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

0:00 Music. Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host, Connie Morris, where healing has a voice and truth is no longer silent. Father God, like Jabez, we cry out that thou would bless us indeed. Bless every woman listening beyond trauma, beyond limits, beyond what she thought was possible. Enlarge her territory. Expand her purpose. Let your hand be upon this moment. Saturate every word with oil and truth. break cycles, cancel every curse sent to silence her. This isn't just a podcast.

0:49 This is holy ground. In Jesus' name, amen. Hello, and welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm your host, Connie Morris, and we are on day two of The Walls Must Fall, a 12-day Jericho fast of consecration and dedication. Day one, we understood what it meant to walk in dedication and consecration. But today we're going to talk about walking in silence. What does that mean? The power of quiet obedience. Wow. We're going to talk about the power of quiet obedience. The walls must fall. And so I just want to hear from you and how you're doing out there in podcast land?

1:34 And how's it going so far with day one? How is God talking to you about your breakthrough? And so let's get going on this second episode or day two of walking in silence. We're going to pick it up here in Joshua 6.10. And the scripture reads, do not give a war cry. Do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout, then shout. I said that really nice, but think about God. He's been dealing with the Israelites for almost 40 years, okay? And we know that they have some disobedient tendencies.

2:14 So he probably was saying it more like this, and Joshua probably had that same tone with them because they had a tendency to kind of do what they want to do. And have you ever had God tell you to not do something and you kind of felt that tense in your spirit, like, I better not do that because the fear of the Lord is upon me. And so today in day two, walk in silence, we hear that Joshua told the children of Israel, and I think he said it a little bit firm. He says, do not give a war cry. Do not raise your voices. Do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout and shout.

2:55 So he says, I want you to pay attention to me because I have some strategic things I need you to do. But the first thing I want you to do is I want you to walk in silence. I just wonder why he had them to walk in silence. You know why? Because they had a habit of complaining. They had a habit of just how this is going to work. What are we going to do? I wonder what God is up to. They had a reason, a way of just doubting how God will work in their life. Is that you? Do you have a way that God tells you to do one thing and you say, I don't know how that going to work. And then you begin to doubt God. And then this is a season for sure that God is telling us in this Jericho fast. This 12 day devotion is to watch your mouth, to walk in silence.

3:40 Don't say a word. I don't care if you get beat up. Don't say a word because God says, I want to do something. I don't want you to take any credit. Let's see what God's saying. Silence can feel uncomfortable, even unnatural. We know that, especially when someone has done us wrong. We'll rehearse that thing in our head. We'll say it out loud. We'll just keep, we just want to figure out how we're going to say it when we get an opportunity to speak to them. We rehearse it and we rehearse it and we rehearse But God tells Israelites through Joshua, do not raise your voices, do not say a word.

4:22 So we see here that it can even feel unnatural. Yet on the second day of the Jericho campaign, God's people were told to walk and say nothing. This is a season where God wants us to be obedient. And the first thing he tells us to do under day two, walk in silence, the power of quiet obedience. Is to not say a word. To not say a word. Why? Because silence isn't weakness, it's warfare. In that silence, God was stripping them of complaint, of fear, and the temptation to reason their way out of obedience. How many have done that?

5:06 God tell you to do one thing and you are walking and talking with God. Finding 101 ways on why you can't do what he has told you to do. We understand that God sees the thing done when he asks you to do it. Come on now. He's already said, can you go ahead and do that? Because in his mind, he's a faith God, not in his mind. When he says it, it's already done. And so you have to just walk that thing out, right? So he said, I need you to fast, Connie. I need you to fast. And I said, okay, I want to fast. What kind of fast, Lord. I need a consecration and dedication. So it means I want you to focus on me and consecrate yourself, dedicate yourself, and don't get so caught up on what you're going to be eating.

5:51 You ever had someone do a fast and they're talking about, oh girl, I made this, I made that. Their whole thing about the fast was how to create these fun dishes and how it tastes so good and how they're going to keep eating that way. And they missed the whole point. It's not about the food. It's about consecration and it's about dedication. And what was God doing? He said, I was stripping them of their complaint. I was stripping them of their fear because we complain when we're fearful. Come on, right? And it's a temptation to reason them out of obedience. We can talk ourselves. Out of obedience. Walking in silence requires trust, not understanding.

6:35 How many times have we missed our miracle because we talked ourselves out of it? God was teaching Israel, and he's teaching me and you to trust his process without needing to explain it. Can God just tell us to do something without him having to explain the reason behind it. You can ask instructions, but sometimes why we got to do it this way? Can we do it that way? You see, Picasso, I just need you to just do it. I told you in the introduction, it says, and I want you to walk. Go ahead and walk. When I tell you to talk, I want you to talk. How come we just can't do that? Why do it require us to ask a lot of questions?

7:17 And even when we get all the answers, we still don't do it, right? So sometimes your silence is more to heaven than words could ever mean anything, right? Your silence to God is you're doing it in obedience unto God. This fast is more than giving up food. It's about gaining control over your mouth, your emotions, and your reactions. Silent obedience is a spiritual discipline that says, I trust you even when I don't understand. Wow, God tells us to do something, we roll right over and we just do it. And we don't complain about it. We don't try to figure it out.

7:59 We just do it. And so for this day, our day two, I want you to try that. I want you to try. I know whatever fast you decided to do, do that. But also practice keeping your mouth closed, controlling what you say, getting control over your mouth, your emotions, your reaction, and just ask God, say, God, just give me instructions throughout the day and just be obedient and be obedient in those things. So let's pray. Lord, teach me to walk quietly before you. Help me to silence my doubts, my fear, and complaints. Guard my lips so that I only speak what you have spoken. Let my silence be an act of worship, an offering of trust.

8:42 I surrender my voice so that I may hear yours more clearly. That's powerful. So when you silence your voice, you are able to hear God. Wow, that's powerful. But we're just chitter-chatting, even in our minds, that we can just silence our voice, that we can hear God more clearly. And I thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Our decree, I decree that I will walk in silent obedience. I will not grumble. I will not gossip or speak words of doubt. I will wait on God's timing, trusting that his instruction is better than my opinion. Ecclesiastes 3.7 says, there's a time to be silent and there's a time to speak.

9:26 God has something in his Bible for everything we have to do in our daily life. And I love it that he says, Ecclesiastes 3.7, and says there's a time to be silent and there is a time to speak. Today's challenge, along with your dietary fast, take a verbal fast. Refrain from speaking negatively. Avoid unnecessary talk or complaining. When tempted to vent or pray, vent. Just pray silently instead. Use this state to listen to God, to his spirit, and to the walls he is preparing to shape. What are some situations in your life where silence could become a weapon of trust.

10:12 The way you can trust God by not always having something to say, by just doing it. What has God been speaking that you have been too distracted or noisy to hear? Wow, God wants to bring us back to more listening to Him instead of always having all these questions. You don't mind questions. You just say, at this time of this 12-day consecration and dedication, Jericho fast, Joshua 6. I want to see what God does in our lives. What walls will fall down? What breakthrough can happen in your life because of your obedience? First, consecration and dedication. And second, we see here to sanctify your mouth, to shut up and to listen with the intention to obey what God is telling us.

11:05 What can be developed from that discipline? Not to talk. Let's try it today. And this comes on late for you guys. So let's try it the next day. You know, let's see what happens that as you quiet down and listen to God, bring your journal because God's always talking and see what you've been missing because you've been talking or complaining or venting too much and see what God has for you and then do that thing. Amen. All right. So until next time, I'll see you for day three. Thank you for listening to this episode. And before we close out, I want to speak a word of promise over you from Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14.

11:50 Father God, you declared, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. So today we receive that truth. You said when we call on you, you will listen. So we pray. You said that when we seek you with our hearts, you will be found. So we pursue. You said you will restore us from captivity. So we declare freedom over every place where our listeners feel stuck, silenced, or small. Thank you for always drawing near when we show up and faith. In Jesus' name, Amen. Music.