2025: A Year of Structure
This has been a year of alignment. Now, it's time to move into it being a year of structure being built.
A year ago, when God told me 2024 would be a year of alignment, I was so excited and had such huge expectations for all the amazing things that I “knew” were going to take place.
There was a moment this morning when a thought popped into my head – “This year hasn’t been what I expected” and I was surprised by suddenly finding myself in tears.
Just as quickly as the thought came and the tears flowed, I heard, “What did you expect from a year of alignment?”
That gave me pause. As I allowed myself to engage in this holy invitation to conversation, I began to list off a few things.
- I didn’t expect certain friendships to shift and change and no longer be what they’ve been.
- I didn’t expect to strip away some things that have been a hugely important part of my world in favor of shifting time to other things I sensed God leading me to devote my time to instead.
- I didn’t expect Brian to walk out dreams fulfilled only to have that chapter close far sooner than we expected but still know God’s hand was on it all.
- I didn’t expect the sacrifices to be as great as they’ve been or for things to be so hard.
- I didn’t expect to not easily succeed at the things I felt God leading me into and to struggle with feelings of failure, shame, and internal shaking in a totally different way than I’ve ever experienced.
Yet . . . as I listed those things off in His presence and laid them all down before Him, I began to sense gratitude rising within me and my list changed.
- I’m so grateful for the depth of community that’s grown for me this year, even if it’s mainly across the world, and that it includes being part of a church family that is iron sharpening iron in ways I’ve never experienced before and I’ve grown exponentially in Him.
- I’m so grateful to be able to spend so much time with our grandchildren and support our “kids” as they’ve parented. I’m thankful to have devoted time to writing and seeing the fruits of that. I’m thankful to have had time to listen to others, pray for them, and pray for our nation and the nations of the earth.
- I’m grateful to have had more daily time with Brian, have a front-row seat to watching him grow and transform as he walked more fully in his calling, and to get to partner with him in a ton of new ways.
- I’m grateful that this year of “hard” has revealed my growth in Him, deepened my faith and trust even more, and shown me I really can be at peace and have joy, even during times of letting go of things dear to me and walking through challenges.
- I’m grateful that things not coming as easily to me has been an invitation to lean into even more conversations with God, seeking to know His blueprints (not my plans), learning to be okay in the tension of not understanding but still trusting, and allowing His truths to continue to sink in deeply to those places where fear of failure, shame, and self-image being shaken continue to be grappled with as I question Him about so many things . . .
- I’m grateful to have taken more risks this year than ever before and to be even more certain that He has my resounding “yes” however He may lead me.
Why am I sharing all of these personal things with you? It’s because while the particulars won’t be the same, I know the struggles have been similar for so many who can write their own lists of “I didn’t expect . . . ” sentences.
And, I’m here to encourage you to let your list shift to gratitude. Look at each of the “I didn’t expect” statements and allow God to speak His truths into what really happened. You may not have expected things to transpire as they have, but nothing ever takes God by surprise, and He can bring such beauty out of it all.
True confession – I haven’t ever been a lover of the book of Ecclesiastes, but in June of this year, God prompted me to reread it (even grudgingly), and it was as if a new book had been added to the Bible as the Lord helped me to see it through an entirely different lens. While I won’t delve into it now, chapter three’s wisdom of “to everything there is a season” has spoken deeply to my spirit and heart, especially as I’ve dug into the meanings of the words in verses 1-8 and allowed Him to give me a greater understanding of His ways.
Times, seasons, and cycles – they all change, and there’s change coming in the New Year.
As this year comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on what’s past, and asking the Lord about what’s next.
I’ve seen alignments happen over and over this year, both in our lives and others’ – so many transitions, repositioning, and shifting taking place!
The alignments have been needed to position us for what’s ahead – the STRUCTURE that will be built. They were necessary to create a firm foundation to build on in the coming year.
There’s also been a digging deep – SO deep that it’s been painful, but the digging had to happen this year in order for the structural beams to have enough depth to be positioned in, creating stability for the structure to be erected on and remain firm.
This year has been so worth it. I’m thanking God for every single alignment and realignment and am looking forward to 2025 being a year of STRUCTURE being built in so many ways - more on that to come!
Remember . . . as a structure is built, it takes time to build it well. Trust Him in the process and celebrate each milestone. That will help keep you focused and moving forward in partnership with God and all He’s building!
Brian and I are cheering you on! We always say this, but we truly mean it – if you need prayer, please reach out to us. We’d love to hold you close to the Father’s heart and encourage you in any way we can.
I’m sending you so much love, my friend, now and always!
Living for Him,
Andrea
P.S. This is a worship list I created on YouTube and have had on repeat lately. I hope it blesses you!
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
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
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
Let Go of What Used to Be
Recently, I began watching the series, “The Lost Kitchen.” I’m only on the second episode of season one, but God has been speaking so much to me through Erin French’s story of her life and restaurant.As her 2020 story unfolds in the second episode, she says, “I have to let go of what it used to be.” The Lord spoke to my heart in that moment, telling me to pay attention to those words.
I believe many of us have been looking backward at what things used to be like. Maybe without even realizing it, our hearts seem to long for what once was – the familiar, the secure, the known – even if it wasn’t the best.
We’ve been in transition, and it’s taking longer than we’d expected. We knew what to leave and had a sense of what we were moving into, yet we’ve been in this messy middle of it coming to pass and it leaves us looking back, longing for some of the things of the old season.
God has called you out into a new season and He’s asked you to leave the old behind.
Erin French was forced to rethink the way she’d done things. The Lost Kitchen had become an incredibly successful, well-oiled machine; then she had to reinvent everything. She was willing to innovate, think outside the box, and be creative. Because of her unwillingness to not give up and her willingness to transition into what she’d never done before, not only did she “make it,” but so did her family and closest friends (who work beside her), as well as her entire community.
It’s never just about us. Our perseverance in pressing into this new season has a far-reaching impact, but we can’t move into the new still holding onto the old.
Whether what we’re holding onto is “the good old days,” or instead, disillusionment, regret, disappointment, or even the determination to never have things be like they once were, if we’re holding onto it, we’re weighed down by it.
Forget what lies behind. Reach forward to what’s ahead. Press on toward all God is calling you to in this new season. Don’t turn back! (Philippians 3:13-14, paraphrased)
We can learn from the past, but it can’t become an idol we long after. Be willing to let go of what used to be – for your sake and others. Be flexible, think differently, focus forward, and keep taking the next step. All of heaven is cheering you on!
Living for Him,
Andrea
*Photo by Greta Rybus
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
This is NOT the Fool's Month!
A thought came to me this morning about how odd it is to start a month with practical jokes and fooling people. I was brought up short when I heard in my spirit, “This is NOT the fool’s month!”Sensing the Lord’s unhappy heart in His statement, I immediately stopped and asked Him why He responded as He did. I heard two things:
- I give wisdom - “For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:6, NASB 1995)
- Look up the history of April Fool’s Day.
The history of April Fool’s Day is a bit muddied with historians not certain or in agreement on where or how it originated. It may have originated as far back as festivals celebrated in Roman times or tied to the vernal equinox and Mother Nature being unpredictable, or instead, in the late 1300's with Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. It could have been instituted as a result of a calendar change in the 1500's, or others have said it may have originated with Noah, coinciding with him sending the dove out of the ark too early. However it began, the day is marked by practical jokes, hoaxes, gullibility, mocking others, and no surprise – some explanations of its origins are rooted in the occult. The idea is to good-naturedly make a fool of others on that day.
The sense I was getting from the Lord for this April is He wants this month marked by wisdom, rather than foolishness. There are many needing wisdom and strategy RIGHT NOW for the plans of the Lord to be fulfilled in this season. There are outworkings of destiny and calling happening, including positioning in various realms of society (business, political, etc.), that are unfolding this month. We need His wisdom for the strategies for these alignments, as well as for walking in these new positions of leadership and authority.
I heard His words inside my spirit: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5, NASB1995)
If you need wisdom, ask Him for it – He’ll gladly give it to you, but there’s another part to this passage that’s incredibly important to keep in mind when asking. Reading on in verses 6-8 we find: “But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
"Double-minded" is another way of saying doubting or hesitating. When we ask God for wisdom, we need to believe He’s given it and when it comes with strategy or next steps, we need to act on those, rather than hesitating.God doesn’t want to leave us as “fools.” According to Merriam-Webster, a fool is “a person lacking in judgment or prudence, one who is victimized or made to appear foolish, a person lacking in common powers of understanding or reason.”
Merriam-Webster defines prudence as “the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason, sagacity (foresight, discernment, or keen perception; ability to make good judgments) or shrewdness in the management of affairs, skill and good judgment in the use of resources.”
This is NOT the fool’s month! What areas in your life need self-governance and discipline? In what ways do you need to apply foresight, discernment, and keen perception as you lean in and listen to the Lord for wisdom and strategies? Do you need to make any adjustments in your stewardship of the resources God has given you? Act on what the Lord shows you!I also felt it important to declare you are NOT victimized, and neither do you appear foolish! You think clearly, have deep understanding, and possess sound reasoning. Any words to the contrary spoken over you by yourself or others are broken off NOW, in Jesus’ mighty name!
God always gives us invitations to grow in our faith, which includes our trust in Him. (The two words are synonymous and often interchanged depending on the Bible translation you read.) This is a year of alignment in every way and this month has a particular focus on implementing the wisdom and strategies needed to move forward in the things He’s called you to in partnership with Him.
Don’t doubt. Don’t hesitate. Wisely implement what God shows you and take action by faith! This is NOT the fool’s month!
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise.” (Ephesians 5:15, NKJV)
“Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” (Proverbs 4:6-7 NIV)
“Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” (Proverbs 4:6-7, NKJV)
I bless you with incredible wisdom! Please share any stories about how this word unfolds in your life this month - I would love to hear them! If Brian and I can pray for you in any way, reach out to us. We’d love to hold you close to the Father’s heart!
Living for Him,
Andrea
P.S. Brian and I are launching out more in the ministry realm, including me writing more and Brian working to end sex trafficking. If you'd like to sow a seed by "buying us a coffee," please click the link below (more information is included on the page), and thank you for partnering with us!
Our Mission: Love Others Well & Empower Them to Do the Same
