Christians as Jews

Rev 3:8 I know thy works (the church at Philadelphia): behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Ironically, Philadelphia - a city in Asia meaning "brotherly love" loved! Their strength was their "works" - obviously loving God and others - the ways to obey.

Even thought their "strength was little" (verse 8), Jesus still praised the Church for not denying his Name. If you're read my commentary on the power of Jesus Name, and the honor of those who do not use it vainly, you understand why Jesus recognized them as his! (See http://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-reverence-of-gods-name.html). Therein, the conclusion made is that using God's Name in vain, is taking Jesus's sacrificial death frivolously.

I believe that the church at Philadelphia held fast to Jesus the Redeemer by "not denying his Name" (verse 8). To be part of the Body of Christ - the Church - the Bride must remain faithful to the Groom. The Bride is the Church and the Groom is Jesus. That "marriage" was consummated with the shedding of blood and the Christian's trust in it. However, rather than the cutting off of one's own genital flesh by circumcision, God cut-off His own flesh - His Body. God died on the cross - God in the flesh. He gave up his flesh for mankind. That must be honored to be a true Christian.

To be a Jew, a man must be circumcised. That is the Abrahamic Covenant. Circumcision was the deal between God and the Hebrew people. They were God's chosen. However, to remain God's people, they had to remain faithful. They had to be good and faithful Jews. By cutting off the flesh of their foreskins, they pledged to remain faithful. We Christians fail to realize it but Jewish circumcision was symbolic of Jesus who cut off His own flesh on our behalf. To seal the deal we are to do the same for him:

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

That sacrifice we are to make is cutting off the decay in the spiritual flesh:

Deut 30:6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

"Thine heart" is the Jewish people. "Thy seed" is the seed of Abraham - Jew and Gentile. Not only were the ancient Jewish people to have circumcised hearts, what the foreskin represented, but also those in apostolic and apocalyptic times. Circumcision of the heart is like the Ten Commandments - written by the finger of God!

Those who have circumcised hearts are chosen people just like the Jews:

1 Pet 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light...

The Jews were a "peculiar people" in that they were chosen by God. Christians become peculiar people by showing praises to the one who called them (2 Pet 1:10).  When God calls, people are elected to be His people. As such, Christians are a type of Jew, not in race but in spirit. 

I have written many times before that the "mystery of God" is that salvation was never by works but was always by grace and for everyone (http://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-mystery-of-god-mystery-of-christ.html).  The Jewish patriarchs were saved by the faith in Jesus's blood and death on the cross long before Jesus was ever born. The prophets demonstrated their knowledge of Christ many times!

Thus, those who believe in God - Hebrew and Gentile, are "spiritual Jews". In Philadelphia, "some say they are Jews, and are not". Their Church was "the synagogue of Satan" (verse 9).

Essentially, some of those of the church of Philadelphia hadn't had their hearts circumcised. Not only were they not "royal priests" but were devils in practice. By the grace of Jesus, he said, "I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. "  In other words, God will humble them; the outcome of circumcised hearts! 

Pagans were always jealous of God's chosen people and still are! The Jews have always been persecuted because they are God's most favored. As heirs of Judaism, Christians are persecuted as well because we too are a peculiar people. If those in the Church are not peculiar, they are not really the "Church" - those who are born-again and have circumcised hearts. Those "spiritual Jews" claimed to be new persons but were really the old posing as new creatures. They served two masters (Mat 6:24). God will make them serve only one by kneeling to Him (verse 9).

Nothing is new under the sun! Even the evangelical churches in modern times have their posers. They profess circumcision of the heart but fail to get their flesh circumcised at all. They live for the flesh, but profess Christ. They are in violation of the First Commandment: "Thou shalt have no other Gods besides me." They are their own gods, and do their own will!

If you studied my commentary on the Third Commandment (link above), it can be seen that they also violated the Third Commandment - taking Jesus's own sacrifice in vain! 

Those who claimed to be "Jews" were the false church. They served another master by the name of Satan. It is Jesus's Name which saves:

John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

The "spiritual Jews" there were Christians who took God's Name in vain. Their master was really Satan but they posed as Christians. God knows their little secret, and will make them meek. Why? Because he loves them so!

On the other hand, the true "spiritual Jews" were faithful. They had kept the Word (verse 10). To keep them "safe" Jesus says, "I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." This is the same spiritual hedge put around faithful Job:

Job 1:10 (Satan speaking): Hast not thou (God) made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

The true Church has a hedge around them for safety until they are in the end saved!  That hedge is God keeping us from temptation. I believe that this applied to both the Roman persecution, and to the tribulation period at the end of time - when 144,000 Jews will be brought inside the safety hedge. The Jews referred to at Philadelphia were not only typical of Philadelphian Christians but the born-again Jews before the tribulation period (Rev 7:4; more on that later.)

Jesus added: "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (verse 11). We are to persevere. God's time is not our time. In order to be saved, there are things a Christian must do. We must hold fast to faith in Christ; not becoming uncircumcised of heart. 

Rom 13:11 And that, knowing the time (the day of salvation), that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

The how to do that is explained in the same chapter:

Rom 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

To be a true "spiritual Jew" we must do what the Jews should have done! We are to fulfill the Law by obeying God's Commandments, which are the metrics of love! We demonstrate love by not killing, which scripture says is hatred (1 John 3:15), by not stealing from them, not telling lies about others, and so forth.  Christians must be good Jews but for right reasons. We do those things for our neighbors out of love for God (Commandments 1-4) - representative of the Greatest Commandment. 

I suppose that those at Philadelphia said they were "Jews" by doing good things. However, doing "good" for wrong reasons is as filthy rags to God (Isa 64:6). Right reasons are out of love and devotion to God - because we love His Name, and not take Jesus's death in vain!

Having Faith in Oneself

The biggest lie ever told is "have faith in yourself"!

A corollary to that is: "live your life the way you want to."

Jesus presented "the Greatest Commandment and the one like unto it". The commandment to love God, and its corollary - love others.

Compare the Greatest Commandment to The Greatest Deception. The former is God-centered; the latter self-centered. Mankind's greatest problem is ourselves. Why then, "have faith in ourselves", and "live the way we want to"? That is foolishness because doing that, we will die, as God warned.

Satanism's motto of the Greatest Deception is "Do what thou wilt!" Since Adam and Eve, that's what mankind is tempted to do and most often does. Most succumb to pleasure, choosing to take the wrong of the two choices - doing their own will rather than God's will. The latter is the Way less traveled, and the gate there is straight - God's will to walk God's Way.

Those who propagate this law of sin are deceived themselves. They do the devil's work for him. It is rebellion of the Law of God, and the penalty is death - forever!

Society sticks clever little seemingly benign slogans into everyday life as a means of propagating our independence. We are not independent - we all will die unless we have faith in God. Having faith in ourselves is non-saving. To be saved, requires faith in God. When one comes to realize that no one can't save themselves, but Jesus can, that is being "born-again". Those who continue to trust in themselves are lost, and thus damned!

What is accomplished by having faith in yourself? Maybe success, for a limited time, but death in the long-term. You all will indeed surely die!

Resurrection of the Church

 When Christians die, they are resurrected. Resurrection is the ultimate revival. It is going from one state to another, or from death to life - from non-existence to existence. You might say that there is existence in death but in spiritual death, there is no existence.

Spiritual death is forever dying. The place of death is eternal hell. Hell is suffering death continually because there is no life in Hell. Muslims believe that in Hell, the flesh is burned off, replenished, then burned again.- time after time, and forever. Sacred writings and the Bible indicate that in Heaven there will be incorruptible flesh:

1 Cor 15:51 ...we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Everyone will rise at some point in time. We do know at Christ's appearance in the sky, the dead in Christ shall rise. For some, this is Christ's second coming. For others, his second coming is Jesus's return for the judgment day (Mat 25:36-41).

It would seem, that if the dead in Christ put on new flesh for a new environment, that the wicked would need new flesh for their punishment.  The righteous would put on incorruptible flesh which would be pure and eternal, while the wicked would put on flesh which would only be eternal. This "flesh of death" will not ever enjoy sin but suffer as punishment for sin. People minimize eternal punishment; it's not drugs, booze, and licentiousness as they party with Satan but eternal isolation, deprivation, and agony.

"Works" are the key to the doors of life and death. However, works are attitudes, not actions. There is one type of work of two kinds: agape-type love for God and fellow members of the human race. What is agape-type love? "... that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God loves mankind that way, and we should love others with that same type of love. However, without the love for God, loving others has no efficacy for salvation. The two kinds of love must be harmonious. 

Love is demonstrated by obedience:

1 Peter 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Unfeigned love is purification of the soul. We are to "love one another fervently" and with a pure heart. That purity comes from being truly born-again. Purification is the willingness to obey the truth. Those born-again set aside their own will, and do God's will.

The will of God is characterized by loving God with all your strength, heart, mind, and soul (Luke 10:27).  That is "work" because it includes "strength". It is hard work! God doesn't love for us; we must do that ourselves! We all love ourselves; we don't want to perish. We must love others with the same fervency and to that same degree. (Luke 10:27 again).

Love is operationalized by the Ten Commandments. They are the metrics of love. Those are the things written on stone to be everlasting which we are to do, and not to do, to demonstrate love for God (1-4), and love for our fellow man (5-10). If we are not willing to please God by doing those things, there is no demonstration for love. We will fail! It's the willingness to obey that is efficacious, even sacramental because those born-again have hatred removed from their hearts.

Just as our works can kill us -called apostasy, the Church can apostatize as well. That is leaving our first love:

Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Our "first love" is not chronological but hierarchical. Loving God must be paramount - superior to all others - especially ourselves!

The church at Sardis had lost their first love to their death. Ephesus had but were redeemed. Sardis had to have the same redemption:

Rev 3:1 ...I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.

This is the key verse for this commentary. Ephesus needed revival. Sardis needed a sort of resurrection because the former was merely sick but the latter spiritually dead.

Unlike the Church, people cannot be saved once dead. It seems that the church at Sardis  had not flat-lined but needed a good defibrillation! Only the Holy Spirit has the Power to use shock therapy on hardened hearts. The church is to remember the days of it's youth, and repent so that they could be alive again.

We know churches that are on their last heartbeat today. Some of the progressives denominations are on life support, as is the Roman Catholic Church. I'm not questioning their faith but their obedience. Some of those churches show great love for their fellow man through social justice. However, their love for God is questionable. One without the other is feigned love. If a church truly loves God, it will do His will!

Is tolerance of homosexuality God's will? Is same-sex marriage God's will. Is co-habitation without the sanctity of marriage God's will? Is abortion and euthanasia God's will? Obviously any of these types of sins are not the will of God!

Some progressive churches just don't believe God's Word. They don't even believe the Word is God's. They deny the divine inspiration for scripture. Some fail to believe in Hell even while conveniently believing in Heaven! Some deny that there is divine justice. Some believe the Gate is crooked entering the broad Way to Heaven. They believe that all should, and will, go into the Gate and there is room on the Way for everyone.

One lady said, "I believe everyone will go to Heaven." That is Univeralism. Everyone would include Stalin and Hitler. Say hello to them for me because I won't be where they are! Some believe that all gods are JHVH. That is Unitarianism.

Within these churches are a few who remain faithful but are misled. It is up to them to be revived for the church. We think of revival as turning hearts back to God. That is a part of it, but traditionally, revival is bringing new blood into the church. Although, I don't accept the doctrine of "once saved, always saved", I do "once all the way dead, always dead".

Hebrews 6:6  If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

There were some at Sardis who were the frail heartbeat of the Church. The death of the church was eminent but like Sodom and Gomorrah; they could be spared if just a few righteous were found. Once the church entirely dies - falls entirely away - there remains nothing left to renew them. The church at Sardis was nearly there, and progressive churches today are tempting death by defying the Word. Their works are horrific and more than a little impure. The progressive church is sick to nearly death! Repentance is the only way back. Loving the Lord by doing His will is the antidote.

Dream Perception

When the body is asleep, the soul is often wide awake. Some of my most profound thoughts come to me as I sleep. The body gets tired and rejects thoughts but the mind is often the most welcoming during rest:

Job 33:14-16

For God may speak in one way, or in another,
Yet man does not perceive it.

¹⁵ 

In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falls upon men,
While slumbering on their beds,

¹⁶ 

Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction.

Sleep is necessary for life. People can only exist so long without mind rest. Of course the mind never fully rests, but the folds in the gray matter which control the voluntary muscles slow down, and cease their going too fast. The folds that control the involuntary muscles continue on as if awake.

There are three degrees of mental activity: conscious, sub-conscious, and unconscious. These three are degrees of awareness. Consciousness is how the mind controls our activity. It's the state of activity, and is not to be confused with the conscience which is mankind's moral guide. Perhaps unaware to us, our consciousness is the entryway to the conscience. The verses from Job speak to that.

The conscious can either allow thoughts to continue or reject them. When we take things off our mind, those things must be replaced with a substitute. Sometimes when people feel guilty, they replace the thoughts emoting the feelings of guilt.

Guilt is a feeling of doing wrong things on purpose. With purpose implies consciously. Thus, the conscience responds to conscious thoughts. To quit having the unpleasant feeling of guilt, people change the mind's thoughts. It's easy to replace pleasurable thoughts for the objectionable. When people feel guilty for lusting or fornication, they simply think on the pleasures of sin. Most of this thinking is done while conscious. That's the way the mind tricks the ego into enjoying the pleasure. 

The ego mediates the activity between the conscious and reality. Lust isn't real, for instance. It is the mind engaging in mental copulation. The ego actually has more pleasure than we actually have. Most sexual pleasure is derived from lascivious thoughts. The same goes for prestige, power, and the other desires. 

Our mind is our self-god. We must appease it. The mind demands attention and pleasure. Lust is the state of mind which creates a false reality. Most of us know that the mind has better sex than the body! Lusting is consciously dwelling on the potential for pleasure. My mind created the perfect woman. It was married to her until she physically appeared to me. Now she is my wife. 

This perfect woman my mind created was much like the Stepford wives created in the movie of the same name. She usually appeared to my conscious with her back turned away, and her long flowing dark hair beaconing me. She had a perfect figure and dressed provocatively. My mind created her! Now all that I had to do is match the fantasy with reality. That is a difficult task.

During the days I sought my wife, all my thoughts were on that task. I had to continue life with work, friends, family, and God. However, sub-consciously I always hunted that perfect woman. Even while worshiping God, she was the hunted. I placed her among my friends as I enjoyed friendship. The thoughts of her were always with me!

Even as I slept, I enjoyed her company. To be honest, people dream about what they desire. Not only did I have conscious thoughts of my wife-to-be, and sub-conscious thoughts of her, but even desired her in my sleep - the world of the unconscious.

Because I am aware of my unconscious thinking, I question whether sleep is all of an unconscious nature. After awaking, sometimes I remember exactly all my dream and can even consciously relive it. The REM (rabid-eye-movement) stage is where most of the dreams which we remember occur. I believe that REM is the sub-conscious stage of sleep. 

At other times, we know we're dreaming by memories which cannot be procured. Others may even tell us that we're dreaming. That type of mental activity is of the unconscious - beyond the state of awareness.  It's possible that we are the most content in that entire world of fantasy - unless it's a nightmare!

REM dreaming can be controlled to a certain extent. For instance, if a person wants to dream pleasant dreams, before falling asleep, merely focus on the desired dream. We can consciously control the world of the sub-conscious to some extent. That's why it is "sub" and not "un"!

Our conscious minds have a problem. We are too busy to comprehend. Our minds are too busy just doing things to exist. Life is tiring. The portion of life of which we are the most aware is being awake, or consciousness. That state of mind is further divided into three states: deep thinking, semi-autonomous and autonomous. When driving, we make many decisions about destination, route, safety, the environment, speed of the car, etc. 

On the other hand, we do many things semi-automatically such as braking, accelerating, and turning the wheel. The deep-thinking is all conscious. Semi-autonomous activity is the sub-conscious and the conscious working in unison. If one falls asleep at the wheel, we may still do the automatic things to some degree but are not aware of our existence.

It appears that God deals with our conscience better when we sleep. I also believe God deals with us in REM sleep because there is more awareness there. In fact, I act out my dreams as I sleep on occasion, and enjoy my performance - or not - depending on the type of dream.

During the day, I study God's Word by reading scripture. All day long I either consider His Word consciously or sub-consciously. Many times I have awoke from day-dreaming as something comes to me. Day-dreaming may be the thoughts of the sub-conscious mind while we are fully conscious of our surroundings. Walter Mitty is a well known novel character who lived in the a realm somewhere between the conscious and sub-conscious. He dreamed while awake, or at least operational.

At night, my mind remembers the conscious thoughts I had during the day. As I begin to tire, sub-conscious thoughts are retrieved. I might remember the beautiful landscape that my mind hardly noticed in reality. I bring it back from some hidden realm to enjoy more fully. I might retrieve Terri's loving gesture as I retrieve that thought for my pleasure.

That of which I am aware comes to me as I begin to rest, but right before I go soundly asleep, I dream things. If my mind was on God before I slept, God presents the meaning to me as I dream. Surely, it is in the REM stage because when I awake, I can recall what I dreamt. I'm more receptive to abstract thought as I sleep because I don't consciously reject the thoughts. 

Sometimes, as I sleep, I suddenly awake. Enlightenment has wakened me! When in college, the solution to the long unsolved calculus problem would suddenly be revealed to me. I credit God for the solution because it had not occurred to me until I slept. To be honest, I don't know how I ever graduated from engineering college without God's input! That's the practical side of God.

On the other hand, even today, God provides spiritual answers to my problems, even as I sleep. Those bible verses I dwell on as the day passes, are revealed to me as I sleep. Many times I awaken with the answer to God's divine mystery because God speaks in dreams. 

"Deep sleep" is NREM (non-REM) sleep. While our secular enlightenment may come during REM, perhaps divine enlightenment comes best when we are sound asleep. Therein, the conscious is not active at all. It's not there to interfere with pure thinking. My spiritual enlightenment seems to occur when I'm startled from a deep sleep. Suddenly, without consciously thinking, a profound thought comes to me!

My most profound thought coming from a deep sleep is that salvation was always by grace. My mind had been acclimated to the idea that the Old Testament was all about works. After reading about "the mystery of God", from a deep sleep that mystery was solved! Salvation was always for everyone of all time, it was always by the blood of Jesus, and it was always by grace!

I never perceived that doctrine until I awoke and considered the text in light of the dream. God, I believe, revealed truth to me when I could not consciously reject it! The dream is my "spiritual ears" spoken of by Job in the scripture above. Somehow, I sub-consciously had those thoughts mostly unaware to me, but in my sleep he made them firm. God reveals truth the best when we're in no position to reject it. That may be why he blinded the obstinate Paul, so that he could "see" the divine better, and hear it with only "spiritual ears". Perhaps, that's how he uses sleep for us; it's much more recoverable than blindness. 

Sleep seems to be where reality is set aside, and the supernatural comes alive. However, we need to be careful because the conscience has dualism: the flesh and the spirit. They fight each other for our dreams. That's why it's so important to sleep with God's Word fresh on the mind rather than these awful movies, and so forth. We are profoundly effected by angels of both sorts as we dream. Choose your dream wisely!

We know that John was in "the Spirit of the Lord" as he saw his visions.(Rev 1:10). Perhaps the visions were in real time, or on the other hand, perhaps they were placed there when his mind was more receptive to deep thinking - in a deep dream which became clear upon awakening. We'll never know that but he wrote what became clear to his conscious.

Our Authority in Heaven

The following is today's key verse on our place in Heaven: 

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 27 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. 28 And I will give him the morning star.

We must look further for the meaning of this passage:

Psalm 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 9Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

There is a nice relationship between "I will give power over the nations" (Rev 2:26) and "I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance."  (Psalm 2:8).

"He that overcometh" are those who keeps God's works until the end (Rev 2:26). "Works" are important, and is summarized by loving God and others - "the Greatest Commandment and the one like unto it" (Mat 22:36-40). We can never quit loving and overcome. Reverence for God and charity to mankind is love. They do not stand alone. The latter is the corollary for the former! Loving God without loving others is not a demonstration of love. Loving others without loving God is humanism, and is apostasy! Reverence for God is faith, and the "work of faith" is demonstrating love. Faith, therefore, is not for five minutes as one walks forward in contrition; it is forever thereafter!

Examine the following verse:

2 Tim 2:11 It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: 12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us...

"Overcoming" is living by faith. It is dying with Jesus! 

Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

We see here what dying with Jesus (Rev 2:11) is: it's the new birth - giving up the things of the flesh for the Spirit of God. Jesus called that being "born again". That is essentially giving up the things you desire for God's will. Rather than dependence on the self for salvation, it's dependence on the efficacious blood of Christ! The new birth is living with Jesus (2 Tim 11).

Hence, when we overcome and keep God's works until the end (Rev 2:26), we will reign with him (2 Tim 2:12). We will be royalty. I like the idea of being of the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). It would seem that priesthood (communicating with God) is how we "dress and keep" the Garden in Heaven (Gen 2:5). That is validated by "keeping the way of the Tree of Life" (Gen 3:24) - a representation of Jesus. Thus overcoming here is "keeping the Way of Jesus". Dressing the Garden is uplifting God's Name - the One called Jesus!

Rev 2:26 says that those who overcome will be given "power over the nations". How can that be? When New Jerusalem comes back from whence it came, the paradise of the Garden returns to Jerusalem, there will be a new reign. "It will be on earth as it is in heaven" (Mat 6:10) because, I believe, that heaven and earth will share the same property! 

Those who overcome will be rewarded: "the meek shall inherit the earth" (Psalm 37:11; Mat 5:5). How can that be? Only in New Jerusalem after heaven comes down (Rev 21:2).

Those who overcome will be given "the morning star" (Rev 2:28). What or who is that?

Rev 22:16  I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Those who overcome will get Jesus. He will be our king and us priests will worship and pay tribute to Him!

To be truthful, I have few thoughts at all about Rev 2:27: who we will rule and break. However, I apply that to the Church specifically at Thyatira, and those like them throughout the ages. It is possible that the disobedient in the Church will indeed get their "fire insurance" for having a little faith. However, in heaven, their reward will be different than the obedient. Theologians refer to different "crowns":

2 Tim 2:5 (ESV) An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

It would seem that those who obey get the better crowns. In heaven some will rule over others, albeit all get a reward. Hence, the obedient will rule, and those who fail in obedience will serve. The Church of Thyatira had some who will be kings, and the less obedient who will be more of God's soldiers in heaven (2 Tim 2:4).

"We shall be kings and we shall be judges" (Psalm 2:8) right here on earth! It seems complicated but it can be simplified! Meekness is obedience to God, and it will pay off. Meekness now means authority in heaven. Of course, we don't strive for obedience as a means to power but because we revere Jesus; so complicated but so simple!