To possess all authority and power over the nations of the earth and over all the works of God’s hands

And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. (Revelation 2:26,27)

Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. (Hebrews 2:8)

The concept of man having rulership over the works of God’s hands is a central idea of the Scriptures. But almost at the moment man was created his rulership was wrested from him by a cunning cherub, and man—God’s image—became the slave of Satan.

God’s sons have been called to glory, to the rulership of the creation. No other creature of God has been given the rulership of the creation.

Today the Son of Man, Christ, possesses all authority in Heaven and on the earth. Christ is waiting until the Father puts all His enemies under His feet. When God has done this, King Jesus will return and receive the earth and its peoples, which are His lawful inheritance.

Our Christian discipleship consists of one long warfare during which we seek, through Christ, to regain the rulership of our personality. Think of it! We who have been called to rule the creation are not able to govern our own personalities. We are weak indeed!

If we expect to be entrusted with rulership when the Lord returns we must gain victory now—in this world. It is the victorious saints, the conquerors, who will be established on the powerful thrones that govern the earth and its peoples. Either we are conquering the problems God is permitting to come against us, or we are being conquered. It is as simple as that. The rulership of the creation will be given to the conquerors.

In order to understand the rewards of rulership and priesthood promised to Israel in the Old Testament and to the saints in the New Testament, two facts must be established firmly in our mind: (1) there only is one true Israel, and we who belong to Christ, whether we are Jewish or Gentile by physical birth, are the promised Seed of Abraham to whom the promises have been made concerning the inheriting of the nations; and (2) the world to come will consist of nations of saved people, and then a ruling nation, Israel, the Kingdom of God, composed of the ruling priests of God. The ruling nation is the new Jerusalem, the Wife of the Lamb.

If either one of these two concepts is not firmly established, the words of the Hebrew Prophets and of the New Testament Apostles will make little sense. However, if we understand the "Israel" whom Isaiah was addressing, the "Servant of the Lord," is the one Body of Christ, and that it consists of chosen people, both Jewish and Gentile, who have been called out of the world to serve as a royal priesthood over the nations of saved people on the earth, then the teaching of the Hebrew Prophets and the Apostles of Christ will be perceived as one simple concept.

The rewards that will be given to the diligent Christians are related in part to their role and responsibility as ruling priests. True Israel, the Seed of Abraham, has been chosen to be a kingdom of priests whose inheritance in Christ consists of the nations of the saved and the farthest reaches of the earth.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen [nations] for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. (Psalms 2:8)

The nations of the saved consist of those persons whom Christ deems worthy of eternal life but who are not called to be members of the Israel of God.

The distinction between Israel and the nations of the saved can be seen in the following:

For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. (Isaiah 60:12)

Here we have two separate sets of people. The first set consists of the nations and kingdoms that choose to serve thee. The second set consists of thee.

It is obvious from Chapter Sixty of Isaiah that "thee" is Israel. It is God’s will that the nations and kingdoms of the earth serve Israel. The nations that do so are saved. The nations that do not serve Israel will perish.

Isaiah 60:12 corresponds to the passage in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of Matthew concerning the division of the nations of the earth into those that nourish Christ’s brothers and those that do not nourish Christ’s brothers.

Again:

And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles [nations], and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. (Isaiah 61:9)

In the above passage, the "Gentiles" are the nations of saved peoples of the earth, and "the seed which the Lord hath blessed" is Christ and those who have become part of Him: that is, the members of the Body of Christ, the true Israel.

We can observe in Matthew 25:31-46 the distinction between the nations of the earth and the "brethren" of Christ. The nations that treat the Lord’s brothers kindly will inherit the Kingdom and enter eternal life.

The holy city, the new Jerusalem, is the Wife of the Lamb, the Body of Christ, the glorified Church. The "nations of them which are saved" walk in the light of the Wife of the Lamb (Revelation 21:24). At this point the saints have become the light of the world.

Those who suffer with Christ will rule with Christ. The need for suffering on the part of Christ’s princes is based on what suffering accomplishes in them. Suffering, if it is borne correctly in the Lord, diminishes our self-centeredness and self-will. Suffering crucifies our personality. The result is, Christ is formed in us and we are sternly obedient to God.

The substitution of Christ’s will for our will is one of the most important of the dimensions of the Christian discipleship. Such substitution is necessary for each of the royal priests. During the ages to come the Father will not permit a self-centered person to rule any group of people. It always must be God in Christ who is ruling.

Today among many Christian churches, self-centeredness is strengthened by the teaching that is given. The believers are encouraged to use their faith to get what they want out of God. They can become successful and rich if they will only believe. Through Christ they can be happy and healthy and live a prosperous life on the earth. Such teaching is the opposite of the true teaching of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus did not come to support us in our endeavors. Jesus is seeking people who will permit Him to conform them to His death in order that He may live and move and have His Being in them. Jesus died that we may live. Now He is asking us to die in order that He may live.

"Unfair" you say. Then you do not understand your calling as a saint. The Lord is requesting that you die to the temporary that you may receive the eternal.

We have said to mankind has been given rulership over all the works of God’s hands. The rulership of the creation is being structured carefully by the Lord God. The Head of all is the Father. Under the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father dwells in the Lord Jesus. Therefore all Jesus is and does is of and through the Father. Jesus lives in the Sabbath rest of God.

The Father never shall give His Glory to another. Whoever would possess the fullness of God’s Glory must become part of God.

Under the Lord Jesus Christ are His firstfruits, His warriors. They do not rule the remainder of the Bride but serve as elder brothers until all Israel knows the Lord, from the least to the greatest member.

No member of the Body of Christ is a king or priest over another member. Only Jesus is the Priest and King over the members of the Body. We serve one another in love until all come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Yet it is God in the Lord Jesus Christ in the firstfruits of the saints who assists in the building up of the other members of the Body. God never will give His Glory to another. It is God in Christ in us who does the work. This is the nature of the Kingdom of God.

Under the Wife of the Lamb are the saved peoples of the earth. It is God in Christ in the Wife of the Lamb who rules and guides the saved peoples of the earth. We can do nothing of ourselves. It is Christ in us who will govern the nations. The government will be on His shoulders. The nations of the earth are His inheritance.

Neither angels nor nature are to rule people. Human beings have been created in God’s image and they are not to be ruled by lesser creatures.

Under the saved peoples of the earth is the creation of God. The saved peoples of the earth are not permitted to rule the creation according to their ideas. They themselves will be ruled and guided by the Lord’s royal priesthood. They will walk in the light of the new Jerusalem.

The Kingdom that is coming to the earth is well-ordered, every detail of it having been conceived, executed, and supervised by the God of Heaven. When all creatures have been subdued under Christ, then Christ will turn over the Kingdom to His beloved Father in order that the Father may be All in all.

The most critical characteristic of every person who is saved, who is allowed to have a place in the Kingdom of God, is that what he is and does is centered in Christ.

The reason for the present chaotic state of the world is that wills other than the will of God in Christ are being exercised.

No creature will be allowed to receive his inheritance in the Kingdom of God until his will has been subjugated to the will of Christ.

Each one of us must come to the place, as did our Lord, where we say in sincerity, "Not my will but Yours be done." God brings us to such a point that to say Your will be done costs us the apparent destruction of every hope and desire we possess. Like our Lord, we learn obedience through suffering.

The higher the rank in the Kingdom to which we have been called, the more crucifying is our final Gethsemane. The richest, most abundant fruit comes from the severest pruning. The higher the structure is designed to be the deeper the foundation must be dug.

The saints whom God has set aside for His purposes know the seemingly endless dealings of the Lord, how the human will is challenged at every point no matter how slight.

Why is this? It is because the issue of the will is the supreme issue of the Kingdom of God. The will of God is to be performed in the earth as it is in Heaven. As long as there is one will that has not been brought under subjection to Christ, there is an enemy in the creation.

Today the Christian churches are filled with willful people. The resulting chaos is evident. Each believer is certain his way is just and that he should be allowed to express himself according to what he desires.

Only God is able to enter the human personality, into the caverns of darkness and deceitfulness, and pierce the monster of self-will repeatedly, smashing its head many times until it stops its thrashing, until all life has departed from it and it is dead.

Now the song of harmony, peace, and joy arises from the liberated soul and ascends to the throne of God. This is the beginning of the Kingdom of God.

Very little is known of such death to self, in the churches of our day. Antichrist is assuring the believers that they can pursue their own will and then ascend to the throne of God in a "rapture." This would be to destroy the environment of God’s Heaven as the many uncrucified wills sought their own advantage.

The common Christian belief is that all believers in Christ, whether or not there has been a crucifixion of the will, shall ascend, upon their physical death, to the spiritual Jerusalem and enter the Presence of Christ and God. There they shall continue to obey their own wills, to pursue their own pleasures as always, until the Day of Christ, at which time they will be placed on thrones as the lords of the creation. They never have learned to obey God and yet they will rule the nations of the earth.

This would be a greater disaster than the rebellion of Eden!

It is only the diligent Christians, those who have entered the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, being conformed to His death, who will be in places of authority. Only those who have accepted the work of the Holy Spirit in the conquering of their self-seeking will be entrusted with the rod of iron. Only the victorious saints will rule the nations of the earth.

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