Joshua Herring
I grew up in church — actually, in more than one branch of what is today considered Protestantism, and the two different branches were actually pretty far removed from each other in terms of some of the common doctrine involved with each. I have held to neither in terms of loyalty to church doctrine. I have sought the Lord diligently and allowed Him to teach me, in spite of any and all experience as a youth or training as an adult.
As a young man, I walked away from God and spent a few years as the prodigal before God managed to humble me and bring me back to Him in a quality decision which would never again be violated or even questioned on my part. Since then, I have placed all my love, all my loyalty, all of my efforts, strength, and ability, and even my very life, in the hands of the God of my youth.
I have never been sorry about this, in spite of the fact that a time or two, it seemed that this decision would surely end up costing me everything. I have never doubted my decision to come back to God even in the most difficult or dangerous moments.
Therefore, at the age of 22 I began a love affair with Jesus that has deepened continuously from that day to this. I would lay down my life for Him without hesitation because I've had a hard life, and quite simply put: I've never had anything else that was truly worth putting everything on the line for.
I knew of the call of God on my life before I left the Lord or came back to Him later, and virtually everything that has been done in my life over nearly three decades since then has been done in an effort to allow God to use me both in and outside of the ministry.
Everything in my life came to a halt around 1997, due to serious illness that hit unexpectedly with devastating force, and it almost claimed my life. I struggled to endure and survive for about seven years. I am only now beginning to pull up out of it and to make plans for a move back into public ministry at some point in the future.
I do some reasonably serious writing at times, and have two books in the works.
In various capacities, in spite of my withdrawal from public ministry for several years due to illness, I still share teaching and/or inspirational things of one kind or another with people in different types of ministry around the nation.
I've also had a life-long background in music, and I now write gospel music. I was recording some of it in 1997 when illness swept me off my feet. I hope to get back to the project to finish it and see if I can still get it distributed in the future. If not, I will simply see what happens as I go forth in ministry.
Beyond this, I would like to say that the Lord has rearranged my idea concerning what the ministry in my life will entail once it opens up again publicly — and as a result, God has birthed within my heart a newly deepened sense of patriotism, combined with a desire to help move this nation back toward God, and to the founding principles that is nearly as passionate as my love for the ministry of God itself has always been.
I would also like to make it known that my concern over divisions in the body of Christ is so deep and intense at this point — and my planned stance for days to come so strongly against that very thing — that as I move out into ministry again, I intend to go independent this time. This is going to be done in order to prevent any organization from being able to control and thereby corrupt or thwart that emphasis on the ministry that brings together, rather than splitting apart, different segments of the body of Christ.
I am fully persuaded that a revival is coming to this nation that will sweep across denominational lines to include Catholics, as well as Protestants of every category, and that the church that truly moves with God in days to come is going to be made up of a people being called out of established tradition, which is filled with people who have grown cold and self-righteous, just as the Jewish Temple had in the days of the early church.
Therefore I have no room in my heart for dead tradition or denominationalism, for those are the things that the enemy is going to try and use to work against the move of God among His people in days to come.
As a young man, I walked away from God and spent a few years as the prodigal before God managed to humble me and bring me back to Him in a quality decision which would never again be violated or even questioned on my part. Since then, I have placed all my love, all my loyalty, all of my efforts, strength, and ability, and even my very life, in the hands of the God of my youth.
I have never been sorry about this, in spite of the fact that a time or two, it seemed that this decision would surely end up costing me everything. I have never doubted my decision to come back to God even in the most difficult or dangerous moments.
Therefore, at the age of 22 I began a love affair with Jesus that has deepened continuously from that day to this. I would lay down my life for Him without hesitation because I've had a hard life, and quite simply put: I've never had anything else that was truly worth putting everything on the line for.
I knew of the call of God on my life before I left the Lord or came back to Him later, and virtually everything that has been done in my life over nearly three decades since then has been done in an effort to allow God to use me both in and outside of the ministry.
Everything in my life came to a halt around 1997, due to serious illness that hit unexpectedly with devastating force, and it almost claimed my life. I struggled to endure and survive for about seven years. I am only now beginning to pull up out of it and to make plans for a move back into public ministry at some point in the future.
I do some reasonably serious writing at times, and have two books in the works.
In various capacities, in spite of my withdrawal from public ministry for several years due to illness, I still share teaching and/or inspirational things of one kind or another with people in different types of ministry around the nation.
I've also had a life-long background in music, and I now write gospel music. I was recording some of it in 1997 when illness swept me off my feet. I hope to get back to the project to finish it and see if I can still get it distributed in the future. If not, I will simply see what happens as I go forth in ministry.
Beyond this, I would like to say that the Lord has rearranged my idea concerning what the ministry in my life will entail once it opens up again publicly — and as a result, God has birthed within my heart a newly deepened sense of patriotism, combined with a desire to help move this nation back toward God, and to the founding principles that is nearly as passionate as my love for the ministry of God itself has always been.
I would also like to make it known that my concern over divisions in the body of Christ is so deep and intense at this point — and my planned stance for days to come so strongly against that very thing — that as I move out into ministry again, I intend to go independent this time. This is going to be done in order to prevent any organization from being able to control and thereby corrupt or thwart that emphasis on the ministry that brings together, rather than splitting apart, different segments of the body of Christ.
I am fully persuaded that a revival is coming to this nation that will sweep across denominational lines to include Catholics, as well as Protestants of every category, and that the church that truly moves with God in days to come is going to be made up of a people being called out of established tradition, which is filled with people who have grown cold and self-righteous, just as the Jewish Temple had in the days of the early church.
Therefore I have no room in my heart for dead tradition or denominationalism, for those are the things that the enemy is going to try and use to work against the move of God among His people in days to come.