Erica chats with Rabbi Jason today, a Messianic Jew and author of the book “Signs and Secrets of the Messiah.” He shares his personal encounter with Jesus, which led him to his faith and transformed his life. A wonderful conversation to listen in on!
Click PLAY for a special dose of HOPE today.
Catch hope & encouragement with Erica on weekday mornings from 5:00 AM – 10:00 AM, and Sundays from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Erica:
Spirit 1053. Hi, this is Erica.
Rabbi Jason:
Hi, this is Rabbi Jason. How are you?
Erica:
Rabbi Jason, it is such an honor to meet you. I am well, and how are you?
Rabbi Jason:
I’m doing well, thank you.
Erica:
Oh, thanks for your new book, Signs and Secrets of the Messiah. A fresh look at the miracles of Jesus, and I can’t wait to dive into this, but I want to start with this. I know that you are a Messianic Jew. For someone who’s listening, Rabbi, how would you explain who you are?
Rabbi Jason:
Yeah, a Messianic Jew is a Jewish person, was born Jewish and has come to faith that Jesus is Hebrew name, Yeshua is the promised Messiah of Israel. The promise fulfilled from the Torah and the Old Testament.
Erica:
So beautiful. And how did you come to know the Lord?
Rabbi Jason:
Yeah, I was working in the music industry, looked at the lives of all these famous people, said there has to be more to life than just this. Went on a spiritual journey and had a outer body experience where I encountered Jesus in heaven, and he told me I was called to serve him.
Erica:
Wow. How did that change your life?
Rabbi Jason:
Yeah, radically changed my life. I mean, I knew nothing about Jesus Yeshua growing up, but it made me want to understand who he was and it ultimately led me to faith in him. It completely transformed my life.
Erica:
Wow, that is so awesome. You and I share a strong belief that God is in the details, Rabbi. So how do we train ourselves to look for him there?
Rabbi Jason:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the reasons why he wrote Signs and Secrets of the Messiah, we want people to see the Bible in high definition. All the details in the Bible are there for a reason. If it says the first miracle water into wine, six stone pots, there’s six stone pots for a reason. And I think it’s being intentional to understand and to open our eyes and say, “God, show us how this all connects in our life.” And when we see God in the details, it shows us how God’s hand is controlling everything from the beginning to the end.
Erica:
It’s so amazing. I feel like if you open your eyes on any given day, you can see God working. I mean, honestly to me, it’s a small miracle that I wake up every day and I’m like, coffee. I’m so excited to have my coffee. He’s showing us his love in so many ways. And so, I believe that he’s still doing miracles. For somebody who has a hard time with that. They’re just feeling stuck in their faith right now, how would you refresh their heart and encourage them today?
Rabbi Jason:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the miracles we talked about is the miracle at the Pool of Bethesda. The man had been an invalid for 38 years, and Yeshua Jesus says, the man, do you want to get made? Well, the interesting thing about why 38 years is because Israel actually wandered in the desert because of their unbelief for 38 years. Jesus was saying to this man, you don’t have to remain stuck. You don’t have to remain where you’re at. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but Jesus comes to heal the heart. Hope is the belief that our future is going to be better than our past. And when Jesus healed this man, he gave him hope, and this man was actually able to get up and walk in to a future than he had in his past.
Erica:
That’s so encouraging to even think about. Rabbi, what is your favorite miracle that Jesus did?
Rabbi Jason:
Oh my goodness.
Erica:
I know it’s a hard one.
Rabbi Jason:
So amazing. It’s a hard one. I love the first miracle that he did the turning the water into wine at the wedding of Cana of Galilee. One of the reasons why he did that miracle is because he’s trying to show him as a greater than Moses. Moses turned the water into blood. Jesus doesn’t come to bring death. He comes to bring light, so we might have it more abundantly, and so he turns the water into wine. And one of the things I love about the miracle is that the miracle didn’t happen until everything ran out. Oftentimes, we have to come to an end of ourselves before God can truly begin.
Erica:
Oh, that is so beautiful. You know what I love about that particular miracle is that God partnered with people to make it happen. Like he said, here, go fill these stone jars. And I find that very meaningful as somebody who loves Jesus and wants to serve him. Rabbi he includes us in his work!
Rabbi Jason:
Absolutely. He includes us and he has promised us that greater things than these, we can do the things that he did. And yes, it’s a beautiful thing that he bites us in to that process of transforming and impacting the world. And one of the things I love in that story is that Mary who comes to Jesus and says, tell the servants, Do whatever he tells you. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer. So one of the keys to seeing God do miracles in our life is we got to have chutzpah. That’s a Hebrew word for holy boldness. Don’t take no for an answer. Right. When you know God has a promise, don’t take no.
Erica:
Yes. I love holy chutzpah. Okay, that’s my new thing. Absolutely wonderful. I really appreciate how you say that Jesus wants to do something miraculous in my life, in the life of the person who’s listening right now. Now he wants to do that. So how do we lay hold of that? How do we believe that to be true? When sometimes, rabbi, let’s face it, we live in a crazy world right now. We wake up and we go, oh, what’s going to happen today? How can we retrain our brains to know that God is alive and working and living in us?
Rabbi Jason:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that’s a great question. I think one of the beautiful things that we talk about in the book is how to experience the supernatural in our life. We have to understand that we need faith, Jesus response to faith. And what’s interesting is that there’s two levels of faith. There’s eye faith, which is what most people have. The idea of seeing is believing, but there’s a greater faith which is mouth faith, which is believing it because God said it. God spoke the world into existence and said, let there be light before anyone saw the light. And so we have to believe that God can call for things that are not as if they were, and we have to believe with him and pray for it to come to pass and come into agreement with the promises and plans of God, even when we can’t see it, even when we don’t feel it, we still need to pray and stand upon God’s promises, which are yes and Amen in Jesus.
Erica:
Amen. You just quoted one of my favorite scriptures, I believe that’s from Romans four when he was saying to Abraham, I mean, that to me just says everything. It always gives me the good goosebumps. So Rabbi, I love also that you don’t want people to believe that the Bible is boring. You are trying to bust up that myth. I mean, there is so much treasure if you just open it, right?
Rabbi Jason:
Absolutely. I mean, the Bible is shallow enough for a infant to enjoy, but it’s deep enough that we can never go to the depths of it. And part of our passion is we want people to see the Bible in high definition. I went out one year before the Super Bowl, bought a high definition television. Everyone said, it’s going to change the way you see the game. I’m like, this isn’t that great. At the end of the game, I have a realization, the higher channels or the high definition channels, I watch the whole game in standard definition. But when we see the Bible in high definition, one way to do that is by seeing how the old and the new connect, how God is in the detail, and how there’s deeper meaning to every detail in the Bible.
Erica:
Oh, that is absolutely amazing. Well, Rabbi, before I let you go here, I have to ask you, do you celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas? Because that just sounds amazing.
Rabbi Jason:
That’s right. Well, we celebrate Hanukkah and we, of course, we celebrate the Birth of the Messiah. So, every major event in his life happened on a Jewish holiday. So, it’s a very significant.
Erica:
Well, it is just a joy to meet with you and talk with you. I hope you’ll come on again.
Rabbi Jason:
Thank you so much for having me. God bless.
Erica:
God bless you, friend.
Comments