Letter from David Sorensen
about Ashley McGuicken

One day I was walking in nature, to be with God. I felt pain in my heart as the result of what happened in CWC and found it hard to connect with God. Suddenly the Lord very clearly told me: 'David, write Ashley a letter and THANK HIM for all the good things you have learned from him.' That same day I wrote an email, but I added one line: '…despite all the bad things…'. The holy Spirit said: 'Don't do this. Just thank him for the good.' I deleted the line and sent the message.

I never felt pain towards Ashley ever since. It set me free
from pain and anger. To me this felt like a miracle!

The dream of Ashley's fall

The following two years I was completely separate from CWC. My wife and I were not at all connected with anyone from this movement and I had no clue what was going on. One night however I had a surprisingly vivid dream:

I saw a car with Ashley and several young men.
I sat in the back of the car, with the luggage.
There was no place for me in the car.

Suddenly the car stopped and Ashley stepped out.
He was in severe pain. With his hands
he grabbed his stommach and fell to the ground.
The young men jumped on him in panic, trying to pull him up.


Then an ambulance came and men in white coats stepped out,
who tried to heal Ashley. But they were trying to attach
an inner organ ON THE OUTSIDE of his body,
with tubes going inside his belly.

It didn't work and they shouted to everyone:
'HE IS DEAD! IT'S OVER! HE IS DEAD!'

Then I woke up... I had no idea what it was all about.
But I knew this was a dream from God.

Some days later, to my surprise, I was contacted by a pastor from Capitol Worship Centre who told me about the cricis Ashley was going through with his marriage, teachings about polygamy, rumours of adultery with another woman, etc.

Now I knew what the dream was all about:
Ashley is sick, falls down and everyone says: he is dead...

But God showed me in the dream that He has good plans for Ashley, that although he seems dead, God wil make him live against all odds.

God starts showing me the fruit

God started blessing our ministry with His presence and many lives changed. At that point some people from CWC Ghent came to me and asked forgiveness for what had happened. This brought further healing. Some friendships were restored.

Again some years went by and God started connecting us with some wonderful people who have a powerful and true ministry. I was impressed by the way the Holy Spirit moved through these men and women of God, and saw the impact they were making. I appreciated them a lot.

I never met him before, so I had no clue who he was. One day at a House of Prophets meeting (ministry of Werner van Suetendael) I was prophecying and I saw Gomer in the room.

The Lord told me: 'Call that man forward, he has a word from Me for the person you are praying for.' I did so and Gomer delivered an accurate word from the Lord. To my surprise I felt angels being activated, the moment Gomer started praying. I saw this was more then uttering a prophetic word.

Then the Lord told me: 'Prophecy over this man'. When I did, suddenly God opened my eyes to see this man in the Spirit and I started jumping up and down, excited like a little boy, while I prophecied: 'This man is a BELGIAN PROPHET! A true man of God with the power of God! A true prophet! And HE IS BELGIAN!' I was so excited! It brought healing to Gomer who had been going through a desert for many years. That day the Lord relaunched him in his calling. He has been going to many churches in Belgium and The Netherlands since that day, and the Lord has done amazing things. We became friends and something significant happened:

This struck me deeply… This man, that God showed me supernaturally to be a true prophet in Belgium (which is not very common in this nation, and therefor very precious) was the result of the labour of Ashley...

We also got in touch with several other powerful and genuine prophetic ministers, who helped and encouraged us, when we needed it. We got to know them as precious people of God, full of love and purity, humble in spirit and when they minister, the holy Spirit moves through them in a wonderful way, changing lives big time.

We also know Werner Van Suetendael from House of Prophets and I began to see the tremendous call of God on Werner and the wonderful influence he was beginning to have on many people and nations. Werner also told me Ashley had been a key person in raising him up!

Finally there is a good friend of us: a mature prophet who has brought rich blessing in our lives. We see him as a precious man of God. He has also been helped by Ashley to step deeper in his calling as a prophet.

So we were starting to see something very important: there is a river of powerful blessing that is still flowing through many nations, which is the fruit of what the holy Spirit did through Ashley McGuicken. And we only see a tiny glimpse of it, because my wife and I only know a few people from CWC!

I believe the Lord opened my eyes for this. And I realized: no matter what mistakes Ashley made and what went wrong: I cannot ignore the incredibly precious and powerful GOOD fruit of what Jesus Christ has done through him.

Grace for those who have fallen

One evening another transformation happened in my heart, while I was alone in my living room. I was talking to Jesus when suddenly the entire room was filled with LOVE. It was a very thick atmosphere of LOVE that filled every corner of the room. That same moment I saw a vision of a man.

Then I saw Jesus stand in front of him and catch the stones for him on His own body. The Lord told me: 'When my servants fall, most people have only one response: throw stones'. But He stands in front of his fallen servants as a shield to defend them.

This was a lifechanging experience for me. Something radically changed in my heart towards men of God that have fallen into sin or failure. I started feeling so much love and grace for them. Not at all ignoring what they did wrong, but above that there came something far stronger then the guilt: love.

Deep revelation of the heart of the Father who longs to heal and restore His kids. And I also felt how joyful the Father is when a process of restoration is starting...

I heard the heart of Ashley

Some months later I wrote Ashley a letter (seven years after I sent the other email). I still believed he was in adultery but I decided to write him anyway and thank him for the blessing he had brought, in obedience to God. I also said: 'I hope you will learn from the bad stuff that happened and come back in your original calling WITHOUT all that nonsense (the worship of men, etc.). Then the impact would be even far greater and more lasting!'

We talked for almost three hours, and Ashley asked me forgiveness for several things that had hurt me. He admitted many serious failures and said he is a broken man. He said: 'God knows how to deal with us, hey!'

But he also said God is blessing him again now and calling him to come back to Belgium. We had another long conversation some weeks later, and we have been writing regularly since then.

He says this is a lie that has been spread. Kathy had left him several times during their marriage and the last time she did not want to come back to him. At that time Rebecca came in the picture. Ashley honestly believes the Lord has confirmed her in many ways to be his new wife. But he admitted that he took certain steps too quickly, and this caused misunderstanding and hurt with many people.

But there has not been adultery. Kathy had already left Ashley when he and Rebecca decided the Lord brought them together. There has however been no sexual intercourse before their marriage. Ashley does however clearly tell me: 'But I took some steps too quick. I was not officially divorced from Kathy yet and I should have kept more distance from Rebecca, until after the divorce.'

When I asked him what was true of the stories I had heard about polygamy, he said: 'I started studying this in the Bible, because I was confronted in South Africa with several ministries who lived in polygamy as part of the culture.'

I am no longer the 'gladiator'

Ashley also told me that his thinking about leadership and church structure has gone through a reformation. The Lord gave him this word: 'THE TIME OF THE GLADIATOR IS OVER'. The time of the one man running the show is over. He says he wants to come to work together with others and not to be their boss. This is a big relief to me, because the worship of men was a basic reason why so many things had gone wrong. When flesh is raised up, God will intervene. Jesus Christ is our King, not man. Jesus clearly warns us:

'Do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.'
(Matthew 23:8-10)

We need to find our security and identity in our love from Dad and not from our position over people, or our titles.

Hope for a true restoration

So after several hours of listening to the heart of Ashley and after emailing several times, I must say that I believe him to be honest. Ashley told me: 'I come as a humble, broken man. I went very deep and lost everything. At a point I didn't want to live any longer. But the Father led me through and has dealt with me in His mercy. Now He starts blessing me again and He tells me to pick up my calling for Belgium and the nations again. I am not coming alone, we come with a team and we come in power. But I am more then willing to meet with anyone who feels the need to. I know there has been caused a lot of hurt and I want to do all I can to bring healing.' security

What opened my heart most of all for Ashley was simply hearing him his heart. For years I had only heard rumours about him from others. Spending time listening to his heart, helped me see: he has changed a lot. And it was a great relief for me to find out he had never commited adultery.

He is very open and will gladly spend time with you to answer your questions. To me he asked forgiveness for several mistakes he has made and for the hurt that had been done to us, and I can only say that he appears to me as honest and broken. I dare to trust him. Not because I put my trust in man, but because I believe it is a work of the Father in my own heart.

I have no clue what the future holds. I will certainly not come 'under' him, as the false idea of 'covering' demanded in the past. If we are all brothers and have only One Father, King and Teacher, we need to renew our mind about what true covering is. I believe friendship with real trust and open hearts, being real with one another is true covering. I am not covered by one big man or ministry, but by many good friends with whom I am open and honest. They cover me and I cover them.

This brings real relationships, real love and real brotherhood. And relationship is priority nr 1 in the Kingdom of God.

We are all responsible!

I want to close this letter with one remark: when one man is raised up as the big hero above all others, that is not only his own responsibility. I believe many people have been dissapointed because they had put their trust in flesh, in a human being, instead of trusting and expecting everything from Jesus Christ himself.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this:

'Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. (...) For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. (...)


So then, no more boasting about human leaders!

All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.'
(1 Corinthians 3:1-21)

Let's keep the truth in mind of what Jesus and the Father and the apostels in the New testament reveal about how we should work together.

I do not want to start discussions

I wrote this letter to help people understand why I am suddenly in contact with Ashley. It is not my intention to start discussions about this. If there are people who believe I am being deceived, please just pray for me.

Let's trust the Spirit of Truth to guide all of us. I have been very open in the past with Ashley and other leaders at Capitol Worship Centre when I saw wrong stuff - I will always pursue truth and honesty and transparency.

Blessings,

David Sorensen

PS: Ashley did not ask me to write this letter. It is purely my own initiative. I did let Ashley read it before sending it to anyone. He said: 'It is very well written and balanced.'

I am married to Renate and we have three children. We live in Bruges, Belgium. On our website you find more information about our ministry: www.real-life.nl