November Prophetic Word
It’s a Season of Acceleration: Prepare, Strategize, Plan
God has been speaking really clearly to me about preparing, strategizing, and planning – not just for this month, but especially for next year. He’s accelerated the timing for its preparation. I sense a strong mandate to hear from God and plan now. I thought it was a word just for us, but over and over again, I’m hearing and seeing it’s a corporate word. Let me break this down and illustrate it by sharing how it’s been unfolding for us.
This has hands down been one of the most challenging years we’ve walked through. We’ve faced a lot in our 33 years of marriage, but this year has been one of the hardest. At the beginning of this year, the Lord told me it was a year of alignment. It’s been one alignment and realignment after the next, but each has had to happen to bring us to where we are now. One cog being aligned has enabled the cog next to it to get into alignment, then the next one, and the next one.
It’s felt like an endless process, but God is in process – ours and yours. It’s all about who we become through it. He refines us and creates in us the capacity we need to walk in what’s ahead. We couldn’t be who we were and effectively walk in all He’s planned for us now and in the coming months. We’ve had to embrace the hard, stand on God’s truths, allow His refining fire, be willing to take a long look into the mirror’s reflection, and do something about what we’ve seen.
Can you relate? Have you had a similar year?
Earlier this year, I had a dream. In it, I was faced with needing to jump onto a fast-moving waterslide through a very narrow opening (Matt. 7:13-14). It was scary, but someone stood next to me telling me I could do it. That person gave me the courage to leap.
What does this dream mean? It’s all about acceleration, being willing to do what seems scary, and having someone alongside you who encourages and tells you that you can do it. I couldn’t see where the waterslide was going to take me or what waited at the bottom, but I knew I needed to jump in and go after the person I was chasing in the dream (who was different than the person who encouraged me to jump into it).
The last two months have seen a massive amount of acceleration in our lives. We haven’t traveled this year at all until September. Since then, we’ve gone on four trips between us. I also wrote and published a new book, we launched a new business, Brian hosted a men’s retreat weekend, and over the last two weeks, I’ve hosted a daily prayer group for our nation, which will become a weekly prayer group through 2025.
Sounds like a swiftly moving waterslide, doesn’t it? At times, it’s felt scary and completely daunting, but we knew it was the leap we were to take. It’s also been a “narrow gate” of entry – “'For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.’” (Matt. 7:14)
During the last two weeks, we’ve sensed the Lord nudging us to begin to prepare, strategize, and plan for 2025. While many prepare into the following year well before now, we don’t usually start to put dates on the next year’s calendar until December. This spoke to us again of the acceleration of time.
God was also very specific about the planner I was to get for next year – it was to include daily time blocking so I would be more intentional about how I invested my time each day. The planner has arrived and dates are being added as we’ve sat in His presence and leaned in to hear His plans for the coming year.
I believe God is urging each of us to get in His presence, listen for His direction, strategize with Him, plan, and prepare for next year. He wants us to intentionally plan for specific actions we’re to take and the timing for each. In some ways, it feels militant in that we’re being shown the battle plans and our marching orders are being revealed. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s for us facing upcoming battles, but it speaks to effective preparation, strategy, planning, and implementation.
Prioritize planning with the Lord today and throughout this month. Write down what He shows you – put the dates on your 2025 calendar and flesh out the plans for what next year holds for you in partnership with Him. Have someone next to you who will help direct you on the path before you and encourage you, especially when your next step seems scary or daunting.
God is accelerating the planning and timing for what’s ahead. It’s important we’re prepared for it, know the plan, and are in sync with His timing.
Living for Him,
Andrea
Here's a link to the planner I purchased. I don't receive anything for sharing it. I simply wanted to share a great resource. I got the weekly planner - it includes time blocking.
God has really been ramping up the ministry side of our lives and much is in the planning for 2025, including men's retreats, women's retreats, and another retreat designed for a very special group of people (more details soon), as well as a weekly intercessory prayer group and a third book being published early next year.
If you would like to partner with Brian and me by sowing into The Renovated Life, you can do that via Venmo (@Andrea-Johanson-2), PayPal (therenovatedlife@gmail.com), or Zelle (770-870-9041).
Thank you for partnering with us in building God's kingdom as lives are transformed in His presence!
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
Experiencing ChristmasThrough the Eyes of Those Who Lived It
Experiencing Christmas Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It is NOW AVAILABLE! This new ADVENT STUDY is your invitation to slow down and truly EXPERIENCE Christmas this year.
Imagine this season filled with wonder, peace, and a deeper connection to God. Over four weeks, we’ll journey through Advent together, seeing Christmas through the eyes of those who lived it.
Each week, you’ll find opportunities to recapture your sense of wonder, hear God’s voice, learn to “fear not”, and grow in trust and faith in the One we celebrate.
Inside you’ll find a new topic for each week, along with weekly activations for hearing the voice of God and applications for your daily life - all crafted to bring the hope and joy of Christmas alive in a fresh, powerful way and prepare your heart for a truly meaningful Christmas.
Use the weekly activations as personal journal prompts or as group discussion questions. Whichever you choose, my prayer is that God uses them to bring the hope and joy of Christmas alive in a fresh way.
I'm SO excited to share my newest book with you!
Living for Him,
Andrea
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
September 2024: Preparing for Lift Off!
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve sensed a weightiness on this last quarter of the year. That sounds very normal with an upcoming presidential election and it being the biggest quarter of the year for many businesses; however, this has been a bit different in its focus.
I shared this picture with a friend, then felt it was actually a corporate word. I saw a rocket on a launch pad. The engines had been ignited and energy was being gathered for lift off. I could hear the rumbling and feel the ground shaking. Everything had been prepared for this moment, yet there were still minutes ticking by as the rocket’s propulsion system began to burn fuel and momentum built to create the thrust needed to launch.
These minutes represent the days of the last quarter of the year as we prepare for lift off in 2025.
I sense the importance of “getting our ducks in a row” during these last months of the year with the start of September being a time to quickly identify goals, direction, and steps to take - both this month and over the next three months after that. Many of us have had a sense of what’s next, but we haven’t acted on our inner knowing due to any number of reasons, including fear and uncertainty. It’s time to stop procrastinating and wasting time. It’s crucial we become laser focused on what we know God has been speaking to us, determine the action plan, write it down, and implement it. God is waiting on us - it’s not the other way around!
Proverbs 29:18a says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (KJV) The Passion Translation of the same verse reads, “When there is no clear prophetic vision, people quickly wander astray. But when you follow the revelation of the Word, heaven’s bliss fills your soul.”
The restlessness we’re feeling within is due to our vision having become blurred or even obscured because we’re afraid of failure. We’re unsure if we’re hearing from God. We’re fighting taking risks or we’re wavering in our belief and faith in ourselves and God.
Happiness and joy will be restored to our souls as we clear our vision by defining and walking in what the Lord has spoken to us.
Personally, God has been speaking to me about very practical things to implement or re-implement in my life. I’ve begun time blocking because I recognized I wasn’t investing my time as well as I could be. I was spending time instead. If I were stewarding time better and investing it well, I would be seeing a greater return on my investment. It’s also meant taking a serious look at how I’m spending my time and letting go of some things I’ve held dear to my heart that fill time now needing to be invested elsewhere.
Our high callings come at a cost. Are we willing to die to ourselves and what we want for the sake of our best “yes” in this season trusting God has far better in store for us?
I also knew I needed to return to setting goals in every area of my life, both monthly and quarterly. Once those goals were set, I knew I could reverse engineer those goals into my daily tasks and time block for them. I’m no longer letting each day roll by with a loose plan, but I’m being extremely intentional with each day, have begun stewarding my time better, and am determined to live each day to the fullest with goals, purpose, and intent in my heart.
These are the keys God has revealed to me that were necessary for the gathering of thrust for my lift off in 2025. What is it for you? What do you need to put into place for your engine to be ignited, your propulsion system to begin to burn fuel, and for you to build the momentum you need to launch you into what’s ahead?
Want to go to the new heights in Him? Ask God what your keys are for turning on the ignition, then implement them to fuel your rocket’s engines. Write down what He’s shown you and let that prophetic vision be the map that guides you to where you’re going. Don’t be surprised when you feel the ground beneath you begin to shake. It’s just the engines coming to life and gathering the energy needed for lift off!
Living for Him,
Andrea
P.S. Need help with a quick strategy session? Reach out to schedule a chat!
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
I Make All Things New!"
August is the eighth month of the year. Biblically, the number eight signifies new beginnings. Over the last couple of days, as I leaned in to hear what the Lord was saying about August, I kept hearing, “I make all things new.”Then, one of my favorite scriptures came to mind.
“Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18-19, NASB1995)
Do not call to mind the former things - the things of the past, both good and bad. He’s doing a new thing; remembering the old and hanging onto it won’t serve us well.
Be aware of what He’s doing right now. Focus fully on the present.
It’s not going to look like what it did. The new can feel uncomfortable in its unfamiliarity. You’re going to be OK. Embrace it.
Song of Songs 2:10-13, NKJV says: “My beloved spoke, and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes
give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!”
There’s so much to these verses, but what stood out to me for this month is how it will be marked with new growth and fruitfulness. The time when everything is “dead” and stagnant (winter) has passed. It’s time to bloom, come into fruitful maturity, and become a beautiful fragrance before Him in the world around us. We should “give a good smell” to those nearby - be beautifully fragrant!
The key to this scripture is that He’s invited us to come away with Him and He’s asking for our response. Will we rise up? We will “come away” with Him? It’s in that place of being set apart in His presence He makes all things new.
Today is also the first of the month and I sense the weightiness of the day that it is - number one, the first or beginning. It’s also a realigning of first things - returning to our first love, reprioritizing, getting things in order. There’s a shifting happening in this regard, and it’s important we respond to His leading, making changes as He reveals them to us.
I also heard, “Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’” (Revelation 21:5)
Journaling is another key for this month. Write what He shows you. He’ll reveal new ways of doing things along with new things being created both for and in partnership with you - new structures, new designs, new opportunities, and new open doors.
Record what He shows you in the moments you “come away” with Him and the new things as they unfold. They will become a guide, an instruction manual, and a memorial for you to use and remember in the seasons to come. You’ll be able to say, “He did it before and He’ll do it again.” The words you write now will be a gift to you in the future.
He makes all (ALL) things new. He’s doing a new thing! Let go of what you’ve known and have experienced. Embrace the unfamiliar. Prioritize and put things in proper, sequential order (i.e., first things first.) Take action - rise up! “Come away” with Him. Write what He shows you. Keep track of the new things and step out in them. Bloom, bear fruit and be a beautiful fragrance wherever you go.
“I make all things new!”
Need prayer? Please reach out. I would love to lift you up to the Father's heart!
Living for Him,
Andrea
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
“Govern your time or Time will rule over you."
This is a refrain I’m hearing over and over again in the Spirit. I sense the urgency around this.Time is an insidious ruler making us believe the lies of busyness equaling effectiveness; always being ready to help others is showing kindness and compassion; and rest is laziness.
Time sucks come in pretty packages. They’re not gifts; they’re parasitical leaches.
Just as you’re encouraged to track your spending over a month, and then create your budget, a very practical exercise is to track how your time is spent over a week and then partner with Holy Spirit as you review what you’ve tracked and make a plan around improving the investment of your time.
Did you catch that distinction between spending and investing time? We’re called to be good stewards over every aspect of our lives and made to have dominion, with ALL things put under our feet. This includes responsibly managing and ruling over Time.
“You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.” (Psalm 8:6, NKJV)
Said again in another translation:
“You have delegated to them rulership over all you have made, with everything under their authority, placing earth itself under the feet of your image-bearers.” (Psalm 8:6, TPT)
Stop allowing Time to rule over you. Govern it. Use it as the tool it’s been created to be for you.
Remember God stands outside of time and is the Creator of it. If you feel out of alignment with your timeline, ask God to realign you with where He intended for you to be at this time in your life.
“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” (2 Peter 3:8, NASB, 1995)
God sees the bigger picture and has given us the responsibility of redeeming time.
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesian 5:15-17)
What does it mean to redeem time? Cash, exchange, convert, or transfer it. Release, liberate, free, deliver, rescue, or restore it. What would that look like for you?
Govern your time or Time will rule over you.
I've been re-implementing time blocking and time batching strategies and have been finding it super helpful. Want the links I've been digging into and using for templates? Let me know - I'd be happy to send them.
Need prayer? I would love to lift you up to the Father's heart!
Living for Him,
Andrea
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
