Nate Johnston

PIONEERS, DO NOT SETTLE FOR ISHMAEL!

Nate Johnston

PIONEERS, DO NOT SETTLE FOR ISHMAEL!

PIONEERS, DO NOT SETTLE FOR ISHMAEL!

PIONEERS DO NOT SETTLE FOR ISHMAEL!


For weeks now, I keep hearing the Lord say “Pioneers, do not settle for Ishmael!” 


Many are feeling the pressure right now in the spirit, like there's something that is meant to be birthed but nothing is in sight in the natural.


It’s become such a paradox and deep frustration or even grief because living with that kind of pent-up expectation is tiresome. 


It’s like treading water knowing land is coming but it hasn’t yet come and that’s how many have been feeling - like the breakthrough that needs to come is not coming quick enough. 


Many pioneers are beginning to feel restless, hopeless, and despondent. 


It's been so long contending and warring and it's taken a toll to stay in that continual place of believing when it feels like nothing is shifting. 


But I feel this warning right now - do not settle for Ishmael!


Ishmael was the firstborn son of Abraham, conceived out of his own desire to see the promise come to pass in his timing instead of God's. 


Right now we know we're in a season of time where fulfillment must come and we SEE what we have been contending for, but the enemy is on overdrive playing mind games and trying to lure us into entertaining ways of orchestrating the promise in our own strength and in our own timeline. 


This temptation has never been greater than right now. It's the feeling of impulsively acting upon your will and your expectations above waiting for the Lord. 


The lie so many pioneers have been hearing is, “Is God even concerned about what I'm facing? Will he even perform it? Will he even do it?” 


Let me say this very clearly to you right now - do not act upon this temptation to make things happen.


We are in a window of time when God is opposing the enemy’s plans and roadblocks and shifting major pieces in our lives. It’s a time of doors of major closing and God preparing new infrastructure for the days ahead. It’s an hour of the FINALIZATION of the last season's blueprints and OUTCOMES, but they MUST BE DONE BY THE HAND OF THE LORD, not by ours. 


As we enter Yom Kippur in September watch for things to begin to move and fall into place. 


I believe we are entering a jubilee in the church of massive proportions.


God is restoring the; 

⁃ Voice of the church

⁃ Influence of the church 

⁃ Power and authority of the church 

⁃ Storehouse of the church 

⁃ Territory of the church. 


All that has been robbed and stolen in your life is about to begin to shift because God is re-aligning us to be the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath. 


That is why right now you're feeling so restless and longing for the breakthrough more than you ever have. 


That is why the enemy is trying to bombard you on all sides with weariness, frustration, and feeling like you just want to give up and settle. 


Yes, you could settle. It's so easy right now to go back. It's so easy right now to camp in the place of second best, but is that really the path that God has for you? 


Could you really be content in second best when God has been showing you his purposes and his plans for so long? Could you really settle there?


I believe we're entering into the fulfillment era of the church and even right now as you're reading this, I pray that all the hope deferred and the weariness that has been resting on you begins to shift.


I feel like people right now reading this are in the 11th hour in three specific areas. I know there are more, but these are the three specific areas that the Lord spoke to me about and these are the three areas where the enemy is trying to lure us into temptation because these are three areas that God is about to bust and break through in the months ahead. 


POSITIONING 


The first is positioning. Many have been feeling the intense desire to be settled and positioned after all these years.


It feels like movement and migration is still upon us and we are longing to be settled and established. 


The enemy has been warring for so long against this with false hopes, false foundations, and leading us to places of instability instead of the promise. 


Do not settle right now for Ishmael with the location that God has for you. He's repositioning you, but if you hustle right now and if you get ahead of God, you will set up camp in a place that is not conducive to the calling of God upon your life. Do not settle for Ishmael regarding your positioning. Wait for the Lord, wait for his timing. 


PROVISION 


The second area is provision. For so long, the pioneers have been reliant on manna from heaven to survive.


You've seen ridiculous miracles, faith, favor, and food coming into the mouths of ravens in the wilderness. 


You've seen it all, but in the last six months, especially, God has been stirring your heart to believe for the impossible. 


He's been stirring your heart to believe for unfathomable provision for the vision that he's given you. 


He's exploded your imagination and your mind and had you dreaming of land and being able to build and construct a specific blueprint that he's placed on the inside of you. 


But when you look in your bank, and when you look in your pockets, it just doesn't match up. 


And there is a temptation right now to just settle, to go backward, to do what you can manage and what you can do. 


Let me make this very clear. Do not settle for Ishmael regarding provision.

 

Do not go backward, for I believe in the next few months we are going to see the beginning of a wave of wealth for the harvest. 


If you think the wiping of debts is a huge thing, you wait and see what's coming, for God is not only going to settle debts but He is about to flood your life with provision so that not only can you be a sower and a lender, but that you can build and construct everything that God told you that you would build.


God is right now breaking that poverty mentality off you. 


I feel like there are even many who've been holding onto their seed and their bread, and the Lord says to you today “Release it! Release it today by faith, and watch me provide and bring in the provision!” 


Do something today to break the dam walls and confront that survival mentality the enemy has tried to place upon you in the last few months. 


PURPOSE


The last area I heard was purpose. God has been increasing your spiritual and governmental capacity and He has placed a new mantle upon you for nations, but there's been a major war on your voice, your message, and your purpose. 


There's been a war at your path and launching what God has given you to step into. 


The enemy has tried to make you push down the doors that only God can open or he has wanted you to settle for a role that is far less than the role that he has for you. 


Many right now are nervously trying to find some plow to put their hands to, and the Lord says, “Do not touch that plow unless I give it to you. Do not place your hands upon it unless I put it in your hands right now!” 


“Do not sign that contract or agreement without me!” 


Even men are seeking you out to put you to work for their devices to build the empires. But the lord says, “Do not enter into that project or role unless I command you!” 


For in this hour, it is so easy to choose something that is conceived by the hands of man and that is manufactured out of your need to feel settled and stable.


“But now watch,” says the Lord, “as I bring it to pass. I want you to step in back into rest, says the Lord. I want you to step back into synergy with my heart and my promises and my purposes and my timing!” says the Lord. 


“I want you to rest in me and as you rest in my faith, you'll tap into my miracle-working power that will unleash all that is in your heart and all that is in your mind and all that you have desired” 


“Sarah’s faith embraced God’s miracle power to conceive even though she was barren and was past the age of childbearing, for the authority of her faith rested in the One who made the promise, and she tapped into his faithfulness” Hebrews 11:11 


“For pioneers, what is on your heart, I placed there. It is not of your own making. I put it inside you for a reason and I did not lead you on this path just for it to fail now or to return void” 


“No, it shall accomplish all that I desired for it to accomplish. So right now, do not settle for second best. Do not make decisions ahead of me. Do not jump ahead of my directions. Do not step into alignments that are never ordained for you” 


“Do not create messes and situations birthed out of your need and desire to help me out. I do not need help, says the Lord. I just need your yes. I do not need your networking and your orchestrating and your manufacturing. I just need your surrender now. Watch me do it, says the Lord”

sow a seed

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 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 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.