The Silence before the Shout

I didn’t realise this until later – when my previous post about Jericho was published, it was the day I took the step of faith, and it is the seventh day when I type and publish this post today. God was making me walk around in silence for the past six days too.

You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.

It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.”

Joshua 6:3-5 (NKJV)

Walking through the six days in silence proved harder than I thought. When we go into war, we want to do a war cry to rally the soldiers for battle or to scare the enemies. When we start something new in business or ministry, we want to be loud to attract attention and drum up interest.

Yet it was a spiritual battle in the quietness.

Day 0, I was all proud when I set it up. The visuals look good. I rented a cube in Woodleigh Mall (#B1-K45) to finally display/sell the Kid’s Emotional Journal I had published. See if you can spot the journal in the photo. The story behind the journal is a long one for another time.

I was pleased and at peace, even though I didn’t put the product code/price tag like I should have. I had to go in the next day again.

(Edit: The lease starts from the next day, so technically Day 0 when I set it up.)

On my official day 1, another person stood in for the original store assistant who should have been there. She told me that there were too few items in my cube and usually other people who rent the cube would put as many things as possible. That’s when my peace got disturbed.

Were the Israelites being laughed at by others when they walked around Jericho in silence? Were they mocked for their seemingly foolish ways?

I started praying to have the discernment to decide if that’s good advice or seeds of doubt. I even dreamt about how I should display my items. Then I started to worry that there wouldn’t be any sales because of the lack of items. Even in the quietness to quieten ourselves to seek the Lord, the enemy can be relentless in his attacks on us. He doesn’t want us to power up as we seek the Lord, but stay small so we could be defeated more easily.

I had to consciously pull my focus away from my doubts and back to God. I had to remember why I rented the cube in the first place. I had never thought of renting a cube, because I don’t buy from such cubes myself. Would people even look and buy? That’s why I think God planted the idea in me – to rent a cube to increase exposure for the journal. It’s a bible verse-laden journal, so my first thought was to sell it at Christian shops and bookstores. But somehow, there’s a big inertia there, while the renting of the cube was smooth and fast. And the cube’s location met all my criteria. I reason that it was a better reach to non-Christians with the cube than Christian shops.

Doubts came when I worried about the sales and finances. However, once I re-focus on the purpose of doing this in the first place, and die to the selfof wanting to earn from this, I felt more peace and ideas flowed. I did put more things into the cube, including the blessings in a bottle while retaining a certain level of aesthetics I want instead of just doing what others are doing.

But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!

Joshua 6:15-16 (NKJV)

Today as I type and publish this, it’s the seventh day. So I will march around seven times and… SHOUT! I don’t know what’s inside Jericho. But I pray for the faith to believe the walls will fall and I’ll be able to conquer it in the name of God.

Whatever you are battling with, may you be able to shout and charge into victory too!

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