Sid: My guest by way of telephone Geoffrey Cohen was raised in South Africa strong Orthodox Jewish background and he got to Israel was on a Kibbutz and a born again Christian had chutzpa chutzpa is a Hebrew word it means nerve it’s sort of what Paul had when he said “I’m not ashamed of the gospel” because it’s the power of God unto salvation no gospel no power. And this man even though he was in Israel was not intimidated shared the gospel planted a seed I mean Geoffrey was amazed when he found out that Jesus is Jewish. He literally thought to himself “Well why does so many Christians hate the Jewish people if Jesus is Jewish. Geoffrey it just didn’t compute did it.
Geoff: No not at all.
Sid: And then you went to Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem and all of a sudden the last thing in the world you expected to see you saw before your very eyes… describe what you saw.
Geoff: Well as I was saying I saw Jesus standing in front of me and just His presence is just I mean my words are very inadequate to describe. It was His presence was just so powerful and my first reflex action was to grab my friend who was traveling with me and say “Hey hey look look look there’s Jesus.” And as I turned to grab him I realized that he wasn’t seeing Jesus and neither were the people milling around the Arab market. And I realized that if they could see Him they would have immediately stopped I mean He was Jesus and…
Sid: How real did He look to you did He look like a vision or was it actually Him?
Geoff: No I didn’t know what a vision was being an Orthodox Jew an Orthodox Jewish background I didn’t know what a vision was I just knew that I saw Jesus nobody ever told me what a vision was. I didn’t know that I had had a vision until after I became until after I got saved so all I knew was I saw Jesus as real if not more real than any other person around me. But what struck me is that nobody else was seeing Him.
Sid: Now you told me about His eyes tell me again I want to hear that.
Geoff: Well His eyes were just like endless pools of water of course we know living water. And just perfect compassion perfect love and without me understanding any theology about who Jesus was I knew I was looking at eternity and that possibly He was the Messiah. And He actually appeared to me 3 times that was the first time and this is all at the same space of time by the Arab market.
Sid: But it was the 3 times in the same day or in…
Geoff: Three times within 5 minutes maybe 4.
Sid: But He said something to you that first time.
Geoff: Yeah He spoke the words Hineini to me which means “Here am I.” And He spoke it without opening His mouth.
Sid: What did that mean to you? What did the words mean to you?
Geoff: I knew that it meant “Here am I” because I learned Hebrew most of the time that I was there you know 7 years old. What it meant to me at the very least was that “Here am I I’m Jewish I’m a Jew.” I didn’t quite understand that He was the Messiah up to that point but that when I looked into His eyes and I saw eternity in His eyes I thought “Surely this must be the Messiah” but I didn’t know what to do about it. And then He appeared to me again a second time just standing maybe 15’ to the right from where He was the first time. And when He looked at me it was so life changing, it was so powerful, it was so awesome I’d never seen or experienced such a love and total acceptance in my life. And then He disappeared after appearing to me the second time the second time He didn’t say anything He just looked at me but one look from God can change you forever and it’s changed me forever that was 16 years ago I haven’t been the same man for 16 years.
Sid: Tell what changed occurred immediately in your life when you received Jesus as your Messiah and Lord.
Geoff: Well I always had at least 1 girlfriend or more and I was involved in promiscuous lifestyle you know just like a lot of people who don’t know the Lord of my generation. And you know I was do things like you know drink with my friends and stuff like that and maybe occasionally smoke a joint to some people sounds “Oh how could you do that?” But that was pretty normal in those days it wasn’t as if I was heavily addicted to anything accept maybe fornication that which was not good obviously. But when I got saved when I came to know the Lord without anyone telling me “You have got to stop doing these things, you’ve got to stop drinking you’re not to smoke pot any more you know don’t have sex out of marriage any more no one told me anything but God immediately without knowing what the Bible said about it God just took those desires out of my heart.”
Sid: Now I don’t know the answer to this question many of the questions I do but “You got to the United States and you met a Jewish woman by the name Michelle from England.”
Geoff: Yes.
Sid: How did you know that you were supposed to marry her?
Geoff: Well she was one of the most ? on fire people that I’d met for the Lord…you know as a believer in Jesus and I was such a radical Christian that I could scare off most people but I didn’t scare her off in fact she was as zealous as I was (Laughing.) And the Lord drew us together there was just a witness in the spirit and she had a very strong prophetic call in her life which which I could just tell. In fact we’d be in meetings in Church on the Way we were members of that church that’s where I met her at a single’s group I think was on a Monday night.
Sid: That’s Jack Hayford’s Church.
Geoff: Jack Hayford’s Church yeah yeah and she was just so zealous for the Lord and on fire and we actually on our first date we actually went to preach in Westwood in Los Angles and this was the test if she was from God for me that she’d be willing to preach on the streets without anything just to stand up and preach (Laughing.) But that was our first I guess that’s what I’d use to do do is I would just stand up and preach.
Sid: Yeah you like that boldness don’t you?
Geoff: Yes (Laughing.)
Sid: That’s I mean if it wasn’t for boldness you wouldn’t have known the Lord. I’ll tell you what Geoff if you would put your wife Michelle on the telephone I’d like to find out a bit about her background. So I’ve asked Geoff to put Michelle Cohen.
Michelle: “Hello.”
Sid: Hi Michelle I understand that you went most of your life and didn’t even know that you were Jewish.
Michelle: That’s true that is actually true.
Sid: How did that happen?
Michelle: Well I was raised in a completely Gentile environment at my home and my mother was not raised in a Jewish home herself although her father was Jewish. And when he was a very young man about 16 – 17 years old he wanted to marry a young lady who wasn’t Jewish. And when he announced that to his family they cut him off from his family. And so from that time on I think there was a lot of hurt and pain about her that whole Jewish family background and it wasn’t something that my Mum talked about very often
Sid: So how did you find out you were Jewish?
Michelle: Well I began to put 2 and 2 together one day as I got older and gradually began to ask her more and more questions and more probing questions it wasn’t enough just to hear that it’s a sweet family get-together stories I wanted to really know “Where did I come from?” You know my ancestry, what was this name Goldberg I knew that that meant something and she would begin to you know open up a little bit more as the years went by. And it wasn’t about 22 that she began to describe some painful stories of her own in England people would taunt her and ridicule and give her a hard time for having a Jewish name and being Jewish.
Sid: How did you feel when you found out you were Jewish?
Michelle: I felt immediately a sense of tremendous connection to something that was much greater and bigger than I’d ever known. I felt confused a little bit because I didn’t understand why something so great and wonderful hadn’t really been brought up in our family even to discuss openly but it made me curious to know more. And it did some- thing in my heart that you know made me maybe prepared for the future when I would meet Geoff.
Sid: Well let me ask you “Were you raised as a Christian?
Michelle: No not at all no I mean it wasn’t a bad family they were wonderful parents my Dad was this wonderful man my mother was wonderful but we never went to church. We never discussed God we didn’t do anything religious.
Sid: Well you were a very very successful dancer did your parents have a background like that how did you become a dancer?
Michelle: Well my Dad is artistic he paints beautifully he does wonderful oil paintings and various other artistic work. And he loved music and we grow up listening to great music classical jazz and all kinds of things. And from an early age I just had a inclination towards putting movement to music I actually went to gymnastics and I was part of the British Team for a few years. But after I finished with that I knew that dancing was the thing that I wanted to do.
Sid: But why did you get involved in the occult the New Age?
Michelle: Well in the kind of environment of the performing school that I went to it was a fulltime performing arts college.
Sid: Like it was it a very prominent one?
Michelle: Yes it was in London there are several really good ones in London and this was one of those. And I was about 17 I’d finished high school and I was already having not grown up with that much of a moral rules and regulations in the home I wanted to you know go on a discovery as young girls often do at that age instead of have boy friends and this kind of thing. And what actually happened was as I was going into the performing arts college and I’d have boyfriends and we then we’d break up. And maybe it’s like this for a lot of your girls that’s out there but the heart ache that can be caused in the inside is sometimes more than can really be you know shared with someone. The fact that you’ve joined yourself with somebody and then you breakup you know and you’ve kind of you… Sid: Michelle I’m sorry if you’ll hold that thought we’ll pick up on tomorrow’s broadcast.
