Stir Yourself Up! and Meetings Update

Joseph Herrin (08-31-2010)

A couple more meetings have been added to my speaking schedule. My itinerary currently stands as follows:

Delong and Leiters Ford (Rochester), Indiana

Dates: September 3-5

The Friday night meeting will be in Delong, while the Saturday and Sunday meetings will be in Leiters Ford (Listed as Rochester). The locations are only a few miles apart.

Location:
8998  W. Washington Street
Delong, In.  46922

Meeting Time:
Friday Evening: 6:00 P.M. - Until
Meeting will begin with a meal.

Location:
4747 Beach Lane
Rochester, IN 46975

Meeting Times:
Saturday Morning: 9:00 A.M. - Noon
Break for Lunch and fellowship
Saturday Afternoon: 2:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Sunday Morning: 9:00 A.M. - Noon

Hosts: Rich and Debbi Rennier

Phone:  574-542-2066

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Mount Sterling, Kentucky

Dates: September 10-12

Meeting Times:
Friday Evening: 6:30 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
Saturday Morning: 9:00 A.M. - Noon
Break for Lunch and fellowship
Saturday Afternoon: 2:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Sunday Morning: 9:00 A.M. - Noon

Host: Brenda Hoskins

Meeting Address To Be Announced

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Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

Dates: September 17-19

Location:
1145 Dry Powder Circle
Mechanicsburg, PA 17050

Meeting Times:
Friday Evening: 6:30 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.
Saturday Morning: 9:00 A.M. - Noon
Break for Lunch and fellowship
Saturday Afternoon: 2:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Sunday Morning: 9:00 A.M. - Noon

Host: Laura Lacovara

Phone: (717) 691-9260, or (717) 497-2658

These are all the meetings I have scheduled at this time. I have no further invitations and, unless the Father indicates otherwise, I will be heading back to Georgia after the meetings in Pennsylvania. This will be the 17th set of meetings conducted since Randy Simmons and I left Georgia about four months ago. If you are able to attend any of these meetings, please make every attempt to do so. The hour is late and Yahweh is working to prepare His sons and daughters for days of trouble that lie ahead.

Stir Yourself Up!

I am observing a certain oppression coming against a number of Yahweh’s sons and daughters in this hour. The people I am observing this in are some of the most faithful of Yahweh’s servants. They are true forerunners. They have embraced a path apart. They have been wilderness wanderers for many years.

At this hour, many of these sons and daughters are finding themselves facing obstacles, resistance, and delays. Some, having been awaiting a breakthrough, having borne long with trials, only to  discover a further lengthening of the road. When they anticipated a breakthrough into some new experience, some renewed opportunity for service, some release from the tedium of the long march they have been on, they have crested a hill to find that the expected end of the road is not yet visible.

I can empathize with these ones. My present travels across the country have been a microcosm of a much larger journey. We are all called to walk an afflicted path that we are promised will end in life.

Matthew 7:14
"For the gate is narrow, and the way is afflicted that leads to life, and few are those who find it.”

At times those who have walked a long distance on this path anticipate some breakthrough into a greater place of liberty, prosperity, or anointing. The expectation of arriving at this goal helps them to keep going, to persevere. When the thing they have expected does not occur at the proper time, when one wearisome test gives way to some new trial, there is a crisis in their soul. The natural man would simply sit down and say, “I have gone so far. I am weary. I see so few others on this path. I do not know how I can possibly go further.” The temptation is present to sit down, give up, or cease from the struggle.

People of God, it is at such times that the faithful sons and daughters of Yahweh must stir themselves up to renewed focus.

After some months on this journey, and numerous difficult encounters along the way, I have myself experienced a weariness of soul. The greatest fatigue comes to me from encounters with Christians who are dull of hearing and blind of sight. It requires Herculean effort at times to speak to a group of people whom I know are not prepared to receive a message. To set forth spiritual truth to those who will reject it is an exercise of excruciating labor. Having done so in one venue after another, I find a great oppression coming against my soul. I want to return to an easier path. I would prefer to sit at home and write blog postings rather than to confront unbelief and spiritual lethargy among the sons of God face to face.

I have no doubt that Yahweh has ordered my steps on this journey. He has determined the places and people I would encounter in my travels. There have been encouraging experiences. I have met a few souls whose faces are set to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. There have been those who have not been daunted by hardship and adversity, who willingly receive the message of the disciple’s cross with a sincere heart, and are grateful to find another who would encourage them on the afflicted path that leads to life.

Then there are those who hear the truth, and receive it with a glad heart, but they are seemingly unable, or unwilling to stir themselves up to walk in the truth. There are those who are in bondage to the flesh, and who seem content to remain in bondage. They confess that they want to change, but they are waiting for God to do all the work.

But the most grievous are those who resist the truth. In one recent meeting I faced a brother in Christ who was present at the invitation of his friend. The man was a seminary graduate and a long-time believer in Christ. I arrived at his home before the first night’s meeting and had a conversation with him. The discussion intensified the next day as I gave a presentation that focused on the need to die to self, to take up the cross daily, to surrender our will unto Christ.

This man argued with me that salvation is a gift received by grace, and that being a disciple is optional. I asked him whether he believed that Christ gave two invitations to mankind. One invitation was simply to confess Him and go to heaven. The other was to be a disciple, which required that one hate their own life, surrender all their possessions and relationships, and follow the Lamb wherever He leads. This man declared that he did indeed believe that discipleship was optional, and not required to “be saved.”

Having shared a multitude of Scriptures with this brother, he clung tenaciously to one or two Scriptures that spoke of salvation being obtained by confessing Christ, as a work of grace. He refused to consider the whole counsel of God and of the Scriptures.

Matthew 16:24-26
Then Yahshua said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul?”

Where is Christ now? Is He not seated in glory? Is this not where the overcoming saints are destined to arrive someday? If we wish to come after Christ, to share in His glory, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow in His footsteps. He never sought His own will and desire. He always lived to do the will and pleasure of the Father.

Can a man today confess Christ and then live for his own will and pleasure with the expectation of arriving at the same place Christ now abides? God forbid! Do not be deceived!

Galatians 6:7-9
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.

What is the good we are to do? We are to be surrendered to be led of the Father in all things. We are to go where He says go and to do what He says do. Can a man be led of his own soul and enter into life? “Do not be deceived!” Why does the apostle use these words? It is because many are deceived, and they are deceived willingly. They want to believe in a salvation that costs them nothing.

As we mature in Christ the Father permits His sons to experience more and more of His own trials in dealing with men. He permits us to know the patience He has by having us deal with the obstinate, the deaf, and the blind. Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth, yet when Yahweh put Moses into His own position as shepherd of the people of God, Moses was continually waxing hot. His patience was overtaxed, and his humility gave way to unrighteous anger.

The Father has permitted me in a very small measure to know His own experiences with His sons and daughters. I confess that I am unable in my own natural strength to contend with it all.

Isaiah 65:2-3
"I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, a people who continually provoke Me to My face...”

The patience and longsuffering of Yahweh far exceeds that of the meekest of mankind. When I encounter such obstinance among professing Christians I am vexed in spirit and wearied in soul. My natural response is to shake the dust off of my feet and return to my own place.  However, I cannot do so. I too have a path to walk that is appointed for my perfecting as a son. I cannot choose my own way. To continue I must decrease further that Christ might increase in me.

A couple weeks ago I was growing weary of the journey. The newness of this round the nation trip was wearing off. Burdens were piling up as I encountered a host of Christians who are not yet walking as overcomers. I began to despair of seeing them in victory, and the weakness of my own flesh has caused me to question my own future state.

Around the same time I began struggling with sciatica. Standing became a chore, and walking even more so. Undoubtedly this natural manifestation is a visible symbol of my spiritual struggle. I began to look forward to the end of this trip. I wanted to go back to Georgia and spend some time in solitude. Continuous struggle day after day with circumstances, with people, and with my own flesh had worn me down.

Yahweh had used a symbol two years ago to speak to me about the danger of being double-minded. He had spoken to me through squirrels. You have seen how they will dart out into the road, and seeing a car coming they will change direction, often more than once. Their indecisiveness often leads to death.

About a week and a half ago as I was driving to a meeting location in Illinois, I saw a squirrel dragging himself across the road dragging his back legs. He had evidently been hit due to acting “squirrely” in the middle of the road. At the campground we arrived at for the week, there was a bike path through the woods. There was a deer crossing sign along the path. The left edge of the sign had been broken off so that the deers’ back legs were missing. While at this same location a brother came to visit with us, bringing his two small boys. Randy took them for a walk and they brought back a small frog. None of them had even noticed that the frog was missing a back leg until I pointed it out.

The message the Father was speaking to me was clear. What we begin, we must finish. We need to finish strong. We must be committed to the course, not seeking things for self. There is no turning back permitted among those who would stand as overcomers.

Hebrews 10:37-39
For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.  But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Right after I saw the frog with the missing leg I received an e-mail affirming the Father’s will for me to hold more meetings. I added two more that day, and I am not certain that they will be the last on this trip. I am committed to finishing the course with joy. I do not go forth grudgingly, nor with complaint. Though the way be difficult, and my own walk painful, I am following in the footsteps of the Lamb who suffered willingly for me.

I Peter 2:21
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps...

Is not the apostle’s intent plain in these words? Since Christ also suffered for us, we should consider it right to experience suffering in obedience to Him. He is our pattern man. He did not suffer so that we would not have to. He suffered  to show us that it was possible to do the Father’s will and never shrink back. He has sent forth His own Spirit into our hearts that we might have the motive and the power to walk as He walked.

John 13:15-18
“For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master; neither is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen...”

My own experience is not unique. I know of many whose present experience is also one of trials, of perplexity, of loneliness, of pain, of conflicts without and fears within. These are also experiencing a lengthening of the way.

I am reminded of an athlete in training. When he has run as far as he has ever run before, this is when his coach will tell him to take another lap. We can only grow in spiritual strength, and in conformity to Christ, as we are taken beyond our natural limits. It is then that we look to Christ in us to accomplish what we cannot. When we are weak, then He is strong in us.

I know that some Christians are looking forward with anticipation to judgment befalling America. They believe that the collapse of the economy, civil unrest, martial law, and all the other disasters which must befall this nation, will change their own experiences. They anticipate that in an hour of destruction and calamity, the people of God will be more attentive to the voice of Yahweh. They anticipate their own experiences of suffering will in many ways be vindicated before the eyes of carnal Christians who have looked disdainfully at their poverty and suffering when they themselves have known ease, comfort and prosperity.

To those who are looking for judgment with this motive, it is difficult to see judgment delay. It means a lengthening of their own experiences of reproach and rejection and suffering. Yet, the Father has timed all things perfectly. His patience is manifested for the perfecting of His sons. He desires that we be selfless in our motives. To long for judgment that self might be vindicated is not a mature motive.

If Yahweh were self-focused, careless of mankind, He would have destroyed the earth long ago. His patience is always with a perfect intent, measured to exactness. It will result in sons in His image. When the time is right, then judgment will fall. Let us use the time wisely, setting our eyes on the course appointed to us. Let us stir up the spirit man, and commit ourselves to finish this leg of the race strong.
                   
May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws  

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com  

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