Joseph Herrin in Herrin, Illinois
(Click on image for larger picture)
Before I share some of the events of this recent trip, here is an update on the schedule of upcoming meetings.
Location:
Columbia, Missouri
(8502 South Trails Drive - Right off I-70)
Dates:
May 21-23
Meeting Schedule:
Friday Evening May 21st:
Meeting 7:00 P.M. - 9:30 P.M.
Saturday May 22nd:
Meeting 9:00 A.M until Noon
Break for a potluck meal together
Meeting 2:30 P.M. -5:30 P.M.
Sunday May 23rd:
Meeting 9:00 A.M. until Noon
Contact:
Please contact David or Donna Miller if you plan on attending so they will know how many to plan for. They will provide directions and advise on local accommodations. They can be reached at the following:
Phone: (573) 445-4731
Donna’s E-mail: millerdb@umsystem.edu
----------------------------------------------------
Location:
1015 Cooper Springs Dr
Spring, TX 77373 (Houston Suburb)
Dates:
May 30 - June 1
Note: The weekdays and times of these meetings are different than the other meetings.
Meeting Schedule:
Sunday May 30th:
Meeting 11:00 A.M.
Break for a meal together
Meeting 2:oo P.M.
Monday May 31st:
Meeting 6:30 P.M.
Tuesday June 1st
Meeting 6:30 P.M.
Contact:
Please contact Matthew Washington if you plan on attending so he will know how many to plan for. Matthew will provide directions and advise on local accommodations. Matthew hosted a meeting last year, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship in his home. He can be reached at the following:
Phone: (713) 591-4414
----------------------------------------------
Location:
Hemphill, TX
Dates:
June 4-6
Meeting Schedule:
Friday Evening June 4th:
Meeting 7:00 P.M. - 9:30 P.M.
Saturday June 5th:
Meeting 9:00 A.M until Noon
Break for a meal together
Meeting 2:30 P.M. -5:30 P.M.
Sunday June 6th:
Meeting 9:00 A.M. until Noon
Contact:
Please contact Wendy Davis if you plan on attending so she will know how many to plan for. Wendy will provide directions and advise on local accommodations. She can be reached at the following:
Phone: (409) 594-8892
Wendy’s E-mail: soldoutbeliever@gmail.com
-------------------------------------------------------
Note: If there are any other believers who desire to host meetings in Texas, please let me know. I am heading toward California from Texas, but would like to hold other meetings in Texas, and in states between there are California, such as New Mexico and Arizona. If you believe the Father would have you to host some meetings, please contact me so we can arrange dates and times.
On the Road with the Holy Spirit - Part Three
Randy Simmons and I have been camping for a few days in Herrin, Illinois. It is amazing to me how the Father orchestrates our steps. We decided to drive a good distance toward Columbia, MO before stopping. Around 6 P.M. I sensed that I should get off the Interstate at the next exit that had a campground sign. Just a few miles further we came across one. Coming off the exit we were met with two signs. One said there was a campground 2 miles to the right. The other said there was a campground 4 miles to the left. I paused for a moment and turned to the left. It just happened that the campground to the left is in the town of Herrin. There were no signs at the exit pointing out this fact, but I am confident the Father led me this direction.
Some years earlier while I had been doing a genealogy search on my family’s last name I noted that there was a city in Illinois named Herrin. As far as I know, it may be the only city in America with my last name. I have considered since that it would be interesting to visit the town. I had no idea it was on my route, and I certainly did not plan on camping here. What a marvelous guide the Holy Spirit is.
As I was traveling from Mike and Donna Mitchell’s home in Tennessee the Father began speaking to me of the pioneer spirit He has called me to walk out. The morning Randy and I were set to depart a dear sister who had attended the meetings (Pat Warren) showed up bringing Randy and I both a large bag of deer jerky she had made the night before. We had talked about various foods over the week-end and I had mentioned how much I like deer meat and deer jerky. What a treat it was for this precious sister to bring us this food. Along with it she also brought us jars of homemade jellies made from blueberries, strawberries, kudzu (Southerners will recognize the vine that grows everywhere), Locust blossom, and honeysuckle. Pat has been learning to use wild plants for wilderness living.
It just struck me as I was driving down the road, heading to a campsite and chewing on a piece of deer jerky, how many pioneer symbols were present at that moment in my life. I knew the Father had orchestrated this, and had placed it upon Pat’s heart to share with us in this way. He has a marvelous way of testifying to things.
Randy and I in our camper/vans are types of modern spiritual pioneers. We are aliens and strangers in the land. We both have truly brought nearly everything we own with us. We have been led of the Father over the course of time to simplify our lives. There is a great freedom in this, and a liberty to go wherever the Spirit directs.
Upon arriving in Herrin I saw a street named Clark Trail. I told Randy that I bet that if I looked I would find some pioneer link to this town, and sure enough, on a small side street there was a neglected marker noting that George Rogers Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, had passed through this town in the 1780s.
George Rogers Clark Marker
It is interesting how mankind has romanticized pioneers and explorers, but few want to live the life of one. There are dangers, toils and snares that pioneers and explorers must face. Pioneers and explorers leave behind the security of hearth and home and strike out for places unknown.
I shared with the saints in Tennessee, which is Boone and Crockett territory, that I at times deal with some anxiety as I set forth to the places the Father sends me. There is a vulnerability in living such a life, but there is also great grace from our Father. I know that when I look back on my life I will be very satisfied that I accepted the risks and the uncertainties of the path the Father has chosen for me.
As I have mentioned before, the Father has testified that He has called me to walk as a pioneer and explorer. Vehicles represent ministries, and He supernaturally provided for me some years back an Xplorer van with a Pioneer stereo and Trail Pathfinder tires on it. This is truly the call He has placed on my life.
He has further shown me that as I have walked this path for the past eleven years, I am now to encourage His saints to follow in that specific path He has appointed for each of them. In 2008 when He called me out from laboring at the Macon Rescue Mission, He began to reveal these symbolic things relating to my van, and the ministry appointed to me. At that time I wrote an article setting forth the revelations of the Father for this very hour I am now walking in. The two part article is titled “Explorers and Pioneers to Serve as Guides.”
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/explorers-and-pioneers-to-serve-as.html
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/explorers-and-pioneers-to-serve-as_21.html
The Scriptures speak much of Yahweh’s overcomers in the typology of explorers and pioneers, of aliens and strangers in this earth. Hebrews chapters 11 is the Bible’s honor roll of pioneer saints. They endured many hardships, and at time suffered great loss, but the Father has a reward for them that far outshines their temporal struggles.
Hebrews 11:8-16
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God... All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:37-39
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith...
I can say with a certainty that the Father has called all His sons and daughters to a life that is unusual and a departure from the ways of the world. Not all will live in wilderness places, for some find their wanderings in cities and suburbs. Yet, in a spiritual sense, they follow a very different path from those around them.
As the Father is sending me forth, He has led me to invite the saints to accept that specific path He has appointed to them. Many are being stirred up to accept the invitation of the Father. He is in the process of raising up a people who will be to the praise of His glory in the earth.
When your life is over, will your name be added to the honor roll of pioneers and men and women of faith? Will you be named among those who cast all over onto Christ and followed Him wherever He would lead you? He will certainly lead many who are weak, despised, and considered as nothing in this world’s eyes to walk paths that the mighty shrink back from. They will be enabled to stand for they have a Mighty Champion and a Good Shepherd who walks with them all the way.
The words spoken to Joshua echo still as the Spirit’s exhortation to the people of God.
Joshua 1:9
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go."
On a closing note, at every meeting I have held thus far on this trip, there have been difficulties that have arisen suddenly among those have volunteered to host the meetings. There have been divisions among friends. There have been physical obstacles. Yet, pressing through these things and refusing to shrink back, the meetings have been times of great encouragement and a manifestation of the Spirit of Christ.
At the Mitchell’s house, a sudden court appearance was unexpectedly scheduled for that day. Around 9 A.M. their air conditioner went out, and their day was filled with a rush of activity. Pressing through it the Father worked all things out, and left a prophetic testimony behind in its place.
The Father had spoken to me some years back in my experiences through the air conditioners in the homes I was staying in. In perhaps the most painful experience of all, the home we were staying in had an air conditioner with the brand name Payne - Carrier. I was truly called to bear the cross and share in the sufferings of Christ while at this home. The air conditioner was hauled off the day we moved out of this home, for it had gone out. This was symbolic of the season of grace that followed. That very moment we were moving out the news reported that Tropical Storm Grace was heading for Corpus Christi, Texas. Corpus Christi is Latin for “the Body of Christ.”
Some look at such signs as the product of an overactive imagination, but those who know their God see His hand all around them. The following year the Father led me to another experience where we stayed with a relative who began to treat me very rudely. This Christian acted more rudely than anyone I had ever encountered before. My son came to me one day and said, “Dad, did you notice the name on the air conditioner here?” I told him I had. It was a RUUD (pronounced Rude).
I am not suggesting that everyone should go out and look at the name on their air conditioner and look for some hidden meaning in it. It was the Spirit who drew my attention to these symbols in these two specific homes. He showed me that even as an air conditioner controls the environment of the home, that the experiences I had in these two places were prophesied symbolically by the units outside the houses.
The Mitchell’s air conditioner that went out was a Carrier. We discussed it the morning Randy and I left. Donna told me that the bearings had gone out in the motor, and being an unusual motor, they could not find a replacement, but were able to have it rebuilt. It was installed by 3 P.M the same day, in time for the meeting to begin at 7 that night.
Mike and I discerned that the testimony of this event was that the environment God chose for these meetings was one of Carrying and Bearing the cross. We are called to be Carriers of Christ’s cross. We must go forth Bearing that which our Father has appointed to us. The entire home was filled with the fragrance of this message the entire time this wonderful group of saints met there. Mike also mentioned that the Air Conditioner blows air into the home, being symbolic of the moving and breath of the Holy Spirit.
Mike and Donna could have grumbled about the demise of their air conditioner that morning. Instead, they pressed on and found that the Father not only had a provision, He had a testimony in this experience as well. What an awesome God we serve.
Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com
Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063
No comments:
Post a Comment