God Is Raising the Bar

Recently, I had a very simple yet profound vision, and I knew the Lord was showing me what many people have been experiencing so that I can recognize it and then partner with Him to set them free from it. So, I’m going to share that vision with you. Then, I want to simply pray for you, if this registers in any way as you’re reading it.

In this vision, I saw people who were trying to walk, but they were having to crouch down really low because there was a bar or a ceiling that was hanging low over them. I was instantly reminded of what the Lord had said to me a month ago—that there is a bar that has been hanging low over the Church, and that He is “raising the bar” in this season and setting a new standard. I knew the Lord was speaking prophetically about nations and about places where the bar has been set low, where functioning in an office or assignment has been low for so long, but He is now raising the bar and bringing us into a fullness of capacity and power.

It’s Time to Level Up

This image also stirred up what He’s been speaking to me about us coming into a “leveling up” and a “rising in authority” season, and so I knew this was also speaking into that.

In my vision, the context of this bar was like an oppression or a yoke. It was like there was a physical ceiling over people, and they were having to walk crouching down, like in the game of Limbo, in order to move. This immediately made me think, “People are living in limbo!” because they’re not fully free to do or to walk and operate the way they’re meant to. Living like this impairs our ability to function normally. If you can think about a person who, in the natural, would have to walk and live like this long-term, it would actually begin to affect their body and create disabilities, right?

I think the Lord is showing me that there are many Believers who have been living in this place of limitation for too long. They have been living under this heavy yoke and ceiling that has been over them for a long time.

After this, I instantly heard the Lord say, “I am breaking the yoke in this transition that many people have been under!”

So, I asked the Lord, “What is this ceiling? What is this yoke that many people are under?” (Photo via Unsplash)

Alignment Ceilings

The first thing I heard the Lord say was that this transition is actually breaking people free from ceilings that are contracts—religious contracts of covering and accountability that aren’t true covenants, so they brought them into bondage. They are simply covenants of control. Many people who did not know the difference came under these yokes and came under these ceilings. This actually did more than disable them; it created a wounded orphan spirit within them…

These people were frustrated because they knew they were made for more, yet because they’d been under these false coverings or yokes for so long, everything that came out of their mouths was twisted and disabled. Everything that came out of them was not the pure flow that they were meant to carry.

The Lord showed me that in this transition He’s going to break those ceilings so that you will become aware of what you’ve been under—what you’ve been appeasing and living under for so long.

The Ceiling of Limitations

The second thing I saw was that the enemy had placed almost like a “brass heaven” or a ceiling over people, which has manifested in financial difficulties, constant closed doors, frustrating bureaucratic red tape, and constant holes in your cups. It’s like the grace to be able to flourish, to prosper, to multiply, and to do well with what God has given you has not been there, and things have felt constantly tedious and hard—like no matter what you do, they just won’t work.

I feel so strongly that this is what many people have been facing, and it has been creating a different kind of disability, the disability of impaired faith and hope. This is where hope deferred creeps in. This is where that deep frustration comes in, and it begins to twist you, to frustrate you, and discourages you in your calling. So, in this transition, the Lord is setting people free from that, and they’re going to come out of that place of bondage.

The Ceiling of Triggers

The third ceiling I saw was people’s own limitations, where they had been partnering with mindsets of insecurity and fear. It had brought them into a place where they were now experiencing bondage and a yoke from their own words and insecurities that had risen up in this past season. These triggers to past painful and traumatic experiences have created a blockage around them from anything good, insulating them from the goodness and favor of the Lord. So, this has to break right now. (Photo via Pexels)

What I want you to be aware of is that in this transition right now, God is setting us free from many decades of limitations, which is why this can be hard to notice for some. It’s become normal. He’s breaking these yokes once and for all, and I believe it’s a deliverance moment for so many people, especially voices that God’s called to the frontlines in this hour. He’s asking us if we’ll partner with Him to remove anything and everything that is over us that should not be there.

If this is you today, and you’re reading this, and you can recognize that there have been some limitations over you, I want you to simply pray with me right now:

Lord, break the yoke. Lord, break the yoke that’s been over me, whether it’s been a yoke through wrong partnership or alignment. Break it right now. Lord, if it’s been a yoke from the enemy to stifle me and to delay and stop me, break it right now. And, Lord, if there have been any insecurities going on in my life, break them right now, and set me free in the name of Jesus.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” (Isaiah 10:27 KJV)

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6 NKJV)

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 three daughters, Charlotte, Sophie, and Ava and live in Orange County, CA.