Years ago in a post entitled, “Walking in the Spirit in the Church,” for my blog, bondslavefreedom.wordpress.com, I wrote about loving fellow believers higher or into closer places in Christ. Jesus demonstrated such love when He let John come right up next to Him at the last supper. The Lord opened His inner heart and shared with John. John knew himself to be beloved of God because he had dared to come close to Love Incarnate. John 13 records the scene:

²³ One of His disciples, whom Jesus loved [whom He esteemed and delighted in], was reclining [next to Him] on Jesus’ bosom. (AMPC)

Because of John 14:6-7, “‘I myself am the road,’ replied Jesus, ‘and the truth and the life. No one approaches the Father except through me. If you had known who I am, you would have known my Father. From now on, you do know him and you have seen him.'” (PHILLIPS), and because of John 1:18, “It is true that no one has ever seen God at any time. Yet the divine and only Son, who lives in the closest intimacy with the Father, has made him known.” (PHILLIPS); we can fathom that John saw and touched the Father’s love through Jesus. In John 10:30, the Lord even said, “I and the Father are One.” (PHILLIPS). Jesus loved John higher into intimacy with Himself and the Father.

You can do the same with others and help them find a warm and welcoming embrace into the heart of God. A very instructive word comes from Deanna Deering’s prophetic writings in her Masterpiece of the Wilderness, p. 53, the Lord speaking: “I will show you who you are to love and how you are to love them, and I will give you the strength to do so.” You must first be strong in your own union and communion with Christ so that when you open your heart and let the ones in whom the Lord has brought your way, they’ll see and touch Jesus first and foremost, not you so much. The aim is not for believers to feed on you but Him, as Jesus is the Vine, their only source of life, light, and love. He is the “real food and the real drink.” (John 6:55 HCSB). Of course, you have to have your own needs met by Jesus, the Lover of your soul to do this. The idea is to sow love and acceptance while letting them touch more light.

Two passages have helped me walk a walk of increasing union as I circulate among brothers and sisters in the Body. They are both familiar, but they are both sections of the Word that you can plumb ever deeper. John 15’s revelation of the Vine-branch relationship to Jesus is the first one. I quote part of it so you can readily enter in:

⁴ Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.

⁵ I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.(AMPC)

The second one, Matthew 11:28-30 from the Amplified Classic, is the one that has helped me the most of late to be led of the Lord and positioned harnessed to Him. I am learning His ways and experiencing Him teaching me how to love Him and others through the close communication that comes through this yoked relationship. The yoked relationship is actually your spirit, soul, and body submitted to Christ pulling toward the common goal of becoming just like Jesus.

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]

²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.³⁰ For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

⁹ About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. (1 Thessalonians 4:9 CSB)

In the place of pulling together in union with or yoked with Jesus, you can hear His coaching re: what to say. His perfectly balanced personality can actually flow through you. After all, as a branch to the Vine, our goal is to be an expression of the Indwelling Christ. How delightful to yield to the Lord so His words become our words—a phenomenon that occurs in full union with the Messiah.

Enjoy letting Him love through you! See 1st John for more keys to love.

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Blessings in return—