*This post is long, but it’s FIRE! If you don’t have time to read it in its entirety, please read the italicized phrases and the end sections. You will be blessed!*
I’ve been coming to church for eight years now, and although I’m always faithful to come to services, I have always struggled with the daily walk. Lately, I’ve really been trying to be more consistent with daily prayer and Bible reading every single morning before I check my phone.
I was reminded of a sermon that Brother Nathan Cox preached at our church back in December 2018 called “How to Bring Down Walls”. I’ve been thinking about this sermon every day for the last week, so I bought the sermon and took five pages of notes.
The rest of this post is what he preached and not my own thoughts. I hope it helps someone as much as it helped me.
Joshua 6:2-5 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days… On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”
There’s not a wall big enough that God can’t bring down when we call on the name of Jesus. No wall that hell can build. Walls like addiction, strongholds, complacency, bitterness, sin, backsliding, boredom, routine, excuses, laziness, carnality, etc. Walls in our family and church that keep us from being what God wants us to be.
Sometimes we feel like we’re up against a wall every time we try to move forward. No matter what is preached or said, we can’t seem to get through this wall. We want to see our children live for God. We keep swinging at it and chipping away at it in prayer, but there’s just a wall. No matter what we do, we can’t seem to break it down.
We come to church and feel the presence of God, but there are walls in our lives that are keeping us from going all the way to where God wants us to go. Walls that prevent a revival, keep backsliders from coming home, and walls around our faith.
I Won’t Stop
The devil tells us that it can’t happen. He’s trying to get us disgruntled and discouraged. Walls keep people from responding to God when the preacher is preaching faith. We have to say, “God, I believe things are still going to happen, and I will not stop until the walls come down.”
Since the devil can’t stop the church, he’ll try to slow it down. He wants to keep us short of the fullness we are promised as a part of the church. No victory, no miracles, no gifts of the spirit, no prophecy, and no discernment.
He wants us to believe these were just for our grandparents’ time and be content with singing good songs, jumping up and down, and going home. It’s not the will of God that we are kept back from the things He wants to do in our lives. God’s going to use somebody, it might as well be us!
It Takes Effort
Israel got to the promised land and the first city had a wall around it. It seemed impossible, but they’ve got the promises of God in their ears, the voice of God saying it’s possible, and testimonies of their parents coming out of Egypt. God had a battle plan: get up and start walking around the walls.
Walls don’t come down without effort. Depression won’t just leave without any prayer or effort. On the seventh day there’s going to be the sound of a trumpet. When you hear the trumpet, don’t be quiet anymore but open up your mouth and shout! When you begin to shout, the walls are going to fall flat.
We need to be a church of fire every service. We need to be a people of shouting every day. We are the people who respond to the trumpet with a shout. We are the people who respond to the preaching with a shout. We are the people who believe a shout has power!
What Brought the Walls Down?
What brought down the walls? The shout on the last day, the walking, or both? It was both. If they hadn’t walked– if all they had done was shout and had never walked- those walls would have stayed right where they were.
But they did more walking than shouting. More walking on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday than there was shouting. Hebrews 11:30 says, “By faith, the walls of Jerico fell.” It didn’t mention the shouting. It only says, “after they were compassed about for seven days.”
It was faith and the daily walk that brought the walls down when the people shouted. Want to know how to bring the walls down? It’s in the daily walking. Waking up on Monday morning and getting the Bible out and praying. You’re walking.
Keep on Walking
You don’t see the walls coming down. I don’t want to learn how to shout if I don’t know how to walk. Some people shout but it’s not backed up by a walk. It’s just a cover-up to avoid close inspection of how they’re really living. They’re always frustrated because they’re not getting any walls to come down, and they’re always upset because they’re not seeing things break loose in their lives.
If all you do is shout on the seventh day you’re going to leave without any cracks in the walls.
Several hundred thousand soldiers were marching every day in step and the vibration of the ground shook the wall a little bit. They were thinking, “This is crazy, nobody is even paying attention to this. The enemy is not even scared of this, they’re just laughing at me. Nobody sees me in my room praying alone on Tuesday morning.” But every step they take, the ground is shaking, the wall’s shaking.
And after seven days of proving “I can walk when I don’t feel like walking“, “I can walk when it’s not popular”, “I can walk when the enemy is laughing at me“, “I can walk when I don’t see the progress”…
The Walk Brings the Power
By the time they got through storming the enemy’s walls, when they started shouting on the last day, it was the walk that put the power behind the shout. Walk when nobody is looking, walk when it’s not fun, walk even when you don’t see results.
When you get up on Monday and you pray and open your Bible and the enemy tells you, “this wall ain’t been touched”- you just remember “I’m putting a crack in the foundation. I’m making another push, and there’s going to be a day after all my walking that I’m going to be shouting the victory as God begins to bring down what my walk prepared!”
God will always honor a shout that’s been backed by consistent walking. Don’t get weary with the daily walk. The devil will tell you “don’t bother, that backslidden child’s not coming back, the walls of bondage are too thick.” When I hear that I’m just going to get up and start walking again.
Shouting Day is Coming!
You may feel like you’re going in circles, like a routine. But keep praying, keep reading your Bible, keep knocking on doors. Every time you lift your hands in worship, you’re putting another crack in the foundation. Every time you go to prayer, you’re putting another crack in the foundation.
Every time you’re consistent, you’re just letting the devil know “I’m not going anywhere, I’m not giving up, I am not stopping until I start seeing things break loose!” Your years of consistency haven’t been in vain. They haven’t been a waste. Shouting day is coming! That’s how walls come down!
Apostolic Momma 