Messianic Rabbi’s Prophetic Perspective: 2020 Is a Year of Divine Strength, Supernatural Breakthrough

Rabbi Jason Sobel has emerged as an important voice in Christianity, and to the Messianic movement. He has hosted Shabbat dinners for the stars, coauthored a New York Times bestselling book—The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi: My Journey into the Heart of Scriptural Faith and the Land Where It All Began with Kathie Lee Gifford—and has been prophesying accurately to the body of Christ every year about the times and seasons we are in.

I reached out to him to hear his profound prophetic perspective for 2020 and the next decade.

Shawn: What times and seasons do you see for the world in 2020 and beyond?

Jason: This year is a decade of divine strength and supernatural breakthrough, which is rooted in the mouth. The last decade in the Hebrew calendar was all about seeing; this is all about being a voice and declaring. Let me explain.

The Old Testament is written in Hebrew. The New Testament is written in Greek. Both languages are alphanumeric. In Hebrew there are no numbers—you write numbers with letters, and every letter has a number attached to it. This means every word has a numeric value as well as what we understand a word to be, which is significant in many places, like in the book of Revelation.

We find a deeper significance behind words when we look at their numbers. The last decade was the 5770s. The ’70s was the decade of the eyes, as 70 is the Hebrew number for sight. It was the decade of correcting, transforming and upgrading our ability to see. You can never be more than what you can see. God was preparing us to see promises.

This decade is 5780 on the Jewish calendar, the decade of the Hebrew word for mouth—the ’80s. We are going to begin seeing the promises breaking through. Eighty is written with pē, akin to peh, meaning mouth. This decade of the mouth is so significant, and we have to understand that the decade of vision had to come first. Your mouth speaks what your eyes see, which is the heart of what it means to be a witness. Seeing is believing. It was “eye” but now it’s time to speak it.

Shawn: Explain about this being the decade of the mouth. What does that mean for the average person?

Jason: In the kingdom we speak, and this is how we believe. We are moving into a higher level of faith than before. The breakthrough comes when you declare even what you can’t see. For example, God sent 12 spies to go into the promised land to survey it (Num. 13). Ten said the land was good but that there were giants that were undefeatable. They saw a problem with God’s promise. To them, there was no way to take the land. They didn’t have the faith to take it because they allowed their rational sight to overwhelm the spiritual promise. Joshua and Celeb saw the promise looked impossible to obtain, but they used their mouths and faith to declare the promises. They declared, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it” (v. 30), even though there were legendary enemies.

Even when what is promised seems impossible, true faith says, “I don’t care what circumstances look like. I know the promises of the Word and what God has done for me. My mouth will declare the promises and praise of God.” Allowing your mouth to lead you past what your eyes can see brings breakthrough declarations to pass.

Shawn: Practically, what would you hope the average Christian would believe for, based on that revelation?

Jason: I think this is a decade that is foundational to the faith of Christianity. Eighty is also the numerical value for the word for foundation. This is a foundational decade. God wants us to make declarations that set the foundation for our future and future generations. That foundation in Jewish thought is associated with Joseph, the one who dreamed impossible dreams. His brothers laughed at him and tried to kill his dreams, but he dared to dream anyway.

Like Joseph, Joshua and Caleb, God wants us to have the faith to dream big dreams for Him in the face of haters, doubters and deniers, without wavering but believing God will give us supernatural strength.

—”Strength” in Hebrew also has the numeric value of 80—strength to stand firm, break through and come to pass. Have the faith to keep speaking life.

—Eighty is also connected to coming out of Egypt. God called Moses at 80 years old to lead the Passover to speak to Pharaoh (Pharaoh is also 80) to break out of Egypt. Egypt means a place of confinement and contention.

Shawn: What are we breaking out of and what are we breaking into?

Jason: We are coming out of Egypt—redemption. What are the places that are limiting and confining us? It’s time to break through. We will have the strength to break through internal and external holdbacks to step into the future.

God is going to bring an incredible move of His Spirit, and within this move we are going to start to understand the power in the mouth. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. We will see breakthrough in areas that need it most, and Christians will have faith to declare the impossible.

Shawn: Are there any specific areas of note where we will see this breakthrough in more obvious ways?

Jason: God spoke the world into existence. That’s why in the decade of the peh, God will raise up people who will use their mouths in ways that transform culture. That is why we are seeing the rise to faith of the Kanyes, Justin Biebers and others; because God is going to use artists, entertainers and creatives to magnify what their mouths have to say throughout the world. It’s a special time to really be praying for the artists.

The numeric value of 2020 is the numeric value of Romans 8:29—to be conformed to the image of Christ. The Greek word for conformed and one of the Greek words for Christ equal 2020. Believers have tried to reform culture, but in this decade we aren’t called to reform but to transform culture to the image of Christ. Conform is 2020; Christ is 2020. Who is He going to use to transform culture? Artists and entertainers.

Shawn: This is an amazing perspective. Tell me about Fusion Ministries. What is your passion for Israel and Jewish and non-Jewish believers?

Jason: One passion for Fusion is we want people to understand Jesus in the Bible in high definition. A lot of people experience Him in standard definition. When you see Him through a Jewish perspective, it brings everything to life, and you get wisdom and revelation like you never have before. Many people have settled for half an inheritance. Christians have settled for the new, Jews have settled for the old and we need it to come together.

We are believing for a John 21 moment in that Jesus wants to bring in the great catch that’s coming as we are fishing. But God doesn’t bring the catch until the nets are strong enough to contain the catch. The first time they were fishing, the nets were so full they broke. The second time the nets didn’t break. You don’t have a John 21 catch without John 17 unity. Jesus prayed for unity among all believers “that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity” (John 17:22-23). When we become one, the net is ready. The world will not be won until we are one. The world will not know He is the one until we are one in Him. The unity between Jew and gentile is one of the keys to the great revival God wants to bring.

Shawn: What should the average person who hears that do? It’s not sentimentality; what do we do?

Jason: One way is to begin to connect yourself to teachers and resources that help you see the Bible through a Jewish perspective. Another thing is to understand the significance of the Hebrew holidays in these times and seasons. Many prophets get visitations on Yom Kippur; many historic things have happened on Jewish holidays. Setting aside those times and pressing in at those times could be huge. One of the greatest jumpstarts is going to Israel. There is nothing that makes the Bible come to life more, or gives you the experience of what it’s like to be a disciple of Jesus, than to walk in His footsteps.

Shawn: Thanks, Jason, I hope all who read this begin to pray and declare over their own life breakthrough. I wrote a prayer book recently about this very subject: Breakthrough Prophecies, Prayers, and Declarations, and you and I didn’t even collaborate!

Jason: I agree! We need to use language and use our mouths to declare breakthrough!

Rabbi Jason Sobel can be found at fusionglobal.org. He is writing his breakthrough perspective into a book, which will be released this year. You can also find my very own prayer book on our website or wherever books are sold. {eoa}

Shawn Bolz is host of Exploring the Prophetic on CBN Podcast Network, TV host of Translating God on Monday Nights and on demand on TBN, as well as Exploring the Industry show on CBN News network. He is also the author of Breakthrough, Prophecies, Prayers, and Declarations. Join us in one of our prophetic seminars around the world at events.bolzministries.com.