Joseph Herrin (04-10-2013)

II Corinthians 13:1
Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

I recently was blessed to listen to a broadcast on the TruNews website. On the broadcast Rick Wiles interviewed a friend of his who eight months ago moved from Montana in the United States to the country of Panama. “Steven” made this move at the direction of the Holy Spirit. This move constituted a major alteration of life for Steven and his large family.

I was impressed by Steven’s testimony, for I discern in it a true account of the way in which the Spirit is directing many in this hour to surrender the life they have known and to accept a life Yahweh has chosen for them.

You can listen to the entire broadcast at the link below.

April 9th, 2013
Guest: Steven
Topic: Eight months after moving to Panama, Rick’s longtime friend Steven updates the Trunews audience about his spiritual journey as an expat serving God in Central America.

http://www.trunews.com/listen/

I have taken the time to transcribe portions of this audio message, for it serves as a second witness to those things the Father has directed me to proclaim at this hour in time to His people in America, and throughout the nations. (Note: I have done some editing of the conversation to improve readability.)
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Rick: [Steven] and his wife heard me speaking in Dallas/Fort Worth in 1998, and then they were avid listeners of our program in 1999 when we were on one radio station… The Holy Spirit dealt with them and said, “What this man is saying is true.” They sold their home, and they left the metroplex. They went to Montana because they knew the Lord was preparing to deal with the sins of America.

Now, something happened last summer. My friend Steven and I kind of lost contact with each other over the years. I knew he was in Montana, but we hadn’t communicated for quite some time. Last summer I got a phone call from him, and to my surprise, he told me where he was going. I was shocked at what he was telling me, especially when he told me how all this came about.

He was on the program last summer, shortly after relocating his family to the mountains of Panama. I’ve asked Steven to come back on the program today and give you an update… He is on the phone right now, and you are going to be amazed. You are going to be blessed when you hear a true story of what God has done with this man and his family because they obeyed the Holy Spirit…

Steven, you are in the mountains of Panama up near the Costa Rican border. I have visited that area many times and love it. The province is Chiriqui which is where I have been told the Cherokee Indians in America came from… It is the bread basket of Panama. It is all farming and ranching and produce. It is just a gorgeous area, and it’s eternal Spring…. It is like 70 degrees 12 months out of the year. It is a beautiful place, isn’t it?

Steven: It is a beautiful place. Like I said last time we were on, the most beautiful place you can be is right in the center of God’s will, wherever that may be. I know that is the message God was speaking to me because, like you back in 1999, we were preparing for the worst case scenario, so we did what we thought we were being obedient to do. But…, I felt like I got into another comfort zone… We moved to Montana and I got involved in a business. We were doing well there, and I pretty much believed I would be there the rest of my life. I just felt nice there. It was a wonderful place to live, to raise our children.

In this state of comfort, the Lord kind of shook my world. I was laying in bed one morning, and was talking with my wife when I heard the voice of the Lord say to me, “Your nest is in the wrong forest.” I saw myself in a tree, and I looked down at the bottom. There was a mark at the bottom of the tree like they do in Montana when they get ready to cut a tree down. I thought, well, “That’s not good!” You can have a nest in the most beautiful tree in the world, but if your nest is in a tree coming down, you better relocate your nest.

I didn’t know exactly where to go. I went up to Canada a few times on business, but I didn’t feel the Lord’s direction was there. But, at least I was doing something. I have heard pastor’s say “You can’t steer a ship that is not moving,” so I knew I was in the right direction just moving and trying to seek the Lord’s direction. I got a phone call from a guy that lived in Panama City, and I knew I was supposed to go there just to go on a little trip. Once I went that direction, there were constant divine appointments that just kept leading us where we were supposed to go.

When I started to get off direction, I just had such a cold feeling come over me, almost like “wrong way,” so that I knew it wasn’t the right way, so I just kept going where I felt the Lord was leading.

Rick: You know I remember distinctly that day when you called me from Panama City, and you realized how expensive it is to live in Panama City. You said, “Rick, we can’t afford to live here. I think we are just going to go on and go down to Guatemala and check out Guatemala.” I said, “Wait, wait, wait. Steven, before you do that, this is what I would do. I would go over to Albrook Airport and buy a plane ticket and fly out to the Chiriqui province, out to the city of David, and rent a car and explore the towns and villages in that province because it is a completely different lifestyle when you get out there. It is a farming, ranching, area. There are villages and towns around in the mountains and it is just a gorgeous area. So, you did it. The next time you called me, you said “Rick, it was just one divine appointment after another.” Take a few minutes and tell us what happened when you got out there.

Steven: Well, it was like divinely coordinated events. Literally, when I was in Panama City, I was at the dinner table with some other people who were with me, and I said, “You guys think I am a great tour guide and coordinator,” and I was just weeping at the table because I said “I have not had anything to do with this. This has been God’s hand guiding us.” I really felt so strongly that I really need to be completely led by Him, to be totally sensitive to where He was leading me. I had a few moments where I got a little questionable about some things, and I just had a check in my spirit that it wasn’t the right way. I knew God was really trying to lead me specifically. So, we did go to (the city of) David.

The interesting thing is that I had been there many years ago. I was a part of a ministry. A crusade took place there. There were amazing miracles and many people’s lives were changed. I always had that place in my mind that it was a very special place. I had the thought in my mind that maybe one day there would be another big crusade that would take place in that area. So with that on my mind, we drove further, and went and stayed in another town. We stayed there for a while.

When we were getting ready to leave I stopped at a church. (When we left, we were just getting ready to leave, and the Lord said, “Stop here before you go.” We stopped there.) I got the website of the church. We listened to the program of the service two days later. The Pastor said, “Gringo come here. God has something on your heart. What is it?” So he came up and said, “I have just been in deep intercession for a large family that is supposed to move here.”

My wife and I just both looked at each other and started weeping because we knew that was us. So we made a determination that this was our new home. We had been living at [our previous home] for 11 years, or 12 years. Of course you accumulate lots of stuff with lots of children. We had a two month time period in our hearts that we were supposed to be back there. So we had five yard sales and three auctions, and sold everything we owned. (Joseph’s note: 5 +3 is 8, the number of new beginnings.)

Actually, I was thinking about taking a [shipping] container and the Holy Spirit said, “You are not taking a container. You are taking suitcases.” So here we are. We have our marching orders. I have a two month period of time to sell everything we own; Reduce our life to suitcases, and that is what we did.

A friend of mine had a landscaping company when I first was saved. I remember going to his home one day and there was a huge magnolia tree in front of his house. The next time I went there I was in the back .yard and I thought “Where did that tree come from? That wasn’t here before.” He told me that was the same tree that he had in his front yard.

I said, “How did you get a huge tree like that from your front yard to your back yard?” He said, “It wasn’t that hard. I’m a landscaper. I know how to do this. I dug up the root ball, laid the tree on its side, and stripped all the leaves off of it.” I said, “Stripped all the leaves off of it. What did you do that for?” He said, “Well, if I didn’t strip the leaves off of it, the tree would have died. That is the only thing that saved it.”

The Lord reminded me that that was me. He had laid me on my side, stripped all my leaves off, so all I had is roots. He wanted to transplant me with just roots. I literally cried out to the Lord and said, “Lord, if You don’t water me; If You don’t feed me, I am going to die. I just feel totally stripped and naked.” I said, “Lord, I’m totally dependent upon You.” The Lord said, “Good, that is how I want you to be. It is how I have been wanting you to be for a long time.”

Something happened. Ever since that point in time, when I was willing to lay everything down, sell everything I own to follow Him, something died in me. This is the message the Lord has been speaking to me over the last few months. What he is referring to is the baptism of death, that He is calling His people to die completely to themselves. That only when they die to themselves can He truly live inside of them…

He has been reminding me that when I was a kid I just loved butterflies… He started to show me that God’s creation of a worm was never to die a worm. By its own willingness, laying down its life, entering a cocoon, that is the only process through which it can turn into a butterfly. This is what I believe He is trying to take His body to right now; To lay down their lives completely that they can arise as this new creation. He’s been telling me that He is looking to raise up an army of dead people; totally dead to self, because then they won’t fear man, they won’t fear the devil, and they won’t fear the times we live in…

Rick: You know what I just thought of as you said that Steven? Satan is trying to raise up an army of dead people. The world is being conditioned to prepare for zombies; the zombie apocalypse; the night of the living dead; the walking dead. You just said that God is raising up an army of dead people. But they are alive in Christ. The difference is that they are dead to their own desires… and Christ is living in them…

Steven: The Spirit was telling me that God uses dead people; dead to self people. Satan uses live people; live to self people…

I was reminded, just last night I was thinking about this, back in 1999 and following, here we were trying to prepare for the future. What I felt like the Lord was telling me is that in the physical I was prepared to save my life, but in my mind I wasn’t prepared to lose it. He reminded me of Matthew chapter 16 verse 24, “If any man will come after Me (or follow Me), let him deny himself (which means to utterly deny or disown himself) and take up his cross and follow Me. And whosoever does not bear His cross (or come after Me, or follow Me) cannot be My disciple…”

I looked at this the other day in Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4:36-37
And Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means, Son of Encouragement), and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

And the Lord has been reminding me, the gold and silver is His, according to Haggai. So he turned his possessions into gold and silver which belongs to God, and he laid it at the apostle’s feet. Consolation comes from the same Greek word as Holy Spirit (paracletos). So, it is like (Barnabas) was a man who was dead to himself, and alive to the Spirit, as opposed to Ananias and Sapphira who were still alive to themselves, and wanted to keep back a part of the money to themselves, and essentially lie to the Holy Spirit.

I think that the times that we are getting into now are such that God is requiring absolute obedience of His people. There is a judgment upon those who are not obedient.

Rick: Steven, when you inquired of the Lord, He told you that what is coming to the U.S.A., you will not be able to survive it regardless of where you are camped out.

Steven: Well, this is something that He had been telling me all along. Even in the best of my preparations He kept telling me, “You can’t prepare for what is coming.” I did not want to hear that word. It was not a fun word. So I thought, “Maybe He just means I need to prepare more.” So I just prepared more. In that state, I was trying to save my life. He was saying, “I want you to lose your life for me.” Nobody likes to hear that word.

Rick: In the process of trying to save your life, you and your wife stockpiled quite a lot in Montana. You were real serious about it. You were hunkering down for some real serious trouble coming, but the Lord told you “You can’t do enough. You have no idea what to prepare for.”

You probably did not see this, but the other day Marc Faber, a Swiss businessman, a very wealthy man, he told CNBC television “Even gold is not going to save you from what is coming to the world. Marc Faber is one of the biggest proponents of owning gold, and he  has now come to the place of saying, “This is getting so bad that even our gold is not going to save us.”

Steven: The Lord has been telling me that the only safe place to be is under the shadow of the almighty…

You can’t prepare for the unknown. How do you prepare for the unknown. I heard the word “Obedience…” The only place of safety when you know a judgment is coming is being obedient and doing exactly what God tells you to do…

I had a vision the other day. It was just like an orchestra leader. He had his little baton in his hand and the orchestra leader was tapping on his podium. When I saw this I had an interpretation. What God is saying is that the body of Christ needs to take your positions now. Everybody get ready. The music is about to begin. I believe something is about to happen that God is putting people in place.

I have also seen that, as tough as it was to completely uproot my family in a two month period of time, it was like there were tables around a room, and there were pieces of puzzles on the tables. Each piece of the puzzle was on the wrong table right now, and God is wanting to move people where they are supposed to be, because they are not on the right table…

The Lord spoke recently and said, “You either willingly leave your comfort zone, or your comfort zone will leave you.”
[End excerpt of broadcast]

Brothers and sisters, I sense the Spirit directing me to press forward with this message that NOW is the time for the sons and daughters of God to yield themselves fully to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. It is time to count the cost of following Yahshua, and to decide whether you will go wherever He says, and do whatever He asks of you. Those who continue to be directed by the desires of their soul will suffer great loss, both physically and spiritually.

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