Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31.

Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:

If you love Me you will keep My Word and I will come to make My dwelling with you. John 14:23. Keeping My Word, treasuring it in your heart that you may do it and not sin against Me,  Psalm 119:11, is keeping My commandments. My Words are not idle words, they are your life. In keeping My commandments is much reward both physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Psalm 19:11. Jesus shared My Words with you so your joy could be full, John 15:11, and you could prosper and be in good health by prospering your soul by walking in the truth. 3 John 1:2-4. My Word is truth. John 17:17. My commandments are opportunities for blessing, promotion, and shalom peace.

If you are going to walk with Me in love you are going to keep My commandments, for if we are walking together we are in agreement, but all of My commandments you can sum up in one word and it is who I am: LOVE.

When asked by the scribes and Pharisees which was the greatest commandment in the hundreds they had located in My Word, but actually all My Words are commandments of what to do if you want to prosper, be in good health, and have good success in all you put your hand to, Psalm 1:3, Joshua 1:8, My Son pointed out two to them which contained all the rest. To walk in love with Me and walk in love with your neighbor.

Everything hinges on love. Everything works by love. Everything was made by love. Every good thing given and every perfect gift comes down from love. You were created by love, for love, in love, and with love by the One who is LOVE. And that is why you are happiest in a place of great, pure, and precious love. And that is Me and that is My Kingdom, noting but love resides there or can even enter there. Love is always altogether lovely. Song of Songs 5:16.

In Me, you live, and move, and have your being. You are to live, move, and have your being in love at all times.

Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31.

How do you love Me with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Let us go back to the first time that concept was introduced. This was first told the people by Moses, who knew My ways, and whom I talked to face to face as My friend.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. John 15:15.

First, I want you to consider who I am. I am love. There is no other so-called God that men have invented and sacrificed to, even nations with multiple “gods” and “goddesses,” who defines Himself as love and light or seeks the people’s love.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:8-12.

I hold out My hands all the day to you seeking you and inviting you to come to Me to be refreshed, healed and blessed.

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.

I am a God of mercy and grace, lovingkindness and compassion. I sent Jesus to take all your sins away from you as well as all your ills, diseases, pain, guilt, grief, and shame. I am here for you though you stray from Me and go after man-made gods who have no love.

Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5.

I do not change. I am the same yesterday, today, and forever. I love everyone of you and planned you from eternity to eternity and I will never forget you or change My mind about you. You are precious in My eyes and I love you. But love seeks love in return, for I seek to espouse you to Me forever in faithfulness and love.

When I first asked My people to love Me totally with all their being, which I formed and gave them (for your life is a gift from Me, do you cherish and protect it?), it was after I had redeemed them out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to Myself to be My people and I would be their God, and take them to the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised their forefather, Abraham, for his descendants. For he, like Moses, was also My friend.

I gave the people My Words and Moses wrote them down. I, however, was the first one to write My Word on the two tablets of stone with My own finger, but after that Moses wrote them down along with Joshua who acted as scribe as well.

And what I revealed to Moses from above the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies, he shared with the people. So one day, with his face radiant from having been with Me in glory as I spoke with him the Holy of Holies, he came to talk to the people and said:

Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might revere the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Deuteronomy 6:1-3.

You see here that My commandments, statutes and judgments for the nation are to give them long life, increase, and prosperity. In other words, a long healthy and happy life. And how would they be able to keep them, be faithful to Me, and enjoy a long and wonderful life? A life of shalom? Only if they came to know and believe in the love I had for them and they in turn loved Me.

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. 1 John 4:16-19.

If you truly love someone, you will keep their word, you will not harm them or betray them.

“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

Faith in My love comes by hearing and hearing My Word until you know Me and understand My ways. My ways are truth and love. I honor you with dominion authority over the earth and I can only work with you and bless you so far as you will permit Me to do so. And that is why I invite you into Covenant with Me through love.

And the second commandment stems from the first, to love as I love and I love everyone I have made. You are to love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do to you for the measure you measure with shall be measured back to you. I am telling you that what you do to others, I must treat that as the standard you wish Me to use on you as well. So if you cannot forgive another person you are saying the blood of Jesus is not enough to take that sin away, so by that same standard I must view it as not enough for you either and you are still in your sins.

And Jesus defined this even further as a commandment for disciples, for members of His body the Church:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35.

And He further elucidated it for you so that you may keep it:

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.” John 15:12-17.

Lay down your life for your friends and here Jesus defines friends as those who know Me by His Words. Do you remember that Jesus called Judas “Friend,” even in the midst of him betraying Jesus unto death? Jesus laid down His life for all but particularly for His friends, which are all who follow Him and have listened to His Words. My Son said this to Judas so he would understand that he was forgiven and Jesus would die to take away his sin. But Judas did not listen, instead he listened to the enticements of the devil and then to the accusations of the devil that drove him to kill himself in bitter remorse. Remember he let Satan enter his heart.

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Provers 4:23.

When you love like Me, you can live like Me.

And My beloved John gives you the new commandment in its final form”

This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. 1 John 3:23-24.

I love you. And I seek your love in return. Will you freely give as you have freely received? Treasure My Words in your heart and you will not sin against Me. Again, it all hinges on love. Do you know why David was a man after My own heart? Even though I had commanded My people to love Me,  no one had responded. David was the first person to tell Me he loved Me.

“I love You, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” Psalm 18:1-3. A Psalm of David.