After appearing to His disciples during forty days, and sharing with them things about the kingdom of God, Jesus found it very important to remind them this last promise before he left them on earth. Although He told them previously, not to leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised, His last words on earth were: ‘But you will receive power when the Holy-Spirit comes on you.’! I believe that Christians today must take note of this words that Jesus found so important to leave not only for His disciples, but to all Christians in all generations, so that we realise the importance of being filled with divine power, to live our lives filled with the Holy Spirit, without which we are too weak in a world that badly needs to be shaken. ‘After He said this, He was taken up before their eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight.’  Soon He is coming again!

That was it! The Lord’s work on earth was done, He went back home! but it is not finished, for as the disciples: ‘Were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly, men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee’, they said, ‘Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.’ (Acts 1: 10-11)) Thus, ever since, every generation of true Christians, to this very day, know that Jesus is coming back to earth to set up His kingdom, and they say: ‘Even so, Come Lord Jesus! It is only true Christians that know what the future holds!

After this eventful departure of the Lord, his disciples: ‘Returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath’s s day walk from the city (just over a kilometre) When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Phillip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers! *(Acts 1: 12-14) They were commanded to wait in Jerusalem. They could not just wait anywhere. Peter under orders, could not say what he said few days before, when disappointed for denying the Lord, said to some disciples that were back with him in Galilee ‘I am going out to fish’ and they said: ‘We’ll go with you.’ (Luke 21: 3) Now he had to wait, for his future was mapped out, he was destined to be a fisher of men, and to fulfil his calling he had to be anointed! They did not know how long they would have to wait, nor what and how it would happen? But they did wait, lived and prayed together.

In my only visit to Israel, I looked from the Mount of Olives and realised how everything is small compared to what I imagined since I was a child! I saw various images in my illustrated New Testament my mother bought for me. Centuries after it all happened, everything was as if it happened the day before I came. It really is a hill, and slipping gently down into a valley was the garden of Gethsemane, still full of Olive trees, and across, up to the other side of the valley were the walls of the Old city of Jerusalem. As we travelled over the country everything still seemed full of the Lord’s presence, I felt very privileged, they were precious times, unforgettable, precious, no doubt, to every Christian that has the privilege to see them! Where I was really moved to tears and felt something strong and strange in my heart, so strong that I wept in a boat as we were crossing the Sea of Galilee, I feel the same now as I mention it! I really felt the Lord touching me! So much to tell, but I will just say how great and wonderful everything will be when we, Christians, glorified, back to earth with the Lord will be establishing His reign! We shall be on earth for a long time, a thousand years; until comes the ultimate end! Then there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, everything will be perfect, clean, holy forever!