The anointing of Israel, the first church and the last times.

Part 1

By Gordon Pennington, 5/7/2024                                                                 

As many of you may know, my wife Roni and I are missionaries and evangelists, in our local community, within the USA and on an international level, and have been on many missions. Our most recent mission of the Gospel of peace took us to the promised land of Israel, to the heart of Jerusalem, to the Palestinian territories, as well as Greece, and Cyprus.

We have many incredible stories and testimonials to share with you about our journey; it is really hard to know where to begin. This was my first trip to Jerusalem and it was a mission of healing and mercy with a gospel of peace and forgiveness.

It all started when the Holy Spirit called us to fast for 7 days for a battle we were going to go through. This was water only fasting for 7 days straight with no food, just water and God’s word, which is the bread of life. This is something we do a few times per year, and is very powerful.

Without going into too many details, by the end of day 6 the Lord showed me he wanted me to go to Jerusalem, and see a certain person as well as to go a few certain places, learn from him, and pray for repentance, peace and righteousness to flourish in his Holy Land, as well as be ambassadors of healing and deliverance. Of course we already knew that there is war in Gaza, Iran threatening, and many regional tensions. We also know that we safe in the Lords care always, so in the morning I tell my wife Roni to pack a small bag and some warm clothes, and we leave for Israel on day 7 of our fast. We also decided to continue fasting through our journey until we reached our destination.

On March 3, 2024 and the end of day 9 of fasting, even at sunset we had arrived in Jerusalem and to the Jerusalem Gold Hotel, where the train station is as well as the bus station. After checking in, we broke our 10 day fast at the Schwarma restaurant next door in the mall, and got some well deserved sleep after 2 days of traveling and 24 hours of flying with our last leg through Paris. Of course while we were fasting and flying the airlines served the best smelling and looking food we have ever seen on an airplane, but we weren’t tempted.

Arrival in Jerusalem

We left home with the bare essentials so we really didn’t bring much of the Kure it healing and anointing oils with us, mainly enough for our personal use and healing and anointing others, but I did bring everything needed to make some of the Kure it healing and anointing oil while in we were in Israel, should the opportunity present itself.  

The next morning, we had breakfast and found the easiest way to get around in Jerusalem.

This is by train, bus or walking, so we got our train pass and off we went with a tourist sites map and the Lord at our side. The first place we went to once we got our bearings was the old city where we entered in through the New Gate on the North, which I believe also used to be the Fish Gate in older times.

Here we found the streets empty and shop owners all inviting us in to see their stores. This is part of the Armenian section of the city with many beautiful items for sale. Because of the war in Gaza, as well as post Covid lockdown madness, we found the economy in Israel and the Palestinian areas economically depressed and the hotel prices are very cheap compared to 3 years ago, the tourist sites are almost empty and many of the businesses are struggling for lack of customers, Jewish, Palestinian and Christian.

We purchased a few small things from one shop and then went for lunch by the Jaffa Gate and the Tower of David. There was a lot of security forces keeping an eye on things.

As we were not interested in doing the regular tourist things, we headed down to see the Tomb of David, just outside of the Zion Gate and by the Upper Room, where Jesus had his last supper and washed his disciples feet.

We decide to go see the upper room first and when we got up to the door it was locked and no sign of anyone. We went up on the roof of the upper room for a good view of the area and spent some time up there in prayer.

After this we then headed back down from the roof, and found the Tomb of David, literally next door to the upper room. Once we reached the Tomb of David we found some of the Jewish Rabbi’s praying there as I had seen in pictures previously. We visited the tomb of David and showed our respect for God’s anointed king separately, as they had a separate part for women and men to enter and pray. It was quite an experience to see what you had only read about in articles or seen on video, and to be in Jerusalem at all was a blessing to us.

As it always is with our missions, the LORD had quite a few surprises in store for us and he didn’t take long for him to get to it. We found a bathroom close by David’s Tomb and took care of business.  While I was waiting for Roni, I noticed an exit with a few steps up and a wide paved walkway headed to an open area, that didn’t seem to go anywhere special, so I just finished waiting for Roni. Once Roni came out and we were ready to go, she asked me “what’s out there?” pointing to the walkway. I replied: “I’m not sure, maybe we should check it out.” So off we went toward the end of the walled walkway, and immediately as we got to the end I recognized the place exactly!

The First Church in Jerusalem!

We had just been lead by the Holy Spirit to the first Church in Jerusalem, the Church of Saint James, the half brother of Jesus Christ. Wow, was I surprised and excited to see this place as I had seen a video showing this place a few years back, and from the book that was written about it. (See below for video link)

Here a person doing research on the place first found the symbol of the menorah and the fish symbol united by the star of David, now a common symbol in messianic Judaism, and adorning much jewelry and gifts available in this Armenian quarter. This symbol was originally found inscribed on a stone that was for holding a jar of anointing oil, as well as on the Jar itself during some excavation and cleanup at this location. The inscription reads ‘for the oil of the spirit’. Of course this had very much significance in my quest for the truth about healing and anointing with oil, when I discovered this 6 or 7 years ago.

This place was not a church like any you have ever seen and doesn’t actually look like a church on the surface, as it is the underground church that was used by James, the half brother of Jesus while the Christians were being hunted down by the Pharisees and imprisoned by men like Saul after Jesus death.

The church has 2 sets of steps leading down, cut into the limestone, both leading down to a landing and single stair to the bottom, where a small alcove and altar on the left side and a bigger chamber or room on the other.

The steps on the left side leading down to a landing where the 2 sets of steps joined, and next to it on the right is another set of steps leading to a larger stone basin where the disciples would wash and anoint the feet of others, then the 2 stairs joined at the landing and went to the bottom.  Over the top of this was built a concrete structure with metal and wire fencing for walls and a locked metal gate at the front of the steps.

Thankfully the walls were made of wire fencing and we could see inside and take some good photographs of the place. This underground church was in the middle of a field right on Mount Zion with almond trees blossoming right behind it, uncut grass and pine trees, cedar trees, as well as an abandoned basketball court and was quite a large place. It was full of sparrows, swallows and a one Raven, with just a few people scattered around enjoying the natural beauty and quite of the area, so we decided this was a good place to enjoy our lunch, worship with music and do our daily reading of the Word, praying for the peace of Jerusalem and blowing the shofar.

The back view of the church.

It was very quite with birds singing.

Truly we enjoyed our time at this park with the Lord so much, we went there almost daily whenever we were in Jerusalem’s Old city. It was quite an amazing first day really and we were just so thankful to the Lord to bring us somewhere so special our first day in Jerusalem. I was also reminded by the LORD of the coming persecution of the church and the time of Jacob’s trouble, and that underground churches may be in our immediate future in the coming times.

The weather when we first got there was a bit cold for us being from Florida, so as the Sun was getting low and the cold was setting in we headed back to our hotel for the night.

This was day 1 of our journey, and we still had many more things in store for us from the Lord, as we were waiting to hear from the person the LORD had asked me to visit with. And, of course as we do every day, we prayed for, healed and anointed as many people as the Lord gave us allowance and opportunity, adding them to our prayer book.

We thank all of you who keep us in your prayers and know we are constantly praying for all of you as well as that many more can be saved through these last days through the Gospel of Peace.

Lord willing, next week I will have part 2 coming out which starts an even more incredible journey of healing and learning in faith walking in the paths of Jesus our Lord through the promised land.

Keep an eye out for part 2!

Here is a video on youtube from 5 years ago I found that explores this church in more detail and is full of great historical facts, most of which are completely unknown by the larger Christian communities. 

You will be shocked!

Shalom and may the spirit of the LORD be with you. 

Gordon Pennington

Rainbow Health Company, LLC