May 28


You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I shall say to you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout. Joshua 6:10


This command is perhaps one of the hardest, namely to hold our tongues and to walk in quiet obedience until the shout of the Spirit becomes an all-consuming cry of faith. The tongue is one of the means by which faith and victory so easily leak out of the believer’s heart. If we can obey God in the use of our tongue, we will come to deeper and greater victories. The key is to keep a quiet heart and a still mind, listening calmly to the voice of the Spirit. The tongue is like a background noise both in the brain and in the mouth, that drowns out the voice of the Spirit. If only we will be quiet long enough, we will sense that there is another voice speaking inside our hearts on a different level from our chattering minds. We can get caught up in triumphalism, talking up our faith in a kind of self-induced enthusiasm. It takes great faith to realise that the Spirit is not relying on our enthusiasm! He is relying on us hearing His words and His note, which is triumph of a totally different order. When we catch the shout of the Spirit, faith rises instantly. Then something changes in our hearts because we have spoken out not merely what we want to happen, but what the Spirit declares prophetically will happen. Be still, and let the shout build up in your heart as you ponder the triumph of Christ.