The Storm Comes!

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=168 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="129a11c3.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Welcome to the Heart4God Website!"><U><B><IMG SRC="4b55a500.png" border=0 width="90" height="80" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin"><U><B>Writings by Date</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id212.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Writings of Joseph Herrin Organized "><U><B>Writings by Topic</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.heart4god.ws/Audio/index.htm"><U><B>Audio Files</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id690.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Videos"><U><B>Videos</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id323.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings of Others"><U><B>Other Authors</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id324.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id339.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Questions and Answers"><U><B>Q&A</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id328.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Heart4God Email List"><U><B>Heart4God E-mail List</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.parablesblog.blogspot.com"><U><B>Parables Blog</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id306.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="File Downloads"><U><B><IMG SRC="2b264140.png" border=0 width="100" height="20" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <div> <B>The Storm Comes!</B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="c2827160.png" border=0 width="807" height="22" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> Joseph Herrin (11-13-01)</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Dear Friends,</div> <bR> <div> I had already gone to bed tonight, yet I could not sleep. My mind was full of images of coming desolation and its attendant fear and panic, and I could not rest without first sending out this message to those of you who are able to receive it.</div> <bR> <div> In a period of a little over sixty days, America and the world have witnessed tremendous things that many had no clue would ever happen. We have seen the symbols of America’s economic and military might attacked and devastation has resulted that is without precedence in our generation. Today another American Airlines plane crashed in Queens, New York and it has yet to be determined what the cause of the crash was. I watched one New York citizen state on television, “We had not yet fully recovered from the World Trade Center disasters. We were just beginning to be able to sleep at night again, and now this happens and we are terrified.”</div> <bR> <div> People, consider how suddenly these things have come upon a nation that was at rest. Consider how quickly great terror can come upon a people that were at peace. I want you to consider this for in my spirit I sense that there are things approaching that will be of such a sudden and catastrophic nature that many people’s hearts will begin to fail them for fear. HOWEVER, OUR FATHER WOULD NOT HAVE US TO KNOW FEAR, BUT TO BE IN PEACE IN THE MIDST OF THE STORM.</div> <bR> <div> This is the message I felt that I must write to you tonight before I could rest. I had to inform you of what is coming and how we can be at peace in the midst of the storm.</div> <bR> <div> Some time back the Father began having our family address issues of security in our lives. The Father wanted our security to be placed in His hands, not in those things that man looks to for security. One by one the Father brought us to a place where He challenged us to throw ourselves unreservedly over onto Him and to look to Him for our provision, safety, and well-being.</div> <bR> <div> The first of these challenges began over five years ago. Our family moved to the downtown area of a small neighboring town. My wife was somewhat fearful of the move for she had heard many negative things about this town and its population. The house we purchased there came equipped with an alarm system, and my wife asked if we could contact a security company and obtain service with them and have our alarm system activated. I did not give it much thought, telling my wife that if she wanted to do so it was okay with me. She called the next day and had the alarm system activated.</div> <bR> <div> In the master bedroom there was a panel on the wall that monitored the security system. It had lights that were either green or red to indicate what was occurring in the different security zones of the house. I did not know it at the time, but for the first two months we lived in this house my wife would lay awake at night and watch those lights for any sign of a problem. She did not have one good night’s sleep for she was always dealing with fear.</div> <bR> <div> One night at the end of two months, the Father sovereignly arranged for us to send our children to spend the night with friends. During that night one of the house alarms tripped and this blaring alarm that was mounted outside the house, right outside our bedroom went off. It startled us out of sleep at about 3 AM. Panic is the best word to describe our response. I had never heard the alarm before and I was amazed at how loud it was. It sounded like a claxon on a fire truck.</div> <bR> <div> My wife called the police to make sure they were notified of our situation and then she had me go around the house to check for signs of intrusion - in her panic she handed me a single shot pellet gun out of the closet to defend us with. I gave it back and told her it wouldn’t do me much good. I would pretty much have to shoot the intruder in the eyeball to get his attention. We had a can of pepper spray that was guaranteed to knock down an intruder and I grabbed that instead.</div> <bR> <div> While I checked out the house, my wife went to the front door to await the police. After I determined that the house was snug with no intruders I joined her and we found that one of the sensors on a window on the front of the house had tripped. The kids had been playing there earlier in the day and the front of our house was very near the road. We determined that a loud car had simply caused some noise vibration that had finished tripping the sensor. The policeman also could find no evidence of an attempted entry when he arrived.</div> <bR> <div> After the policeman left, my wife and I were pretty keyed up and had a hard time dropping back off to sleep. In the morning I told her that I felt like we should quit using the alarm system, and rather trust the Father for our safety because the system was a source of fear rather than peace. It was at this time my wife told me that she had not slept good since we had moved in because she lay awake at night watching the security panel.</div> <bR> <div> We agreed to cancel service immediately and when the children came home we told them of our decision and we had a time of dedication as a family where we went around the house and anointed the corners with oil and we held hands and prayed that the Father would be our protection and security while there. I also got rid of the pepper spray (we had no guns) and we determined that the Father alone would be our security. That night, with the security system contract canceled and the system turned off, my wife slept peacefully in the house for the first time, and she never had another night of disturbed sleep. We lived in that house for over four years and the Father protected us in all ways.</div> <bR> <div> I have shared in the article “The Lion, the Bear, and Goliath” that the Father then began to press us to trust Him in other areas. The first was in the area of our health. My son had a hereditary bone disease that had led to him having 12 fractures by the age of seven, and also one surgery. We received government SSI benefits due to his condition, and when I cried out to the Father over my son’s condition He said that He would heal him, but not if I walked with a divided mind. He showed me that I had to take the first step and cancel all his government health benefits and then He would become health and wholeness to my son.</div> <bR> <div> From a natural perspective this was foolishness, for my son had broken two bones the previous year and he was freshly out of a cast. One did not throw away free medical coverage for a child that was having frequent medical problems, but I knew what the Father had spoken. We canceled our son’s coverage and the Father told us not to baby him, but to allow him to do all the things that boys do; ride bikes, skateboard, play on trampolines, etc., and He would protect him. </div> <bR> <div> That was four years ago and my son has not had another fracture. My son has had some awful bike wrecks and come home all skinned up, but whereas he would have certainly broken bones before, he had nothing more than cuts and bruises. The Father has been absolutely faithful in His watch-care over my son. Interestingly, our son’s name is Josiah, and he has a plaque on his wall that has his name on it with the meaning underneath which reads, “Yahweh Heals”.</div> <bR> <div> A year later after we had seen Yahweh’s faithfulness with our son, I heard the Father challenge me to take the next step. This was to trust Him with the health of our whole family. I worked for as the Microcomputer Coordinator for a local hospital and I had good health benefits. The Father challenged me to drop our health insurance and to trust Him for our family’s health.</div> <bR> <div> This was a big struggle for my wife, and she at times disagreed strongly with this path for she was ingrained with a strong sense of doing things according to the world’s sense of propriety. As the head of the home I had to take the lead and respond in faith to my Head who was Christ. I knew the Father was attempting to take us from one realm of trust to another. We agreed to cancel our family’s health insurance and to trust Yahweh for our health.</div> <bR> <div> I could only cancel my health benefits during one month of the year, and we had to wait for this month (December) to arrive. Around the end of October I began experiencing signs of severe diabetes. I had dry cottony mouth and constant thirst. I experienced frequent urination and blurred vision. At times I became dizzy, and things were very bad for a time. One day at work I got dizzy and had to lean against a wall to keep from falling down. I was in the Emergency Room of the hospital at the time, so I decided I would get myself checked out. My blood sugar was not supposed to be any higher than about 110, but it was over 370. The doctor told me that I needed to see my family doctor and get started on a diabetic regimen to control it.</div> <bR> <div> All of this occurred just a little over a month before December when my wife and I had determined we would cancel our health insurance. I knew in the spirit that this was an attempt of the enemy to keep us from walking in faith. I was scared at times, and this fear was fed by nurses whom I knew who taught diabetic education who would come to me and tell me horror stories about diabetes. They told me that they had patients at that moment, whose blood sugar was no worse than mine, who were in the hospital on intravenous insulin drips. They told me about possible blindness, amputated limbs, organ failure, etc.. They did a good job of scaring me.</div> <bR> <div> Despite this, I knew that the Father had led us to this decision, and after considering the consequences of obedience versus disobedience, I decided to not change our determination to trust Yahweh for our health. I never went to a family doctor about the diabetes, and in December I canceled our family’s health benefits with the hospital I worked at. Remarkably, the Father allowed me to begin losing weight supernaturally and all of the symptoms of diabetes quickly disappeared and have never returned. It has now been three years and my family has not had a single occasion when we needed a doctor’s care or any healthcare services.</div> <bR> <div> Through all of this the Father was weaning us away from looking to the world and its provisions for security, and to look to Him. He had one more big challenge for us that would be proved over the course of 18 months. Ten months after the Father told me to cancel health insurance He said He wanted to teach me to trust Him for our financial provision. We were very worldly at the time in our finances, and we had a mortgage, a car loan, credit cards, etc.. We were living beyond our means through the use of debt and we were looking to my employment as a computer professional to pay for it.</div> <bR> <div> Incidentally, during this time I was serving as an ordained minister at a church and the Father was bringing the same challenges to other members of the church leadership, but due to much fear they were not walking in victory. The Father showed me that what He was taking me through was not just for me, but to provide an example to the body of Christ that they could go in and possess the land by faith.</div> <bR> <div> I have written elsewhere of the 18 months that the Father told me to quit my job and in which He forbid me to work. All the miraculous provisions He made for us through a thousand different sources would make a very encouraging story, but suffice it to say that after 14 years with my employer I quit my job and did not work for 18 months. During that time the Father freed us from all debt, He never allowed us to miss a meal, we always had a roof over our head, and we ended that time by spending a full month at the beach in a motorhome that He allowed us to pay cash for.</div> <bR> <div> There was certainly much pain along the way as the Father freed us from worldly things we had grown attached to, and as we learned to walk contrary to the world system, looking to the Father to be our provider. Getting free from idols is at times a process of pain that involves stripping us down until we feel we have nothing left.</div> <bR> <div> At the end of 18 months the Father allowed me to go back to work. I went back free, however. We are walking on a new foundation of contentment with Yahweh’s provision, avoiding all debt and adhering to Paul’s words to “owe no man anything, but to love him” (Romans 13:8). I only work part-time and I have no benefits, but I don’t need them for the Father is our source of health, He is the security of our life, and He is the guardian of our future. </div> <bR> <div> My job doesn’t meet all of our needs, but we have learned to trust the Father for His provision and every month He supplies our needs through a myriad of sources at the time we need it. A few years ago we would have been terrified to walk this way. Simply to not have had health benefits would have been a source of worry. Now, however, we have seen the Father prove Himself in our lives over a sustained period of time and we have a foundation of trust and faith to draw upon.</div> <bR> <div> I have shared all of this with you to tell you that there are things coming quickly upon this earth that will cause great fear to arise, and many saints will be devastated and their hearts will begin to fail them. As believers, you will need to know how to find that place of peace in the presence of God that you will be kept in peace when all around you are troubled. The Father has signified to me that this time is upon us.</div> <bR> <div> Right after the Father had us embark on our most difficult challenge, that of trusting Him for our financial provision, a young woman stood up in church one morning, and she spoke prophetically, and I knew the word applied to me and also related to coming days. She said, “The Father is going to lead you through a time of great testing and you will wonder at the length and severity of it, but the Father says that it is necessary to prepare you for the days that lie ahead.”</div> <bR> <div> The days she spoke of that lie ahead are the days we are now entering into. We are in a day when all that can be shaken will begin to be shaken. I have heard respected prophets speak of biological calamity coming, as well as nuclear attacks in our nation. In my spirit I sense that these things are at the door. They are right around the corner. What will be the response of the nation when there are not just 5,000 dead, but 50,000, and even 500,000? What will be your response?</div> <bR> <div> We are entering into days of great conflict in the world when we will need to know how to find the place of safety in the arms of the Almighty. The Father has been preparing our family for this, and others as well, that we might be a light and a testimony to the world. The world will be brought to a place where they are not asked to give up their sources of security voluntarily as we were, but they will have their worldly sources of security stripped away suddenly. What will be the reaction? Will these ones crumble in fear, or will they be able to press into the Father and find a place of trust, rest, and peace in Him?</div> <bR> <div> It will certainly occur that many will not be able to trust in the healthcare system they once put such faith in. They will endure times when they will have no income and they will not be able to see how their physical needs will be met. I am afraid that many who have been urged repeatedly by the Spirit to step out in faith, and who have run the other way, will find themselves woefully prepared to walk in faith in the midst of troubling times. Fear will be so great that many will be overcome by it.</div> <bR> <div> Friends, I see days bearing down upon us that will be full of the most profound terror this world has ever known. The monetary systems will fail men, the health systems will fail, the security of man will be stripped away, but there will be a people who have come to know a source of strength that is unshakable, a security that never fails, a provision that is limitless, and these people will do valiantly and act faithfully before their God whose name is Yahweh.</div> <div>           </div> <div> There were times when I walked my path of trust all alone with not a soul to support me or encourage me. Even when my heart knew fear and despair, the Father never faltered. His provision and protection were always there. In my darkest days, and I had some that were pitch black with no light at all, the Father was there beside me. He was my refuge and my strength. He was a very present help in my time of need. He was my anchor in the storm that I walked in.</div> <bR> <div> Now the storm is coming to others, and the Father has positioned some so that they can encourage others when the storm is raging. For a couple of years I have prayed that the Father would teach me to be able to sleep in the midst of the storm even as Yahshua slept in the bow of the boat while the storm raged. The Father spoke to me when I made this request and He said, “I cannot teach you this unless I take you through some storms.” He has led us through many, and many more yet remain, but if we can have peace in the midst of the storm, then what is the storm to us? It is nothing but an opportunity to see the salvation of our God.</div> <bR> <div> Psalms 91:1-11</div> <div> 1     He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.</div> <div> 2     I will say to Yahweh, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!"</div> <div> 3     For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper, and from the deadly pestilence.</div> <div> 4     He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.</div> <div> 5     You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day;</div> <div> 6     Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.</div> <div> 7     A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not approach you.</div> <div> 8     You will only look on with your eyes, and see the recompense of the wicked.</div> <div> 9     For you have made Yahweh, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place.</div> <div> 10     No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent.</div> <div> 11     For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.</div> <bR> <div> I shared in a post soon after the events of September 11 that one saint at the local military base had the following scripture on their calendar for the day (I will add a few verses beyond what his calendar stated):</div> <bR> <div> Zephaniah 1:14-18</div> <div> 14     Near is the great day of Yahweh, near and coming very quickly; listen, the day of Yahweh! In it the warrior cries out bitterly.</div> <div> 15     A day of wrath is that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness,</div> <div> 16     A day of trumpet and battle cry, against the fortified cities and the high corner towers.</div> <div> 17     And I will bring distress on men, so that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against Yahweh; and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.</div> <div> 18     Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them On the day of Yahweh’s wrath; and all the earth will be devoured in the fire of His jealousy, for He will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.</div> <bR> <div> Just today I have received a couple more prophetic words that shared that we have indeed entered the days spoken of here. But Yahweh will have a people who will be hidden in these days. The next verse speaks of this:</div> <bR> <div> Zephaniah 2:3</div> <div> Seek Yahweh, all you humble of the earth who have carried out His ordinances; seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden in the day of Yahweh’s anger.</div> <bR> <div> One brother ended his prophecy with the following encouraging note:</div> <bR> <div> Luke 21:28</div> <div> "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."</div> <bR> <div> In the midst of dark days our redemption does draw nigh. It is approaching the time for the sons of God to be manifest to the world. These will be sons whose sinful flesh has been replaced with imperishable, incorruptible flesh. These will walk in glory in the midst of dark days.</div> <bR> <div> Isaiah 60:1-3</div> <div> 1     "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen upon you.</div> <div> 2     "For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples; but Yahweh will rise upon you, and His glory will appear upon you.</div> <div> 3     "And nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”</div> <bR> <div> These days are upon us. Great fear will be loosed upon the earth, but there is a place of sanctuary for those whose hearts trust in the Lord. May you be kept in peace in these days. May you know that the world and its systems have never provided more than an appearance of safety and peace. But we have a God who is not disturbed by any occurrence on the Earth. We are receiving from Him an unshakable kingdom, and He would have us to know peace in the midst of the storm.</div> <bR> <div> I encourage you to keep this writing and be encouraged by it when you see these things soon come to pass.</div> <bR> <div> Joseph Herrin</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>