Following the Cloud

Joseph Herrin (10-26-2012)

Being Led by God in the Wilderness

Exodus 13:21-22
Yahweh was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

I never cease to be in awe of the manner in which Yahweh is able to lead me as His son. There is something greatly comforting when God manifests His presence in one’s life to give them specific guidance. I view it as a tangible demonstration of my Father’s watchfulness and care over my life.

Yahweh had led me this past May to relocate my bus/motorhome to a small RV Park in the town of Montezuma, Georgia. Although I do not comprehend all of the reasons that the Father led me to this campground, one of His purposes was made known to me about the time I moved there. This occurred just after the Father had provided me with a 16 foot trailer to pull behind my bus, and His Spirit put it upon my heart to use the trailer to store up grains and legumes, as well as to mount a grain mill and roller/flaker (for rolled oats).

My Bus and Trailer

Just a few miles up the road from the campground was a Mennonite country market that sold bulk grains and legumes. I had wondered where I was to purchase these items. I had  priced some bulk items on the Internet, but with shipping the total cost of most of the items was exorbitant. A stop by this local market revealed that the owner had 50 lb. Bags of wheat, spelt, and other grains, and she told me she could order most of the other items on my list. When I compared prices with the best offers online, even discounting the cost of shipping, I found that this local market offered better prices on almost all items.

The owner purchased bulk items only once a month. Conveniently, she was to send out a new order in the next week so I placed a large order including oats, barley, rye, whole grain rice, and a variety of peas, lentils and beans.

           
















Grain Storage

I filled up forty-two five gallon buckets with grains and legumes, and have other provisions as well. The Spirit gave me great assurance of His will in this matter, and I sensed Him going before me to get this done. Being at this RV park also made it convenient for me to get my own mail. I have had a P.O. Box at the Montezuma post office for years, although I had never lived in the town previously. I had rented a P.O. Box there because my daughter Kristin lived in the area, and she had agreed to check my mail for me when I was traveling.

One way in which the Father has often revealed His will regarding moving was by withholding the financial means to pay to remain in a place. From January 2011 until the end of February 2012, a total of 14 months, the Father had directed me to stay at an RV park in Perry, Georgia. This marked the beginning of my living in The Dreamer, which is the name of my bus. During this entire period I always had sufficient funds on hand month by month to pay the lot rental. This too is an amazing thing considering that for a number of years I have had no other occupation besides the ministry of writing and teaching. I have not mentioned personal needs on my websites, but have been instructed of the Father to make my needs known to Him.

Matthew 6:31-33
“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat? or ‘What will we drink? or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Philippians 4:6
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

It is an awesome thing to have one’s life completely cast over into the hands of the Father, trusting Him to meet every need, and to find day by day, week after week, month by month, and year after year, that He abides faithful. Having first been directed to a life of faith in 1999, and having observed the faithfulness of the Father for an extended period of time, I have come to be much more at rest when my finances dwindle. Rather than fearing that God has forgotten me, I have learned to consider that Yahweh does all things for a purpose, even the withholding of funds.

After being at the Perry campground for fourteen months my finances were reduced so that I could not pay the next month’s rent. The RV park owners would have let me stay and pay later when I had the funds in hand, but I have sensed that the Spirit would not have me to operate in this manner. I have had no financial debt since the end of 1999, and I believe the Father would have me to live contentedly with what He provides day by day, rather than reckoning on what I might have tomorrow.

So, at the beginning of March 2012 I left the Perry RV park and drove over to Walmart where I camped for a few days in their parking lot. By the time the third day was up the funds were on hand to rent another space at a different RV park. I stayed there three months before the Spirit directed me to Montezuma in May of this year.

My rent was due on the 11th of this month (October 2012). I had been at the same campground five months when once again my funds had dwindled down. Even before this occurred, however, I had a sense in my spirit that the Father would be relocating me. A month earlier I had made reservations at the RV park on Jekyll Island just in case the Father might allow me to return there for a season. I was unsure of the Father’s guidance relating to Jekyll Island, so I continued to pray and seek His face. I prayed that if it were NOT His will that the funds would not be available for me to travel there. It would cost nearly a thousand dollars to drive there and back and stay for a month.

When there was only three days left before my reservation date and the money had not materialized, I discerned that it was not the Father’s will that I travel to this Georgia barrier island. I had to contact the campground 3 days before my reservation to cancel or I would lose my deposit, so I called and canceled. At the same time, I still sensed that I was to leave the RV park in Montezuma. In the Spirit I sensed that my time was up there.

My funds were still low, and I did not have the means to move to another RV park. I began praying for the Father to direct me by His Spirit. The Spirit brought to mind a parcel of land in a remote rural area that belongs to someone I know. I had a growing sense that it was the Father’s will that I relocate there. On the morning I had to leave the RV park I prayed to the Father for guidance. As I prayed, three separate thoughts came to mind. First, I would go to the Post Office one last time and see if anyone had sent a financial gift. If there were not sufficient funds to go to another RV park I would conclude that the Father did not desire me to do so. Second, the thought arose while praying to ask the Father that if it was truly His will for me to relocate to the property of the person I knew that the person would call me that day and invite me out to lunch with them, which was not a common event. Thirdly, I mentioned to the Father that I would need to speak to the RV park owner and tell him I was leaving. Being a small RV park the owners had no staff and did not keep regular office hours. Many days I did not see them at all.

With peace in my heart I rode my bike to the post office. Someone sent a small gift that day, but it was not enough to pay the rent at an RV park for a month. As I was still in the post office, addressing some mail to be sent out, my phone rang. It was the person whom the Father had placed on my mind to move to their property. They called to invite me to have lunch with them. A few minutes later, as I walked out the front door of the post office, I observed the RV park owner getting out of his pick-up truck. I walked over and told him I would be leaving that day. Like clockwork, the Father had answered all three of the items the Spirit had directed me to pray that morning. Over lunch, the person with the property expressed excitement about having me to park my bus on their property, which I later found had water, electric, and sewer connections, something I had not anticipated.

A remarkable part of this story is that for the past couple years the Father has laid it upon the heart of a sister in Christ to send a regular financial gift that has been sufficient to pay the monthly rent at an RV park. She wrote to me about a week before the time was to arrive when I would have to pay the lot rent or move. She did not know my situation, but volunteered that she had the money on hand to send me, but the Spirit of Christ had not released her to send it. I commended her for being sensitive to the voice of the Spirit, and encouraged her to continue to do only as Yahweh directed her to do. Had the Spirit of Christ not restrained this sister from sending her gift, the will of the Lord in this matter would not have been so clear to me.

I have been at this rural location for two weeks now, and I love it here. It is so remote that one has to drive down dirt roads for several miles to access it. The property I am parked on is not even visible from the dirt road. Despite this, I actually get a cell phone signal here and I am able to use my Verizon broadband modem for Internet access.

Champ, my dog, also loves the location. Part of the property contains a level grass lawn which was somewhat grown up when I arrived here. From my youth I have enjoyed mowing grass, and as soon as I arrived here I began to desire to cut the grass. A nicely manicured lawn is a thing of beauty. It also serves as a profound parable.

Isaiah 40:6-7
A voice says, "Call out." Then he answered, "What shall I call out?" All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of Yahweh blows upon it; Surely the people are grass.

Mowing grass is a parable of flesh cutting. Even as people who are fleshly appear unattractive to spiritual eyes, so too does a yard of grass that has not been cut appear unattractive. Having been parked at RV parks for a couple years I have not had any grass to cut, and I looked forward to being able to cut some again.

At the same time, I desired to remain free from dependency upon worldly power sources such as gasoline, or electricity, to cut the lawn. I began to consider getting an old fashioned reel mower.

Reel Mower

The mower above reminds me of the very first lawn mower I used. I was probably about 8 years old and the year 1969 when my dad began assigning me the task of mowing the lawn. You will note that there is no motor on this unit. The blade spins as the mower is pushed forward. It is a pretty good workout, especially if you use one of the old school mowers like the one pictured above. There are much better reel mowers for sale today that are easier to push. The Fiskars reel mower is one of the highest rated, and the blades need sharpening only once every 5-10 years, which is remarkable.

   






Fiskars StaySharp Reel Mower

Having read numerous reviews online, and watched videos of this mower, I decided this was the one I desired to have to keep the grass cut at my new location. I sensed that the Father had some purpose in this, for He orders all the events of our lives. It was the Father that led me to this new location with perhaps ½ to 3/4 acres of grass. I sensed it was the Spirit producing in me a desire to get out and mow the grass and get it in shape. I believed there was some parable in all of this, so I began praying that if the Father wanted me to purchase this mower to cut the grass that He would send me the funds. Amazon was asking $199.00 for this mower.

On the 23rd I arose and spent time in prayer. I specifically made mention of the mower, and a desire to get the grass cut. I asked the Father to send the provision if He wanted me to get this mower. After praying I checked my PayPal account and found that the sister who had previously shared that the Father had held her back from sending her regular gift had the night before (the 22nd) sent $200. This struck me as symbolic for the number 22 is related to flesh cutting, and the Father had spoken to me about mowing grass and the number 22 in great detail at an earlier point in my life. There is a chapter in my autobiography Evidence of Things Unseen that speaks of these matters.

Although the sister sent the gift on the 22nd, I learned of it on the 23rd. The Father has also used the number 23 to signify His provision in my life. He has related this to Psalm 23 which states, “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want (lack for any necessary thing).” So I ordered the mower that same morning and it was delivered the next day. The mower works very well, as you can see in the following video which I found on YouTube.

http://youtu.be/Y7ey2FHIVvg



I have pondered the parable that the Father is providing through this lawn mowing experience. I actually ordered the Fiskars “Momentum” reel mower, but found out they have changed the name to the Fiskars “StaySharp” reel mower. The mower cuts an 18 inch swath of grass (6+6+6). This speaks of the beast nature that must be dealt with in each of our lives. The cutting of grass is a parable of the removal of the flesh from our lives.

The biggest improvements I see over this mower and the one I used as a child is that it is much sharper, and cuts the grass with greater ease. It is advertised as being 40% easier to push than a standard reel mower. Also, the blades stay sharp due to the design of the Fiskars mower. The blades never touch another metal surface. This keeps them from dulling. The blades are so sharp that you are instructed to adjust and test the blades by slicing paper with them.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m33ZK8EWYZ08MF/ref=ent_fb_link

Back around the end of 1999 as the Father was leading me out into a new experience of following Him wherever He would lead, He spoke to me of the ministry He was preparing me for. As I sat at my sister’s house in Mississippi watching a large tractor mow a field of sod across the way, I told the Father that I would love to have a job like that. It seemed so peaceful. I had always found mowing grass to be a choice time for meditation. As I spoke to the Father, He responded, “I have indeed called you to a ministry of cutting grass, for all flesh is as grass. But first you must allow me to cut the grass in your life.”

In the interim I have come to discern that gasoline, or petroleum, is often a symbol of a counterfeit anointing. See the presentation titled Black Oil Anointing.

http://www.heart4god.ws/index_htm_files/Black%20Oil%20Anointing%20-%20Presentation.pdf

This mower I am now using does not run on petroleum. It is the Spirit of Christ who gives life to my mortal body that produces the power.

Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Yahshua from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Yahshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Zechariah 4:6
Then he said to me, “This is the word of Yahweh..., ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says Yahweh of hosts.”

Perhaps the time is at hand to begin a new phase of ministry. I have been sensing that changes are at hand. Having completed the series titled Dragon Flood I felt strangely empty. I had felt driven to complete that series, and was eager to work on it. Yet now I am casting about to know what is next.

This morning I was praying and asking the Father for direction, and understanding of why He led me to where I am at and what is next. When I later checked my e-mail I had a message from a Christian brother in Australia. He wrote:

I want to share this with you. I downloaded all of your PDF books just a couple of days ago. I was impressed of the Lord a few weeks ago to copy my own material off the website and store it offline so it would not be lost should we lose access to the Internet for some reason. Then in the last few days, the Lord has again impressed this upon me, more strongly this time. He is even leading me to move it from electronic copy to printed copy. I value what you have brought forth in the humility and wisdom of the Lord so I felt to download and store your material as well.

A couple of things have happened by way of confirmation of the Lord’s leading.

1.    We very rarely turn on the television. But interestingly, for more than a week now, I have also not obtained the news from the Internet, or any other source. This is remarkable for me – I usually keep myself regularly updated and certainly at a time like this! And yet the Lord has directed me as part of the separation He is leading me in to wean myself even from the news. I have jokingly shared with the brothers (that are part of this work) that they please let me know if WW3 has started or anything else of significance as I would have no idea (from natural sources, at least). I must confess I have not missed the muddied waters of the news at all. I believe this weaning is in preparation for a time when we won’t have ready access to outside sources for insight into the times and seasons of the Lord.
2.    I thought to check online if it was possible for the Internet to be switched off, from a technology point-of-view. I quickly found an article online written in 2011 just after the Egypt riots that confirmed it would take about 30 minutes for Australia’s Internet to be taken down at the directive of the government. Of course, the article suggests this is highly improbable given our stable democracy over the past 110 years. The reasons it cites as possible triggers for Internet removal are terrorist crisis, or financial crisis, or environmental disaster, or the like. You can read the article here: http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/374883/can_australia_internet_switched_off_too_/
3.    I just finished reading the article (as linked above) to my wife and was talking to her about how I am sensing this is what’s about to happen when the computer rebooted itself!? It was though someone pressed reset. I was genuinely shocked. There was no obvious explanation for the reboot.
4.    I was sharing these leadings with a brother over the phone and as I was sharing, a word came to me that someone brought forth a couple of years ago in a believer’s meeting that I was visiting. This was a couple of years ago and I didn’t write anything down and yet it came back to me very clearly. The brother leading worship in that meeting, shared a word that the Lord had shown him that the world system was literally built on sand. i.e. the silicon chip. He was working in IT at the time when he received this revelation. I’ve not seen this brother since that meeting, but I emailed him and told him how that word had come back to my remembrance and what I was hearing the Lord saying now about the Internet. The brother responded and emailed me the sand – silicon chip parable...

Joseph, the Lord has been speaking to me about the judgment season we are entering into. He will appear in these days in a way many will not recognise Him. It is a hiding in a sense (Ps 18:11; 97:2). There will be a famine for the word of the Lord (Amos 8:11-12) as the sun sets on the false prophets (Mic 3:6). A bride will be prepared in the wilderness (Rev 12:6,14) led by a company who have been consecrated for ruling and reigning and judging in this season. There is a changing of the guard taking place for the sake of His people. We rest in the sure truth that everything Yahweh does is in love. Of course, we don’t choose or dictate to Him the season. Peter did this when Yeshua shared with His disciples the times and seasons of the Father and he was rebuked as being under the influence of Satan himself.

As surely as Yahweh directed Eljiah into hiding (1 Kings 17:1-7), I believe this intense separation, a hiding almost, that the Lord has called me into is a sign of the coming season of judgement and the coming famine of the Word. I have stopped meetings in the hall now and am not uploading any new written words or preaching to the Internet. Those who are hungry and who have a desire to purify in preparation for His appearing (1 John 3:3) are gathering with us in our home. Very rich, very real. Glory to God.

For your prayerful consideration, brother.
Grace and peace, richest blessings
Name Withheld

There is much to ponder here. Since moving to this new location I have considered whether the Lord was relocating me in preparation for a storm that the Spirit has been testifying is coming to this land. I had specifically thought of Elijah being led of the Lord to go hide himself by the Brook Cherith. It seems that the Spirit has led me to a similarly remote place. This brother from Australia made reference to the same scriptural story. I will be seeking the Father to know whether He is stating that it is time to lay low for a season.

Have we reached that time when the grain has now been gathered into the barns and we must await a famine for the word of God to induce people to seek out that Joseph company that has been storing up spiritual seed for such a time as this?

Genesis 41:55-57
So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, you shall do." When the famine was spread over all the face of the earth, then Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians; and the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. The people of all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the earth.

These are some of the things I am pondering. I would appreciate hearing from those who read this blog whether you are hearing anything similar from the Lord about this hour. For me at least, I seem to be in a time of transition. Change is in the air. Of this I am certain: The Spirit of Christ has led me here. I am looking intently to perceive what is on the horizon. Your prayers are greatly cherished.

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

P.S. “Stay Sharp” is an English expression meaning “Be Alert!”


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

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

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