It's Supernatural!

Sid Roth: Hello, Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural. My Jewish guest discovered how God can change you into a supernatural magnet. Magnet? Next.

Guest (Male): I've thought for myself in every area of life but one. I knew nothing until I discovered a realm where the truth isn't what it seems. A realm where the truth becomes reality. I've spent over 50 years investigating the world of the supernatural. Every moment has led up to the main event.

Millions of Jewish people will be saved all over the world. God's heart is for all to believe, for none to perish. It's called the greater glory. Do you believe? It's supernatural.

Sid Roth: Welcome, Holy Spirit. Go and flow. My guest, Harvey Katz's parents, were Jewish. His father, a Holocaust survivor. Harvey was educated in a Jewish day school, and at 16, he was supernaturally drawn to Jesus. Describe your family, your growing up, your home life, Harvey.

Harvey Katz: As you said, Sid, my dad was a Holocaust survivor, miraculously surviving those terrible years. He was between work camp and concentration camp. He was five years incarcerated. After he was liberated on May 5, 1945, he immigrated to Canada in 1949 from Slovakia and started a new life. He was introduced to my mother, whose parents had come out of Poland after the First World War.

They escaped the Holocaust, thank God. My mom was born in London, Ontario, where she was introduced to my dad. I have an older brother who's now with the Lord and a younger sister. I just grew up with a very strong Jewish identity, knowing what a horrible price my dad and our people had to pay.

Sid Roth: Going back to the concentration camp, if your father hadn't survived, you wouldn't have been here. But he literally, not being a believer in the Messiah, had miracles happen to survive. Do you remember one he might have told you?

Harvey Katz: I remember one very clearly. It was amazing. He was in work camps in Austria, and they would go from work camp to work camp. They lived horribly and slept outside. He said there must have been 20,000 men. They were starving. They did feed them, but they were very hungry. One night there was a terrible rainstorm. Everyone was miserable, cold, and damp.

The next day you couldn't see the grass for the snails. It was covered in snails, and he said it was like manna. It fed 20,000 people. Many years later, I remember at the synagogue when I was with my dad, there was a man visiting from Montreal. He remembered the story, so I had someone verify it. He didn't know my dad, but they were at the same work camp and had experienced the same miracle.

Sid Roth: In your experience with Judaism, you loved everything Jewish. You loved going to the synagogue. You loved reading from the siddur.

Harvey Katz: Yes, I did. I loved my Jewishness. It was such a part of our identity. I was bar mitzvahed at 13, of course.

Sid Roth: But this is the amazing thing. You began to ask some very strange questions for someone raised so Jewish.

Harvey Katz: I was seeking God. According to Jewish tradition, before your bar mitzvah, your parents are responsible for your sins. After your bar mitzvah, you're responsible for your sins. That was a real big turning point in my life. I was now responsible.

Sid Roth: That would be a big turning point for me because I was told at my bar mitzvah I'd get presents. I didn't have to look at being responsible for sin. They didn't even raise that word with me.

Harvey Katz: Because of my dad being a Holocaust survivor, at a young age, I was very aware of death. You could feel this kind of pallor in the home. My dad was an incredibly kind and wonderful human being, but he carried it. There is actually a term for second-generation Holocaust trauma. I believe that we all experienced that. We could sense this depression and heaviness in our home.

Sid Roth: I've heard of that. But after my bar mitzvah, I stopped looking for God. I graduated. You were the mirror opposite. What happened?

Harvey Katz: I started looking for God. We were taught in the Jewish day school to pray liturgically. You probably are very familiar with this, Sid. You can learn to read the words phonetically, but you don't know what the words mean. I actually thought that if you didn't pray in Hebrew, God wouldn't understand you. Since they were teaching us to pray in Hebrew, I better pray in Hebrew. That's what I did.

Sid Roth: Did you back then believe you could ever even get to heaven?

Harvey Katz: I don't know. I was hoping there was a heaven, but I didn't know how you would know that you get to heaven. In fact, I didn't know how you would know that you knew God. I believed in God, but I used to lie in bed at night thinking about what happens after I die and if there is an afterlife.

Sid Roth: I had that same thought as a young child. The identical question popped into my head.

Harvey Katz: Because I was so close to this sense of heaviness, I had this unanswered question. I never saw an answer anywhere for it. I didn't find it in the synagogue. The people were kind and loving, and I love my Jewishness—I still do—but I didn't find the answer there.

Sid Roth: But one night, everything changed.

Harvey Katz: My brother had bought a new little car. He was leaving the next day to work in construction about three hours away from our city for the summer. He was a university student. I was in the back seat with a friend of his, and he was in the front seat bombing around having fun. I looked at the clouds, and they were so beautiful with the sun coming through.

The heavens declare the glory of God. I looked at it and wondered if there was a God. It just came out of my heart. I wasn't asking anybody. I said it out loud, and the guy beside me said, "There is, and I know him." I said, "How do you know God? You can't see him, you can't touch him, you can't feel him. You can believe in God, but you can't know God." He insisted that you can.

This really piqued my curiosity. My brother, Howard, wasn't even listening to me. We ended up that night in my basement, and I said to him, "If you're a good person and your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, you go to heaven. If your bad deeds outweigh your good deeds, you go south. It's not Florida, but it's warm." He told me I would never be good enough.

When he said that, it hit me because I'd been trying to be a good Jew. The closer I tried to follow the law and all the Jewish traditions, I knew I couldn't do it. I realized the law did what it was meant to do. It's not meant to save us; it's meant to show us we're sinners. It's not the ladder that draws us close to God; it's the mirror that reflects who we are. I saw that I was a sinner.

Sid Roth: That begged the question, and you actually asked him, "How can I be made right with God?"

Harvey Katz: I did. He was the happiest man on earth at that point. He was very wise because he presented a Jewish Messiah. I didn't know that Jesus had anything to do with us. Before I accepted Jesus that night, I never even thought about him. People ask what I thought about Jesus before I came to Christ. I didn't think about him. He just wasn't part of our culture.

Truth just needs to be proclaimed. You don't need to convince people. There was no arm twisting. He said I couldn't be good enough, and as soon as he said that, it was the opening. I knew God was holy and I was unholy. My problem was how to bridge the gap.

He said, "God did something for you. He sent his Messiah. Jesus is actually not just for the Gentiles, but also for the Jews." He was Jewish. That was a revelation. I happened to know he was Jewish, but I didn't think anything more than that. I never saw him as the fulfillment.

Sid Roth: I didn't even know he was Jewish, by the way. Believe it or not, I read it in Ripley's Believe It or Not.

Harvey Katz: I remember my grandmother when I was little saying, "He is the Savior of the Gentiles. God sent him to save them." That's what I thought. He was the Savior of the Gentiles, but not for us. This presented something different. He presented salvation by grace through faith in the Messiah. I'd never heard of grace. I always thought Christians went to heaven by being good.

We don't believe in an achieving system, but a receiving system. God did something for all of us that we couldn't do for ourselves. He represented the sacrifice. When he mentioned the sacrifices, I paid attention. I had studied under an orthodox rabbi. Now he was speaking my language and had my attention.

I asked how I could be right with God. He said I couldn't earn the right, but I could receive it by faith. Just as in the Old Testament days when there were sacrifices, on the basis of that sacrifice, they believed God would forgive their sin. He is the one-time, for all-time sacrifice. It's the same principle. Even in the synagogue today on Yom Kippur, they read the sacrifices in the hope that what was done then will cover their sins now. He's the fulfillment.

Sid Roth: Did you say a prayer with your friend?

Harvey Katz: I did. He invited me. I remember thinking this is against everything I have ever been told was true. But the kicker was that it was true, and I knew it was. It was literally like God removed the scale from my eyes. It was no longer about me being Jewish; it was about what's true. God is holy and I am a sinner.

When you come into that, it's quite a frightening feeling, but it was what drew me to God. The goodness of God leads me to repentance. His goodness was being offered to me, and I prayed. Shortly thereafter, I experienced being immersed in the spirit of the living God.

I received Jesus that night, and the first thing I felt was joy inexplicable and full of glory. I didn't know you could know God. I was just happy that God forgave me. Over the next few weeks, I had visitations. I didn't see a vision or have an audible experience, but it was just as real. I felt like the love of God had been poured out in my heart. God knew that I was going to have a lot of trials coming, and he established me in him with an experience of overflowing love.

Guest (Male): Have you ever felt your heart pound as you opened your mouth to share your faith? Harvey says now is the time to learn the secret of becoming a God magnet. Be right back.

Messianic Vision has been creating historic supernatural and the most amazingly effective mass Jewish evangelism resources. I must highlight just a few of my favorites. Imagine Times Square, bigger than life, Jewish faces on our billboard with a stunning message: "I am Jewish and I believe in Jesus." Estimates are more than 21 million have seen it as they pass by.

I produced a pioneering series of 60-second Jewish evangelism ads proving Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. They aired on Fox News, MSNBC, and Newsmax. These ads were viewed by millions. In the ad, I offered a free digital download of a book God gave me in a dream called "They Thought for Themselves."

This book is about Jewish people who discovered Jesus as Messiah. It generated 70,000 visits, including 34,000 from Israel. Many of them are Jewish people who now believe it's okay to believe in Jesus as Messiah. Our YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok channels now have nearly 7 million subscribers.

Even before the recent Israel-Iran war, God told me to build and install bomb shelters in Israel. We've installed and completed 275, and more are on the way. Together, let's pray for the peace of Jerusalem. You will have heart peace if you love Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). I am so appreciative of your prayers and your generous gifts that help us remain cutting-edge. Your gift allows us to pioneer many more God-inspired initiatives to reach Jewish and non-Jewish people all over the world. Call or go to sidroth.org/give.

Sid Roth: Your gifts will help us continue pioneering Jewish and Muslim evangelism and support the broadcasting of impactful, thought-provoking programs worldwide with the gospel. To partner with us in these historic Jewish evangelistic events, go to sidroth.org/give. After that encounter with God, Harvey developed a passion for sharing his faith. The Jewish fish guy, tell me about that.

Harvey Katz: That was so funny. My wife and I bought a saltwater fish tank. My wife loves animals. That's why she loves me. I kept killing the fish. I'm just not gifted. I can't fix toilets, and I can't clean a fish tank. I'm just not good with my hands. I phoned the fish store and they said they had someone who would come and clean the tank.

This guy comes to my house, and as soon as I open the door, I knew he was Jewish. We call him Howie the fish guy. Of course, he knew our home was Jewish. We had a mezuzah. We still love and celebrate our Jewishness; it's a part of who I am. We had a natural connection. He looked at my fish tank and said he would clean it up. He said it would take a few weeks, but he'd come back every other week. We had a coffee just to get to know each other. The first thing that came out of his mouth was, "I love everybody, but I can't stand these Jews for Jesus types."

I didn't say a thing. I just shut up. I thought this was not the time to introduce this. But I did pray. One of the principles I follow is I trust the leading of the Holy Spirit. If I get that sense of a check, I just say, "Lord, I trust you." I'm not ashamed of the gospel, but I just had this little check. It's about relationship.

Over the next few years, I got to know Howie and just prayed. We built a relationship. He'd phone me and ask if I was home because he wanted to clean the fish tank and have a coffee. I hadn't known his wife had died the year before I met him, and he'd been in a dark depression. He was very lonely, so this friendship meant a lot to him.

Three years later, I was with my friend Michael Greenberg. He came to the Lord at Passover. I did the Passover Seder for the church, and he did his testimony. Afterward, a cute young couple came up to us. The wife said, "I'm Jewish and we go to this church. We invited my dad, but he didn't want to come." It was Howie the fish guy.

A couple of weeks later, Howie was at my house cleaning the tank and said, "My son-in-law is one of these born-again Christians." I knew this was my opportunity. I told him I was born-again. He was surprised. He told me when he left my house that day that I was his best friend.

It's the love of Christ that compels us. Years later, I asked him what he meant by that. He said he had never met such a loving, kind couple as my wife and me, and there was something different about us. That explained it. It set the table. After that, I was able to share my faith over two years.

In July of 2010, he came over again to clean the fish tank. At some point, you have to give an invitation. I told him, "Howie, I love you. Whether you believe in what I do or not, I don't love you more if you agree with me, and I don't love you less if you don't. But because I love you, would you mind me sharing with you and inviting you to receive Jesus? I'm not going to try and convince you. Please say no if you're not ready. This is between you and God."

I asked if he'd like to receive Jesus, and he said he would. He was a brittle diabetic and he had cataracts. He couldn't have surgery, so he was struggling with his sight. He prayed with me. He acknowledged he was a sinner and said, "I believe that Jesus is my Messiah. He died on that cross for my sins and rose from the dead. Please forgive me for my sins and come in." When he opened his eyes, the cataracts were gone.

Sid Roth: When you say this prayer with Harvey, you may not have physical cataracts, but you will see a dimension of the invisible world that you never thought was possible. Very briefly, look in the camera and lead someone viewing to the Lord.

Harvey Katz: God knows who you are and what's in your heart. There's no place too far away, too dark, or deep. Whatever you may have done, I want to invite you to receive Jesus. He's extending his love through me to you. Would you pray this prayer with me?

Dear God, I am broken. I'm a sinner. I'm human. I can't fix myself. But I want to say thank you for sending your Son, Jesus, Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah and the Messiah of the nations, to die on the cross for my sins and to rise from the dead. Because of what Jesus did, I ask that you forgive all my sins. I turn away from them, and I surrender my life to you, and I receive you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sid Roth: By the way, if you did say every word that Harvey just said, you just say, "Jesus, come and live inside of me. I make you my Savior from my sins and my Lord." Harvey's book talks about becoming a God magnet. What do you mean by that?

Harvey Katz: Jesus said in John 12:32, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself." He was speaking of the cross, but the principle is the same. We lift up Jesus in our life. We don't draw people to ourselves. It's not about us. Sometimes people will like you for what you believe; sometimes they won't. But it's about him.

I want people to see Christ in me. The Bible calls it the mystery: Christ in us, the hope of glory. We carry the presence of the Lord. We don't have to fake it. We're the real deal because he's the real deal. It's not about us trying harder; it's about us allowing God to use us through ordinary conversations.

Sid Roth: Are you still Jewish now that you believe in Jesus?

Harvey Katz: I am more Jewish. Jesus made me kosher.

Sid Roth: For your gift of $10 or more, get Harvey Katz's ebook, "God Magnet: How Your Life Can Attract Others to Messiah," plus his bonus audio download, "Breaking Barriers: My Jewish Journey to Faith and Evangelism." God's love is for everyone. Live a normal, spirit-filled life. Show his love and build authentic conditions that help you share your faith. I'd love to send you this resource. Go to sidroth.org/4220d. Harvey, look in the camera and pray for a spirit of boldness for evangelism for the viewers.

Harvey Katz: Lord, we thank you that we have the Holy Spirit. It's not based on our gifts. We do not have to be insecure because it's not about us. I pray just as you did to those early disciples, who were fishermen and uneducated, but they had been with Jesus because they were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. I call on your name right now to fill everyone to overflowing so that we will be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, even to the ends of the earth. I ask this in the mighty and matchless name of Yeshua our Messiah.

Sid Roth: Thank you, Holy Spirit. Go and flow. Welcome to my world where it’s naturally supernatural. Sid Roth, probing, provocative, passionate. A pioneering spirit with a unique vision. Messianic Vision Ministry with the "It's Supernatural!" flagship program that Sid created and our many evangelistic outreach efforts are truly historic, groundbreaking, and forward-thinking.

Imagine Times Square, bigger than life, Jewish faces on our billboard with a stunning message: "I am Jewish and I believe in Jesus." Even before the recent Israel-Iran war, God told me to build and install bomb shelters in Israel. We've installed 275 and more are on the way. I produced a pioneering series of Jewish evangelism ads proving Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. They aired on Fox News, MSNBC, and Newsmax. These ads were viewed by millions.

I am so appreciative of your prayers and your generous gifts. Your gift allows us to pioneer many more God-inspired initiatives to reach Jewish and non-Jewish people all over the world. Call or go to sidroth.org/give.