THE HOLY SPIRIT IS ALIVE AND WELL on planet earth. He is alive and well most especially in the lives of those who have a habit of saying “Yes” to his guidance and leading. He is less real, and the benefits he gives are less rich, for those who do not cultivate this good habit. We can “quench” the Holy Spirit, the Bible says. We can grieve him. And just as God, the Father, will give us over to spiritual poverty if we insist on it, so the Holy Spirit will do the same. We

My faith was strengthened and my expectations increased as I read Ezra 7 this morning. Three times in that chapter (and once in 8:18) we read that “the gracious hand of God” was on Ezra as he endeavored to do the work of God. “The king had granted everything he had asked for” because the gracious hand of God was on him (7:6). Ezra was brought to the place of his work, Jerusalem, for the same reason (7:9). And because “the hand of the LORD my God was on me”, Ezra says, “I