabernacle were assigned their time slots by casting lots. Let’s just roleplay this a little. You are chosen to be one of those occupational worshippers. You’ve made it! Then you roll the dice, draw the straw, consult the urim and thummim and bam! You’re on night-watch! Hallelujah! David commissioned this 24/7/365/33 worship tent with the clear instructions of 1 Chronicles 16:8-36

8 “Oh, give thanks to the Lord!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
9 Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
10 Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!
11 Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
12 Remember His marvelous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,
13 O seed of Israel His servant,
You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!
14 He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
15 Remember His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
16 The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
17 And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel for an everlasting covenant,
18 Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of your inheritance,”
19 When you were few in number,
Indeed very few, and strangers in it.
20 When they went from one nation to another,
And from one kingdom to another people,
21 He permitted no man to do them wrong;
Yes, He rebuked kings for their sakes,
22 Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.”
23 Sing to the Lord, all the earth;
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
24 Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples.
25 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised;
He is also to be feared above all gods.
26 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.
27 Honor and majesty are before Him;
Strength and gladness are in His place.
28 Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Give to the Lord glory and strength.
29 Give to the Lord the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come before Him.
Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
30 Tremble before Him, all the earth.
The world also is firmly established,
It shall not be moved.
31 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
And let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
32 Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;
Let the field rejoice, and all that is in it.
33 Then the trees of the woods shall rejoice before the Lord,
For He is coming to judge the earth.[b]
34 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
35 And say, “Save us, O God of our salvation;
Gather us together, and deliver us from the Gentiles,
To give thanks to Your holy name,
To triumph in Your praise.”
36 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!”  1Chronicles 16:8-36, NKJV

Finally, after generations of waiting, God’s presence was now in the place He had always desired to dwell, in the center of everything, in the place of His choosing. He was not only at the center of King David’s heart; He was also at the center, the governmental seat, of the whole nation. Because Jerusalem was in the inherited land of the tribe of Judah, Nahshon and Salmon’s descendants would have been living there with David. Notice that David did not say, “I like it here in Hebron, so I will bring the Ark to my palace. I will make God central, but I will do it where I want that center to be.” That would have been just like those who say, “Jesus is Lord,” but are really only partially surrendered to Him. No, David made the Lord central at the place the Lord desired to dwell. He uprooted his government and moved his palace to a different city, just to position himself so that he could make God’s dwelling in the place God desired. We can’t make the Lord the center of our lives, our cities, our towns and our nations on our own terms. He must decide the terms; we just follow His lead. Everything in Israel now revolved around God, and He lived in Jerusalem. He was finally home! To this day, the geopolitical landscape of the world revolves around that address and the possession of it. Get ready, people, for Jesus will come back to exercise His dominion again. This time, it will be by our invitation: “Come! Lord Jesus, Come!”

Dear Lord Jesus, we receive the grace of making You central in our lives, communities and nations.

          There is a certain ache that comes with extended periods of waiting. From time to time, I travel away from my family to teach. The first day that I’m away, it’s no big deal, but by the end of the week, I miss Kimberlee and the kids so much that I’m aching to get back home. The more time that goes by the more heartache it causes. Have you perhaps dreamed for many years for a loved one to be saved? Or maybe you have longed for a spouse, for children, for a particular job or even for a home of your own, but you’re still in a rental, single, working at the five-and-dime and without children. You want to be homesteading, but you are still living in an apartment. If you think that’s hard, think about longing and waiting for five generations for your dream to come true. After Nashon’s generation died, Salmon’s generation did finally enter the Promised Land. All the tribes settled into their allotted areas, and everyone had their spot. But God did not yet have His. Sadly, the One who was the Source of all the victories, as Israel took possession of the land bit by bit, was now the only one left out. We can see that it was high on God’s list of priorities to be brought into the place of His habitation, but five generations passed, and He was still waiting. For God, the ache of time would have set in. All of the events of the books of Joshua, Judges and Ruth transpired. Salmon married Rahab, the woman who dropped the scarlet rope from her house in Jericho. They had a son named Boaz, who married Ruth from Moab. Boaz and Ruth had a child named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse, and he was the father of David, the little shepherd boy. All of this came and went, and God was yet to be in His desired home. During those many years the Ark of the Covenant — God’s Presence manifest on the earth — had a storied history with the people of Israel. It traveled across the Jordan River in front of the Israelites as they moved into the Promised Land. It was out front and led the circling of Jericho until the walls of that famous city fell down. Joshua fell on his face before it when Israel was defeated in their second battle (this one at Ai) because of Achan’s sin. After they finally took Ai, the Ark again took center stage as the people of Israel renewed their covenant with God on Mt. Ebal. It’s hard for me to use the pronoun it when referring to the Ark, because the Ark was the very embodiment of the Presence of God Himself with Israel. The Ark was God’s Presence with them. The Ark was important, but after Mt. Ebal, we hear little of it until the events of Judges 20, where we find it in Bethel with Phinehas the priest, grandson of Aaron. After virtual silence about the Ark in a great part of the book of Judges, it comes booming back into the biblical narrative in 1 Samuel with the young boy Samuel living in the Temple with the Ark during the ministry of Eli. Eli’s sons were wicked, and the Ark was taken into battle as more of a good-luck charm rather than in the fear of the Lord. The Israelites thought they would automatically win if they just took the Ark along, but this time they did not. The Philistines defeated Israel and stole the Ark. God was now not only homeless; He was also kidnapped. The Philistines transferred the Ark from Ebenezer to Ashdod, and there the Philistine lords put it in the same room with the idol they served. His name was Dagon. But God Almighty didn’t make a good roommate for a demonic ruler. The statue of Dagon fell over a couple of nights consecutively and eventually broke into pieces, and the Philistine lords were forced to gather to try to decide what to do with this Ark thing. They now sent the Ark on to a place called Gath, but there tumors broke out on the bodies of the people, and the place was attacked by a severe panic. A plague of rodents also began ravaging the local fields, so the people of Gath, in turn, sent the Ark on to Ekron. After all of this, the people of Ekron wanted nothing to do with the Ark, and a great panic fell over their city. Again, the Philistine lords held council and decided to send the Ark back to Israel. The men among them who hadn’t died were struck with tumors, and the hand of the Lord was clearly against them. The Philistines had tolerated this constant tumor-filled, rat-infested panic attack for seven months now. It seems that God didn’t like being homeless and held hostage. Next the Philistine lords sent the Ark back on a cart with five gold tumors and five gold mice as a guilt offering. Two cows pulled the Ark to an Israelite field near Beth-Shemesh. The people rejoiced, but God struck seventy of them down simply because they had looked upon the Ark. The men of Beth-Shemesh contacted the men of Kiriath-Jearim, and they came and took the Ark off their hands. They took it to the house of a man named Abinadab who lived on a hill, and they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of it. And there the Ark remained for the next twenty years. During the reign of Saul, the Ark “went at that time with the people” (1 Samuel 14:18). We have no further explanation. But the Ark certainly had not yet found a place to rest. Saul sent for it during battle. We don’t know all the places the Ark went in those days. Somehow, though, it ended up back at Abinadab’s house in Kiriath-Jearim. The Ark of God remained homeless, moving around from place to place, from the time Israel crossed the Jordan until David — five generations. By this time, all of the people were homesteading in their Promised Land, but God was still homeless. Saul was now king, and he reigned for the next forty-two years. The people of Israel had rejected God as their King, and at their request He had delegated the supreme authority over the land to an earthly king. God, who teaches us to honor authority, also honors authority Himself. If He delegates authority, He then honors that decision and chooses to work through those to whom He has given the authority. This is why Jesus had to come to earth as a man, because God had given man authority over the earth. Jesus worked within that authority structure (Genesis 1:28-30). God will not violate His own nature and character by breaking His word. This is also why Jesus can’t just come and take over your life with His sheer power without your permission. He has chosen, instead, to win us with His mercy. When we are overwhelmed with His kindness, we invite Him onto the throne of our hearts and lives.

Jesus, You’ve given me the authority to decide who will rule my life. I choose You and Your desires, even over my own.

Salmon was a child of the wilderness. As a young boy, he would have heard the instructions of Moses, “Honor your father and your mother” firsthand, straight from the horse’s mouth. Yet you have to wonder if Salmon and his peers were all secretly keeping a tally of whose dads were dying: “One more down, five to go!” The generation of children growing up in the wilderness would have known the words of the Lord. When the ten bad spies brought back a bad report and a cry of complaining arose from Israel, God gave them quite an indictment on unbelief and told them two key things would have to happen before they could go into the Promised Land: 1) Forty years would pass (Numbers 14:33) and 2) The generation that was twenty years old and older would all have to die — all, that is, except for the two good spies — Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14:29). If Salmon and his friends were even half as human as we are — let’s be honest — could you imagine the chatter among them? Setting: On the edge of the wilderness, nearing the end of forty years in the desert. Salmon’s Friend #1: “Have you heard? Nahshon’s not doing well.” Salmon’s Friend #2: “Hasn’t he been on his last leg for a while?” Salmon’s Friend #1: “Yep, I don’t know how he can keep hanging on for too much longer.” Salmon’s Friend #2: “I can’t wait to get into the Promised Land! We are down to five old dudes left. I mean, come on, let’s get on with this!” Salmon’s Friend #1: “Bro, that’s not cool, man. Honor your father and mother.” Salmon’s Friend #3: “Zip it, guys. That’s enough. Here comes Salmon. Nahshon’s his abba you know.” Nahshon was chosen by God to lead the tribe of Judah through the forty years in the desert (Numbers 1). He was part of the generation of unbelief that had to die before Israel could enter the land of milk and honey, and his first assignment as leader was the census during year two of the forty wilderness years. He was to count the men of his tribe who were twenty years old and older and able to serve in the army. One of two things happened: Either Nahshon cooked the books, or his tribe was, in fact, the largest, packing a whopping 74,600 men. According to Jewish tradition, 3 Nahshon jumped on his horse, convinced of what Moses was about to do at the Red Sea. He rode straight ahead into the water moments before Moses lifted up his staff and parted it. Therefore he would have been the first one to cross over. This tradition has earned Nahshon the credit of his name, which means “initiator.” During the forty wilderness years, Nahshon, along with his son Salmon, lived straight east of God. Seriously! God’s manifest presence lived there. The Ark of the Covenant, also called the Ark of the Presence, was in the innermost chamber of the Tabernacle called the Holy of Holies. The twelve tribes of Israel would camp in a big circle with the Tabernacle in the middle. The tribe of Judah, led by Nahshon, camped on the east side of that circle, and the Tabernacle was where God lived. Since one could only enter the Tabernacle by the Eastern Gate, in a very real sense Nahshon lived at God’s front door. Most importantly, Nahshon was the great-great-greatgrandfather of David, ancestor to Jesus. Nahshon and Salmon, father and son, would have been there to hear Moses deliver live the instructions recorded in Deuteronomy 12. Moses addressed all Israel, but gave specific instructions to Salmon and his generation to seek the place that God wanted to live when they eventually entered into the land of their inheritance. We know now that God had chosen Jerusalem, in the land allotted to the tribe of Judah (Nashon and Salmon’s tribe) to be the place of His desire. I wonder if Salmon and Nahshon had any idea that God had chosen their tribe as the place of His dwelling. “What? You want to live with my family?” “You bet, Nahshon. No more living as my frontdoor neighbor. I’m moving in!” Moses instructed: You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. But you shall SEEK THE PLACE that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. T H E R E Y O U S H A L L G O , and T H E R E YOU SHALL BRING your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And THERE YOU SHALL EAT before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, then to THE PLACE THAT THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL CHOOSE, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, but AT THE PLACE THAT THE LORD WILL CHOOSE in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you. Deuteronomy 12:4-14, Emphasis Mine Salmon would have hung on every word coming from Moses’ mouth. Moses was prophesying about the reality of them actually going into the Promised Land, and he was giving them instructions about where and how to worship, even before they got there. Nahshon’s unbelieving generation may have rolled their eyes once again and said, “There you go again, Moses, getting everyone’s hopes up,” but Salmon was of a new wave of young dudes who were daring to believe in the promises of God. Salmon and his generation were no doubt dreaming of conquering the land, moving into their new homes and settling into the rest of their inheritance. And they weren’t the only ones dreaming. As God spoke through Moses in Deuteronomy 12, it seems that He, too, was dreaming — dreaming of the place where He desired to dwell, the place of His habitation. God clearly had a place that He desired, and Salmon and his generation were to look for that place and only worship there. God owns the whole world, and if He wants a certain place for Himself, He certainly holds eminent domain. Location! Location! Location! Is God a real estate agent? Evidently, location matters to Him.