In this Jewish testimonial video, former Tank Commander and Ninja master Noam shares how New Age spirituality left him broken and empty, and how the light of Jesus made him whole.
Noam grew up in Jerusalem to a conservative Jewish family, graduating at 18 and achieving the rank of sergeant as a Tank Commander in the IDF. At 23, he decided that in order to make himself a better man, he would study martial arts, and flew to Japan to study Ninjitsu, the art of the Ninja, staying there for 23 years.
Noam encountered many New Age teachings within his training, and came to the conclusion that Ninjitsu alone did not contain the spiritual depth he was searching for.
“And I understood in that search that the real enemy is not other people around you, the real enemy is you, yourself, and that’s a battle you’re going for daily.”
Noam found an answer to his search in Japanese archery, an art with which “one could find peace and balance under the pressure of the bow.”
He continued to practice archery for several years until he eventually got married, and the Japanese diamond company he was working for offered him a new position, and for a time, he was at peace. However, his world began to fall around him; his marriage failed and the new position fell through, urging him to leave Japan and return back to Israel, a broken man.
But one day, while while working at a tourist shop in Qumran, he encountered a group of American Christians dancing in the store, filled with joy and praise.
“It hit me like lightning on a blue day, that this joy that I was seeing, I’ve never had it, never experienced it, never seen it even. “
The manager of the store introduced Noam to the group’s pastor, who seemed to predict every problem Noam was facing. He could not believe it himself, and asked if she was a fortune teller. She scolded Noam, saying that, “It is your God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who told me about you”.
“How come you know my God, and I don’t?”
“Because you never looked for him.”
The pastor’s answer shocked Noam to his core, “I was always searching for what I wanted to do, I was the center, I was my own master.” She gave Noam her bible, and told him to read both the Old and New Testament, that that if he refused to read the New Testament, that, “God will know.”
“After High School, most of us people don’t open the Bible—and the religious Jews? they’re focused on the Mishnah, the Gemara, the Talmud, Kabbalah—nobody’s ever just focused on the bible.”
The pastor then asked Noam if she could pray for him, “nobody ever prayed for me, I mean, I just came out of Japan, nobody’s praying there unless someone died.” She laid hands on him, and prayed, changing his heart of stone, to a heart of flesh.
“I realized that, all throughout my life, I was searching for the way—I was actually searching for Yeshua.
It was then behind a motel parking lot, that Noam finally asked Jesus to come into his life, his search finally over.
