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With A Rod Of Iron

"He will rule the nations with a rod of iron."




A study of the overcomer's relationship to "the nations" in Revelation 2:27 harmonizes with the recent commentary on bloodlines, genealogies and the prophetic. Surely we all aspire to be numbered among these overcomers. But what are the implications of this on our personal sense of national identity and heritage?




Note in this verse that the overcomer is identified in contrast to "the nations." The overcomer is not "of the nations." He is not identified in terms of any mortal nation. This phrase presents a clear distinction between the Lord's overcomers and the peoples over which they are to rule. The image of the overcomer's rod reinforces this distinction. The rod is an instrument of separation, not co-identification.




Thus the overcomer is not "one of the crowd." He is not a "democratist" like today's western rulers. He is not a populist prophet "emerging from among" the people—not leading based on co-identity, nor declaring to the people God's great "national destiny" for them in their carnality. He is not "Joseph's son"—to be received as a ruler because of natural family ties.




The overcomer's power to shatter the nations shows that he has traded in his identity as a "national" to become singularly identified by the authority of God's kingdom which is over all the earth. For to have authority to shatter nations, he must first have endured the shattering of his own identity as a national. Remember, in God's Kingdom, one only rules by the means he himself has first endured, and over that which he has first outgrown.




The "Eternalist prophetic" concept of nation shattering overrules the overblown "Current prophetic" concept of interceding for unqualified reconciliations between all earthly peoples and nations in all situations—something which has degenerated into culture prophecy. Verily, the ability to bring God's peace to nations as a "prince of peace" is based first on the overcomer's meekly held ability to shatter them—an ability based in the Eternalist shattering of one's own national identity.




The truth is that we must choose between overcoming discipleship and our identity among the nations. If we want to be counted as overcomers, we must sacrifice all earthly allegiances, beginning with our nearest soul allegiances to family and friends all the way to our overarching allegiances to the nations out of which we have been called and among which we still find ourselves as we pursue immortality.




The ties we must preserve and reinforce are those which bind us by the Spirit of God to one another. And where our natural and spiritual ties overlap (such as in Christian families), we must constantly labor to see that the Spirit's rule transcends the natural basis for our unions. This alone is the true New Testament teaching concerning our spiritual identity relative to national heritage as we pass through the earth.




If there is one reality that keeps would-be overcomers strained in relationship with the general church, it is the general church's retrenched insistence on maintaining national allegiances and devotion to cultural traditions. True overcomers groan within over the undiscerning patriotism and fawning over national symbols of those devoted to Current prophecy. Overcomers have no heart for flag waving. They have no place for prophecies that exalt carnal "national destinies." And they have paid a significant price to escape the soulish pulls and entrapments of such thinking.




Again, the plumbline is being laid. The silent measurement of the temple is taking place even now. There is little time left to decide whether we will keep affirming our nationalist heritages or whether we will surrender them before the One who is above and beyond ALL nations. What time remains is for the final proving by the Lord of these things in us. That proving will grow as international wars increase and demands for proof of patriotic loyalty mount. As an aspiring overcomer, how will you respond to those demands?




At the last, a final opportunity to prove our sole allegiance to God's Kingdom will be offered. A cutoff time will then come. It will come silently and without warning. When it comes, only those who have demonstrated an undefiled covenant with the Lord will stand amidst that which follows.




And they will rule the earth's survivors with a rod of iron.





Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, RI

First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

02/02



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