All you have to do is turn on the television or read the headlines on your news feed to see that the nations are raging (Ps. 2:1) and people are in turmoil. Many are fearful and many others are playing on those fears.
From week to week, we see political unrest; disunity among one another; and men, women and even children harmed through acts of terrorism. The church even seems to be under attack from the media.
“Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against his anointed one” (Ps. 2:1-2, NLT).
However, we have a promise from the Lord that the nations are our inheritance, and He has commanded us to go into all the nations, baptizing, teaching and making disciples.
As the apostle and president of HIM (Harvest International Ministry), I have the opportunity to visit the nations and encourage the hurting, pray for the lost and build up leaders of ministries and people in the church all over the world. As an organization, HIM is currently represented in over 65 nations.
All of this is part of the Lord fulfilling His word to me when I was a student at the University of Maryland that He had called me to impact every continent on the globe. One of the most vital ways I bring the kingdom of God to the nations is through prayer and decrees (giving biblically minded authoritative orders that are in alignment with the purposes of God for a situation.
In Matthew 28, we have all received a commission from Jesus to bring the kingdom to the nations. Even if you are not able to travel to another country, you can make an impact right where you are, and one way to do that is to pray for the nations and declare the will of God to be done across the earth and His name be exalted.
Jesus Still Calms Storms
We see these kinds of kingdom decrees from Jesus Himself. When Jesus told the disciples to go to the other side of the lake, He was sending them to reach people in total darkness, such as the demon possessed man, who had been living among the dead. But before they could even make it to the other side of the lake, they encountered a raging storm (Mark 4:35-41).
“A great wind storm arose, and the waves splashed into the boat, so that it was now filling the boat. He was in the stern asleep on a pillow. They woke Him and said, ‘Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?’ He rose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ Then the wind ceased and there was a great calm” (Mark 4:37-39, MEV).
The disciples were intimidated by the storm and fearful for their lives. They may have even been hesitant for what they were going to encounter on the other side of the lake. However, Jesus, fully aware of His authority and power, was at rest in the storm and when He was awakened, He simply rebuked the wind and decreed stillness and peace to the circumstances that were raging around them.
He was sending the disciples into dark places and leading them through raging seas—completely confident that He is Lord and He has authority over these things. All of this was an object lesson for the disciples that as He did, so could they (John 14:12).
I want to encourage you that Jesus still calms raging seas today. Those storms in you and those around you. In fact, He has empowered each of us to release the kingdom of heaven into the world’s upheaval and distress, to speak, “Peace, be still” to storms that rage around us.
The world needs us to be men and women of prayer who will not only go to the nations but pray for the nations, declaring over them the shalom of heaven. The Lord has already told us to “ask” Him for the nations, because He has already given us authority in them. We will then see lives changed for the glory of God and light eclipsing dark places, because we have taken our place as a voice to the nations and claimed them as our inheritance.
Ché Ahn and his wife, Sue, are the senior and founding pastors of HRock Church in Pasadena, California. Ché serves as the founder and president of Harvest International Ministry (HIM) and the international chancellor of Wagner Leadership Institute (WLI). With a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary, he has played a key role in many strategic outreaches on local, national and international levels. He has written more than a dozen books and travels extensively throughout the world, bringing apostolic insight with an impartation of renewal, healing and evangelism.
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