REVIEW #37: HOW TO CLAIM YOUR LIFE IN CHRIST AND SPEAK LIFE INTO OTHERS

Speak Life
By Katherine Ruonala
Katherine Ruonala, 2019.

Katherine Ruonala is committed to sharing the great love of God, demonstrated in the life, sacrificial death and rising again of his son, Jesus, who came into this world to help us understand our Creator and God’s desire to be in relationship with us. I want to begin this review by quoting a large passage from the first chapter which summarizes Ruonala’s motivation.

Little things have a lot of power to help people experience the love
of God. Even when we don’t have the opportunity to mention God
or explain how someone can come into a relationship with Him, we
can demonstrate His heart. We have a tremendous opportunity to
express who He is. God wants us to get our hearts in order, fully
immersed in His love and mercy, fully aware of His blessings and
promises, fully conscious of who we are in Him, because out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

This is the crux of Ruonala’s message. Our words have power to hurt, or to heal. To bring death, or to let life flower, based on the love of our great God. Her message to us is to walk in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, so that we can be bringers of life because our words and our actions will be in harmony with the will and heart of God. This book will challenge us through the very words of Christ, himself, and a reminder that Christ lives in us and assured his disciples that we could do even greater things than he did. That sounds like a fairytale, but I have seen the results of his healing power in conferences like Live to Love in Adelaide and in my own congregation where baffling, complex health problems have disappeared as a result of prayer. Miraculous healings are still taking place today. But faith in God is not all about miraculous healing. Our daily lives are a faith walk and faith talk. Matthew 12:34 reminds us that ‘Out of the abundance of the heart, our mouth speaks.’ Ruonala says that understanding this truth is the beginning of ‘renewing your mind’ and that these words are filled with the ‘fragrance of Christ’ and this is what brings the life of Christ and his eternal truth into other people’s worlds.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR LIFE IN CHRIST AND SPEAK LIFE INTO OTHERS

When Christ lives in us, we can be assured we have his motives and desires. Loving as he loves is always at the heart of being in his family and reaching out to others and drawing them into his infinite circle of love. We need to be hungry for his word and seeking his righteousness, in order to hear his will and follow the counsel of his Holy Spirit. We need his Holy Spirit because He ‘unfolds mysteries to us’ and ‘aligns our prayers’ with the will of our Heavenly Father. He stirs up our faith, reveals the truth to us and illuminates our paths and, in this way, we are able to ‘enter into the heavenly conversation’ and partner with Him in the building up of his kingdom.

Ruonala spends a lot of time reassuring us that our self-doubt and shame and belief that we are not worthy of spreading his word contradicts his word. She constantly reminds us that we ‘have been given holiness, righteousness, purity and the joy of salvation’ and to feel otherwise is to deny the truth of his Word. Don’t try to pay for your sins. Jesus did that. She reminds us that ‘it isn’t your sacrifice that pleases God; it’s your faith in His sacrifice. Anything else is pride.’ There is some harsh medicine in this book. Ruonala says the following:

Your decision to agree with how God feels about you and to
receive His love is the level at which you will be able to
love others. If you are continually self-deprecating, critical,
and harsh on yourself, then this is the way you will inevitably
behave toward others. In other words, your negative self-talk
not only hurts you but negates your capacity to love others.

We need to behave as the beloved son or daughter of our Lord and King. That is the new life that has been given to us in Christ. Yes, we didn’t deserve it, but let’s live in it joyfully and recognize that we have been granted victory over our sinful nature and let our words and actions reflect that new, victorious life. Ruonala finishes with this encouraging affirmation of this. ‘His kingdom is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. He wants us to drink deeply from the river of his delight over us.’ So, in short, Ruonala urges us to be confident in our place in God’s family and speak life into others that they may become our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is only a short book, but I found it tremendously helpful and know I will reread it regularly to remind myself of the great truth about who I am in God’s family that gives me to power to align myself with his desire to bring all people into a knowledge of his saving grace and our rightful place in his family.