Walls Must Fall: Day 10: Occupy the Land: Embrace Your Divine Authority

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. We are on day 10 of the Walls Must Fall series, a 12-day Jericho fast of consecration and dedication. And today, we're going to title this one, Occupy the Land, Take Possession of the Promise. So glad that you are here. We have two foundational scriptures. Number one, found in Joshua 6, 27, and it reads, So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

1:31 And then Joshua 1, 3 reads, every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I will give you. I love this because it says, occupy the land. The walls fell down. They conquered the land. And so now he says, occupy the land. The walls has fallen. The path is clear. Now the time is to occupy what God is giving you. This is where we get a little fearful a little doubtful and where our imposter syndrome can creep in because always good to celebrate and make a lot of noise until it's time to for the actual breakthrough to happen we cry out for a breakthrough but sometimes we forget that the breakthrough comes responsibility.

2:21 God did not give Jericho to the Israelites so they can admire the ruins. He gave it so they can build it up, plant, and rule righteously. How many know that is to be true, true, true? When the Lord said, Connie, I want you to start a podcast, the podcast is not going to run itself. You got to get up. You got to do the script. You got to record the script, edit the script, add a little music to the script. As you know, I did a little bit of that. There's work to be done when you're occupying the land, when you're spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, when you're building a business. There's work to be done. God did not give Jericho to the Israelites to look at it, to admire it and say, oh my gosh, I got a breakthrough. I got a breakthrough. Look what God has done.

3:10 Yes, you can do that for a moment, but then comes the work. Do not forget, then comes the work. People want to join the church and sit and be cute in the pews, but then comes the work. We have to do the work. You were not meant to stand on the edge of the promise. You were meant to occupy. Occupy means to take hold of territory, to settle in, to exercise authority. This is a season to walk boldly into what God has given you, whether it's healing, restoration, new purpose, or an assignment.

3:51 No more shrinking back, no more delaying obedience or delayed obedience. You've fasted, you have marched long enough. The Bible says you've been at this place long enough. Now it's time for you to take possession. My pastor ministered on shift change, shift change. A title of the message part one was shift change, that God is shifting things. And if he's shifting things, we're going to have to occupy some things. Like we've been crying out for victory. We've been crying out, give us our stuff back. Give us our 104 return. Give us our 30. Give us our 64 return. Give me my stuff back.

4:35 But how many know that when you get your stuff back, it's going to require some work. You believe in God for a bigger house, it's going to require some work. A bigger yard, It's going to require work. Even if you're asking God for a dog, it's going to require work. A cat is going to require work. A new job is going to require some work. When God tells you to occupy, he wants you to take hold of your territory. What does that mean? He needs you to settle in. He wants you to occupy. He wants you to exercise your authority. You know, interesting because I didn't know I was going to share this, but I guess I am. It just came up right now. I'm like a fixer. I hate being a fixer because when I get into stuff, I like to fix it.

5:18 One of the things that I happen to do right now is I'm the president of my HOA. Yeah, how did I get that job right? Exactly. It's getting organized, but it was a little bit dysfunctional coming in. Everybody was doing their own thing. Everybody wants to be the leader. The only leader is a monster. It was being very monstrous. And so getting things in order. So with strong women and everyone runs their own business and everybody want to run a different way, you have to exercise authority to pull some people back, especially when you got a lot of women.

6:00 Too many women in a place can make things go tilt. Amen. And so God give me this territory, occupy this land. I've been living in this, it's a townhouse kind of similar with an HOA and I've been living here and I was like, okay, things are not as it's supposed to be. One of my neighbors asked me to go to a meeting. I went to the meeting and, you know, I knew what was going on and, you know, I wasn't really going to say anything, but I get there and then I said too much, you know, not too much. I talked, I was stating my opinion. And seeing why things were where they are. And lo and behold, I became the vice president because I wasn't really too busy to be the president.

6:41 Then the president wasn't doing what she was supposed to do. I booted her out, became the president. And now I'm the president and I'm occupying this land. And every now and then I have to pull people back to put them in their place. Why? Because people like to, remember, we're all leaders and we all want to lead, but then there's order. God is not in the chaos. He is a God of order. And I was walking with him one day and I walk in the morning and I said, Lord, what do I do? This is, ah, you want to scream like, how did I get here? I don't want to do this anymore. And he said, you don't have to do this alone. I am with you. And I go, duh, like, whoa.

7:24 Many times we go alone. We just, we cover that in our series about do not go without the ark. And I realized that. And then the Lord began, once I got that revelation, then the Lord began to give me insights on how to run the HOA from his perspective. And it caused me to really have to put, use some authority. And it was interesting because when I use it, I just, I always use it firmly and politely, but no curse words, no nothing. I'm very polite, but firm. Someone, you send an email to tell them to stop something and someone sent an email, I don't like that tone. Watch your tone.

8:06 I said, there is no tone. You need to stay in your lane. And that calmed everything down. I'm not trying to be the boss. Just stay in your lane. You are supposed to do that job. You're delegating it. You are not in the position to delegate. You are out of order. And I always go, oh, Lord, that's good. Showing me how to exercise my authority. I don't know about how you guys are doing with the walls must fall. I hope you are building up some authority, some power, and feeling victorious, especially after we shout the walls down, especially after we burn some bridges and renewed our covenant, right? But now we're occupying the land. We can't go into our new land being afraid, being wimpy.

8:51 We have to use our authority. So let's take possession. I don't know if Walmart still uses this commercial, but I like it. Lose the saying. It says, go big or go home. Come on now, go big or go home. need to Christians need to have that attitude why because we're not going alone I didn't say go alone I said go big you can go big because our God is big amen let's pray Lord I will not fear the promise I won't sabotage self-sabotage delay or disqualify myself you tore down the walls and now I receive the land help me to walk in faith take hold of the territory and build according to your plan.

9:34 I will occupy every inch you have given me. In Jesus' name, amen. I decree that I will walk in the fullness of God's promise. I will not be a visitor. I am a rightful heir. I will plant, build, speak, and move in divine authority. The land is mine, and I will occupy it with wisdom. And courage. Deuteronomy 11, 24 reads, every place where you set your foot will be yours. Now, we believe that wouldn't we be walking everywhere, everywhere, you know, right? Everywhere I set my feet will be yours. So God tells me to walk in my newfound neighborhood.

10:20 You think I'm not a walk-in? Come on now. He told me to do some things at work. You think I'm not doing those things, God gives you that space. He needs you to be his arms, his legs, his authority in the earth, not by yourself, but with his power and the power of the Holy Spirit. Fasting focus. As fast deepens, continue abstaining from what clouds your clarity. Today, visualize what it means to occupy your promise. Write it out. Speak it out. Take a prophetic step. Apply for a job. Start the outline. Clean up a space, make the call, make a faith move that you can occupy.

11:01 And what I want you to write in your journal, just kind of think about these statements here, these questions. What have I been afraid to take possession of, even though God promised it? What are you leaving on the table? God said, go do it. You're saying, well, you know, I'm not ready. I need ABC. I need a degree. I need, you know, you need the alphabet soup. But God said, no, I need you to go, go, go do it. Amen. And next one, what action step can I take today to walk boldly into the promise? You know, Nike can did well, just do it. And I saw it on a, I watched Bicycle Races, the Tour de France, and I saw one had a glove on it says, whoosh, whoosh.

11:44 It should have said, whoosh, whoosh, right? But God says, like what, I don't know what God didn't say. It says, what action steps can I take today to walk boldly in the promise? All right, ladies, occupy the land. Take possession of the promise. It's time. You asked for the breakthrough. The breakthrough is here. Now occupy till he come. I'll see you on the next episode. 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. 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.

12:31 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 in faith. In Jesus' name, amen. Music.