SUBDUING THE NATIONS
(week 03/12)
Olubi Johnson
Isaiah 44:28 KJV: That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
Isaiah 45:1-3 NIV: “This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: (2) I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. (3) I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
Historically, this scripture spoke prophetically of the Persian king Cyrus who was used by God through the prophecy of Jeremiah and intercession of Daniel (Dan. 9,10) to cause the children of Israel to return back to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and the temple under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra (Ezra 1:1-3).
However, in the manifold wisdom of God, this same scripture speaks symbolically and prophetically to us today presently (2 Pt. 1:12) of Shepherds or Pastors with an apostolic teaching anointing that will lay the foundation (1 Cor. 3:10) of and build up (Eph. 2:20-22) God’s end-time perfect church.
Furthermore, these Shepherds will subdue nations by spiritually stripping kings of their spiritual armour of pride (Lv. 26:19) and confidence in the physical power of their armies and so break down their oppressions of ‘gates of bronze’ and ‘bars of iron’.
This will be similar to what Moses did in Egypt to Pharaoh (Ex.7:1-5), Daniel did in Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar (Dan. 4, 5) and Esther and Mordecai in Persia to Haman (Est.6-10).
It is instructive to understand that Satan rules nations by the power of spiritual death that is coming out of the mouths of billions of men:
Revelation 17:15 KJV: And he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Proverbs 18:21 KJV: Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Revelation 12:15 KJV: and the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
We see from the above scriptures that Satan harnesses the ‘water’ or spiritual power of death coming out of the mouths of billions of men of peoples and nations of the earth and releases it as a flood to attack the Church symbolized as the ‘woman’ in Rev. 12:15.
To subdue the nations and in particular Nigeria at this time of great national tension, caused by the removal of the fuel subsidy and the terrorist activities of ‘Boko Haram’; Pastors with an apostolic anointing in unity with Christians under their leadership, must subdue the nations by the force of spiritual arms through the ministry of angels.
This will be done through prayer in the Spirit (Eph. 6:12-18) for the nations (1 Tim. 2:1-4) with all kinds of prayer and travail to release the power of God in sufficient measure (2 Cor. 12:9) to ‘walk on these waters’ like the Lord Jesus did during a storm (Mk. 6:48-51) and ‘sit on this flood’ as prophesied in:
Psalms 29:3 KJV: the voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.
Psalms 29:10 KJV: The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King forever.
