Afterwards we walk down to the Church of Dominus Flevit, and I was hoping to find a spot to take the dictation. Unfortunately, there was no spot and the church itself was disappointing, made of concrete and shaped like a teardrop. We had heard that at the bottom of the hill was a private garden in which Mother Mary was supposedly buried and the guards would let us in if we paid them a few Shekel. So we start back down and on the way we are passed by Bambi in a taxi. We briefly chatted with her again at the bottom of the hill.
We did get into Mother Mary’s garden, but the structure in which she was supposedly buried was closed. The garden itself was nice, but crowded and small, so it was hard to get away from people. After resting a while, we walked further down, where there was an open space we had seen earlier. It turned about that it was now closed off, but a man inside the gate let us in. We found a half-round stone seat that was right below the Golden Gate in the city wall, and given that it was late afternoon, it was also in the shade.
The Church of Dominus Flevit, where Jesus wept for Jerusalem.
Four young boys came up and offered me a bottle of water they had just filled at a faucet sticking out of the ground. I wasn’t sure how good the water was but didn’t want to be impolite, so I accepted it. The boys hung around, and it wasn’t until afterwards I realized they were hoping to get paid as everyone else on the streets of Jerusalem. The boys were making a bit of noise and moving around and there was a lot of street noise, especially cars honking—which seems to be a popular form of self-expression. Yet I knew Jesus wanted to dictate before sunset, so I focused and the dictation started.
The dictation was short and very business-like. The purpose was not to give teachings but to simply close the cycle, which I knew was Jesus’ main reason for wanting us to go to Jerusalem at this time. It felt to me like a very powerful and definite ending of this cycle, and I have no doubt it will have an effect on the world as these lifestreams are prevented from continuing to misuse their power. The misuse of power was so evident around us, as it obviously is all around the world. It was quite frankly a great relief for me to have this dictation done, as I had felt a lot of opposition to it and a lot of weight on me for days, even weeks, before then. There are certain jobs that it is nice to get done.
The Golden Gate, where the Messiah is supposed to enter. Apparently someone didn't want him to come, so they closed the opening.
The Old City
After the dictation, it quickly got dark and we walked into the labyrinth of narrow streets that make up the Old City. Every street is lined with little shops that sell anything from meat over clothes to souvenir items of every imaginable kind. The shopkeepers are very eager to sell you something and try various tricks to get your attention or drag you into the store. We were too tired to do any shopping, but did find part of the Via Dolorosa and followed it. It was easy to tell when we crossed the line from the Arab Quarter to the Christian quarter, as there were now Christian items – every variety of crucifixes and rosaries – in the shops.
At the end of the Via Dolorosa is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is supposedly built over the place where Jesus was crucified and buried. The spot was chosen by Constantine’s mother, who did a pilgrimage to Jerusalem 300 years after the crucifixion but nevertheless found the exact spot, and even found three wooden crosses (apparently they didn’t recycle back then). She got Constantine to authorize the building of the church, which still stands today. It is, quite frankly, a very ugly church, especially at night, as it is very dark inside. It was also extremely crowded with long lines to go into the sepulchre where Jesus was supposedly laid by Joseph of Aramithea.
Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Outside is a small plaza where we sat and rested for a while and watched loads of pilgrims come in. There must have been people from many different nations, as you heard numerous languages spoken. Yet the mood was not a happy one, which is understandable since most of the pilgrims apparently see this as a very somber location and thus put on the proper expressions.
By this time we were very hungry and walked on through the narrow streets, following our tourist guide which mentioned a small Italian-French restaurant near the Jaffa gate. We finally found it and it had beautiful music, nice atmosphere, friendly waiters and excellent food—even reasonable prices. It was the perfect rest after a very hot and eventful day, and we took time to enjoy it—yet there was still one more experience in store.
After the restaurant, we took a taxi to the hotel, which was a half hour drive. Our taxi driver was a Palestinian man, who was very nice and talkative. We ended up having a long discussion about the plight of the Palestinians. He had lived in Jerusalem his entire life, and I felt moved by the Spirit to ask him about the political situation. He first told us how the Jews were trying to move all Palestinians and Muslims out of the Old City by buying up their houses. An American business man had created a fund with many millions of dollars to buy the houses at far above market prices.
Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Not a happy place.
He himself owned a small house and had been offered 4 million dollars for it and even a visa for the United States. I asked him why he didn’t accept, and part of it was the principle and part of it was a fear of reprisals from his own people. By selling his house to the Jews, he would be ostracized from his family. Some people had even been hung as a way to discourage others from selling.
I then felt moved by the Spirit to start discussing with him how the Palestinians had to win world opinion, and the main obstacle to that was their use of violence. He got quite upset and asked me if you weren’t allowed to defend yourself when the Jews arrested people on no charges or demolished Palestinian houses with no legal reason. I really felt the Spirit moving, and I explained how Gandhi had managed to get the British to leave India through non-violence. At first he seemed closed, but after some time, he suddenly became still and I knew he had seen the truth of what I was saying. If the Palestinians could refrain from violence, then the Israelis would be seen as the aggressors and that would change world opinion.
I know this was only one person, but I felt like I was reasoning with the mass consciousness, and I truly feel it had an effect through the I AM Presences of all four of us. After this shift, our taxi driver was very friendly and after we came to the hotel, he kept talking for a few minutes, calling us all his friends and hoping to see us again. We all felt he was very genuine and that he truly did see us as friends, despite the cultural differences.
After that, we went straight to bed, and in writing about it, I almost can’t believe how much had happened in one day. We decided to sleep a little later the next morning and not meet for breakfast until 8:30.
