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Nate Johnston info@nateandchristy.co
Leading up to 2022 I have felt such anticipation about this year. People have asked me one question in a myriad of different ways but essentially “Is this year going to go well or will it be like the last two years?” After sitting with the Lord and letting the dreams, visions, and conversations marinate, let me answer it simply – This year God’s heart is to see the church rise as the mighty bride she was called to be. We have the authority and we are the rudder of the ship. Distraction, divisions, and sneaky games have cost us our power and effectiveness, and bowing to culture and media lies has silenced our voices. But no more. I pray this doesn’t just give you information for you to add to your 2022 word repertoire but it’s a word that encourages you, shakes you to your bones, ignites your spirit, and sends you running into the year with a courageous and undignified roar of righteous vengeance. VOICES IN THE PRESSURE CHAMBER “But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” Jeremiah 20:9 Before I get into the main word I have to highlight this – for the last few years, many voices have gone into hiding. For many, it was during the initial lockdown of 2020 when the enemy started spinning his web and taking many off course into prophetic diversions and down rabbit-holes designed to silence them. Then the greatest assault of stifling came a year ago during the inauguration when the church and media chased the prophets into hiding. The domino effect from that has been more catastrophic than we realize. Where is the word of the Lord if the prophets don’t prophesy? “The lion has roared— who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken— who can but prophesy?” Amos 3:8 We have been in what has felt like a global holding pattern as the nations inevitably face the results of a church stuck in the mud of warfare, religion, cultural pressure, and fighting the fires of the enemy’s side-show games instead of the real battle at hand. But that is all about the change. THE STORM-TOSSED & TIRED “O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I will set your stones in antimony, And your foundations I will lay in sapphires” Isaiah 54:11 Yes, we have been in the storm. We have all felt the relentless winds of the storm, the pressure, the constant lies, and mind games of the enemy in the last two years as the enemy has tried to break us on all fronts. He has blown in strange, unexpected problems in addition to the butterfly effect of the global crisis we have all felt in an attempt to subtly wear us down and cause us to forget WHO WE ARE. But while at times it may have seemed Iike the enemy succeeded the Holy Spirit has faithfully taken us into “Elijah in the cave” moments and reminded us who are again. And we are at a global moment right now where God is dangling the keys of authority, sonship, and access to the church and saying “It’s time to get back up and break out of this confined space! “I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open” Isaiah 22:22 THE EMPTY BUCKET & THE FRESH INFILLING As I was praying Into 2022 I was drawn to this Image God kept showing me of an empty bucket and knew right away that this bucket represented the season of endless storms, emptying, and reset we have been through in the last 2 years. The bucket represented a season of extreme emptying out in preparation for something new to fill that same space. At the wedding feast at Cana, they had to reach empty before the miracle of water turning water into wine could happen. In 2021 we saw the bottom of that bucket corporately and personally. Many felt themselves at rock bottom and like there was nowhere further down to go. Many found themselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically spent and like they were waiting for a collapse to take place but God preserved you because something was coming you didn’t see. You even said, “I feel like I don’t have much left” and this couldn’t be more true because you have been living on the manna of a revelation and encounter that has sustained you throughout that season. But now it’s time to step into something new. Maybe you have entered into 2022 still staring at the bottom of that old bucket, but don’t be fooled because there is coming an infilling so powerful that it is going to fill you up again and cause you to overflow. You will look back at the year that depleted you and realize it was the year that made the way for you to walk into such an outpouring of the spirit both personally and through to the world around you. BREAKING THE CURSES, SLANDER, & ENDING THE GAG ORDER .
Because 2021 was such a year of private battles and chatter God has been working hard to get you healed of the bites and the stings. He has been trying to “unstick” you where the enemy slimed you and tried to stunt you and derail you. This was a year where you felt like your hair was cut and you lost yourself being caught up in endless distractions and battles but now it’s time to leave that place. It was a year of restriction and spiritual bullying where it felt like everything you said came under scrutiny and criticism. It was a year of constant muzzling and suppression of the mighty voice God was awakening. If you haven’t already shaken off the snake into the fire as Paul did. Shake off the fear of man and the critics’ witchcraft. If you have been silenced in the last year today you need to break off the muzzle and curses sent your way. What came to harm WILL NOT KILL YOU or your destiny! No, it will not! Shake it off! Shake off the betrayal. Shake off the poison! I command the muzzle over your voice to break off and the gag order to end NOW in Jesus’ name! Right now God is cleaning off the slime that was hurled at you. TELL THE CHURCH TO PROPHESY! A few days after that I was in worship when I suddenly had the Lord speak ”Tell them to prophesy! The answer is in their mouths! The future is in their mouths! Speak what I am doing not what you see in the natural! For many have stopped prophesying and the word must out! Prophesy my bride, prophesy!” Straight away after this, it was like I was feeling and sensing the hearts of so many believers around the world who just felt disillusioned and faith-tired. Maybe even reading this you felt a sting of it. I get it, I really do. But God is about to give us a second wind where we have felt empty and discouraged from the last two years of standing without results… yet. Your bucket has been empty. Your belly has not felt like it’s had rivers flowing from it. But soon it will. Maybe you have been through the storm and it’s left you flat. Maybe you have contended and done everything you could do but you have been severely discouraged not seeing breakthrough or any advancement at all. But the Second wind is coming.. and it’s not going to some light change, but a major life interruption that shifts EVERYTHING inside you and around you. THE PEOPLE WITH THE STORM IN THEIR MOUTHS What the Lord said next to me shocked me. He said “You are a people with a storm in your mouths!” and at first I honestly had no clue what He was saying. “A storm? Aren’t storms from the enemy?” Then I found this scripture; “Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked” Jeremiah 23:19 God is the creator of storms like he is the one who in Isaiah 54 creates a destroyer to destroy the enemy’s plans! You can’t beat that! “But what’s a storm in a mouth mean Lord?” I asked. Then I was led to a very familiar passage in Ezekiel; Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’” Ezekiel 37:4-13 What do we discover here? The word of the Lord is the storm in our mouths! It’s the spirit of God moving upon us and through our prophecies that releases the resurrection power of God into the earth that COUNTERACTS the storms of the enemy! You have a storm in your mouth! Have you forgotten it? We have seen the storms of the enemy but I believe we have entered a time where God is revealing his power and glory that will out-do the storms we have seen in the past few years. Do I think the enemy will keep sending his storms in 2022? Absolutely, but it’s time for us to know who we are and that we aren’t helpless to change the things we see. It’s time for the church to determine the weather Instead of always being the cleanup crew after a tornado rolls in. We are the head, not the tail right? THE YEAR THE BRIDE SPEAKS UP “He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver” Isaiah 49:2 Just before Christmas, I was in worship when I saw a glimpse of the scene where Esther approaches the king in Esther 5; “What is it, Queen Esther? ” the king asked her. “Whatever you want, even to half the kingdom will be given to you.” Esther 5:3 Just as Esther went through the long season of refining and purification to prepare her for her divine appointment, now it’s time for you to come before the king and lift your voice. We have seen evil after evil and demonic agenda after agenda now It’s time to see Haman hung on his gallows and justice done. This is an hour that the church can’t be silent. This is a moment that we can’t hide in fear of our lives but we need to boldly come before the throne of grace and walk in the authority we have been given. This is a year for the BRIDE to SPEAK UP! This will be a year that you rise above the storm and become the storm. This will be a year of breaking out of confinement, limitations, and see the end of the gag order. This is a year to prophesy, worship, and be voices of truth! We are in the year of double doors opened by the keys of authority we have been given. (Isaiah 22:22) We are in the year of the keys of David being revealed to the church and a year we use them. We can’t hide out or lay down in defeat anymore. It’s time to shake our keys and open the doors the enemy thought he locked from our reach. Even right now God is loosing your voice in a new way. You think you have seen how God can use you but you haven’t seen anything yet. All the painful process you have been through hasn’t been wasted – watch as God places a strong conviction and anointing upon you to speak the heart of God into this time of history. Voices of
truth need to arise! We must prophesy! I prophesy – You have been anointed to demolish strongholds with your words and evict principalities! I prophesy -This is a year that we will see Haman hung by his own noose as we prophesy and worship. I prophesy – This will be a year that the church shines like never before. I prophesy – This will be a year of the resurgence of the Davidic worshippers and the releasing of songs of revival that have been held back in the last two years. I prophesy – This will be a year where our sound will shake cities and nations and the earth will know we are here and the king of kings is with us. I prophesy – This will be a year that the demons that we’re bothering you in 2021 will not be able to stand being around you because of the ferocity of your decrees. I prophesy – This will be a year of the fresh utterance as fresh coals are placed on our tongues by the Lord. I prophesy – This will be a year of the power and glory returning to the church in a way we have not seen! I prophesy – this will be a year of righteous and bold lions being released into contentious situations on the earth. I prophesy – this is a year that changes the very trajectory of history as we know it. For the glory of Jesus alone. Be his voice.
Nate Johnston
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