Walls Must Fall: Day 8: Burning Bridges to Embrace a New Beginning

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 the Diary of a Black Woman podcast. And I'm your host, Connie Morris, and we are on day eight of our Wall Must Fall series, a 12-day Jericho fast of consecration and dedication. Today's topic is burn the bridge back, no turning back. Our foundational scripture today is Joshua 6 25. It says, but Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute because she hid the spies and she lives among the Israelites to this day. Let's talk about Rahab for a minute.

1:34 Rahab determined that she was going to burn her bridge first. Rahab hid the spies and they were able to tell her to hang out a scarlet claw so that we'll know where you live and that we will come and get you when we come. So think about Rahab when she was in the, she lived right on the Jericho wall. And you can, and you know, check this out. think about how exciting that was, When you peek out the window and you see that your life is about to change. So imagine what Rahab was doing. She had all her families. She protected the spies. And all she asked from them was that you would save my family.

2:22 And so when they heard the trumpets, when they saw the Ark of the Covenant, she knew it was time for her deliverance. Amen. So she had burned her bridges of being a prostitute and cited that, I'm going with the Lord. But she also didn't just leave her family there. She says, I'm going with the Lord. Are you coming with me? And guess what? They said, we're going to go with you. So not only was there a great anticipation for the Israelites, think about Rahab and her family. That great anticipation, that she's getting ready to start a new life with a new God. She was no longer worshiping her old God.

3:06 She decided to worship the God Almighty, the God of the Israelites, the mighty God that saves, delivers, and set free, the mighty God that is coming for her. Think about how much excitement that was. And that's what I want you to do today. I want you to think about some things about burning some bridges. Today is burn bridge day. We know we're talking about the walls must fall, but there before that wall fell for Rahab, she had to burn some bridges. She had to let some things go, let some people go, let some places go. And if you teach a class on addiction, let some addiction go.

3:48 You know, people, places, and things go. And that's what we call that consecration and dedication, that we have to let some things go. Everything can go with us into our new. Now, a story that just came to mind, but not said they can't come later, but when God is moving you, you may not have time to grab everybody. But Rahab did. And if that's you, God said, grab your family, let's go. You go. No, because as we see in the world today, there's floods and there's famines in the United States. We're not talking about overseas. We're talking about things are happening in our backyard, but yet we're not paying attention. We're not paying attention.

4:33 God is speaking. He's whispering. He's telling us, hey, things are happening. I need you to get ready. I need you to get ready. Right. But yet Rahab was ready. Her and her family. Let's continue. When the walls fell, the people didn't rebuild it. They moved forward. No one ran back to grab bricks. No one tried to resurrect what God destroyed. They burned the bridge back. And this is a funny side story is if you ever been to Israel or Jerusalem, it's a very old town and it's surrounded by stones and bricks and all kinds of things. And I remember I took a tour there and It was an exciting tour, but I wanted souvenirs to say I've been there. You know what I was collecting?

5:19 Stones and little bricks and just to put in my little bag. And when I went to the airport, they have a big old, like, it's a big thing that they have people like me says, you know what? You can't take that with you. You can't take those bricks with you. You just can't take them with you. I thought that was so funny. I'm thinking, I'm remembering I went over here. I took a break there, took a little bit of bricks from my little tour, thought I would just go home and have a little Israel collection of stones. And they pretty much says, no, no bricks leave this place. Put them in this big bin. And you look over at the bin and there was, You weren't the only one. There's bins of bricks that people try to take.

6:08 And God is telling us on day eight, he's saying, no, burn the bridge back. Where God's taking you, you can't turn back. I don't know if anyone out there who tried to go back, it's just not the same. Things are not the same. And so you must make a decision today that you are burning the bridge back. No turning back. These are things this fast is meant to end permanently. God is saying like, I want to change you permanently, you know? Cycles that must stay buried under rubble. Relationships, habits, excuses, and mindsets that you must choose to leave behind.

6:53 Breakthrough is not just about what falls. It's about what you refuse to rebuild, what you refuse to let go. Even Rahab, a woman who once lived in the wall, got out and didn't go back. She aligned with a new life. It's your turn now. Let's pray. Lord, help me to return to what you've brought me out of. Help me not to return to what you brought me out of. Close every door never meant for me to reopen. Sever every soul tie, bad habit, ungodly pattern. Let my testimony be one of transformation, not relapse. I burn the bridge back and I move forward.

7:35 Declaration, I declare that I will not be going back. I walk in freedom, not fear. The walls have fallen and I will not try to resurrect what God has buried. My steps are ordered forward. My past is over. My future is blessed. Philippians 3.13 reads, forgetting what is behind and straining forward for what is ahead. Our fasting focus is fasting from anything that tempts you to return. That might be a phone contact, a form of entertainment, a musical playlist, a certain voice.

8:16 Delete, block, lay it down. Whatever you do, don't go back. The journal prompt. What are some things or people you've been tempted to return to? Sometimes it does take, sometimes you even forget that you have, our phone collects every number. And even when you get a new phone, those numbers transfer over. And sometimes once you have those blocked numbers, sometimes they unblock themselves some kind of way. You know, and you're trying to get your life together. All of a sudden this random person who you thought you blocked, you go, oh my gosh, I thought I blocked that number. That number don't really mean you have to answer it. Let it ring, go to voicemail, then block it, right? You're not going back. You're not going back.

8:58 What was failed though during this time? And how can you protect that progress, right? So we are in day eight and this episode right here, I think they're all powerful episode, but this one really brings back kind of reminder of me. Of probably a lot of us. Lot's wife was a story of Lot. Lot, the angels came to deliver him from Sodom and Gomorrah and his family. And there were, I mean, we always have this saying, you only got one job. And Lot's wife, only job was not to look back. He said, don't look back. And for some reason, she looked back. And when she looked back, she turned into a pillar of saw.

9:39 And many times people say that when you look back, you stay back. You stay back. You got forward movement, but your heart ain't in that forward movement. Your heart is in that, in that staying back. And what happened most of the time, I don't have a statistical study, but I do have just from living long enough, you have some stories where people who say were made professional basketball and they went back to see their boys in the hood and they were killed, right? They got delivered from any major addiction, but when they went back, they died of overdose.

10:20 Girl went back to hang out with her friends who she thought were her friends and they ended up killing her. And so sometimes when God closes those doors, they close loud. They close very loud. And yet sometimes, I'm just saying sometimes a lot, we want to look back like lost wife, what happened to them? And sometimes he doesn't want you to look back. God wants you to go forward. Amen. He wants you to go forward. And so today is one of us, I believe it's not a serious episode, but sometimes we go so we can go so far with God, but we keep having, keep the same friends who don't really believe in God.

11:05 Are you thinking like, I'm going to win them to Christ? God will need your help. If he did, he'll let you know. But if he didn't ask you, then you need to get out of his way. Same way with your children. Same way with those places. I'm going to go to the bar. I'm going to get some people saved. And you, who the one got drunk, get arrested for DWI on your way home. Who did you get saved during that process? You never, ever benefit from going back. We all have a story of going back to maybe an old relationship when you've been delivered and set free. and then somehow you got sugar talked into going back and that never works out. And so for this episode, I want to say, just like Rahab did.

11:48 Rahab was a story of victory. She didn't look back. And her story wasn't like she was a master of anything. She was a prostitute, but she decided to follow Jesus. And it says in the same scripture, Joshua 6, 25, among the Israelites to this day, She never went back. She never went back. She never, ever went back. But then we hear the story of Lot's wife, where she was delivered same way, supernaturally, by angels of God sent to rescue her. A Psalm 91 moment, and yet she looked back, and there she still stands as a pillar of saw, As a reminder of those that want to look back, they stay, they stay.

12:36 So just a reminder, burn the bridge back. Whatever you have to do, delete the contact. You know what you got to do. Don't go to that place. Whatever you have to do, start your new. Bible says he's doing a new thing. Can you not perceive it? You see, Rahab perceived it and she waited with anticipation on the promise that she was going to be delivered. Can you perceive your new thing? Can you perceive that during the walls must fall, that you will be free? That would you just stay going forward, keeping your face like a flint towards your future? That God has something greater for you that has nothing to do with your past, right? that God can use you in a mighty, mighty way to help somebody else. Do you believe that?

13:27 I believe that for myself. And that's why I picked those two. You have the prayer of Jabez on the front end of this podcast, where Jabez, who was standing in the middle of genealogy in 1 Chronicles, and he cried out, Lord, bless me indeed. Enlarge my territory. Keep your hands upon me and keep me from evil so I won't sin against you. And then it says, God answered his request. That means he burnt that bridge. He did not go back. Jeremiah 29 closes out the podcast. It says, for I know the thoughts and plans I have for you. And what does it say in the end?

14:08 To give you an expected end. expect it in. What if you don't go back? And so I just want to encourage you for this day eight episode, don't go back. Burn that bridge. Do what you got to do. Keep focusing on intimacy with God and consecration and dedication. And 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.

14:51 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.