Sid: My guest right now is Bonnie Halpern; I’m speaking to her at her home at Wyckoff, New Jersey. Bonnie was raised in a Jewish family; mother and father Jewish, but she had something very unusual at age 8 a large light came into her room. And there was a man face at the end of it. Were you afraid by this experience or how did you react Bonnie?
Bonnie: No, I had complete peace about it and that was what was so unusual and…
Sid: How did your parents react when you told them?
Bonnie: Went into tell them about it they thought I had a nightmare; thought I was fast asleep and I had a nightmare. And I assured them that I wasn’t even asleep and it wasn’t a nightmare because you know happy but it wasn’t a frightening thing for an 8 year old child.
Sid: And then when you were a teenager Christians invited you to a meeting and you went what happened?
Bonnie: There was a man there and a ministry there that talked about Jesus. A friend had invited me to go there but I just left in the sense that I wanted to find God. But they were talking about Jesus. So I felt as a Jewish person that it did not pertain to me; I felt that it was just for the Gentiles. But after I had left that at age 13 I had the same exact visitation from God which is what it exactly it was when I was 8 years old; the same light the same experience; the same feeling in my bed this tiny tiny little person with the same cone shape with the same bright light above me with the exact, exact, exact experience that I had when I was 8 years old.
Sid: But then you did ask God about Jesus; why did you do that?
Bonnie: Because I wanted to know; I think that I was always a child of God my whole life and was always meant to pursue God. I needed to know who God really was because I did not want religion. Everyone in my family was Bar mitzvah’d and Bat mitzvah’d and I was the only one. I even left our temple that had Sunday school classes I was the only one that out of 5 children that stopped going because I just wanted something real and never ever felt no matter what I heard that it was real. The temple always was in Hebrew and I didn’t understand that and something within me wanted to know God. I had to know God and I went on a full search from then on. I have poetry that dates back to when I was a young teenager that even says “I spoke to God last night.” And when I was a teenager my parents were reading it and it was all about speaking to God. So I was on a life pursuit obviously that God was calling me; had put something in me to find out the truth of who my Messiah was.
Sid: When you asked God who Jesus was you actually heard something; what did you hear?
Bonnie: That was around 18 years old when I was actually able to say I wanted to know who Jesus is, if Jesus is the Messiah, I want to know the truth and I need You. Not some man; not some book; I need to know that that is the truth. And what I heard was the scripture in Zachariah 9:9. As you know growing up in the synagogue we don’t often use the Bible. We don’t read out of the Bible.
Sid: So besides that if it was in Hebrew you probably wouldn’t have said.
Bonnie: Exactly. And what Zachariah 9:9 was “Rejoice daughter of Zion and shout daughter of Jerusalem.” So I knew that that meant to a Jewish girl that confirmed that for me; but then it told of how our Messiah our King would come in righteousness having salvation which I didn’t even understand and he would be riding on a donkey. And that scripture never left me to this day; I’ll take it into eternity with me. That was something new because I knew the story of Jesus; I knew that he came to Jerusalem on a donkey. So when I heard that scripture I went to a Bible and read it that was the first sign to me that there may be truth behind this.
Sid: Now you were really open to the things of God; obviously you were really being drawn by God’s Spirit.
Bonnie: Yes.
Sid: Obviously but when you married Felix and nice Jewish guy in the diamond industry were you as the movies say a Jewish American Princess?
Bonnie: Absolutely, I can tell you something very funny. You know when you’re a Jewish American Princess goes into renewal and really has revival in her life because it made me cut up my Bloomingdale’s charge. (Laughing)
Sid: That’s it; that’s the acid test. (Laughing)
Bonnie: Yes.
Sid: But let’s go back; so you marry this nice Jewish guy whose making a 6 figures is a Vice President of a diamond firm. All of a sudden he becomes a fanatic for Jesus…
Bonnie: Right.
Sid: I mean he’s even baptized in the Holy Spirit speaking in a language he’s never been taught – tongues. Did you think he had lost it or what was going on with you when this was going on with him?
Bonnie: Well, I wasn’t baptized in the Holy Spirit at that time I was just seeking truth and I said… my husband was a very very solid conservative person. If that language is really of God as I’m beginning to hear from people that it is then I want to know it and give me a sign. So the funny thing is one night my husband was in the bathtub and I was walking down the hallway to our bedroom and I heard that same language. He wasn’t speaking quietly by any means he was shouting it out from the bathtub. And I put my ear to the door and I just listened and I said “I know the man I married.” And that convinced me; that was the sign from God that I asked for that something about this Holy Spirit was real.
Sid: Now you and your husband jumped in with both feet in your continued pursuit with God.
Bonnie: Yeah.
Sid: The two of you had a street ministry; you really had a burden for the down and outers; tell me about that.
Bonnie: Well, we knew that we wanted to serve God and we just decided to go into Patterson, New Jersey and begin to feed the homeless and witness on the street corners and before we knew it it was growing and growing and growing. And then we went into an old hotel there and asked for space; the man was a believer in Yeshua and he said “Sure, come on in.” So every week we went in and we brought a couple of people and more people and then a team of people. We had hot food and served…
Sid: Now tell me, how does a Jewish American Princess handle the down and outers?
Bonnie: When God enters your heart and you receive the love from the father like that and His heart for the down and out and for the world there is no other explanation accept that’s the heart of God. It’s not a conscious effort it’s a passion within your heart for people and for the lost to receive salvation and turn their lives around.
Sid: Would you put your husband Felix on because at this point the two of them I mean Bonnie told me some stories about her love for these street people and her love for the ministry. But one day Felix you prayed for God to restore the ability to look through your Grandfathers eyes. What did that mean to you?
Felix: Sid that meant…
Sid: First of all tell us about your grandfather.
Felix: My grandfather was an Orthodox Rabbi in Germany during Nazi occupied Germany. I obviously did not know him at all just a few pictures that my father had and the stories that were told. And that is the extent of it; I even know that he wrote two books in German having to do with the relationship to God. A heart relationship that are somewhere we don’t know where they are but it was only through stories and pictures and things that I have heard. Knowing now what God was doing in our lives and calling us to the Jewish people I realized that being I had been reared in replacement theology…
Sid: Meaning that the church has replaced the Jew in Israel which is a lie but go ahead.
Felix: In fact I knew that it was poisonous. I knew that it was injurious to what God’s plan of redemption were for the lost sheep of Israel and also the plan for the church. I began to pray to the Holy Spirit that Lord, if I’m going to proceed with this calling; if I’m going to be what I need to be for this calling I need you to restore the eyes of my grandfather. In other words I need to see scriptures through Jewish eyes.
Sid: And then God spoke audibly to you; what did he say?
Felix: One morning at 3:00 am I remember it very clearly there was an audible voice as one as you Sid would whisper or speak directly to my ear and it was simply these words. “You are being called to the Jewish people.”
Sid: Hold that thought but I’m going to say the same thing to you whether you’re Jewish or Gentile. According to the word of God you are being called to the Jewish people. Let me repeat that, you are being called to the Jewish people.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth