Books Are Now Available

Books Are Now Available
Joseph Herrin (07-11-08)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Today is a landmark day in the ministry of writing that the Lord called me unto back in 1999. Like Joseph the son of Jacob, Moses, David and Yahshua Himself, I understood that I had a call upon my life to write when I was but a youth. Each of the four mentioned above understood they had a specific call at a young age, but it was many years later before it was fulfilled.

Joseph at the age of 17 had dreams of what was coming, but he was 30 when Pharaoh called him out of prison and the dreams began to be realized. He was 38-39 years old when his brothers came and bowed down before him. Moses at the age of forty knew he was called to deliver his people from slavery, but he was unable to do so until at the age of 80 when Yahweh appeared to him at the burning bush. As a young shepherd boy David was anointed by the prophet Samuel and told he would shepherd God’s people one day. He was thirty before he was crowned king in Hebron. Yahshua at the age of twelve was found in the Temple conversing with others regarding the Scriptures. He told His distraught parents, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” He went with his parents and submitted to them and it was not until he was 30 years old that his remarkable ministry began.

Perhaps you had some inkling in your youth about those things the Lord would one day call you unto. When I graduated from High School, my immediate thought was to go to college to get a degree in journalism. I knew I wanted to be a writer. This was the dream God had placed in my heart. Yet it was not to be at that young age, nor was I to be prepared by the agency of man. The Lord had many things for me to experience, and I needed to be instructed in His school of humility.

The years seemed long and disappointing as my desire to write was put aside and I was led along a winding course through wilderness places. Joseph went to Egypt. Moses went to the wilderness of Midian. David lived in caves, in the wilderness, and in foreign lands. Yahshua also went through His wilderness experiences.

It is always by “faith and patience that we inherit the promises of God” (Hebrews 6:12). Abraham is called the father of faith, and he proved the necessity of enduring in hope as he awaited the promise of a son with his wife Sarah. In 1999 the Lord told me it was time for me to leave my employment as a computer professional and enter into a ministry of writing. A year or two before this God had sent a man to the church I ministered at who had a prophetic gifting. This man was writing a book, and he asked for my help in editing it, and preparing it for publication. I poured many hours into the labor, making thousands of corrections in grammar and diction. I was also blessed to write the introduction to the book. This man prophesied that God had called me to be a “Kingdom Scribe.”

This occurred many years after my original thoughts of being a writer. It had been about twenty years since I had graduated from High School, and my thoughts of being a writer had been relegated to some dark, forgotten corner of my mind. Yet through this experience of helping this man with his book, the Spirit of Christ began to breathe new life into the dream that lay dormant. As I helped this man prepare his book for publication the seed was sown in my heart to write a book that would contain some of the truths that the Spirit had revealed to my heart during my wilderness years. The result was that in 1999 I began writing the book The Remnant Bride.

The book flowed forth easily. It was not a difficult labor. Writing was a work for which I had been fitted. Even the hereditary bone disease of my youth, which forced me away from physical activity and into academic pursuits, was a part of my preparation. Although I at times lamented the many broken bones I experienced between my seventh and thirteenth years, God was working all things according to His divine wisdom.

In 1999, at the age of 38, the Lord called me to enter into a ministry of writing. I labored constantly in this area for the next six years. Then, for three years from 2005 until 2007, the Lord had me lay this ministry aside. God will test our hearts. He wants to see what is more important to us, our dreams, or obedience to His desires. Thus we see that after Abraham had a son he was called to sacrifice him on an altar. After David was made king, he was led to surrender the throne when Absalom rebelled. David declared that if God was pleased to do so, He would bring him back again to Jerusalem.

God will often test His children to see if we will lay aside those things that have been the dreams of our hearts. If we lay them down, He may resurrect them in a greater glory than they knew formerly. If we jealously hold onto them, as Saul sought to hold onto the kingdom, we will find them being stripped from our grasping fingers.

On July 15, 2004 my wife decided that she no longer wished to remain with me as I followed the Lord down difficult paths. When she left she took our son with her. At the time the only possession I had of value was my computer which I used to do my writing. The Spirit indicated I was to sell it, and use the money for my immediate needs. I knew this meant that not only was I to endure the loss of wife and son, but I was to lay down the ministry entrusted to me at the same time.

I had been reading the devotional book Streams in the Desert that year. The day after my wife left I awoke from sleeping in my car in the parking lot of the local Wal-Mart, and I turned to the days devotion. It contained the following words:

Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will... make your descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky... because you have obeyed Me. (Genesis 22:16-18)
From the time of Abraham, people have been learning that when they obey God's voice and surrender to Him whatever they hold most precious, He multiplies it thousands of times. Abraham gave up his one and only son at the Lord's command, and in doing so all his desires and dream's for Isaac's life as well as his own hope for a notable heritage, disappeared. Yet God restored Isaac to his father...
This is exactly how God deals with every child of His when we truly sacrifice. We surrender everything we own and accept poverty - He then sends wealth. We leave a growing area of ministry at His command - then He provides one better than we had ever dreamed. We surrender all our cherished hopes and die to self - then He sends overflowing joy and His "life.. That we might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10)...
Dear Soul, do you believe that Abraham's experience was unique and isolated? It is only an example and a pattern of how God deals with those who are prepared to obey Him whatever the cost. "After waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised" (Hebrews 6:15), and so will you. The moment of your greatest sacrifice will also be the precise moment of your greatest and most miraculous blessing...

It is such promises as these that have helped me to stay the course. When God calls us to lay down that which is valuable to us, He then will return it a hundred fold. I had released my wife and son, and the Lord’s promises are sure concerning this.

Mark 10:29-30
Yahshua said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”

I had also released the ministry the Lord had given to me during the previous six years. His promise was that all that was relinquished would be given back in multiplied fashion. In the next years I learned some very valuable lessons both from the losses I suffered, and through my experiences at a local rescue mission. Out of these experiences came further refining of character, a deeper knowledge of the ways of God, and a clearer understanding of the value and purpose of the life of Christ.

When God called me to leave the mission He led me to pick up the ministry of writing again. In the past four months I have written two more books, bringing the total to twelve, those books that the Spirit has led me to write. On May 7th, my 47th birthday, the Lord sent the provision and the understanding that I was to begin getting these books printed. They had been posted to be read on the Internet, but I had been printing and binding them myself when someone requested a hard copy of these writings.

The Lord directed me to begin by printing four books. I believe these will be used greatly as a ministry tool in coming days. The message of these books is one that the church has little understood, and even fewer have practiced. Some have asked me to let them know when the books are ready to be purchased, and today I received notice that they are ready.

I would like to comment on the cost of the books, for I am very sensitive to any appearance of making merchandise of the truths of God entrusted to me. I have included in the front and back of all of the books the website address where these books can be freely read online. A statement is contained in every book that says, “All books are available to be read, downloaded, or ordered online at the following website: www.heart4god.ws.”

I am not withdrawing any of the books from the Internet, and one reason I have not gone with a traditional publisher is that I wanted to maintain control of the right to freely give these books away. In the same way that the Lord indicated that He would have me to write these books, He indicated that I was to have these books printed. I do not know all of the reasons why He has led me to do so. I have done this at His leading, and this is the best answer I can give. He manifested the provision, and He also led me to the publisher I was to use.

In the months prior to submitting the books for publication, the Lord led me to investigate a couple of “print on demand” publishers. I was initially drawn to one company, but it was another company that kept writing to me that I sensed the Spirit would have me to use. After much prayer, release from God, and the manifestation of the funds to have these books printed, I contacted the company. I was told that in May, the very month I wrote to them, they were doing a special promotion where all authors were being offered the opportunity to have a second book published free with every book for which they paid. This enabled me to get four books published immediately, which was more than I had anticipated.

In all these things I have seen the Lord going before me. He has opened and shut doors. He has manifested provision. He has stretched the available resources I had available. He has given me good people to work with, and the printed books look far better than I had imagined. Truly the Lord’s favor has been revealed.

There is only one thing I have not been absolutely satisfied with, and that is the price of the books. I believe they are a bit high. The company has set the price at $19.99 each, which is their standard price for a book of their length. I do have a possibility of lowering this cost in the future, however, and as God makes funds available I will do so. I also am able to purchase books for a substantially lower cost than the retail value. If I purchase them in volumes of a hundred at a time, I can get them for $10.00 each. This seems much more reasonable, and when I am able I plan to do so, and also to pass the savings along to those who would like to procure the books through my hands.

I am sharing this information, with those who have followed this ministry’s teachings, for a reason. There are obviously times when we are called to transact business in this world. The apostle Paul rented the school of Tyrannus for a period of two years in order that he might teach the truths of the gospel to people. Paul received money from other churches and Christians often, as well as supporting himself and others through means of tent-making. It was always his intent, I am sure, to conduct all such business in a manner that would bring honor to Christ. This is also my intent. It is for this reason that I have always sought to offer the things I have received from God to all who would partake of them, without putting any financial impediment in their way.

God has greatly helped me in this desire. For about the past five years a Christian brother and sister in Australia have been hosting the Heart4God website through their own Internet hosting company free of charge. This has been a great blessing, and it is my earnest expectation that God would bless them for their generosity. As the apostle Paul said:

Philippians 4:14-19
You have done well to share with me in my affliction. And you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone; for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full, and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Yahshua.

Because of the generosity of this couple, the books and teachings of this ministry have gone out to untold thousands. During the years I was homeless, without a computer, and living at a rescue mission, the Lord provided through them the means whereby these teaching could remain online and read by all who were led to them. Now He is opening up another method for these teachings to be accessed, and that is through the publication of books.

Unlike the Internet, publication in paper consumes resources that cost money. Therefore a cost is attached to the purchase of printed material. I have thought much about the way in which this should be done. Some from my generation may remember the ministry of Keith Green. After having his first record published with a Christian label, he became convicted that cost should not be a factor in the distribution of songs that were intended to minister to those who listened to them. As a result, Keith started his own record label called Pretty Good Records, and began offering albums to people on the basis of “whatever you can afford.”

Some people sent in more than the cost of the record, and this enabled Keith to offer records below cost, and even free, to those who did not have the money for them. I have always admired Keith Green for doing this. It revealed that his heart was not focused upon making a buck, but upon ministering truth and life to others.

People, if you understand my own heart before the Lord, you will know that I am not focused upon mammon. I am no preacher of prosperity doctrines and easy believism. My testimony is about the cross appointed to the disciples of Christ. I would make a poor example of a prosperity preacher as I live out of a camper/van parked on the property of an inner city rescue mission. But I do serve as a fair example of a man who is preaching a Spirit directed life and the embracing of the cross of Christ. I live what I teach.

Selling these books has nothing to do with a desire to move up in this world. I truly anticipate that there will never be more than a mere remnant who will be interested in the things the Father has imparted to me to teach. These books will not be best sellers like the latest offering from Joel Osteen or Rick Warren, for there is nothing in the books that appeals to the flesh. They are written for the spiritually hungry. I believe this spiritual hunger will be manifested more in coming days, but it will remain a remnant of those who profess faith in Christ who will hunger for truth.

As this is the first day these books have been made available, they are only to be found at the website of the book’s publisher. The cost is $19.99 each. I have not been able to purchase any of the books yet, so I have none to offer at a lower cost, or for whatever you can afford, but I anticipate being able to do so in the not too distant future. In about six weeks the books will be listed on Amazon’s website, and at Barnes and Noble’s website, as well as being available to be ordered by any bookstore. The price will be the same, however, until I am able to negotiate a lower price with the publisher.

If you have read this far, I thank you for your patience and interest. I wanted you to understand my thoughts in this matter. Perhaps the Father has reasons for having these books published that I have not foreseen, but I have sought to convey my thoughts and understanding here.

If you are interested in purchasing these books at this time, you can find them at the following website links. Please note, that all of these books are also freely available to be read online. (How’s that for pressure sales?)

www.xlibris.com/TheRemnantBride.html
www.xlibris.com/Sabbath.html
www.xlibris.com/TheMarkoftheBeast.html
www.xlibris.com/OvercomingAddiction.html

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws/
Parables Blog: http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com/

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063