Have you been shipwrecked by a Saul season?
(EXCERPT FROM "THE WILD ONES"
How we deal with the deepest wounds matters, and there are wounds that do seem to go deeper than others. They go deeper than words of accusation, being rejected, or being passed over. These are the wounds that far too many who experience them never seem to move on from them, but that statistic is changing. I am talking about father wounds, dishonor, and betrayal.
Saul was David’s father-in-law and while Saul started off admiring David, he became extremely jealous of the favor and presence on his life, and Saul sought to kill him.
The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice. Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul (1 Samuel 18:10–12).
Saul represents the fathers, leaders, and figures we all know in life who are meant to champion us, raise us, empower us, and cover/protect us, but because of insecurity, they fall prey to being a Saul in our lives. It’s quite ironic that a parental, spiritual figure that is meant to nurture and enhance the call of God on us can be the greatest threat to it. Many gifted and anointed people I know haven’t survived the Sauls in their lives. They are derailed and assassinated and alienated from their destinies.
People ask me this question all the time: Then if Sauls can be so destructive, why does God allow them? Firstly, you must remember that what is a “Saul test” to the Davids, is a “David test” to the Sauls. When we deal with a leader who acts as a Saul out of insecurity, the test we face is equally for them. Will they lift us up and propel us further than they have been? I’ll talk more about fathering in the chapters to come, but for now, I want to focus on the wilderness trial of dealing with Sauls, and then walking out the pain of being at the scary end of a Saul’s insecure rampage.
It’s one thing to raise people from orphans, but the real test is what fathers and mothers do when they mature and become powerful. In our years of raising up world changers in our school, we have seen time and time again people surpass us, and it blesses us, but if we got insecure, we could potentially be the greatest threat to their calling.
PINOCHIO’S CONUNDRUM
The story of Pinocchio has always spoken to me in an unusual way because I felt like a puppet on strings in the institutional church setting, but especially to the spiritual fathers I submitted, knowing they wanted something from me. In the story of Pinocchio , these are the characters and whom they represent in this context:
- Pinocchio—orphan (not real son) who desperately wants to prove himself. Nose grows when he lies, which shows how Pinocchio sees his personal shame as external.
- Geppetto—Father God who desires family at any cost and loves even when we stray from Him.
- Jiminy Cricket—the voice of the Holy Spirit who tells us right from wrong.
- Stromboli—the counterfeit father who controls, extorts, and uses Pinocchio for money and gain.
There is a strange dynamic and almost a synergy between the orphan and the counterfeit father in that they are both looking to each other. The orphan desires validation while the insecure father wants people he can control and manipulate for his devices to use as steppingstones for his goals and dreams. I know this because I was Pinocchio, desperately wanting a father figure’s approval. I would have done anything for it, even if I was oppressed in it.
Many years ago, when I was beginning to realize this unhealthy dynamic, I had a call from a friend of mine who said, “I have a word for you.”
“Okay, great what is it?” I said.
He replied in a comedic way, “The Lord says, ‘You’re a real boy!’”
This strange word really blessed me and made me sever a tie I had a with a Stromboli in my life. I didn’t need strings. I didn’t need flattery and false validation at the cost of my destiny. That day, I stopped trying to find fathers and began to pursue the Father.
TOUCH NOT GOD’S ANOINTED
So how do you pass the test when dealing with a Saul? I have asked God that for years as I’ve walked through some of the most painful woundings by people I trusted and gave my all to serve. The answer is actually found in 1 Samuel 24, where David finds Saul sleeping in a cave and instead of killing him cuts off a piece of his robe and then walks away.
Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed’” (1 Samuel 24:8–10).
What David did was more than just fueled by the fear of the Lord not to touch God’s anointed. It was fueled by his love and honor for someone who betrayed and dishonored him. The fruit? Saul was repentant, for a while at least.
BETRAYAL’S POISON
Only three years ago, I faced a deep betrayal from a close brother. I didn’t see it coming at all. It hurt so deeply that I felt lost in the pain and dishonor of it and wanted to give up ministry altogether. I felt done because the road of trials had finally hit its peak. In the middle of that, we happened to be in the States and were invited to lunch with good friends of ours who had no idea of the situation. Halfway through catching up, one of our friends said, “I need to give you something,” and he took off his jacket and gave it to me. As soon as I put it on, I began to cry. It was the presence and anointing! I felt the covering of a brother over me where I had been exposed. Then he handed me his recently acquired black belt in martial arts and said, “This kind of warfare will not take you out ever again!”
In 1 Samuel 18:4, Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing—along with his tunic, sword, bow, and belt—and gave them all to David. It was a sign of friendship, covenant, and honor while Jonathan’s own father was operating in fear, jealousy, and insecurity.
It was the seed of honor David needed to continue acting in honor toward someone who wasn’t acting honorably toward him. Think about the story of where Saul was chasing David and David found him sleeping in a cave. Instead of killing Saul, he cut off a corner of his tunic to show that he would act honorably even when Saul didn’t. Honor is an art I don’t feel like we have fully tapped into yet, but it is a key component for reformers because we will meet many Sauls in our journey, but how we deal with them will be the test.
Have you encountered a Saul in your life? Someone who should have been a leader, mentor, father, or mother but because of insecurity actually warred against you? Have you experienced witchcraft like I spoke about but didn’t understand the symptoms? Pray Isaiah 54:17 today over yourself and rebuke every word curse, forgive the Sauls, and ask Holy Spirit to help you move on.
Dishonor comes in many ways and forms. Here are three examples from the Bible:
- Joseph’s brothers were so jealous of him that they threw him in a pit and then sold him into slavery.
- David’s brother Eliab was so jealous of David being anointed king that he spoke nasty hateful words when he was thinking of taking down Goliath.
- Absalom was so power hungry and jealous of his dad that he raised an army against his own father and sought to kill him!
HONOR IS CURRENCY IN A TRIAL
David used honor to see Saul in the way God saw Saul, even when Saul didn’t see it himself. That’s what honor is at its core, seeing and treating someone according to what God says about them and not according to their shortcomings or actions. I am so grateful for starting to learn this in the middle of my greatest seasons of attack and wilderness. I’m glad I’m learning how to honor those who don’t honor me back.
I remember the first time I applied this in a moment of dishonor, and to be honest, it didn’t feel satisfying at all. My innate sense of justice roaring in me was wanting to let this person know how wrongly they had treated me, but God’s Band-Aids and healing balms often look different to ours. The Saul test we all go through is will we throw a javelin back when one is thrown at us? Will we touch God’s anointed when they abuse or hurt us? Will we throw them under a bus when they have placed us in oncoming traffic?
If you are going through this trial, here are some practical actions of honor.
- Don’t speak badly about those who have spoken badly about you.
- Speak to who they are. It doesn’t excuse what they did, but it keeps your heart right.
- Bless them. Send them flowers or a gift.
- Break off the words and betrayal. That’s honoring yourself.
- Break the soul tie. This detaches you spiritually from them, their ownership of you and their judgment, and it removes the ceiling they placed over you.
It’s only when you are dishonored that you truly learn how to honor. It’s in a moment of potential bitterness that you choose to not prescribe the same poison to others they inflicted upon you. Can you be a reformational voice who speaks truth in boldness but also honors? Right now, the Father is releasing double honor upon you where you have been dishonored.
If you have been through this trial or are still walking through it, you need to know that God has not abandoned you. That lie will keep you in obscurity for the rest of your life if you let it. Today, ask the Father to encounter you in a new way, release your wounds, let them stay behind you so you can finally move on into what God has called you to without being tethered another day to the past.
RELATED prophetic WORDS:
RELATED prophetic WORDS:
By Nate Johnston
•
June 13, 2025
I believe we are in a window of time right now where God is turning the institutional church back into a hospital again. Just this sentence alone feels like a deep branding upon my heart because I’ve seen it in dreams increasing over the last year - a wounded and battered church and a bound world, but who will restore them? Recently, the Lord spoke to me through a personal experience. I had to go to the dentist for some intense tooth pain, and after visiting two different places neither would fix the issue. I knew there was something prophetic in it. Then the Lord said to me, “Many of my sick, broken, and demonized have been coming into churches, but they are not being delivered or set free.” Ah...there it was. But right now, God is raising up the healers again In a time when the earth more than ever before needs to see the rise of a healing church, a hospital church. Right now God is flipping the script on many ministries and institutions that have been focused on everything but the basics. We have not been doing what Luke 4:18-19 or Matthew 10:8-10 commands us to do. We have not been cleansing the lepers or healing the sick. We’ve drifted from the core of the great commission. The enemy has led us into side paths that do not transform people’s lives. But God is placing a fresh compassion on the Church and is renewing our love for people that sets people free. “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick” — Matthew 4:14 If the enemy can make us love ministry more than we love people, if he can trap us in the idolatry of ministry we will fall out of love with the very ones we’re called to serve. Ouch! Yes, we will stop loving people, even though we’re still doing ministry technically but we have lost our true love that enables the power of God to come. And I’m not talking about a love that coddles people in their sin, tolerates demons, or keeps people brainwashed and yoked to false ideologies and fractured identities. I’m talking about the kind of love that walks hand in hand with truth, that drives out demons, and that stands at the crossroads and warns, “That’s not the way!” We need the kind of love that speaks straight and delivers people. Jesus walked in that kind of love. It was compassion that moved Him to perform great miracles. That’s what’s been missing in the Church. We’ve lost our compassion for people. We’ve lost our genuine love. We’re doing ministry for stats, KPIs, content, and reputation. Churches are trying to fill seats, recruit members, and collect tithes while people walk into our buildings bound, broken, addicted, demonized, and they are not being set free. But right now that is changing. The boardroom is being converted to an ER again! As we were leaving Pirate’s Cove on Saturday, the most powerful part of the day was still to come. Just after 6 p.m as the tide was in, a girl came up crying. Her friend asked if I could pray for her, and I did. As I prayed, I could tell she was under serious oppression, and for a few minutes, nothing shifted. But I refused to leave her the way she came. I asked the Lord what was happening. Instantly, I saw her life like a book. I saw shame and pain from the situations she’d walked through. Then I felt the intense love of the Father for her, and He said to me, “Tell her she is pure.” As soon as I said those words, she began to cough uncontrollably until the unclean spirit left. Then she asked to be baptized right there at Pirate’s Cove. It was a victory moment for her, but it was also a marking moment for me. I couldn’t understand at first why it impacted me so deeply. I’ve seen situations like this many times before. I never take them for granted, but this one felt profound. I realized later that it was God speaking loudly through this encounter. Right now, something fresh is happening around the earth. God is showing up in power. The Church is shaking off her chains and becoming who she was always meant to be. There’s an uprising - a movement leaving behind Christianity as usual. But it’s something much holier than we’ve seen before, and we’ll miss it if we’re not paying attention. God is after the broken and the lost. He’s leaving the ninety-nine for the one. He’s flipping the enemy’s lies and calling what was tainted, pure again. Lou Engle once asked, “What if California was the adulterous woman Jesus redeemed?” That day, as I prophesied, I heard myself say, “What if California is the woman at the well, waiting for a church to call her clean?” We have cursed our cities, our states, and our nations as though they are too far gone. But they are only one word away from redemption if the Church would only see God’s heart in the middle of the chaos. This is a time where we must walk in powerful truth and real love. Without both, the Church fails. Weak Christianity is afraid of offending people, so it keeps them bound in the name of kindness. Truth alone might drive out demons, but without love, it doesn’t draw the broken into intimacy with God. We are standing on the edge of something monumental, a move of God that is raw, wild, unpolished, and simple. As it says in Luke 4:18 - 19, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The days of the hospital church have begun. The days of power are returning. And the days of God’s love driving out darkness are here again. This is our call, to speak what the enemy has called unclean and declare it pure. That is our mandate. Now, let me speak directly to the healers. You know who you are. You know that God has marked you for miracles, signs, and wonders. You’ve known that you’re called to be His healing hands in this moment. But you’ve felt disqualified. You look at your life and feel broken. You’ve fallen. You still need healing. You feel like something inside of you is tainted or poisoned by the last few years of hard battle. You’ve been heavy in your soul, discouraged, and weary. That has been the enemy’s strategy all along, to wear down the healers. To bombard the ones called to bring true deliverance. And because of that, we’ve seen the rise of false deliverance ministries, false healers, counterfeit prophets, and wolves in sheep’s clothing. They’ve stepped into a vacuum because the real healers have been under attack and haven’t yet risen up. But I believe that this moment is a call to the healers to rise again. It’s time to step back into your calling. I had a vision of someone’s legs and I knew this was a prophetic picture of the healers. They were twisted and deformed and decommissioned. And the Lord said to me, “Speak strength to their legs. Speak strength to their backs. Speak strength to their bones.” Suddenly, in the vision, the legs straightened out and they were standing to their feet! I declare the same over you - that every part of your life that has felt out of place, twisted, wounded, or weary, let it be healed and realigned with the hope and truth of God. Healers, rise up. Get your strength back. Get your compassion back. Be healed and take your place. It is time to walk again in the power of God and the compassion of Jesus. So now, in the name of Jesus, I speak to every healer, every deliverer, every voice and vessel who has been marked by God for miracles, but has felt crushed under the weight of shame, warfare, disappointment, or disqualification. I declare over you - this is your resurrection moment. Where the enemy has tainted you, twisted your story, and tried to convince you that you are unclean or unworthy, I now declare by the blood of Jesus that you are being made clean. The stain of the past, the trauma, the compromise, and the confusion is being washed off of you in this moment. I speak a cleansing over your mind, your body, your heart, and your history. The blood still speaks a better word over you. Let every accusation from hell be silenced right now. I call your mantle out of the ashes. I call your voice back from the silence. I declare strength to your bones, fire to your belly, and clarity to your mind. Every dormant gift, every silenced word, every dream buried under discouragement come back to life now in Jesus’ name. Today as you read this you are not just being healed, you are being reinstated. You will no longer walk with a limp from old wounds. What the enemy meant for evil, God is now turning for your good. This is your commissioning moment. So rise, healers! Lay your hands on the sick, cleanse the lepers, deliver the bound, and set the captives free!
By Nate Johnston
•
June 10, 2025
As I stood on the rocks at Pirates Cove yesterday, watching hundreds of people being baptized, I was overwhelmed by what I was seeing. History yet again was being written. I thanked God for the hunger that was present that day and the day before when we gathered - the countless people encountering the presence and power of God. Clearly, God is moving right now on the earth in a new and fresh way. But as I stood there, these words suddenly rose in my spirit - “He leaves no one behind” It rocked me thinking about the seasons in my life when I felt lonely, abandoned, and lost when people around me were experiencing the opposite. It’s easy in moments of heartache, hope deferred, and deep brokenness to feel like you’re the only one going through it. It’s easy to feel like others are advancing and thriving while you’re still stuck, and still broken. But I believe God wants to encourage those who feel stuck this week, those who feel left behind in the past seasons battle and battle weariness and bondage. Those who feel unable to move forward because of pain from the past and the wounds it inflicted. God is not going to leave you behind! I’m reminded of the man who sat by the Pool of Bethesda because he couldn’t walk. “One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years… Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured” — John 5:1-9 That pool was surrounded by people who were sick, lame, and broken down, all hoping to be the one who got their fresh start. And right now in the midst of revival fires beginning to burn and something fresh that God is doing, many still feel stuck. David said it well in the psalms; “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” — Psalm 13:1 And like David many are saying; God, I don’t feel like I’ve moved anywhere. Nothing has shifted for me. I’m still dealing with the same situations, the same lack, the same health problems, the same relational and family issues. God, have You forgotten me?” But just like the man at the Pool of Bethesda, God did not leave him behind. Jesus went to him directly, healed him, and gave him a new beginning. Think of the woman at the well. “A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’— John 4:4-7 She felt judged, abandoned, and lonely yet Jesus met her in that very place. He leaves no one behind. So I prophesy over you this week - You are going to have encounters with Jesus, where He reveals His heart to you in the very place you feel stuck. You’re going to experience the breakthrough power of God in your life, power that will shift you out of pain, brokenness, and those continual cycles of dysfunction, addiction, and torment. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1 And right now many are carrying the spiritual bondage from past seasons and it feels like a massive blockage in the road but they just don’t know how to get rid of it. It’s heavy, it’s like a poison that won’t seem to flush from your system. It’s got its roots in deep but it’s no match for the power of God. In a moment the Holy Spirit can take an axe to those obstacles. Right now as I’m writing this I see them in the spirit like bricks cemented in but the Lord is right now shaking them loose! They must go! Every demonic spirit hanging around you trying to keep you tethered to bondage leave now in Jesus name! Shame go! Unclean spirits leave! As we were leaving the gathering on Saturday (the day before Pentecost Sunday), I met an amazing woman of God. I got to witness her encounter Jesus in a powerful way. We saw God completely set her free from a demonic assignment that had been following her around. Then, I got to take part in her baptism there at the famous Pirates Cove. I could feel it - she had felt a little left behind. I hadn’t prayed for her that day. Yet just as we were walking out, God ordained that moment. It was her time. I felt the loving compassion of God so strongly because I’ve been in those moments. Moments when I felt forgotten. When it felt like no one saw me. But friend He sees you. You are not left behind. I imagine the day when the believers were in the upper room. They came out speaking in tongues. Yes, some mocked them. But imagine if you were one of the 500 originally there and the enemy lied to you, and you left the room too soon. You would have missed it. “God, I’ve faithfully served You… and I missed it?” Ouch… that is it right there. So many people feel like that right now. But the Lord wants you to know - You are seen. You are not forgotten. He will not leave you behind. Right now, He is rescuing you from the grip of that past season and ushering you into a new one even as you read these words. I command every chain, every tie to your past that’s held you back to break NOW in the mighty name of Jesus. And I pray that ALL yokes break off your life, and that the Holy Spirit fills your heart and cup anew in Jesus’ name. Now watch this week as God reveals himself to you in a new way. Through dreams. God kisses. Signs of His goodness. Your old chapter has ended. It’s time to step into the new.
By Nate Johnston
•
June 13, 2025
I believe we are in a window of time right now where God is turning the institutional church back into a hospital again. Just this sentence alone feels like a deep branding upon my heart because I’ve seen it in dreams increasing over the last year - a wounded and battered church and a bound world, but who will restore them? Recently, the Lord spoke to me through a personal experience. I had to go to the dentist for some intense tooth pain, and after visiting two different places neither would fix the issue. I knew there was something prophetic in it. Then the Lord said to me, “Many of my sick, broken, and demonized have been coming into churches, but they are not being delivered or set free.” Ah...there it was. But right now, God is raising up the healers again In a time when the earth more than ever before needs to see the rise of a healing church, a hospital church. Right now God is flipping the script on many ministries and institutions that have been focused on everything but the basics. We have not been doing what Luke 4:18-19 or Matthew 10:8-10 commands us to do. We have not been cleansing the lepers or healing the sick. We’ve drifted from the core of the great commission. The enemy has led us into side paths that do not transform people’s lives. But God is placing a fresh compassion on the Church and is renewing our love for people that sets people free. “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick” — Matthew 4:14 If the enemy can make us love ministry more than we love people, if he can trap us in the idolatry of ministry we will fall out of love with the very ones we’re called to serve. Ouch! Yes, we will stop loving people, even though we’re still doing ministry technically but we have lost our true love that enables the power of God to come. And I’m not talking about a love that coddles people in their sin, tolerates demons, or keeps people brainwashed and yoked to false ideologies and fractured identities. I’m talking about the kind of love that walks hand in hand with truth, that drives out demons, and that stands at the crossroads and warns, “That’s not the way!” We need the kind of love that speaks straight and delivers people. Jesus walked in that kind of love. It was compassion that moved Him to perform great miracles. That’s what’s been missing in the Church. We’ve lost our compassion for people. We’ve lost our genuine love. We’re doing ministry for stats, KPIs, content, and reputation. Churches are trying to fill seats, recruit members, and collect tithes while people walk into our buildings bound, broken, addicted, demonized, and they are not being set free. But right now that is changing. The boardroom is being converted to an ER again! As we were leaving Pirate’s Cove on Saturday, the most powerful part of the day was still to come. Just after 6 p.m as the tide was in, a girl came up crying. Her friend asked if I could pray for her, and I did. As I prayed, I could tell she was under serious oppression, and for a few minutes, nothing shifted. But I refused to leave her the way she came. I asked the Lord what was happening. Instantly, I saw her life like a book. I saw shame and pain from the situations she’d walked through. Then I felt the intense love of the Father for her, and He said to me, “Tell her she is pure.” As soon as I said those words, she began to cough uncontrollably until the unclean spirit left. Then she asked to be baptized right there at Pirate’s Cove. It was a victory moment for her, but it was also a marking moment for me. I couldn’t understand at first why it impacted me so deeply. I’ve seen situations like this many times before. I never take them for granted, but this one felt profound. I realized later that it was God speaking loudly through this encounter. Right now, something fresh is happening around the earth. God is showing up in power. The Church is shaking off her chains and becoming who she was always meant to be. There’s an uprising - a movement leaving behind Christianity as usual. But it’s something much holier than we’ve seen before, and we’ll miss it if we’re not paying attention. God is after the broken and the lost. He’s leaving the ninety-nine for the one. He’s flipping the enemy’s lies and calling what was tainted, pure again. Lou Engle once asked, “What if California was the adulterous woman Jesus redeemed?” That day, as I prophesied, I heard myself say, “What if California is the woman at the well, waiting for a church to call her clean?” We have cursed our cities, our states, and our nations as though they are too far gone. But they are only one word away from redemption if the Church would only see God’s heart in the middle of the chaos. This is a time where we must walk in powerful truth and real love. Without both, the Church fails. Weak Christianity is afraid of offending people, so it keeps them bound in the name of kindness. Truth alone might drive out demons, but without love, it doesn’t draw the broken into intimacy with God. We are standing on the edge of something monumental, a move of God that is raw, wild, unpolished, and simple. As it says in Luke 4:18 - 19, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” The days of the hospital church have begun. The days of power are returning. And the days of God’s love driving out darkness are here again. This is our call, to speak what the enemy has called unclean and declare it pure. That is our mandate. Now, let me speak directly to the healers. You know who you are. You know that God has marked you for miracles, signs, and wonders. You’ve known that you’re called to be His healing hands in this moment. But you’ve felt disqualified. You look at your life and feel broken. You’ve fallen. You still need healing. You feel like something inside of you is tainted or poisoned by the last few years of hard battle. You’ve been heavy in your soul, discouraged, and weary. That has been the enemy’s strategy all along, to wear down the healers. To bombard the ones called to bring true deliverance. And because of that, we’ve seen the rise of false deliverance ministries, false healers, counterfeit prophets, and wolves in sheep’s clothing. They’ve stepped into a vacuum because the real healers have been under attack and haven’t yet risen up. But I believe that this moment is a call to the healers to rise again. It’s time to step back into your calling. I had a vision of someone’s legs and I knew this was a prophetic picture of the healers. They were twisted and deformed and decommissioned. And the Lord said to me, “Speak strength to their legs. Speak strength to their backs. Speak strength to their bones.” Suddenly, in the vision, the legs straightened out and they were standing to their feet! I declare the same over you - that every part of your life that has felt out of place, twisted, wounded, or weary, let it be healed and realigned with the hope and truth of God. Healers, rise up. Get your strength back. Get your compassion back. Be healed and take your place. It is time to walk again in the power of God and the compassion of Jesus. So now, in the name of Jesus, I speak to every healer, every deliverer, every voice and vessel who has been marked by God for miracles, but has felt crushed under the weight of shame, warfare, disappointment, or disqualification. I declare over you - this is your resurrection moment. Where the enemy has tainted you, twisted your story, and tried to convince you that you are unclean or unworthy, I now declare by the blood of Jesus that you are being made clean. The stain of the past, the trauma, the compromise, and the confusion is being washed off of you in this moment. I speak a cleansing over your mind, your body, your heart, and your history. The blood still speaks a better word over you. Let every accusation from hell be silenced right now. I call your mantle out of the ashes. I call your voice back from the silence. I declare strength to your bones, fire to your belly, and clarity to your mind. Every dormant gift, every silenced word, every dream buried under discouragement come back to life now in Jesus’ name. Today as you read this you are not just being healed, you are being reinstated. You will no longer walk with a limp from old wounds. What the enemy meant for evil, God is now turning for your good. This is your commissioning moment. So rise, healers! Lay your hands on the sick, cleanse the lepers, deliver the bound, and set the captives free!
By Nate Johnston
•
June 10, 2025
As I stood on the rocks at Pirates Cove yesterday, watching hundreds of people being baptized, I was overwhelmed by what I was seeing. History yet again was being written. I thanked God for the hunger that was present that day and the day before when we gathered - the countless people encountering the presence and power of God. Clearly, God is moving right now on the earth in a new and fresh way. But as I stood there, these words suddenly rose in my spirit - “He leaves no one behind” It rocked me thinking about the seasons in my life when I felt lonely, abandoned, and lost when people around me were experiencing the opposite. It’s easy in moments of heartache, hope deferred, and deep brokenness to feel like you’re the only one going through it. It’s easy to feel like others are advancing and thriving while you’re still stuck, and still broken. But I believe God wants to encourage those who feel stuck this week, those who feel left behind in the past seasons battle and battle weariness and bondage. Those who feel unable to move forward because of pain from the past and the wounds it inflicted. God is not going to leave you behind! I’m reminded of the man who sat by the Pool of Bethesda because he couldn’t walk. “One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years… Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured” — John 5:1-9 That pool was surrounded by people who were sick, lame, and broken down, all hoping to be the one who got their fresh start. And right now in the midst of revival fires beginning to burn and something fresh that God is doing, many still feel stuck. David said it well in the psalms; “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” — Psalm 13:1 And like David many are saying; God, I don’t feel like I’ve moved anywhere. Nothing has shifted for me. I’m still dealing with the same situations, the same lack, the same health problems, the same relational and family issues. God, have You forgotten me?” But just like the man at the Pool of Bethesda, God did not leave him behind. Jesus went to him directly, healed him, and gave him a new beginning. Think of the woman at the well. “A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’— John 4:4-7 She felt judged, abandoned, and lonely yet Jesus met her in that very place. He leaves no one behind. So I prophesy over you this week - You are going to have encounters with Jesus, where He reveals His heart to you in the very place you feel stuck. You’re going to experience the breakthrough power of God in your life, power that will shift you out of pain, brokenness, and those continual cycles of dysfunction, addiction, and torment. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1 And right now many are carrying the spiritual bondage from past seasons and it feels like a massive blockage in the road but they just don’t know how to get rid of it. It’s heavy, it’s like a poison that won’t seem to flush from your system. It’s got its roots in deep but it’s no match for the power of God. In a moment the Holy Spirit can take an axe to those obstacles. Right now as I’m writing this I see them in the spirit like bricks cemented in but the Lord is right now shaking them loose! They must go! Every demonic spirit hanging around you trying to keep you tethered to bondage leave now in Jesus name! Shame go! Unclean spirits leave! As we were leaving the gathering on Saturday (the day before Pentecost Sunday), I met an amazing woman of God. I got to witness her encounter Jesus in a powerful way. We saw God completely set her free from a demonic assignment that had been following her around. Then, I got to take part in her baptism there at the famous Pirates Cove. I could feel it - she had felt a little left behind. I hadn’t prayed for her that day. Yet just as we were walking out, God ordained that moment. It was her time. I felt the loving compassion of God so strongly because I’ve been in those moments. Moments when I felt forgotten. When it felt like no one saw me. But friend He sees you. You are not left behind. I imagine the day when the believers were in the upper room. They came out speaking in tongues. Yes, some mocked them. But imagine if you were one of the 500 originally there and the enemy lied to you, and you left the room too soon. You would have missed it. “God, I’ve faithfully served You… and I missed it?” Ouch… that is it right there. So many people feel like that right now. But the Lord wants you to know - You are seen. You are not forgotten. He will not leave you behind. Right now, He is rescuing you from the grip of that past season and ushering you into a new one even as you read these words. I command every chain, every tie to your past that’s held you back to break NOW in the mighty name of Jesus. And I pray that ALL yokes break off your life, and that the Holy Spirit fills your heart and cup anew in Jesus’ name. Now watch this week as God reveals himself to you in a new way. Through dreams. God kisses. Signs of His goodness. Your old chapter has ended. It’s time to step into the new.
By Nate Johnston
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June 6, 2025
I have some encouragement for the pioneers. Over the last few weeks, I’ve kept hearing this language - that we are at thresholds of faith. What is a threshold? A threshold is defined as: the point of entering or beginning something new. So, what is a threshold of faith? A threshold of faith is a place you come to when you can no longer keep operating or living within the confines of your previous limitations. God is leading you into a significant breakthrough in that area to expand you and prepare you for what’s coming. Thresholds of faith at first feel like pressure. They feel emotionally triggering. They feel like the enemy is warring against your mind. It can feel even feel like a rollercoaster of soul highs and lows as God brings precious things to the surface to free you and lighten you. Why? Because God is pulling you higher, and the enemy is trying to keep you lower. God is calling you to fly like an eagle, while the enemy wants to keep you grounded with the turkeys. In this calling we go from glory to glory with God (2 Corinthians 3:18). So He’s always leading us into greater levels of truth about who we are and about our calling as sons and daughters, as leaders, and as fathers and mothers. There are always deeper dimensions of capacity, anointing, character, and fruit that we are meant to walk in. So we go through thresholds of faith not because something is wrong or because things are falling apart, but because we’ve asked Him for more. This pressure is the very thing we’ve been praying for. But we often forget - before breakthrough comes, God upgrades our internal operating system. If He brings us into breakthrough without transformation, we’ll crash and burn. The issue is that In this consumer-Christian culture we’ve inherited, we want our circumstances to change, but we often resist the internal transformation required. We avoid deliverance. We avoid healing. We avoid conviction. We avoid the refining fire. We want the goods without the fire. We want the promise without the pruning. But it doesn’t work like that. Right now, the Lord is trying to pull us higher, but there’s been a battle. There’s been tension. And there are moments where everything around you feels like it’s in ruins. Promises haven’t come to pass and God didn’t come through. That’s where the fight is because it feels too late, like it’s the eleventh hour and so how can you trust God again when your last promise didn’t come to pass? By faith even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.” - Hebrews 11:11 Sarah’s breakthrough looked impossible. She was past the point of fruitfulness. But God was working internally. She had to shift her focus to His ability, not her own. She had to stop striving and simply trust His miracle-working power. That’s how you know you’re at a threshold - you feel barren. You feel like nothing is working. And yet, God is asking you to believe again. To dream again. To step forward into something you don’t even have faith for yet. He’s not asking for perfect faith. He’s asking for a yes. Thresholds often feel like the most broken, most vulnerable, most disqualified place you’ve ever been. And that’s exactly where God chooses to expand you. Not when everything’s in order. Not when you feel strong. It’s when you feel empty, unworthy, and unprepared that He calls you into the new. As I was praying about this, I kept hearing the word “Jordan” and I instantly knew what the Lord was showing me. In the Bible, the Jordan River represents thresholds of calling, identity, and breakthrough. Joshua 3:17 – The Israelites crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. 2 Kings 2:8 – Elijah struck the Jordan before being taken up. 2 Kings 2:14 – Elisha crossed back with a double portion. Matthew 3:13 – Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, then led into the wilderness. Genesis 32:22 – Jacob crossed the brook Jabbok (connected to the Jordan), leaving behind his old identity and life. I believe we are at the Jordan right now with our foot about to step in. Oh not deeper waters! It’s scary. What if I can’t swim? What if I trip? That’s what we feel in this moment. I’ve felt it in my own life where God is stretching me and I know it’s for my benefit. But in the natural, it looks like warfare, mental attack, depletion and robbery, failure, closed doors, confusion, and feeling out of your depth. Why? Because God is revealing the places you’ve placed your trust, your identity in and is revealing where you leant on your hustle, your gifting, and your own strength. Those things can’t sustain you anymore. And at the same time, the enemy is trying to discourage you, to make you give up right at the point of the threshold. He wants you to break right before your breakthrough. But God is asking you: Will you trust Me in this moment? Will you believe even when it doesn’t look like it’s working? A few months ago, I was in that exact place surrounded by doubt and pressure. And I heard the Lord whisper “The only way to survive this season is to stay at My feet. Stay in My presence.” That’s the key to crossing the threshold. Not knowledge. Not connections. Not hustle. Just surrender. So I prophesy this over you now - Just as Caleb and Joshua lingered in the tent and came out with a different spirit, so will you. You will cross the threshold with new eyes, new ears, and a new heart. Even now, God is breaking off the old operating system. He is breaking off the pain and reproach of your past. “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” - Joshua 5:9 The shame, the failure, the false labels they are being cut away. You are being recommissioned. This threshold of faith is the breakthrough you’ve been praying for and it’s time to step over in Jesus name!
By Nate Johnston
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June 3, 2025
One of the greatest epidemics of the church is breaking right now. And as we start this week, I want to pray over you and prophesy into your life especially if you’ve been isolated by the enemy or been in a season of feeling very disconnected from other believers and from people. If you’ve seen attack and warfare on your relationships, marriages, your kids, and those around you… If you’ve gone through season-after-season of wrong alignments, unhealthy coverings, Sauls instead of fathers & mothers, all while being surrounded by wolves... Or if you’ve just been rejected over and over again, and it’s sent you into isolation. I believe the Lord is speaking to us all in this season. I believe we are seeing a spiritual movement both on a micro and a macro level right now to shift this tide. We’re seeing the Lord expose an assignment that has been allowed and tolerated in the body of Christ for too long. That assignment is isolation. It’s a tactic of the Jezebel spirit, one that has hidden easily within the institutional church paradigm and its thrived within the current culture of the church. But the Lord is weeding it out, exposing it, and bringing us back into the revelation of family and belonging. That truth is counteracting and unloosing the bonds of this demonic principality because people are no longer interested in a nice sermon if they have to go home and be alone in the week. This spirit has worked overtime on us. It’s a principality that hasn’t just broken apart the body of Christ into factions and denominations. It’s also stopped the most powerful voices, those carrying truth, and authority from rising into their place. It’s created a cancel culture within the church. An isolation culture. It’s created antisocial behavioral norms within the church, and we’ve accepted it for too long. But I prophesy today - That is all shifting. I prophesy it’s shifting over your life most importantly. As I was praying into this, I asked the Lord why Jezebel seems so invested in creating this kind of division and isolation. And He said that Jezebel recognizes the power and anointing that comes when the church walks in unity. That’s the macro. The Jezebel spirit knows that when believers support one another, when we link arms, there is an anointing that is unleashed. Because if it can isolate - it can assassinate. Let me say that again - If Jezebel can isolate, it can assassinate. Why do you think so many people can attend church on a Sunday and still feel utterly alone? Why is it accepted that we go to events and meetings and conferences, but still lack genuine connection? The church has often wrapped mission in religious activity, while relational connection, the very essence of family has been lost. It’s led us into pain and deep spiritual disconnection. And it’s time for this to shift. As I continued to pray, the Lord reminded me of the seasons in my own life where this spirit came after us again and again. I remembered being in churches where the nature of our calling led to sudden rejection, pushing us out of community. I remembered delivering a warning word to leaders, and immediately being outcast. I remembered being in a toxic work environment, where a Jezebel-influenced boss physically isolated me in a separate building so she could bully me. And I remembered the many times this happened in ministry spaces. It’s happened over and over again and we have all become used to it. We’ve learned to operate alone. And we’ve called it “normal” ministry life. We say the church is a family, but so many have lived as lone rangers even inside a church setting. But this is breaking now! Look at Elijah in 1 Kings 18. Jezebel threatens him. And he runs for his life. He hides in fear. He isolates. And even though God looks after him, there are a few things that take place in that moment that I believe the Lord is highlighting now as a blueprint for us. First, Elijah is fed. I see this in a few lights - one as the fresh manna from heaven and sustenance building him up again. Secondly, in light of the breaking bread of Acts 2 pointing to God leading him out of isolation. And thirdly as the bread of deliverance. Next he’s reminded of the still-small-voice because fear had drowned it out. In isolation and fear, the voice of the Lord pulls us out because we are so bombarded by lies and it’s the enemies lies that keep us there. Right now the lies that sent you there need to be broken. Then what happens? Elijah wraps his mantle around his face and leaves the cave which is prophetically representative of choosing to pick up what we dropped when we went through the pain of slander and accusation that led us to isolation in the first place. It’s picking up our calling again. Oh but it’s also more. It’s choosing to allow your heart to let people in after a season of being wounded. I believe this is the invitation from the Lord right now. To leave the cave. To leave the place of isolation. I know it’s easier said than done. I know many of you are afraid, and rightfully so. You’ve been burned. You’ve been rejected. But there is a grace right now to break this assignment of isolation and assassination that has put your gifting on pause and your purpose on the back burner. This is a season of finding your tribe. Finding the people who will lift your arms. It’s time to step out of religious, controlled environments and into true community. Into spiritual family. There is a remnant rising for this moment and we are linking arms while creating safe spaces. Pastors and leaders from all walks of life are laying their brands in the dust and choosing connection over control. It’s the Acts 2 core calling us back to breaking bread. This is the priority now. We are better together. Healthier together. Even COVID was a prophetic image of the enemy’s plan to isolate. But we’re saying no more. We will not let this spirit mute our voices or steal our destinies. We need each other. So I prophesy over you: This moment right now marks the breaking of isolation. Loneliness is breaking off of you. It’s time to find your people I prophesy this week you will feel something stirring on this front. A stirring. A longing. Your heart beginning to feel again. And bondages will break in the process. You’ll feel the shift inside and see it on the outside as God brings this into being. I prophesy - New environments, new rooms, new tables places you never imagined will open to you. God can do it in a short time. But I also challenge you , you need to step out. Start walking toward the community God has prepared for you. Because isolation is over In Jesus’ name.
