Sid: I have got on the telephone Felix Halpern; I’ve been talking to Felix and his wife Bonnie; both are Jewish and both understand the One New Man. On yesterday’s broadcast we found out that Felix whose father was a Holocaust survivor. His grandfather was a Rabbi in Germany; literally he was raised to almost deny his Jewishness; to not talk about his Jewishness because of the pain that his father went through. But when he became a believer in the Messiah he prayed a strange prayer to God. He said, “God restore to me the ability to see the scriptures through my grandfather’s eyes.” Then God spoke audibly to him; I mean when you say audibly Felix was it really loud?
Felix: Sid it was as real as we are speaking on the phone right now. It’s as if you would bend down and speak right into my ear; it was that real and it was very firm and it was very direct and it jolted me out of my sleep at 3:00 AM. And I went to ask my wife “What did you say?” And she was sleeping and I had to wake her up. I remember even as we speak as clear as the moment that it happened. And what was so confirming to that event were the supernatural doors that began to open.
Sid: Before you state that tell me the exact words you heard.
Felix: “I am calling you to the Jewish people;” as simple as that. I am calling you…
Sid: But wait a second you and your wife have a nice ministry to the street people and you’re satisfied in your satisfied in your ministry. This is a real change especially with your mentality.
Felix: Exactly but the truth of the matter is I had never been satisfied, the interesting thing about my journey through the life of the church at that time. We were involved in many, many ministries within the church itself and involved in lay leadership. And when I look back I see the Lord’s hand on it how He blessed it. But within a very short period of time it never held me; I was always a sense of discontentment even in the midst of the blessing there was something that did not really hook my heart and my entire being until the Lord called me back to our people.
Sid: I got a question if in one sentence you were to tell me or a couple of sentences what is the best way to reach Jewish people with the gospel what would you say Felix?
Felix: I believe number 1 what our people are looking for are Jewish people that have intimate and passionate relationship with the God of Isaac, Abraham and Jacob. That it isn’t so much in the abundance of the words that we speak but it’s the life that we live. When Yeshua said “The Kingdom is upon you I believe that Kingdom brought a quality of life that life that was filled with the supernatural; the empowerment over sickness and disease” and what He intended for us needs to be manifested in our life. Because that is what truly connects to a Jewish person. Because the Jewish person has a DNA within them to connect with the Kingdom of God. And that is associated with the power of the Kingdom; the signs and wonders of the Kingdom and this is who God is.
Sid: Do you think that it has to do with the scripture “The Jew requires a sign?”
Felix: Absolutely, I believe we live in a day that one scripture that has always gripped me as the Lord was calling us to our people was “After this, I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent.” There is a call bringing His people back into the tent of David. And in that tent of David there is intimacy with God; there is empowerment.
Sid: Isn’t that what everyone wants.
Felix: Everyone wants.
Sid: But most people that aren’t believers they don’t want anything to do with religion but they want intimacy with God. And I think that most Christians have sold God short not realizing that that’s what God’s heart is; He wants intimacy with them.
Felix: Absolutely, he wants to walk with us through the Ruach haKodesh the Holy Spirit as God walked in the garden. We have that ability and I believe that that is at the heart of millions of Jewish people’s pursuit of the supernatural but they go to the occult, they go to eastern religions. And as we speak here we have the real thing.
Sid: Speaking of the supernatural things you were at a prayer meeting you were praying for the Jewish people to know the Messiah and a strange phenomena occurred. Tell me about that.
Felix: Well, in between 1996 and 1997 shortly after we were swept into a supernatural revival of our own lives. In that year I was still working in New York, I was still active in the church. But obviously our whole lives had been undergoing transformation and God was doing an enormous work. Three things happened, one of those things in that period of time; I believe all go back to the God’s hands, his stamp upon our calling. And that was when we were in a prayer meeting we were with total four of us sitting down in our living room and I began to feel a heavy bead of oil on my head. And I was startled by that at first, at this point I didn’t open my eyes; I didn’t want to open my eyes actually I wanted to know who was pouring oil on my head.
Sid: Hmm.
Felix: But I didn’t want to open my eyes and it kept going. And then I began to experiment with this oil if you will. I said “You know what and I’m going to move a little to the left to see if this oil runs to the left.” And all along everyone was deeply in prayer and my eyes are closed and I would do the same thing to the right and then I would move back my whole body to see if it would run to the back. While this was all going on and within a second or two or within that time period we were coming out of prayer. And I was for some reason there was a fear that came over me because I didn’t know what was going on because I wasn’t sure if it was someone pouring oil on my head or not. But I began to share you cannot believe what has been going on. And they opened their eyes and they saw this oil and I began to relate my experience and at the same time the person that was there began to share the vision that she saw. And that vision was an angel in the center holding an urn anointing me for the ministry to our people. And again, once again there were signs and wonders and conformations following that supernatural sign.
Sid: Now you started a one a month healing meeting, what types of miracles did you start seeing?
Felix: Well, we saw people healed of prostate cancer; multiple sclerosis. One of the most dramatic events in our meeting was a Jewish man who for many many many years had been taking medication for every… 17 years in fact, taking medication for a half a dozen different ailments and he brought into the service that day two brown bags of drugs; 17 different prescriptions that he was on for years. And the power of God just came over him; we prayed for healing and we put those medications on the altar and from this day he takes none.
Sid: Hm. Would you put Bonnie on I have a quick question for her?
Bonnie: Hi.
Sid: Bonnie we were talking about your healing meeting that was started and the miracles you began seeing but something that interested me is that about a year after God spoke audibly to Felix to go to the Jewish people you heard the name of your congregation. What did you hear?
Bonnie: Well, we were riding in the car my husband, my daughter and myself and we heard a word that sounded like the word “Chofesh.” Almost like a Hebrew dialect and we both said “What was that?” And neither of us said anything to each other and we knew the presence of God and we knew the presence of the supernatural and we felt obviously that an angel had spoken a word to us but we had no clue what the word meant. And so we asked people and nobody knew what it meant and we found a Hebrew teacher and at the Hebrew teacher and asked the Hebrew teacher what the word meant and she said “Freedom.” And we named the congregation “Beth Chofesh” House of Freedom not understanding the power of what that was going to be. Well after we named it that so many people got the name wrong they couldn’t say it so we decided we were going to change it three different times and literally a shaking went on within us. Fear to dare change that name and that was the name given by good because we do have a house of freedom.
Sid: You know most religion is made up of so many rules and traditions and bondages. It’s in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. This Freedom has got to get someone’s attention.
Bonnie: It’s amazing; it’s amazing but that’s what scripture tells us it would be. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is there’s Freedom.
Sid: I’m sorry Bonnie we’re out of time; we have enough freedom but we just don’t have enough time.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth