If you’re like me, you know that something serious is happening in America today. Rabbi, pastor and best-selling author Jonathan Cahn understands this, which is why I asked him to serve as guest editor of one of our latest issues of Ministry Today magazine, focusing on ministering in the last days.
Rabbi Cahn’s best-selling book, The Harbinger, has served as a national wake-up call. Through its narrative, Cahn connected the dots for us to see that God is warning America in the same ways He warned Israel in Isaiah’s day—through prophecies and harbingers of things to come!
I had the privilege of publishing The Harbinger. Though having a best-seller like this has been a blessing to my company, I appreciate The Harbinger even more because I believe it’s the game-changer book I had asked God for and believed He would let me publish. The Harbinger came to me as a result of prophecy not once, but twice.
Here’s what happened. In late 2010, I was seeking God for a book to put into perspective what was happening in the world, how God viewed these changes and what Christians should do. I knew a man who had what I thought was this message, and I recruited him to write a book like this. Looking back, my journal during that time is full of references to this book and my wondering if it would impact a nation. Sadly, for a variety of reasons, the book was never written.
God had a better idea.
Meanwhile Jonathan, while visiting Ground Zero in New York City, began to notice parallels today to the warnings God gave Israel in Isaiah 9:10-11. One by one, he began to connect the dots to see how God was also warning America. Though he’d never written a book, he put those findings into a manuscript—first as a nonfiction “teaching” book. But after completing it, he felt he should rewrite it as a narrative story, using characters to unfold the mysteries and help readers understand what was happening. With a finished manuscript in hand, he began to pray about a publisher at the same time I was praying for a game-changing book.
One day, while waiting at the airport for a connecting flight, Jonathan asked the Lord, “What should I do?” Sitting next to him at that moment was a friend of mine, Hubie Synn, a CPA from New Jersey, who was asking the Lord, “Is there anyone I should speak to about You?” Hubie sensed he should speak to the “very Jewish-looking man” (his words) seated nearby. After a brief argument with the Lord, Hubie began the conversation by asking the stranger: “What’s the good word?”
That opened a dialogue in which Hubie prophesied over Jonathan, telling him he had a book that would shake the nation and that Jonathan was in the valley of decision about which direction to go but that God would give him direction. Hubie’s words certainly got Jonathan’s attention! The two men talked on the flight for several hours, and before they landed, Hubie asked if he could tell me about the book. Cahn agreed, and a couple of months later I got an email from Hubie about how he’d met a Jewish man in the airport who had a book that would shake the nation and was I interested.
But there’s a second prophecy that rounds out this story. While at dinner with friends one night, I asked one of them to call a prophetic friend of his for me because I couldn’t get through on the phone. My friend called to leave a voicemail, but instead the prophet picked up the phone. After a few minutes, my friend handed me the phone and said the man had a word for me. He referred to a couple of things I was dealing with that no one could have known and then said the next year would be one of “gain and influence.”
The very next day, Hubie’s email arrived. I never connected the two events until I went back to my journal and was reminded of the “word” I’d received.
Why am I sharing it now? It’s more than just to illustrate that journaling can help us process the day-to-day events in our lives and help us remember significant milestones we don’t understand until later. No, I share this remarkable behind-the-scenes story because it reaffirms that The Harbinger is more than just a best-selling book (It surpassed 1 million copies sold earlier this year).
I believe it is a game-changer in and for America, and I did absolutely nothing to deserve being able to publish it. But it was an answer to prayer for me—and for Jonathan—that God Almighty spoke into our lives through a prophetic word that would ultimately stir the nation.
Steve Strang is the founder and publisher of Charisma. Follow him on Twitter at @sstrang or on Facebook (stephenestrang).
