Nate Johnston: To Those Who Have Been Stuck in the War Room: It's Time to Level Up!
Sep 9, 2025
While in Australia, on the second or third night after having lost my voice, I lay in bed—my whole body numb, trembling, and struck with fear—not knowing what was going on. After many hours of praying and crying out to the Lord, I asked, "Lord, what is going on? What has happened to me?" Jezebel's House That night, I had a dream. In the first part of the dream, I found myself in a cold, uninviting house. It was a castle or palace of sorts, but it was just not a nice place; it felt dark. Instantly, I heard this voice echo through the halls: "How dare you try to shake my kingdom!" "Who is that?" I thought. "How dare you shake my kingdom!" It said again. And I instantly discerned that what I was hearing was the voice of Jezebel yelling at me. "How dare you!" I heard again. I said, "God's given me authority." This voice responded, "Not without a warrant, you don't." I remember being really confused by that statement. I woke up out of the dream, and I remember sitting there, thinking, "What I experienced was coming into a region that has come into agreement with this spirit, but I didn't come with a warrant. I came trying to call this thing out of its house, but I didn't come with a warrant. In the book of Mathew, Jesus said, "This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting" (see Mark 9:21). I instantly discerned that what I'd experienced was the backlash from not having come prepared and not rallying the Church to pray or fast. I needed to awaken the Church to what they'd come into agreement with that had allowed this thing to stay, and I could tell that this had been there for a very long time. After I had this dream, I then fell asleep again and went into another dream... Seated in the Second Heaven When I fell asleep, I entered a dream where I was watching angels and demons fight. I was in some kind of warfare realm, where there was just chaos everywhere. It was not Hell, but it felt dark. It felt like I couldn't feel the presence of God there. There was a battle taking place, as if it were the kingdom of darkness versus the Kingdom of light, and I remember thinking, "Where are the Christians?" Then, suddenly, my eyes looked, and I saw them—not outside of this realm, but sitting at the top of it. It was almost like they were in a spectator's booth, but definitely sitting in the same realm. It was like a VIP box at a game. I saw what I knew to be the whole Body of Christ, and they were in a high-up kind of place within this realm. They were shouting down at what was taking place in this fight, like it was a show... a game of sorts. They were shouting, "Do this! Do that!" But it wasn't accomplishing anything, and I couldn't understand why. Why was the Church in this kind of place, and why wasn't it accomplishing anything? It didn't make sense to me. I began to get really frustrated. There was no authority. The demons weren't even paying attention to the Christians there. I remember thinking, "Is it because we're in their territory? Like, because we're in their territory, we're not a threat to them?"
Suddenly, I began to feel like the Christians within this area were starting to get afflicted. They were beginning to come under the spirit that was reigning there. They started to yell out in rage, and I began to notice all these demonic themes within this group of people. The whole time, I was trying to process this in real time, because I knew something was off. Then I had this moment where I began to say, "This is not where you belong, Church. You're called higher than this." But I couldn't see any higher at the time. I remember thinking, "How do I break out of this? How do I get into another realm?" But I felt the Lord wanted me to sit, wait, and watch what was about to take place. I remember thinking, "Where is the Church that's called to evict and tear down principalities and powers? Where is the Church that's meant to walk on scorpions and snakes, and whom nothing will injure (Luke 10:19)? Where is the Church that carries the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead? Where is the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13)?" I began to notice more and more, as I looked around this room, that these Christians were shouting Scriptures and all this religious knowledge, but they were manifesting the same spirit that they were warring against. This was clearly fighting fire with fire, but the whole ruse was the fact that the Church had played into the game of Jezebel. The Church had played into the game of these demonic principalities and powers, simply because they didn't know who they were, and they didn't understand the authority of the realm they were meant to occupy. After I saw this, in my spirit, I said, "Church, ascend. It's time to level up in this season so we don't fall prey to the enemy's devices. We must come up higher." Instantly, I shot up, high up to the heavens, into this other place that I knew to be the glory realm. It was thick all around me, like honey. The air felt like honey, that is the only way I can explain it; it felt sweet. There was a fragrance all around me. Suddenly, I was looking down, and I could see that other place where the Church was, and I began to call them up higher. Instantly, in the glory realm, I discerned the fullness of my authority. I understood the fullness of what I had to do in that particular fight and that situation. The Lord said to me, "My Church needs to come up higher so they don't play into the game of the enemy..." I instantly discerned that in my particular situation, the Lord had used it to reveal to me that even though I had the message, the boldness, the authority, and the anointing to tear down some of these principalities and powers, there were some areas in this particular battle which I had entered into that I hadn't appropriately discerned when I had arrived in Australia. He said to me, "There are some battles you need to strategize before you release." I asked, "What are the strategies for us here in Australia, for instance?"
So, there is a facade of "doing Kingdom," of spiritual warfare, and of all these different religious practices, where there is a certain measure of Kingdom that is still happening, but it is capped and managed by a spirit, because of the second-heaven realm that we are occupying. The place your feet stand determines what you're in agreement with. Seated in Heavenly Places If you're seated in Christ in heavenly places, you're submitted to Christ, and your authority comes from Christ. The lie of the enemy has been to keep us stuck in the second-heaven realm, not understanding our authority, and not understanding our identity. This causes us to "shadowbox" the enemy, where we are no longer a threat to him; where we think we're doing Kingdom, but we're living under a ceiling, all the while, we see no results, we see no power, we see no breakthrough. It's a place of religious activity thriving without any results. The Lord says, "In this season, I'm actually flipping the script for the Church, but the first step is that the Church must rise higher. The Church must come out of that place. The first thing I saw the Lord do in my dream was turn the lights on. When He had done this, suddenly the Christians in that lower realm began to look as if they had been blinded and were confused. As they adjusted to the light, they began to realize the situation and said, "Wow, we've been occupying a space we're not meant to occupy... We're sitting in a place that is lower than the station that we're called to." It caused this mass awakening in the Body of Christ, where they started saying, "We need to get out of this place. The reason we're experiencing this issue is because we've occupied a lower station for such a long period of time." Many of us have been calling warfare something that it really isn't; we've been thinking that warfare is a shouting match at the enemy while we're in his house. Jesus said in John 14:30 that the enemy had no "hold" over Him. The enemy had nothing in common with Him. As the Church, being in that second-heaven realm causes us to come into agreement with areas we have in common with the enemy. We shout at the very thing we are tolerating. We shout at the very thing we are allowing in our lives. This dream, to me, is personal, yet I believe it is also a corporate word for the Body.
I know God has anointed me and my wife Christy to expose and stir up what many Christians have tolerated here in Australia. I know that the calling and the message on my life is always going to be to wake up the remnant and to call the Church to tear down principalities and powers. I know the message on my life is not to tolerate Jezebel, and to evict it from churches and regions where it has been running rampant in Australia. But I think what the Lord was showing me is that we all have to come up higher in order to know the correct strategy and the right way to evict these principalities and powers. (Photo via Pexels) A Parabolic Sign and Message to the Church As previously mentioned, I had physically lost my voice. I believe that the war on my voice was a parabolic sign to the Church that unless we rise up, the enemy's going to keep stealing our voice. But it was also a massive warning and reminder that unless we level up in our authority this season, we're going to keep getting taken out. We're going to keep taking those blows. However, if we ascend the hill of the Lord (Psalm 24), if we come up to a higher realm—a higher place of authority—we can evict those principalities and powers without fear of the backlash or fear of being taken out, because we have stepped into a higher realm. This is not just about the Church in Australia, but it's a message to the entire Body of Christ in this season that we can keep pretending like we're doing Kingdom while we're down in the pit, in the mud, slinging it on other Christians, trying to fight things that we've tolerated and allowed inside our hearts and lives, OR we can begin to evict those things. We must step out of the mud, break those agreements, and step into the place of effectiveness for the Kingdom that we're called to. How to Come Out of the Pit and Ascend the Hill of the Lord It's time to ascend the hill of the Lord (Psalm 24) and come up higher. Come out of the pit and out of that place that you've been living in. But how do you do that? I felt like the Lord said that it comes down to agreement. We want to fight and engage in warfare against the enemy because we're frustrated. We're frustrated that we have experienced nonstop warfare, and I get it. I understand that we want to see those areas of warfare end. But sometimes we engage the enemy while allowing agreements with the enemy to remain, and we become a landing place for the enemy to wreak havoc on our lives. We need to level up in our identity and authority in this season. And we level up in identity by spending more time in the secret place than we do trying to shout things down in public places. We level up in our authority by knowing what the finished work of the cross of Jesus Christ looks like, and untangling from every other mindset and limitation that we've allowed. It's time to level up, Church. I believe that God gave me this insight as an understanding of what we are facing right now as a Church, and the process that we are all in. Wow, I feel the anointing right now as I write these words... It's level-up time for you, Church. There are so many people reading this right now who have been experiencing warfare, backlash, and robbery that has been on another level... I want you to know that I'm in no way trying to bring condemnation. I'll never tell you that this is your fault or make you feel small, stupid, or belittle you for what you're going through. I know I felt that way. I felt stupid. I felt silly. I felt small. I felt like maybe I went into a fight that I wasn't properly ready for at the time. I went in a little blindsided, not because I wasn't prayed up enough, but because I hadn't correctly recognize the dynamics of the region. But I have a word for you, if you've been going through this kind of warfare. I want to give every bit of advice and keys for you in this season to know how to level up. Are you ready? How to Level Up 1. Get Out of the VIP Box
We must leave this place. We need to get out of our heads. It's time to go and spend more time with the Lord than we do calling our friends and telling them about what we're going through and who's against us. When did we make the Kingdom more about who's against us rather than the Kingdom we're advancing? 2. Get an Identity Upgrade We need an identity upgrade right now. We need to be refreshed and reminded of who we are. When we walk through battles, we can forget who we are. The Lord is saying, "Get into the Word. Find who you are again. Declare it until you become it again. Shake loose the mindsets that have been trying to snag you." 3. Break Commonality Ask the Lord, "Is there any area in my life that I have in common with the spirit that I'm warring against?" You won't be able to be set free from a spirit with whom you have commonality until you break agreement with it. Maybe this area of agreement came through the generations. Maybe came through the environment, or through the people you're aligned with... However it came, you need to break free from any areas of commonality, any false alignments, any places where you've come into agreement with the enemy in your life. 4. Ascend the Hill of the Lord Ask the Lord what it means to be seated in Christ in heavenly places and live there. Jesus used to go up the mountain to pray, and I believe that the cornerstone of us leveling up as a Church in this season is us leaving the second-heaven realm, ascending the hill of the Lord, taking back the high places, taking back our homes in prayer and worship, and dedicating our marriages and our families to the Lord afresh. A Closing Prayer and Word Now, lastly, I also want to pray for the voices that have been taken out in this season because of this kind of warfare: Silence, break, in Jesus' name. Demonic assignment sent to muzzle you, steal your message, and fire, be broken now, in Jesus' name! I am not saying not to speak, or to be afraid of the enemy, but to increase your ferocity and boldness, coupled with the wisdom and insight of Heaven that only comes as we ascend higher and see clearly what we are facing. "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:6 NIV)
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Nate Johnston 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.
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Then this phrase came to me: "We have sunken low instead of ascending high." And I wondered if the reason why these demons were not reacting to the Body of Christ was because we weren't coming from a place of authority. We were on their level, and we were shouting at them. (Photo via Unsplash)
He answered, "There needs to be a rallying of the Church to evict the deep-seated principalities that have been in regions for a long time. This is not something that you go and try to pluck out right away, like you did. This is something that needs strategy, and it needs prayer, and you need to rally the Church and call them higher, because right now the Church in that second-heaven realm is actually coming into agreement with this spirit, because they don't know what 'higher' looks like. They don't know that higher realm yet. So they're coming into agreement... they're actually shouting at a spirit or shouting at a principality that they've actually come into agreement with." (Photo via Pxfuel)
I feel like the Lord was saying to me, personally, that I had come to Australia with guns blazing.
We need to get out of that second-heaven realm. That is where we fight fires and warfare with our heads. That is where we come up against the enemy with our intellect and emotions, rather than with our spirit man. That's where we engage with the chatter, the gossip, and the slander more than we engage with the spirit behind them. It's where we become more focused on the people afflicting us than on the enemy behind them. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)
