A few friends on this site and others have been asking me to tell a little more about myself so I will, but don't blame me if it bores you for it was not my idea.

In a recent blog I shared a very precious experience I had with The Lord during a time of great blessing and favour and the lesson I learned from it. I called the blog "The long, dark tunnel." What I have since come to understand is that this was not just an isolated experience or sequence of events but was in fact a "prophetic picture" God was really showing me what was about to happen, what has happened and indeed what is happening right now in my christian walk. I am very much the girl in that tunnel, and a very dark one it is too, I am also that fledgling blackbird who came to grief against the wall and plopped down in the long grass to preen and to sort himself out.

The picture is so strikingly accurate of what has happened to me and is happening that I am filled with awe at this wonderful,wonderful Lord that I walk with, even in the very dark places of the earth, He is right there and doesn't leave us alone, no, not for a second, we may lose the peace and joy of His presence and our way may become so very dark that we cannot see so much as an inch in front of our noses, especially if we are in disobedience or backsliding. The devil will all but scream at us that we are forsaken and that God has after all repented that He ever saved us, we might look back and scarcely be able to discern the beginnings of our faith and we might look ahead and not be able to make out even the faintest glimmer of light ahead to guide us forward, reach out and touch the wall and do not ever give up to despair, you must go on, turning back may seem like an option but that is to surrender to the sneering, hate-filled voice of Satan. Say no, no, never Mr devil, he is a liar, a thief and a murderer, if you pay heed to his voice you are yielding yourself to his will for your life-how happy he will be-keep contact with that wall, prayer if you like,the word of God if you like, praise, fellowship in the things of The Holy Spirit. And if the going forward be a painfully, painful slow affair, yet go forward still. Trust in God, He is faithful, He will bring you forth as pure gold tried and tested in the fire of adversity. And when He has brought you back out once more into the sunshine He will reveal Himself to you and show you His plan for your life.

But I am still inside the tunnel, no shimmer of light yet appears up ahead, my great peace and comfort is this, that God took time and patience to show me beforehand that these things would be, and just as surely as the trials and tribulations have come to pass, why, this very fact is the firm assurance that I have that there will be an end. There shall be a coming forth. The Sun of righteousness will yet arise with healing in His wings, His light will yet arise upon me and my glory will come. All praise and honour and glory be unto Him Who is mighty and has done wonderous things for me.    

You hear so much about how God's will for us is all blessings and prosperity-the good life. It is all positive stuff and very attractive. If we only think the right things,and say the right things then God will grant us our wildest dreams.
I believe few if any persons in the last century achieved the place of perfection with regard to being in God's perfect will for their lives than Betsy and Corrie Ten Boom, and this place of the perfect will of God was to stand naked in a concentration camp, in freezing weather in front of the leering eyes of their captors.
Corrie Ten Boom's testimony belies the prosperity doctrine, did she believe in God's abundant provision? she surely did, she tells the story of how when the prisoner's rations were reduced to two bowls of watery soup per day, the only way to suppliment this meagre diet was with a small bottle of vitamin oil her sister had sent her, this she shared out with all the prisoners in her block,day after day, week after week long, long after it should have run out.
Did she believe in God's overuling providence? she surely did when she and Betsy knelt to give praise and thanks for every single thing in their lives-even the lice and fleas- they later learned that those little fellas were the reason the guards stayed away from their barracks so they could have their daily bible study and prayer with all who cared to join them, many were saved and helped.
Betsy died there in Ravensbruch, their beloved Father already having died in custody. After the war Corrie travelled the nations of the world, living out of a suitcase into her eighties bringing the glorious message of victory over all circumstances, "no matter how deep the pit, God's love is deeper."
Could Corrie have avoided any of this? yes she could have chosen not to reach out to the persecuted Jews in Holland when the Germans invaded that peace loving country. Just as Jesus could have chosen in the Garden of Gethsemane not to endure the cross, but like their Master they chose the path of God's will.