Nate Johnston: Pioneers, Can You Handle a Different Mantle?

Nate Johnston, Colorado Springs, Co

Machr 4, 2025

(The following word was released on January 30, 2025.)

Pioneers, “Begin Unusual”

Pioneers, I keep hearing the words “begin unusual.” Over this last month, as I’ve been off social media, the Lord has been highlighting a profound yet simple instruction for 2025 and beyond. This is something He has spoken to me personally, but I know it applies to many others who have felt a deep reverence stepping into 2025. There has been a real fear of the Lord regarding what we are meant to do, what we are meant to be involved in, and how we are to advance His Kingdom.

It feels as though, especially over the last six months, the Lord has been shifting our appetites and affections down to our appetites and desires. He has been prompting us to redefine and even question what we have been doing in the past and what we are called to do moving forward. It feels like the Lord is making a very loud statement to us: “Begin to build unusual!”

A Blank Slate

As pioneers, what we step into in 2025 must be a brand-new blueprint. It is as though we have come to the end of the last map. We had to write it, plot it, and walk into the unknown to discover it. But now, that map is complete. We have walked the path we were meant to walk. And now, stepping into 2025, the Lord is handing us a blank slate, a new parchment and a pen to begin charting a new course.

This means stepping into something that has never been done before. It means forging a path that has not yet been paved. But it is impossible to step into the new while still clinging to the old instructions, methods, and mindsets of our last pioneering journey. What needs to happen now is a grand departure.

That is why your affections have changed. That is why your appetites have shifted. That is why you have felt an unusual discontent watching what others are doing. It is not that those things are wrong; rather, the Lord places that discontent in us when He is calling us to detour from familiar paths and step into our own unique journey.

A Pull for a Unique Journey

In 2014, my wife Christy and I felt this pull deeply. At the time, we were involved in a church where I was serving as a worship pastor, and we both began to sense that if we didn’t step into what God was calling us to, we would be forfeiting a decade of our lives. We knew that if we ignored the call, we would be stuck, going around the same mountain, doing what everyone else was doing, instead of what God had placed on our lives. The Lord was asking us, “Are you willing to feel uncomfortable for a season to step into the destiny upon your life?”

I can tell you, it was a deeply uncomfortable season of leaving behind the familiar. We had to burn the oxen and the plow and be okay with being misunderstood. Yet now, ten years later, we are reaping the fruit of that obedience. We chose the unfamiliar, the unpopular. We took hold of the blank parchment and began to etch out the revelation of the Lord, taking daily steps of obedience. That journey has now formed a map for many others to follow. And I believe we are at that same moment again.

What Is My Next Step?

I know many pioneers reading this are asking, “What is my next step? Why do I feel lost? Why does nothing seem to be coming together? Why do I feel the pull to leave this, to walk away from that, to not do what others expect me to do?”

It is because the Lord has called you for seasons—not to be a lone ranger, not to be isolated, but to walk in the grace He has given you for the unusual. You are called to step into the unfamiliar, to embrace the unknown, to pioneer a new language, and to build an infrastructure that no one else is building.

Right now, God is redirecting many. It reminds me of the Macedonian call, when they (Timothy, Paul, and Silas) were set to go in one direction, but God gave Paul a dream and redirected them elsewhere. In the same way, God is now releasing mass revelation to His pioneers. He is sounding a clarion call: “You cannot follow the same path as before.”

Lean Into the Unusual

There is a temptation to fall into complacency because it is comfortable. It is easy to think, “God, I’ve paid my dues. I can settle into ease now.” But the Lord is saying, “I have not called you to ease. Ground does not break beneath your feet through comfort. I have placed a sledgehammer in your hands to break the hardest of ground. And as you break that ground, what has been hidden and concealed will begin to erupt.”

Wells need to be uncapped, and you are called to do this in cities and regions that are blocked. We are in a season where the nations are ripe, but the ground must be tilled to prepare for the harvest.

So, pioneers, my word for you today is this: Lean into the unusual. Do not do what everyone else is doing. Do not fall into the trap of continuing with the same religious or ministry endeavors simply because they are familiar. Step into the unusual.

There is a grace and anointing upon the unusual. There is a grace and anointing upon that which is organic and grassroots in this season. You do not need the masses. You do not need widespread approval from people. You simply need the “yes” of the Lord.

Step into what may not make sense to others, because in Heaven, it makes perfect sense. This is your call.

(The following word was released on February 12, 2025.)

Can You Handle a Different Mantle?

A few days ago, as I was driving around praying, I heard this statement: “Don’t apologize for your different mantle.” Instantly I thought of Elisha who, in a moment, had a new mantle thrown over him, and his whole world changed. He slayed his oxen, burned his plowing tools, and said goodbye to his family in order to be Elijah’s protege.

We don’t see it in the Bible, but that could have been a movie in those unspoken lines right there. Imagine everything shifting that dramatically in your life that quickly! Yet you have been there, and many are there right now. That process can be a shock to the system, adjusting to so many new surroundings, but even more vividly, dealing with the internal changes.

You see, when God throws a new mantle over you, it’s not just about a new anointing and role change. It leads you into an internal rewiring and initiates a season of crossing over from one capacity into the office you have been prepared for. And that’s the messy place many are in right now.

But to you? You just feel lost or like something is missing. But nothing is missing, except the juice you once had for the old thing is running out. The oil is now being produced in the new thing that God is highlighting to you, if you choose to see it.

Out of One Anointing and Capacity and Into Another

But the problem or challenge in this process comes if we refuse to recognize or transition over. For instance, the grace on what you were doing or the way you were doing it lifts, but the longing for the familiar keeps you at a plow you are no longer anointed for. Refusing to adjust our lives to accommodate the new mantle can lead us into feeling like God has removed His hand from our lives, when that is not the case.

Mantles are upgrades not downgrades, but are we willing to surrender our desires for what He knows is best for us? For many this is hard, because their identities are also wrapped up in the old mantle, and that can be hard to separate from.

“But I’m a pastor, and this is my role and what I do and what people expect me to do!”

But what if you suddenly dream of nations and you can’t deny a pull in a different direction? Will you surrender to it, or stay stuck in the expectation you and others have placed on you, even if it means stagnancy? No, you burn the plow and you adjust. But here’s the thing: It’s not just you that has to adjust to your new mantle but those around you.

Those who have known you for a long time have been used to you operating a certain way, thinking a certain way, and being focused in a specific direction. Those whom you used to run with may not understand you or even recognize you as you put on a different mantle on. It may cause them to feel like you are being disingenuous or being something you aren’t. But they don’t know that God has shifted your life in a moment. They see this new mantle and it looks like a costume, but it’s the most authentic “you” that you can be.

So, let me ask you again: Can you handle a different mantle? Are you diagnosing this season properly?

Lord, I pray for those in this shift right now, out of one anointing and capacity and into another. Help them navigate their own personal process well, the relational process well, and their process to adjust to Your leading well, in Jesus’ name!