Passage Through the Wilderness: A Journey of the Soul

I have never met the author, but he comes across as a real person with honest feelings and struggles. This allows the reader to identify with him and rejoice with him in the power of God manifested through the Holy Spirit even when walking trough the desert...

This book had influinced my life considerably, an impowering and comforting guide through the wilderness and any spiritual struggles. Long takes his owm personal experiene when God chalenged him and disciplinned him, and gives us guide lines on how to bare these dificult times in the spiritual life. Truly brillient and impowering book, five stars are not enough for this masterpiece that has helped so many.

Brad Long has prepared a feast in the wilderness. PCUSA minister, former educational missionary to Taiwan, and currently executive director of Presbyterian And Reformed Renewal Ministries International, Long has co-authored two books with Doug McMurry on the power and joy of the Holy Spirit. In Passage through the Wilderness, he presents another side of the Christian experience, and in doing so, provides a feast to sustain all those experiencing "the dark night of the soul" and a guide to all those who stand by, helplessly watching a parishioner, a patient, or a loved one struggle through the wilderness alone. In the author's own words, "It is an extreme book, written for times of extremity in our spiritual journeys." Through a combination of Scriptural examples and intensely personal accounts of his own battles with Satan, self, and God, Long richly illustrates the pain of living through feelings of dryness, abandonment, and/or overwhelming pressure in one's spiritual life, and the importance of clinging to the Lord though he is seemingly absent or overbearingly harsh. "Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines," and Long testifies clearly to the purpose in the pain - the outcome is often an increase in the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit, bringing growth in the life of the believer and the advancement of the Lord's Kingdom. For many, the reading may be labored by the sheer intensity of the subject matter. But for those who are experiencing or reflecting in bewilderment on such pain, it is a banquet of expression and meaning, and comfort. To the hopeless, it offers a lifeline of promise that the Potter is shaping his vessels for His use. To those who have suffered unspeakable grief, it offers a voice and an affirmation for the heart-cries of the soul. To those who have fallen on their knees and their faces in fear and trembling before the judgement of a Holy God, it offers common ground on which to stand firmly in and for Him. To those who have continued to "cry 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace," it stands as a stark reminder that "common ground" is no substitute for Holy ground. Marge Mills - (Review First Published in The Presbyterian Layman)