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Ruth Clarke, the Wellington Dove March speaker, was just amazing. We were so privileged to have this awesome anointed woman of God come and speak to us – and this is just a brief précis of the visions, words of knowledge, stories and scripture that Ruth overflowing with the Holy Spirit imparted to us.
Ruth commenced her talk with the words ‘God is doing a new thing in the world, a new thing in the church and a new thing in our hearts. We are living in a very crucial time as far as the days go. The days are fast coming to an end, and the coming of the Lord is very near.’
She then sensed a word on her spirit which she shared. ‘I saw a mud puddle - it was dirty, stale, confined and limited. There was no freedom, no flow of the water, and I felt God saying that he is taking us out of the mud puddle, out of the smallness and the lack of flow, and he is taking us into a place of freedom where the river is flowing. There is a new freshness coming and it’s a large place, it is not confined or small.’
Ruth then urged the ladies to prepare their hearts ‘because God is about to bring us into a whole new move of His Spirit. It’s a lot bigger than what we can understand – so that’s why we need the new mind to begin to grasp the concept of what God is going to do.’
Reflecting on a vision the Lord had given her some time ago regarding the Catholic Church, Ruth said ‘it was like a giant asleep - not dead - and she saw someone with a stick prodding it to waken it up’. From this vision she knew that God was working by His Spirit, doing a new thing, to awaken this mighty band of God’s people and to use them like never before. The previous evening Ruth had attended a powerful worship meeting (with Maria Vadia) at St Gerard’s monastery and, as she walked into St Gerard’s, the Holy Spirit spoke to her and said ‘this is that which I spoke about’. A new wave of the Spirit is coming across the Catholic Church and we need to be ready for it and have our spirits in a place in God where we will be ready to receive the new and not fight the new. God wants to do a new thing and very often we oppose a new thing because we don’t understand it. But if we’ve been in the secret place and we understand what God is doing, then we can receive what the Spirit is doing, because already we have seen it with the eye of the spirit. Ruth urged the women to be in that secret place with God and begin to hear the voice of the Spirit in our spirit so that we can recognise it.
Telling us the story of how she and her husband had been led to move from Levin (cheap housing) to Tauranga (expensive) and how the Holy Spirit, after some years, had given them a strategy on how to get rid of their mortgage by buying old deteriorating houses and doing them up Together (Ruth’s husband was a fitter and joiner) they did houses up to a standard they would be happy to live in themselves – and this reminded Ruth very much of what God has been doing in our lives. We’ve been broken, devalued by sin and trashed by the enemy of our souls and he has walked all over us. But Jesus bought us for a price, he paid the mortgage for us, he paid the debt that we owe and he made us new. He lovingly set to work to make us new from the inside out. He’s done a major renovation job on us and made us totally new, because he wants to dwell in our temple and use us mightily. He doesn’t renovate us to look good or feel good, he renovates us for his presence to dwell in us so that we bring him glory - and that is the key. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He saw us in Him before the foundation of the world. He spotted us and said ‘she’s mine for my glory’. I want to use her and I know what I have put in her to use. We can only come to our full potential in Christ - we can’t come to our full potential, and the things he has created us for, outside of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can help us reach our full potential for which he created us before the foundation of the world. People do all sorts of wonderful things but who knows what else they would have achieved had they been in Christ. Christ gives us the wisdom and the knowledge to fulfil the purpose and the destiny he has for us. So Jesus loved us in our broken state and he restored us to make us new. And he that has begun a work in us - is he going to quit, down tools, and say enough? No! He never grows weary. He works in us to complete the work until the day that he comes or until the day that we die.
Sometimes we don’t fully comprehend everything that Jesus did for us in that great exchange on the cross of Calvary. From now on we estimate and regard no one from a purely human point of view in terms of natural standards and values (education, body shape, clothes etc.) – this is a huge shift in our thinking. This is a new belief system and a new way of looking at people. If any man be in Christ he is a new creation altogether made new from the inside out. The moral and spiritual conditions have passed away because the fresh and the new have come. Scripture says that when we are born again our spirit and the Spirit of Christ are united in a spiritual union, and it says nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We are united in Him - we have asked Jesus Christ into our hearts into our holy of holies the eternal sanctuary where the Spirit of God dwells and He now comes and lives and abides in us. That’s new, that’s a complete change of ownership. Jesus has come and taken up residence by the Holy Spirit that’s why we view each other differently, with a different mindset. We need to see one another through the eyes of Christ. He is in us. That’s powerful. Wherever we go his presence is with us and in us. There is nothing that is insurmountable with Christ in us. So when we go and face some thing that seems daunting and our emotions tell us that this is fearful this is new this is different I can’t do this etc., we can then draw on the spirit man inside and say ‘Jesus you are with me here right now, you are part of me and by your strength and by your grace I can overcome this. I can do this. You can speak through me, and I don’t need to be afraid.’ We must start yielding to the Spirit of Jesus who is within us. That’s where our power comes from. That’s where our confidence comes from. It doesn’t come from anything else; it comes from the living power of Jesus within us. We need to grasp that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and we are now under new ownership and under his authority. We were bought with a price. He has reconciled us to God, and we can make the following fresh commitment today
‘God you are in me by the presence of your Holy Spirit and I want to serve you every day that you give me. I want to walk in that newness’.
We are not focussing on sin all the time we are focussing on the fact that he has redeemed us, he has washed us with his blood, he has made us holy he’s given us his righteousness, he’s cleansed us from all sin and everything that was written on the slate against us he came along with the blood and cleaned that slate and there is no word of accusation against us today.
When that curtain was ripped at the very time Jesus died this was the opening for us to the throne of grace. We have access to a divine security card. We can get into the presence of God anytime by the blood of Jesus. Anytime we need help, any time we want to praise and worship him we do not have to go through the high priest. Grace means favour and enabling power. That’s why we can sing ‘Let the weak say I am strong’ we trade our weaknesses for his strength. We can go to the throne of grace at any time – our need is not too big for God – our problem is not too big for God. Sometimes we make God too small – he says ‘come boldly before the throne’. Are we bold? Many of us are not seeing things happen in our lives because we are not being bold at the throne of grace. He invites us to come - let us all come forward and draw near having our hearts filled with assurance - we know with assurance that we are forgiven – the shame is taken from us through the blood of Jesus. So we’ve been invited to the throne of grace and we can come any time.
We have a new name and we have been given authority to use that name. In my name you shall cast out devils, in my name you shall lay hands on the sick. This is the new way. We are priests unto the Lord, we are a royal priesthood. As we’ve come into the blood of Jesus and are washed and live in that power we are now priests. A kingdom of priests that can operate in his name and we can lay hands on the sick and see them recover. God wants us to use the authority that is in his name. We have a new position – we are seated at the right hand of the Father and the right hand is the place of authority and it is the place of favour. So in this new way we have been given authority and favour. We have been transformed from a sinner to a saint. We are now overcomers – and he always causes us to triumph in Christ. So whenever we are feeling that everything is on top of us start to remember that Christ has made us the overcomer. Don’t be overcome with evil. When people do evil to you don’t let that overcome you and squash you down, overcome evil with good that’s the new mind that’s the mind of Christ. It’s now our responsibility to seek him and make sure we are fulfilling the purpose and destiny he has for us. We are now secure in his love. He says that he equips us, he qualifies us for the things that he calls us to do. This truth empowers us and causes us to rise up from the mud puddles and achieve the things that God wants us to do by his grace.
We have the mind of Christ - many times we don’t tap into that – we need to get into the Word and let the Word be rich in us and then it will begin to guide us. We need to begin to say ‘God I don’t understand what I need to do here but I have your mind, now I release your thoughts within me. I want to submit to your thinking and allow the new way to begin’. If we listen to him he will speak within our spirit and we will be amazed at what comes out of our mouths. He said if you lack wisdom ask for it – there is no cap on that. That’s the new way. Walk in the new way with his mind over matter.
Citing the negatives and positives in the lives of the apostles Peter and Paul and how they were both transformed by the Holy Spirit into changed men – so we can be changed. God wants to do a new work in our lives too. God wants people who are on fire with the spirit of God not lukewarm. Ruth urged the women to let the fire of the Spirit of God touch them today and renew them afresh - to do that spiritual renovation from the inside out. Seek his face because we are coming into a time when every single person who knows the Lord is going to be needed. Have our hearts ready for the day when God moves in his power so that we are not passed by.
We are not to underestimate what God can use us for – he puts us alongside people for a purpose. We are to take the opportunities that God gives us and not be afraid to rise up in that new boldness and let the spirit of God use us.
(Ruth then read out a full page of words of knowledge that the Lord had woken and given her a few nights before coming to Wellington.)
The meeting ended with Ruth praying the following powerful prayer.
Father I pray that you would take the word now and minister life to each woman. I pray that your prophetic word would come to pass in their lives. That they would rise up and take it by faith and believe you this day and walk into their futures in you Lord with a sense of confidence, and a fresh knowing that greater is he that is within them and that you will cause them to triumph daily through your power and your grace within their lives Father as they walk in this new living way with access to your presence on a daily basis. Fill them afresh I pray and let the fire of your Spirit fall upon them and make them firebrands in this place in Wellington.’ Amen.
Ruth then reflected that as she was praying she saw firebrands being shot out and setting the scrub on fire. God wants to use each of us as a firebrand and he wants to set a new fire in our spirit because out of the abundance of our heart our mouth will speak and it will be like shooting out firebrands and setting things on fire. God wants us to incite and encourage and speak for him so that it comes forth like a firebrand in this place of Wellington where God has put us and wants to use us. So arise daughters and let him work within you in a new way not the old not what he’s done before, God wants to do a new thing in your life. Open up to him today and let him do it.