“The Year to Break Out of the Box!”
Nate Johnston, Redding, CA
15th February 2021
Hey Revivalists,
While this word came to me for our Grow School, I felt to release it publicly because I believe it is what God is doing in the Body right now. I feel such a responsibility on this year as a (spiritual) “midwife” to make sure that the Church is equipped well, so that we can be an effective force on the frontlines in the years to come. But before I begin to prophesy, I want to share what God spoke to me and how it came about.
Birthing & Innovation: The Year to Break Out of the Box!
In November, Christy and I felt the same feeling we do every year at that time; it’s almost a sense of “something needs to change,” which is actually the innovation and creativity of Heaven dropping on us and leading us to shift, change up, and reinvent how we are equipping. It’s very normal for us. I remember when we began our courses it was not the thing that was done. People we knew didn’t understand what we were doing, yet God was moving on it powerfully.
So, as we were asking the Lord about what He wanted us to change, one of the major things we heard was to add more physical resources and practical prophetic tools to help our students really run with fire as we raise them up. So God showed us a picture of a box, like an adventure pack. Simple, right? So we started working hard behind the scenes.
Earlier in January, before my daughter Ava was born, Christy was almost full-term and she felt it…she was ready to birth, and simultaneously, it felt like we were about to birth something in the spirit too. One morning I was in the crunch of organizing boxes, graphics, and overhauling our website for registration when in the middle of the craziness, I heard Him say so clearly, “THIS IS THE YEAR THEY BREAK OUT OF THE BOX!”
It took me by surprise and I needed clarity. “What do you mean?” I asked. Then it hit me. We hadn’t just been working on making physical products for our students, but our work was an actual prophetic sign that we were going to see them BREAK OUT OF THE BOX! We were making a physical, tangible, prophetic toolbox so that YOU could BREAK OUT in 2021!
Hidden Treasures
Throughout the Bible there are so many examples of where God broke people out, like Jesus breaking people out of the boxes of religious tradition with His parables, miracles, and compassion…like God breaking Paul and Silas out of prison when they worshiped; and we can’t forget the 100 prophets who were hiding in the caves until Elijah broke them out. It’s what God does! However, there were two passages that specifically came to mind. The first one, in Judges 7:19-20, says:
“Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!'” (Judges 7:19-20)
So as an act of war, Gideon’s men blew their trumpets, smashed jars, then, in that same hand, they held torches. What was this prophetic act for? Was it to proclaim the breaking of bondage and to reveal the shining light of victory? Here’s another Scripture from 2 Corinthians 4:7:
“We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that the extraordinary overflow of power will be seen as God’s, not ours.”
What if God is breaking our boxes in this season to reveal the treasure hidden in us that has been concealed for far too long?
It’s Time for Your Boxes to Break!
So let me prophesy over you. I believe this year:
• You will break out of all religious and man-made limitations.
• You will break out of the mould and leave the status quo.
• Your voice will break out and be amplified.
• You will break out of the insecurities you have faced.
• You will break the yokes that have been placed on you and leave them behind.
• You will BREAK UP with the past ways and methods.
• Every treasure inside you will be revealed!
• You will BREAK INTO a new way of living and leave survival behind.
• You will get breakthrough in your direction, knowing where you are going and your assignment.
• You will break into a new level of creativity and innovation.
• The years of stale Christianity are over for you…the fulfilling adventure begins now.
• You will see the TANGIBLE and move past the theoretical, and see dreams BUILT.
• You will be OK with being different, “out of the box,” and unique because it’s time for the out-of-the-boxers to shine!
• You will break out and launch—and IT IS TIME!
So all of that to say this…get ready for a BREAKOUT year. It’s time for the pioneers to arise unapologetically, for the reformers to step up and leave the cages that religion has tried to keep them in, and for us to step into the new thing and the harvest before us.
It’s a year to see EVERY dormant and hidden gift you carry come out and make themselves known. You may have been:
• Barren
• Silenced
• Stifled
• Squashed
• Decommissioned
• Contained
• Disabled
• Deferred in your hope
But now you are leaving where you have been! You cannot stay there anymore! So let’s grow together in 2021.
Nate Johnston
Everyday Revivalists
Email: everydayrevivalists@gmail.com
Website: nateandchristy.co
Nate Johnston is a prophetic voice and worshiper who has a heart to see sons and daughters unleashed into passionate friendship with God and an effective supernatural lifestyle. Through his ministry school “Everyday Revivalists,” he leads people from the basics of the Gospel through to being sent and released into their mission field, as well as championing and raising up emerging prophetic voices around the world. His burning cry and desire is to see the Body of Christ become a beacon for the lost by raising up a generation that walks in the love and power of God, representing Him well. Nate and his wife Christy have two daughters, Charlotte and Sophie, and live in Redding California.