As a young pastor, Jonathan Cahn thought he had it figured out – he wasn't going to be married because God evidently wanted him to be single for the rest of his life.
It turns out God had other plans.
Cahn eventually met a woman from across the world who would become his wife – the fulfillment of prophetic words spoken to her when she was a teenager. The marriage between the messianic Jewish leader and his Brazilian wife Renata Armingol wasn't just a joyous celebration, but a miracle.
Cahn's supernatural love story is just one of the remarkable events chronicled in "The Harbinger Man," the hit new documentary film profiling the life and works of the man many people call "America's Prophet," Jonathan Cahn.
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Cahn is best known as the author of the New York Times bestseller "The Harbinger" and "The Mystery of the Shemitah."
But in his younger years, Cahn not only didn't foresee his celebrity status, but thought he was forever meant to be single.
"I'd been open to marriage throughout my adult life but it was kind of hard because being a single pastor or messianic rabbi, as women can focus on you for the wrong reasons or not necessarily be following God's will," he said. Laughing, he recalled: "There were a lot of women in the congregation who had all received revelations from the Lord that they were supposed to marry me. At one point I just kind of gave up hope that that would ever happen, that I'd find the right one."
The stunning of the life of "The Harbinger Man," now at the WND Superstore.
Cahn believed his dangerous calling as a pastor preaching the gospel in nations throughout the world meant his status as a bachelor was simply part of God's design.
"Finally, I pretty much said ok, and I remember the year it was soon after I came back from India and Cuba. Because India was so dangerous I said, 'Well, maybe that's why the Lord doesn't want me to be married, because it's very dangerous.'
"I said, 'OK Lord, I'm not going to be married. I'm not even going to think about it anymore, it's resolved. I will not be. That's it.'"
Yet thousands of miles away, God was moving in a young woman's life. Renata, the daughter of a Brazilian pastor and a believer who participated in his ministry, received a prophecy from several different groups of believers when she was a young teenager. Incredibly, all of these different people had the same promise for her.
Cahn recounts, "They said to her, there's a man across the world, he's Jewish, he's from the Tribe of Levi, he sounds the shofar and goes around the world, prepare yourself because you're going to be his wife, and you're going to be his help mate."
For years after this prophecy, nothing happened. However, eventually Renata made her way to America and expressed a desire to visit a Messianic congregation similar to one she had ministered in while in Brazil. A friend to took her to Beth Israel in New Jersey, the ministry of Rabbi Cahn.
Renata had been told she would know her future husband the minute she saw him. And as she looked around Beth Israel for the first time, she saw a man walking in the building, not knowing he was the leader.
She told her friends, "I definitely know this man."
Her friends assured her she never met him before. She maintained he must have visited Brazil. She was informed Cahn had never been to Brazil.
Meanwhile, Cahn was introduced to her at the end of the service as he met all of those who had attended Beth Israel for the first time. As she did not speak English and he did not speak Portuguese, Cahn and Renata spoke for the first time through a translator.
Cahn found himself thunderstruck by this seemingly chance encounter. Cahn remembers he was very angry and upset after meeting Renata – because he thought God had meant for him never be to married.
"I go, Lord, why did you bring that one there? Because if I was going to be married that would have been the one. But now I said no, so I was upset."
Unable to get the woman off his mind, Cahn "prayed about it and prayed about it." Cautiously, Cahn and Renata began to see each other.
But there was one big problem.
"The thing is for the first year, I didn't speak Portuguese," said Cahn. "I still don't. And she didn't speak English. So we had to communicate for one year with sign language and with a laptop computer. Everywhere we went, we had a laptop.
"And so we’d go for a walk in the park, laptop. She'd ask me what do you think about something, I'd type it, if the laptop died, well, that was the end of the night.
"If there was any kind of issue or problem it would take hours. She would type what she wanted to say, it would print out Portuguese to English, she'd read it back to me, she didn't know what she was saying, I would type in English speak to her in Portuguese, I didn't know what I was saying. So that was for a year."
Yet there was a touch of destiny surrounding this unlikely courtship. Cahn learned about it himself when he visited Brazil for the first time as part of his ministry. As it happened, he preached in Renata's home city and met her mother.
"Her mother ended up going to the event," Cahn marveled. "And her mother, who only knew I was the pastor, ended up telling me about the prophecies. It turned out her father had made a shofar to commemorate those prophecies in Brazil."
Eventually, both Cahn and his soon-to-be wife knew they had found the person they were meant to be with. After "going slow" for three years, Cahn and Renata announced their relationship to the Beth Israel congregation, were engaged by the fourth year of their relationship, and married five years after they met.
For Cahn, it was simply another way the "Hand of God" was operating in his life. And it was one of the most important steps in his incredible journey as he became one of the most influential religious teachers in the country.
Today, Cahn's ministry often takes him far from home, away from his wife and children. But throughout a life journey he can only summarize as "amazing,"
Cahn sees one theme constantly repeating itself. "It's totally been God's hand."
See the "Harbinger Man" trailer:
The stunning of the life of "The Harbinger Man," now at the WND Superstore.