Dear Sisters and Brothers in Jesus the Christ,

5 And now I plead with you . . . not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another. 6 This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.” 2 John 1:5-6 (NKJV)

We are in the very midst of the “walking dead” but not as portrayed by film and television; this is the death wrought by the first Adam’s decision to disobey the LORD God Almighty. Those who are in Christ Jesus have passed from death to eternal life and the good fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control is the ever increasing evidence thereof. The fruit of the re-created or reborn spirit begins with love – God’s kind of love (i.e., divine, unconditional) which has been poured into our hearts (spirits) by the Holy Spirit. As it is written, “a person who has no love is still dead . . . We know what real love is because Christ Jesus gave up His life for us . . . It is by our actions that we know we are of the truth. 1 John 3:14,16,19 (NKJV; NIV; NLT). God’s WORD is truth and Jesus is the Living Word whose Anointing within each of us works by faith which is powered by love. Those made sons and daughters by the all-redeeming, re-creating, reconciling, pacifying, all-restoring blood of Jesus are called for God’s good purpose as opposed to our own purpose (‘though free-will allows for such). Therefore, we do in obedience to His command(s). When asked about the Old Testament, Jesus said that the greatest commandment is the first thereof which is to love the LORD our God with all our heart and soul and mind; and that the second one which is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves is akin to the first. Then our Lord Jesus, remaining steadfastly thereon, commanded that we love one another as we are so loved by Him; further, that in so doing, others may see that we are a reflection of Him; all of this Jesus said after washing the disciples’ feet for an example of a “sent one” in service. Christ Jesus came in the likeness of man to serve which did not render Him a doormat. Rather, Jesus’ obedience to Abba Father (so that we might [free-will] have abundant life) placed Him at the right hand of the Sovereign LORD God Almighty. In Christ Jesus, we too are called to have a servant’s heart. As Apostle John reiterated, those who obey God’s commands, the love of God is truly being perfected in them and by such we know that we are in Him. Further, “6 Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did 1 John 2:6 (NIV). And “9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even unto now. 10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him.1 John 2:9-10 (KJV). God is love, and all things of Him are appropriated supernaturally by faith powered by love. May our comprehension and application of Ephesians 3:16-19 and Philippians 1:9-11 be ever increasing to the honor, glory and praise of God with thanksgiving, in Jesus’ Name, Amen. (Read – Gal 5:22; Ro 5:5; John 17:17; Psalm 119:160; John 1:1,17 & 16:13; Matthew 22:34-39; John 13:3-16.)

Speak the promise . . . Harriet