Your Silence is Deafening
Someone Remains Lost When You Stay Quiet
The season of silence is coming to an end. The season of being able to watch evil and wrongdoing without speaking on it. It is the time to speak up when we see sons and daughters, brothers and sisters in Christ, hurting one another, mistreating marriages, harming children, and going completely astray. Such that now a lot of what we see around us can be unrecognizable as Christian behavior.
This message comes from God and was sent to my mother, Dawne Brown, the founder of WISH. Together we are going to be articulating the messages from God and relaying them to our community, the women in this ministry, and anyone who needs to hear from God.
He is speaking to his children, and he is telling us it is time to speak up.
I've recently taken up the mantle to expand the WISH ministry to a younger chapter of sisterhood. I've been called to share God's love and God's word with my peers, and…the calling is foreign. I'm not used to speaking on faith, this clearly (and credibly?) It's interesting how the Most High can call us to a seat of purpose and invite us out onto the water to complete a mission for Him, yet we are still looking around at earthly and worldly credentials to give us the authority. The truth is God has already bestowed upon us the authority by being saved through Christ by faith.
Romans 10:14-15
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!””
Romans chapter 10, verses 14 through 15, tells us that it is important to preach the good news, to share with others your walk with Christ and your message, your purpose. How can others come to God if they don't see his works alive in the world? Alive in you?
We all hope to be vessels used by God, and yet some of us are shying away from ‘getting on a soapbox’. Some of us are too nervous to share God's grace with our community for fear of having lash back. Perhaps, like myself, it’s an impostor syndrome where we've convinced ourselves that we can't speak on something. However, with humility and by God's grace, this is exactly what He has charged us to do.
The devil, the enemy, would love to lie to you and tell you that you don't need to testify. He will tell you that you need to keep things to yourself and tell you that you need to stay protected. That nobody else will appreciate it, nobody else will value it. The enemy will tell you that no one needs to hear what Jesus has done, but in the meantime - while you feel safe in your silence - others are going astray. Others who would find meaning in your testimony.
Others who would come to Christ simply by hearing from you.
This is why I am convinced that my life has been a living testimony. A testimony I have stayed silent on for much too long. And you have been living a life of testimony. You have made it through. The enemy has not taken you out. By God's grace, you have been brought through the fire. You have been delivered from things that the enemy wanted to end you with. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, because you have been given a birthright that cannot be taken away. So why stay silent about it?
Mathew 28:19-20
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””
You don't have to be comfortable. You don't have to be ready. You only have to be his and called to the purpose. Matthew 28:19 and 20 tells us to go and be disciples of all nations. Therefore, we must all be obedient to Jesus's command. He says he will go with us, so what more assurance do we really need? If we don't believe it, then are we not doubting his very words?
God is sending you to speak. He is giving you the keys and the authority to speak. We speak all day, all about things that don't matter as much as his kingdom. We can speak about work. We can speak about television shows and all sorts of gossip. We love to commune and make fellowship with our community, and that is the perfect place to share your testimony as well.
Go, be disciples of all nations.
Will you tell someone about what God is doing in you?
You know, it is just like God to speak through every single avenue and channel that is accessible to me, especially after praying to hear more from Him. How interesting that this Word that He sent my Mom directly applies to me (and I had not read it beforehand). God has been calling me to share with others about what He has done in me:
how He brought me out of my darkness
how He brought me out of my mistakes
of me falling away from Him and falling into dark practices and methods
immersing myself in environments and practices that I had no business dabbling in
surrounding myself with the people and communities that would only take me further under
making decisions based on myself as the highest authority instead of submitting myself to Christ
Really, He has been priming me through all of that to be able to come here today and share this transformation in me that has brought me back to Him, even more deeply. It is a testimony that everyone needs to hear because every single one of us can come back to His place of righteousness through repentance and servitude, submitting ourselves as vessels to God and asking Him to fill us with His Holy Spirit. In doing so, you are breaking the curses that have been put over you.
There is no shame in a testimony.
A testimony is one of the highest messages we can share. By being vulnerable, we invite others to come from being lost and astray. They can see what God has done for you, He can do for them too. I no longer want to stay silent about the testimonies in my life. I no longer can stay silent. I feel a burning and an itching in my tongue and in my spirit, an unsettling, that says, "They need to hear and they need to know."
I know now that more are helped the more I share about my journey through infertility, my journey through divorces, my journey through losing my faith, practicing in tarot, crystals and ways of the world, my experience in placing human understanding over a calling and purpose from God. These things are not shameful. They are liberating. When I share about what I've been through, others may see themselves. Others may too know that there's always a place in your heavenly Father's arms.
Silence has its consequences.
Not only does God want to hear from us, and he wants us to share with our community, our silence also has its consequences. The more silent we stay the more of our brothers and sisters stay in the darkness. I know for myself, I recently came across a woman in ministry who is doing very well with her ministry. It's spreading. She's reaching many people, and it seems that she's got a lot of success in what she's doing.
She still made the time to share a couple of vulnerable things on her channel. One of them was sharing about the things that she still struggles with, even as a Christian leader. She also shared some of the doubts that she has had about the calling that God has bestowed. Testimony in sharing that they too struggled through a similar challenge and they were able to continue to prevail. They found ways to come back to God. They shared how they got through challenges.
Hearing her share that made me feel stronger in my walk. Instead of looking at any backsliding and thinking, "This will discredit me for my employment with God," I know to be true: I fastened my crown and remembered I am a daughter of the King. Like other children of God, we are sinners. We make mistakes. We fall away, but it's always about coming back. It's always about repenting. It's always about staying true to the Word of God that lives within us.
Ezekiel 33 :8-9
“When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.”
We who are called to be intercessors are being charged with going out into our communities to invoke change and to help bring God's glory to the world. We have that responsibility upon us. Ezekiel 33:8-9 shares with us that it is an important duty. As an intercessor, it is so important to speak up when we see someone going astray, when we see someone who is being wicked by allowing themselves to succumb to darkness. What they need is to hear the truth from the intercessors. They don't need to hear from them on a high soapbox. They need to hear from them as humans, as sinners who have repented and who have walked forward in God's light. In that way, we help bring up others behind us too: those who are living in rebellion, those who are living in darkness, those who are even just living in silence while God continues to quietly favor them.
This is your mantle. This is your time. You have something important to say. If you refuse to open your mouth, then you deny God his true gratitude - keeping his grace and his works on the tip of your tongue. If you refuse to speak, your peers may lose a battle - one that your testimony could have triumphed over. We must all stick together. We must all help one another, hold one another accountable, and help bring each other to the mantle that God has called you for.
Thank you, God.
Amen.
