Anti-Semitism: A Church Leader’s Personal Testimony

If you have not already done so please read my previous article titled “The Church Needs Freedom from Anti-Semitism,” it will give you a better background for this article, which I promise you will find fascinating.

Here is an excerpt from my book, The Ezekiel Generation:

In the spring of 2011 while I was writing my first book, The New Covenant Prophecy, I was visiting with Pastor Don Finto in Nashville, Tenn., who is one of the leaders in the Church spearheading this spiritual awakening toward Israel and the Jewish people. He runs Caleb Company with Tod McDowell, a ministry that is focused on training leaders in the five-fold ministry (see Eph. 4:11) with a top priority to reconnect the church with Israel and their Jewish roots. He has also written a great book on the subject called, “Your People Shall Be My People,” which is a great read that I highly recommend.

It was here, however, that something very unique happened in the Spirit, more fully confirming this issue of generational anti-Semitism to me. I had no plans to share or teach, but rather to reconnect with my old friend and soak in all of their spirituality and love for their Jewish brethren.

Don immediately felt led to introduce me to Thomas Boehm, also a Jewish believer who sits on the board of the Caleb Company ministry. Over a spirited lunch that day, I shared my heart and thoughts with Thomas and Don about the church’s position in regard to Israel and how generational anti-Semitism was affecting it. However, without knowing, McDowell had planned a leadership meeting the next day for the entire team at his ministry facility on the outskirts of Nashville. Tod had asked Thomas to share on Jewish roots. When we got there the following morning, nearly all of the group’s ministry team was present and there were about 20 plus people in the room.

It went without saying that all of these ministry leaders already had a deep love for Israel and the Jewish people. It was their main ministry focus, not only to help retrain church leaders on receiving the Israel piece, but also to realign themselves with the Jewish roots of our faith. Most of them were already experienced intercessors for Israel.

As Thomas started to speak, the Holy Spirit stopped him. He then told everyone that he felt I was to share the burden on my heart for the church reconnecting to Israel. I had obviously not prepared anything as I did not expect to be speaking. However, over the next several minutes, the Holy Spirit truly led me to capsulate the thoughts and insights that He had revealed to me to this wonderful group of people. Much of what I shared that day, you have read about in this book, except I shared it very much from my own perspective and personal experience. When I finished, Tod asked me to lead the group in prayer in response to what I had just shared.

As was my habit by now, I would usually always lead people straight into confession and repentance, breaking off their ancestral bloodline through generational anti-Semitism. Was it really necessary to lead these people through this kind of prayer and confession, I thought to myself? After all, everyone in the room not only had a love and passion for Israel and the Jewish people, but they were also very busy in their own individual lives sharing the reconnection message with everyone they knew. So who was I to bring this message to them?

However, thanks be to G-d, because with Tod’s encouragement, I still felt His leading to proceed. As I did, we could not believe what happened next. After we prayed, confessed, and renounced any spiritual ties from our bloodlines toward the church’s past actions, and even that of our own families, the presence of G-d fell in that room so thick, such that I had not experienced for many years. Not only was everyone in the room weeping, but they were also wailing with the heart of G-d for His lost son. You could feel His pain and separation as a Father for His firstborn son, as well as His love for them at the same time—it was an amazing moment of intercession in the Spirit of G-d.

I had the sense from the Holy Spirit, that if these beloved people—who had already given over their lives to the service of G-d to help reconnect G-d’s spiritual family in the Church—if they actually needed to go through this renouncement, then every one of us in the church would actually need it too. This was another major prompting for me to write The Ezekiel Generation.

McDowell’s Thoughts on What Took Place

Tod wrote me about his experience that day as well, which I would like to quote here at length.

“As Grant shared our need to break off any generational anti-Semitism through the bloodline that may have unknowingly been passed down from our ancestors, I thought that it would be good to affirm him and his teaching. But I was stepping out in faith as I didn’t think that our group had any need for this—especially me. I had already confessed and repented of my own “ignorant replacement theology” that discounted the relevance of the current nation of Israel and the Jewish people according to G-d’s biblical covenants and promises. I also have taught around the world, sharing G-d’s heart and purpose for Israel connected to the Gentile church and the nations. 

I believed that what Grant shared was true, and that it wouldn’t hurt to pray as he encouraged, but I had no idea of the potency of this transaction. As I began to pray with our staff and leadership team concerning my ancestral anti-Semitic roots, the Holy Spirit flashed before me my eastern European roots that I had not thought about, and suddenly a pain rose up in my heart. I felt the broken heart of G-d erupting in my soul concerning the hatred, bias, and “treating lightly” of the Jewish people in my ancestral line. I didn’t know this from my family stories, but now the Holy Spirit was revealing it to me because I was opening up to it. 

It became so intense that I began to weep and wail with the weight and burden in my spirit. As this began, I was shocked that I had such deep places in my heart of anti-Semitic curses passed down from my family line. I have never consciously felt this before, but in that moment I experienced an internal cleansing and freedom from this defiling and dark curse that I now know the enemy has not only used against me and my family, but also the church. Through my tears, I repented and renounced this family history, and, as I did, waves of healing love showered over me as I felt the forgiveness and restoration from the Father. 

In addition, I was not the only one. As I looked around, all of the brethren in the room seemed to be affected in the same manner. The presence of G-d in the room was intense as He washed us all from the enemy’s hold through our bloodlines.

Looking back on this, I believe that this was a major steppingstone on my journey into understanding and embracing G-d’s heart and purposes for Israel on a personal level. I would encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal this to you about your own family background and perhaps you will experience this surprising and freeing reality as I did.

Tod McDowell Caleb & Co.

As I have already stated, if these blessed brothers and sisters needed to go through     this, then every Gentile believer is in need of breaking off this past hold of generational anti-Semitism that has travelled through the bloodline of our souls through our ancestry, even if we are not anti-Semitic. In fact I believe that this was an appointed time of the Holy Spirit to fully confirm the great significance of this revelation that up to this point has completely gone unnoticed. But that now is the time for it to come forth into His body, to cleanse the hearts of His children and break off any past influences that the devil might have been using against us without us even knowing it.

This is also one of the central themes of The Ezekiel Generation, not only to cleanse our hearts from the past, but also to prepare them to receive the Father’s heart who wants to fully restore His first-born son and our first-born brethren into the family of G-d. In this time of transition between the fullness of the Gentiles and Israel’s spiritual awakening, we must begin to make room for them to be properly restored. Not only so, but also to give them our full and complete blessing, that ultimately, His mercy would be loosed through the church that His glory would be shown to the world through Israel that Jesus could return to take up His throne to rule and reign upon the earth in His millennial kingdom, which is the next major dispensation and plan of G-d to come upon us. By the Father’s own sovereign end time plan, we are indeed intricately linked together and neither of us can come forth without each other, which up to this point we have not been able to properly see. So, what are we waiting for?

This is why every Christian needs to read this most vital book that will help guide us into this time or reconnection and restoration between the church and Israel, who by election is still a major part of the family of G-d and who must be spiritually restored before the L-rd returns. What an honor He is actually bestowing on the other sheep in His family (John 10:16).

For prayer on getting free from Generational anti-Semitism and all of its influences, please go to chapter 6 in the Ezekiel Generation on receiving the Father’s Heart for Israel and the family of G-d.

Grant Berry is a Jewish believer in Yeshua/Jesus and author of The New Covenant Prophecy and The Ezekiel Generation. He has founded Reconnecting Ministries with the specific focus to help the church reconnect spiritually to Israel and considers it vital to the kingdom of G-d in the last days. His message focuses on the unity, love and healing that the Father wants to bring between Jew and Gentile yet clearly points out the differences and misunderstandings between the two groups. Now is the time to look more carefully into this mystery to make way for healing and reconnection in the Spirit. For more information, please visit reconnectingministries.org.