A CUP OF COLD WATER

 DAY SIX – SUNDAY 4 JUNE 2023. This was the last day of our tour in Israel. Highlights of the day include our Sunday church service and ‘THY KINGDOM COME’ Jerusalem 2023 Worship event.

Our day started with an invitation to breakfast at the David Citadel Hotel. After breakfast, we went to the Jerusalem Centre for Peace and Truth for Sunday service. Following the worship altar, Pastor Elsie exhorted us briefly from 3 John 1:2, ‘Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers’. She said that we should know for certain that we are the beloved of the Lord and that just as a lady is adorned with her jewels (bejeweled), so we are adorned with Jesus and He calls us beloved. She gave us some principles on soul prosperity and said that the main way to prosper in our souls is to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, citing Psalm 122:6, ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee’. She decoded ‘peace’ to mean Perfection, Excellence, Admiration, Comfort and Exception. She said that her desire is that we will all get to a higher plane with God after the experiences we had in Jerusalem. At the end of her exhortation, she called for testimonies, especially from the first timers to Israel. Many of us gave testimonies of God’s divine provision for the tour. All testifiers expressed our gratitude to God for the privilege to be able to see some of the places we read about in the Holy Bible and to connect with our Biblical roots. 

From the Jerusalem Center for Peace and Truth we proceeded to the steps of the Temple which was the venue for ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, Jerusalem 2023, worship event. The title is taken from the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew 6:5-15, verse 10: ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven’. There were crowds of people and the atmosphere was electric. Imagine sitting on the step that Jesus walked on as He went to the Temple. Just let that thought sink in for a moment!

In the courtyard in front of the steps, there were remnants of what looked like water troughs or cisterns dug out of the earth which was used for ritual baths before going into the Temple. The steps were remarkably well preserved after all these years. The worship started at 5pm and for over three and a half hours, one worship minister after the other led us in praise and worship to God. There was a time of prayer for the peace of Jerusalem from Psalm 122:6-7: ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, may they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls and prosperity within your palaces’.  A time of exhortation followed which included information on the inaugural event in 2016 and related prophecies. Worship ministers at the event were Victoria Orenze, Aaron T. Aaron, Nathaniel Bassey, Wale Adenuga and Joshua Aaron, a messianic Jew who spoke the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6:24-26 over us: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace’. There were instrumentalists, singers, media teams, photographers etc. We worship and praised, we met new people and made new friends and we were all blessed to be there. As the sun was setting over Jerusalem, the worship was coming to an end and so was our tour to Israel. Pastor Elsie made the final prayer and the worship event ended at 9pm. The crowds dispersed and we headed for our hotel. After dinner, Pastor Elsie prayed with us and we were dismissed, marking a befitting end to our tour.

The next day, Monday 5 June 2023, Group members began the journey back to Tel Aviv to catch our flights back home, and by the grace of God we all arrived home safely and notified each other on the Higher Plane 2023 WhatsApp page. 

See you tomorrow for my final thoughts on the HIGHER PLANE 2023 Israel tour!