February Newsletter - 2009

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT: Kate Leach
MATURE LOVE COMPELS ACTION

As February is the month of love, I again write to urge you to make loving others your highest priority and I shall attempt to put a face on what REAL LOVE looks like. I prayerfully wrote this message, then re-read my January message and saw it tied in perfectly – confirming to me that the Spirit was guiding my pen as I wrote, versus my natural inclination to write from my head. Last month I wrote that 2009 will be a year we mature in love as the number nine carries the meaning of gestation, reproduction, completing development and maturity. I also related that in 2009 maturity will increase in the nine virtues of love, (1 Corinthians 13) and the one fruit of the Spirit –Love – which expresses itself through eight actions (Gal 5:22). Galatians 5:6 says ‘THE ONLY THING THAT COUNTS – IS FAITH EXPRESSING ITSELF THROUGH LOVE.’ God wants us to love as He does, which is a far different picture than what the world tells us love is. In The Message version of Philippians 1:9, Paul prays the Philippians’ love will flourish and that they will not only love much, but love well. Paul urges them to love accurately and appropriately. Paul prays their love may abound more and more in discernment. He said “Use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush!” I love that!

So as Paul just showed us what love is - let us look at one aspect of what love is not. Codependence is not accurate love. It’s a person with something broken in them who needs to care for someone. The codependent person meets someone who is needy and the one rushes to care for the other’s needy place. It is two needy people feeding each other’s neediness. Fixing someone or rescuing them temporarily fills up the rescuers broken place, but does not heal it. The hole or wound remains, so the cycle persists and repeats. This enabling action is a picture of the sentimentality that we are warned by Paul to biblically avoid.

What does mature biblical love look like? It is a life Jesus will be proud of; it is our faithfulness to Him expressing itself through action. Real love requires action, compelling us to act on it! One quality of mature love says, “Go and do something with this love in your heart.” LOVE WITHOUT ACTION IS NOT LOVE AT ALL. Philippians 1:11 tells us this love is bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus attractive to everyone and getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

Mature love flows from a healed, whole heart in union with God, the source of love. Not our mental ascension or a head full of knowledge about God, but a heart that has encountered God and experienced Him personally. It’s the overflow of intimacy with the divine Bridegroom King, an intimacy that allows us the privilege of feeling His heart towards people; feeling His nature. He shows us how He loves people. He places His love for them into OUR heart (definition of agape) - it’s like having a love bomb go off inside our hearts. The sequence is that first, we have a love experience with Father God or with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and we then take that experience of feeling that incredible, abounding surrounding love and give it to others, according to THEIR love language, not ours. We act out of deep, secure confidence – confidence in how deeply God loves us and loves them; acting out of the assurance of His willingness to ACT on their behalf. Do you see the connections here? His love compelled Him to ACT (die for us, take the keys of hell and death, etc) and as imitators of Christ, we, in turn, ACT out our love for Him and others by our obedience to His promptings. This is not works or legalism, but being led by the Holy Spirit (see Galatians 5 in The Message – it explains it beautifully).

This love agrees with one another, causing us to be deep spirited friends who don’t push our way to the front but rather put ourselves aside and help others get ahead. We forget ourselves and lend a helping hand. It says ‘no bickering, rather does everything cheerfully and readily.’ His love says to you, my sisters: Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society, providing people a glimpse of good living… and … of the living God !

Amen, my sisters, Amen! How glorious is this love! I will see you February 14, so be blessed, Kate

GUEST SPEAKER: Kate Leach

Please join us this month as we warmly welcome our President, Kate Leach to our podium. Kate is very passionate in her intensity about God, so her February message is sure to be conveyed with both humor and a passion that will captivate your interest! She will be teaching on making prophetic declarations in prayer and how these declarations are the sword of the Lord in our mouth for the Lord to release His judgments in the earth. She will also discuss the role of the sword in battle and bring along swords for us to handle, in order to experience these concepts.

Kate has served Merritt Island Aglow for 3 ½ years as President, Prayer Chairwoman, Hospitality Chairwoman and Newsletter Editor. She is a prophetic Intercessor who in her own words “is still learning and in the process of developing her seer gifting.” She and her husband Bill live in Cape Canaveral and have 3 grown children between them, as well as five grandchildren. Kate was born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1978 as a college student in Ann Arbor, MI. One aspect of her testimony to God’s grace was the 1999 blissful reunion with her daughter, Laura, her only child who Kate relinquished for adoption in 1979. The Lord has used this experience and many others to weave the theme of reconciliation of seemingly lost relationships into her life. Over the years she has diligently built her friendship with God to its present bridal adoration; a magnificent obsession with her Bridegroom King whom she is continually learning to know.

Kate attends Freedom Christian Center in Viera and is an active a member of the Dream Team. She has completed more than 60 hours of training in biblical dream interpretation and as an avid dreamer, regularly receives revelation from the Lord in this manner.

“Kate is a woman of many giftings, but the one gift that God has placed in her, on which all these others hinge, is Intercessory Prayer. There are very few people I know who are as called to WAR in prayer as my friend, Kate. Prayer IS her strongest gifting.” Monette Gilroy, Aglow Vice President

IN LOVING MEMORY

On January 28, 2009 one of Aglow’s beloved friends, Shirley Guthrie graduated to heaven to dance forever with Her King, Jesus. We lovingly remember her as an Aglow woman, one who loved and served Jesus always wearing a smile and a sunny disposition. She will be missed but we know where she is and are assured we will one day see her again in heaven. Rest in peace, sweet Shirley!

PRAYER MEETING

You are invited to attend a prayer meeting with Aglow women. We meet Thursday, February 12, 2009 from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. where our Aglow Meetings are held – the Torah Class site in Merritt Island. We pray for our Aglow meetings, for our nation and also for any personal needs present.