Walls Must Fall: Day 1: "Finding Strength in Silent Obedience: The Power of a Quiet Heart"

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Music.

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Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host,

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Connie Morris, where healing has a voice and truth is no longer silent.

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Father God, like Jabez, we cry out that thou would bless us indeed.

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Bless every woman listening beyond trauma, beyond limits, beyond what she thought

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was possible. Enlarge her territory.

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Expand her purpose. Let your hand be upon this moment.

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Saturate every word with oil and truth. break cycles, cancel every curse sent

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to silence her. This isn't just a podcast.

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This is holy ground. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Hello, and welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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I'm your host, Connie Morris, and we are on day two of The Walls Must Fall,

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a 12-day Jericho fast of consecration and dedication.

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Day one, we understood what it meant to walk in dedication and consecration.

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But today we're going to talk about walking in silence. What does that mean?

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The power of quiet obedience.

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Wow. We're going to talk about the power of quiet obedience.

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The walls must fall. And so I just want to hear from you and how you're doing

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out there in podcast land?

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And how's it going so far with day one? How is God talking to you about your breakthrough?

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And so let's get going on this second episode or day two of walking in silence.

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We're going to pick it up here in Joshua 6.10.

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And the scripture reads, do not give a war cry.

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Do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout, then shout.

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I said that really nice, but think about God.

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He's been dealing with the Israelites for almost 40 years, okay?

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And we know that they have some disobedient tendencies.

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So he probably was saying it more like this, and Joshua probably had that same

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tone with them because they had a tendency to kind of do what they want to do.

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And have you ever had God tell you to

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not do something and you kind of felt that tense in your spirit,

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like, I better not do that because the fear of the Lord is upon me.

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And so today in day two, walk in silence, we hear that Joshua told the children

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of Israel, and I think he said it a little bit firm.

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He says, do not give a war cry.

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Do not raise your voices. Do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout and shout.

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So he says, I want you to pay attention to me because I have some strategic things I need you to do.

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But the first thing I want you to do is I want you to walk in silence.

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I just wonder why he had them to walk in silence. You know why?

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Because they had a habit of complaining.

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They had a habit of just how this is going to work. What are we going to do?

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I wonder what God is up to.

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They had a reason, a way of just doubting how God will work in their life.

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Is that you? Do you have a way that God tells you to do one thing and you say,

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I don't know how that going to work. And then you begin to doubt God.

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And then this is a season for sure that God is telling us in this Jericho fast.

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This 12 day devotion is to watch your mouth, to walk in silence.

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Don't say a word. I don't care if you get beat up.

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Don't say a word because God says, I want to do something. I don't want you to take any credit.

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Let's see what God's saying. Silence can feel uncomfortable, even unnatural.

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We know that, especially when someone has done us wrong. We'll rehearse that

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thing in our head. We'll say it out loud.

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We'll just keep, we just want to figure out how we're going to say it when we

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get an opportunity to speak to them.

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We rehearse it and we rehearse it and we rehearse But God tells Israelites through

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Joshua, do not raise your voices, do not say a word.

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So we see here that it can even feel unnatural.

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Yet on the second day of the Jericho campaign, God's people were told to walk and say nothing.

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This is a season where God wants us to be obedient. And the first thing he tells

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us to do under day two, walk in silence, the power of quiet obedience.

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Is to not say a word.

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To not say a word. Why? Because silence isn't weakness, it's warfare.

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In that silence, God was stripping them of complaint, of fear,

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and the temptation to reason their way out of obedience. How many have done that?

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God tell you to do one thing and you are walking and talking with God.

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Finding 101 ways on why you can't do what he has told you to do.

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We understand that God sees the thing done when he asks you to do it.

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Come on now. He's already said, can you go ahead and do that?

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Because in his mind, he's a faith God, not in his mind. When he says it, it's already done.

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And so you have to just walk that thing out, right? So he said,

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I need you to fast, Connie. I need you to fast.

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And I said, okay, I want to fast. What kind of fast, Lord. I need a consecration and dedication.

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So it means I want you to focus on me and consecrate yourself,

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dedicate yourself, and don't get so caught up on what you're going to be eating.

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You ever had someone do a fast and they're talking about, oh girl, I made this, I made that.

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Their whole thing about the fast was how to create these fun dishes and how

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it tastes so good and how they're going to keep eating that way.

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And they missed the whole point. It's not about the food. It's about consecration

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and it's about dedication.

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And what was God doing? He said, I was stripping them of their complaint.

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I was stripping them of their fear because we complain when we're fearful. Come on, right?

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And it's a temptation to reason them out of obedience. We can talk ourselves.

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Out of obedience. Walking in silence requires trust, not understanding.

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How many times have we missed our miracle because we talked ourselves out of it?

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God was teaching Israel, and he's

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teaching me and you to trust his process without needing to explain it.

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Can God just tell us to do something without him having to explain the reason behind it.

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You can ask instructions, but sometimes why we got to do it this way? Can we do it that way?

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You see, Picasso, I just need you to just do it.

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I told you in the introduction, it says, and I want you to walk.

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Go ahead and walk. When I tell you to talk, I want you to talk.

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How come we just can't do that?

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Why do it require us to ask a lot of questions?

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And even when we get all the answers, we still don't do it, right?

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So sometimes your silence is more to heaven than words could ever mean anything, right?

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Your silence to God is you're doing it in obedience unto God.

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This fast is more than giving up food. It's about gaining control over your

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mouth, your emotions, and your reactions.

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Silent obedience is a spiritual discipline that says, I trust you even when I don't understand.

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Wow, God tells us to do something, we roll right over and we just do it.

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And we don't complain about it. We don't try to figure it out.

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We just do it. And so for this day, our day two, I want you to try that. I want you to try.

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I know whatever fast you decided to do, do that.

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But also practice keeping your mouth closed, controlling what you say,

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getting control over your mouth, your emotions, your reaction,

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and just ask God, say, God, just give me instructions throughout the day and

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just be obedient and be obedient in those things.

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So let's pray. Lord, teach me to walk quietly before you. Help me to silence

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my doubts, my fear, and complaints.

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Guard my lips so that I only speak what you have spoken.

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Let my silence be an act of worship, an offering of trust.

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I surrender my voice so that I may hear yours more clearly.

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That's powerful. So when you silence your voice, you are able to hear God.

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Wow, that's powerful. But we're just chitter-chatting, even in our minds,

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that we can just silence our voice, that we can hear God more clearly.

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And I thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Our decree, I decree that I will walk in silent obedience.

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I will not grumble. I will not gossip or speak words of doubt.

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I will wait on God's timing, trusting that his instruction is better than my opinion.

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Ecclesiastes 3.7 says, there's a time to be silent and there's a time to speak.

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God has something in his Bible for everything we have to do in our daily life.

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And I love it that he says, Ecclesiastes 3.7, and says there's a time to be

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silent and there is a time to speak.

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Today's challenge, along with your dietary fast, take a verbal fast.

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Refrain from speaking negatively.

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Avoid unnecessary talk or complaining. When tempted to vent or pray, vent.

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Just pray silently instead. Use this state to listen to God,

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to his spirit, and to the walls he is preparing to shape.

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What are some situations in your life

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where silence could become a weapon of trust.

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The way you can trust God by not always having something to say, by just doing it.

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What has God been speaking that you have been too distracted or noisy to hear?

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Wow, God wants to bring us back

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to more listening to Him instead of always having all these questions.

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You don't mind questions. You just say, at this time of this 12-day consecration

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and dedication, Jericho fast, Joshua 6.

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I want to see what God does in our lives. What walls will fall down?

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What breakthrough can happen in your life because of your obedience?

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First, consecration and dedication. And second, we see here to sanctify your

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mouth, to shut up and to listen with the intention to obey what God is telling us.

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What can be developed from that discipline?

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Not to talk. Let's try it today. And this comes on late for you guys.

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So let's try it the next day.

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You know, let's see what happens that as you quiet down and listen to God,

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bring your journal because God's always talking and see what you've been missing

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because you've been talking or complaining or venting too much and see what

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God has for you and then do that thing. Amen.

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All right. So until next time, I'll see you for day three.

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Thank you for listening to this episode. And before we close out,

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I want to speak a word of promise over you from Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14.

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Father God, you declared, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

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Plans to give you hope and a future. So today we receive that truth.

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You said when we call on you, you will listen. So we pray.

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You said that when we seek you with our hearts, you will be found. So we pursue.

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You said you will restore us from captivity. So we declare freedom over every

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place where our listeners feel stuck, silenced, or small.

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Thank you for always drawing near when we show up and faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Music.