Are the Multitudes Gathering in DC Oddballs or Onto Something?

With the soul of our nation at stake and the future of generations on the line, tens of thousands of Christians have come together in our nation’s capital. Having lived in Washington D.C., for almost a quarter of a century, I’ve seen many epic events but this one is in the top three!

Why did my wife and I push the pause button on our regular life to drive 13 hours from Nashville to be present?  Why are people coming from every state to be here? Exactly what is going on and how did this get started?

Here’s the prophetic narrative that is behind all that’s taking place, intended to catalyze America’s only hope, another spiritual awakening.

Rewind Tape to ’60s Seismic Shift

After the relatively peaceful and prosperous ’50s, the tectonic plates of America moved dramatically in the ’60s and ’70s. A counterculture movement swept across the nation amidst an antiwar movement, campus upheaval and the launching of radical feminism, gay liberation, the sexual revolution and an explosion of drug usage.

The British Invasion of rock music swept young people into psychedelic realms, transcendental meditation and rebellion to parental, religious and governmental authority. The deception of the “Summer of Love” and four days of “peace and love” at the Woodstock music festival in New York seduced millions of young people into what would destroy scores of lives in its aftermath.

Behind the scenes, millions of moms were interceding on behalf of their young people. Additionally, countless intercessors as “watchmen on the wall” were crying out to God in homes and churches for divine intervention to bring deliverance to a confused and imperiled generation.

The Jesus Movement

In response to passionate and desperate prayer, our sovereign God launched a supernatural move of the Spirit among young people in America. Starting in California and sweeping across the nation, hundreds of thousands of young men and women mysteriously discarded unrighteousness and embraced not religion but a dynamic living relationship with Jesus! I, as a former member of rock ‘n’ roll band called The Lost Souls, was one of them in the year 1969.

The phenomenon was so dramatic that Time featured it on its cover.

What happened to many of the music superstars and young people who got seduced and swept up in the “Summer of Love” and Woodstock’s fleshly indulgence free-for-all?

One word captures it all despite how rock ‘n’ roll aficionados portray it: tragedy.

Recently I watched a documentary trying to spin this music festival in a breezy, upbeat way. The brutal reality is that it brought about disaster, devastation and death to scores of those deceived.

Jimi Hendrix died of drug overdose. Janice Joplin did the same. Keith Moon of the Who also burned out on dope, as did Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, who was strolling the fairgrounds, was found dead of a drug overdose. David Crosby and Grace Slick crashed and nearly died from their lifestyle of unrestrained “freedom.” Need we go on?

Think of the countless abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, destroyed marriages and families, the depression, suicides and people enslaved in LGBTQ lifestyles and premature death from AIDS. Need we go on?

On the other side was the exhilarating story of millions of young men and women who experienced a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ as they heard the gospel, the call to repentance and responded! They were rescued through divine intervention brought about by a Sovereign God and the “fervent effectual prayer of the righteous” (James 5:16) who dared to believe God for revival in their generation.

It’s happening again in our day!

Awaken the Dawn

In Psalm 102:8, the Psalmist declares he will “awaken the dawn” with worship and prayer. Revelation chapter 4 describes the activity and atmosphere of heaven as engaged in these same powerful expressions of love to God.

When I moved to Washington D.C. in 1971 for a job across from the White House, I found myself aligned with this burgeoning Jesus Movement. Meeting with a handful of Christians in a godly woman’s home, we prayed, worshiped and proclaimed God’s Word. In a few years we were gathering with over 2,000 primarily-young people, about 15 minutes from the White House!

Reading Derek Prince’s classic book on Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting and obeying the directive in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, we weekly prayed for God to raise up the righteous in government and remove those who were corrupt. In a short period of time we saw, for the first time in U.S. history, a vice president and president resign in answer to fervent intercession!

The church building in which we met is the exact same place where I got married 41 years ago and also wrote Clap Your Hands!, which reached over a quarter million people worldwide with the gospel.

God launched my ministry from this simple prayer furnace. He did the same either directly or indirectly with other major leaders touching the world like Che Ahn, Lou Engle, Tom Hess (currently on the Mount of Olives in Israel) and others.

At this same church in January of this year, a young zealot named David Bradshaw, who previously sat under our teaching ministry, shared for the first time with Lou Engle the vision of the A.T.D. gathering on the DC Mall. Fifty-seven tents, filled with dedicated Christians from every state and territory in America, would gather for a four day epic event to celebrate Jesus Christ and appeal to heaven for a fresh Jesus movement in our day.

The culmination would be scores of moms crying out to God for the youth of this nation to be redeemed, delivered from deception, and the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling to be overturned. It would be God’s virtuous alternative to the vile “Women’s March” that took place here after President Trump’s inauguration.

Our Nehemiah Moment

Nehemiah 1 is the historical account of a spiritual and governmental leader inquiring about the condition of God’s people as the walls for the city of God lay in ruins. Like multitudes, Nehemiah was aware of the destruction but suddenly was awakened by God to desperate prayer and divinely-directed action. Fifty-two days later, the task was completed and God’s favor once again rested upon His people.

What’s just happened here in D.C. this weekend is not merely a concert but rather part of a prophetic narrative that began here almost 50 years ago. Over 1.4 million watched our opening session along with the multitudes present. And next year’s plan is to have these tents strategically centered on university campuses and state capitals across our nation.

Is God stirring your heart, moving you like Nehemiah from awareness to awakening?

Then you’re a candidate for the exciting adventure currently being downloaded from heaven in our generation.