The weapon of silence

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:3, 4, 5,

³ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh; ⁴ for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. ⁵ We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

A recent revelation has told us that silence is the spiritual weapon in our arsenal that delivers the “knock-out punch.” (We are currently using that weapon.)

This revelation reminded me of the Jericho march in Joshua 6:10,

¹⁰ But Joshua commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard nor let a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout!”

The people followed Joshua’s instructions to be silent for six days. They were to shout only after marching around the city seven times on the seventh day. And so we read in Joshua 6:20,

²⁰ So the people shouted, and priests blew trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.

The first thing we note is that Joshua did not conduct conventional warfare against Jericho. The tactics clearly show that this was a matter of spiritual warfare—even though it was conducted on earth by flesh-and-blood men.

Secondly, note that Jericho was a prophetic type of Babylon. The priests were instructed to march around Jericho once a day for six days blowing trumpets but speaking nothing. On the seventh day they marched around the city seven times blowing trumpets. In the book of Revelation, we see seven angels blowing trumpets. The seventh trumpet consisted of seven bowls of wine being poured out in spiritual warfare against Babylon. When the seventh trumpet sounded, the city fell.

The fall of Babylon is patterned after the fall of Jericho. The seven angels blew trumpets which were heard only in the spirit—unless some on earth were led to blow trumpets in harmony with the angels. The point is that there was an element of silence involved in the warfare against Babylon, simply because silence was a component of the Jericho battle.

Why silence? What is so important about silence?

Silence signifies entering into God’s rest—the Jubilee Sabbath. Recall that the priests were not blowing bell-shaped trumpets, for those had a different purpose. The word translated "ram's horn" in Joshua 6:4, 5 is yobel, “Jubilee.” It was a reference to a ram’s horn, of course, but quite literally, the priests were “blowing the Jubilee,” that is, they were announcing the Jubilee (and teaching its principles). We learned this back in 1993, when we conducted our Jubilee Prayer Campaign, and we have been teaching the law of Jubilee ever since.

Spiritual warfare has taught us that we can win every battle as long as we are obedient to Christ and do not violate His laws. It is a court battle, where the winner is the one who is on the right side of the law. It has nothing to do with how many people are on one side or the other, because our Judge follows His own standard: “You shall not follow the masses in doing evil… so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice” (Exodus 23:2).

God does not pervert justice by submitting to a multitude of sinners claiming to be right. For this reason, we just state our case, as led by our Defense Attorney, the Holy Spirit. We base each case on the word of God itself. Then we “rest our case” and enter into God’s rest. In other words, we have faith that the righteous Judge of the whole earth will do what is right.

Silence is golden.