Holy Spirit: Baptism

"You Will Be .."

".. for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (Acts 1:5 Jesus speaking).

Jesus was announcing a complete change in humankind's relationship with God. Until that time a person regarded God as being outside of them self; a distant deity, concerned about and influencing the dreams and struggles of humanity from above.

One would go to the temple or the synagogue to find God’s presence. This Holy Spirit baptism, which Jesus was saying was for "you", for all His followers, would bind God's Holy Spirit with their human spirit; God Himself would come and live within each believer, they would forever after have God dwelling in their body, now His "temple" (1 Corinthians 6:19). We can see why the Bible tells us that we become "a new creation" (Galatians 6:15), and "born again" (John 3:3).

From God on our outside, to God on our inside: Father, through Jesus the Son, by Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is a person, one of the three persons who are our Triune God. The person of God, in Holy Spirit, comes and dwells in us, each one! We first see this happening at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41). This is a gift, given by grace.

"Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord .." (John 12:13).

Jesus was reminding His followers that this future pouring out of God's Spirit on His people, this incredible baptism, was prophesied by three of the Old Testament prophets (Isaiah 44:3, Ezekiel 39:29, Joel 2:28-29), and also by John Baptist, as seen in all four of the Bible Gospels:

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matthew 3:11).

"I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:8).

"John answered them all, saying, 'I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire'" (Luke 3:16).

"I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit'" (John 1:33).

What? How?

What is Holy Spirit baptism? What is its nature and purpose? How does it affect us? Big questions. Once again, we look to Jesus for answers! Upon our salvation we become a child of God (John 1:12), Holy Spirit baptism is deeper.

Jesus came to a hurting world. For centuries oppressive foreign nations had ruled over Israel who knew themselves to be God's special possession (Isaiah 43:1).

For His first 30 years Jesus lived a (nearly) normal life in a small Jewish town as a son of a carpenter. Jewish people actively followed God, and the Law and the Prophets, as they had been taught since Moses. This was not popular with Rome, their oppressor, and the Jews were persecuted.

Even more than the persecution, since the prophet Malachi there had been no fresh word from God, nothing. We know that period as the "400 years of silence"; a very long time to be without guidance from your God who has said that He loves you, will care for you, and has even made covenant with you.

Jesus' ministry began with His baptism of repentance by John. John knew that Jesus was without sin yet He was to be baptised. Immediately after that Jesus was tempted (without success) by Satan and went out into the wilderness.

Already Jesus' life was extraordinary (Luke 2:52), and over all the days of His ministry on Earth He lived and prayed and ministered as no-one before or since. We know that Jesus is fully God and also fully human. In the weakness of His humanity He was anointed by God's Holy Spirit, He was able to communicate with Father God intimately and always, and able to perform miracles - He could see what the Father wanted to accomplish. Jesus did this by the power of God by this same Holy Spirit that He says we will receive in baptism.

Jesus knew that He was going to go to be with His (now our) Father in Heaven (John 16:16). He also knew that God's love and power still needed to be available on this very troubled planet Earth (John 14:12).

What does this tell us? Wondrous things happen when God's power is applied through human beings in any situation, Jesus expects them to happen through us.

John Baptist told how this would be achieved, prophesying: ".. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Luke 3:16).

Holy Spirit baptism fills us, each one, with the Spirit of God, to enable and empower us, each one, to do the will of our Father in Heaven, to continue to do the works that Jesus did while He was here on Earth, 2000 years ago (John 15:10).

A.W. Tozer

The teachings of A.W. Tozer, (1897-1963), still speak today about our need for a deeper life in God. Some years after he was born again Tozer met a godly woman named Kate, he wrote:

"Kate took me aside and had a serious talk with me. It was concerning being filled with the Holy Spirit. I did not quite understand what she meant by being filled with the Holy Spirit. Who is this Holy Spirit?
She said, 'Young man, you must get down on your knees and die to yourself before the Holy Spirit will fill you'. And she explained in detail what this meant, as much as I could understand.

Then it happened. I was nineteen years old when I was baptized with a mighty infusion of the Holy Spirit. Even now, it is hard to explain what happened. I have had years to think about it, study it, and meditate on it, and yet when the Holy Spirit does something in you, it is usually beyond your ability to totally comprehend it, let alone explain it.

I know what God did for me and within me at that time. Nothing on the outside from then on had equal importance for me .. my testimony is simply that any work God has ever done through me and my ministry dates back to that moment".

When Trish and I first became Christian there was much teaching like this. It was an awesome time to be alive and to be Christian. We would talk about "every member ministry" and "Holy Spirit led ministry". Prayer meetings became the centre of our week. We saw very ordinary Christians, just like us, who would pray and see miracles. We would hear from the God of all Creation and have the words to speak to a person or into a situation and see healings. We prayed and God changed things. We loved to read Tozer, and many others, because they spoke of Bible events being replicated in our day, in our city! The Bible became more "real" and more clear!

Derek Prince wrote:

"We read Matthew 18:18, 'Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven'. How do we know what our Lord wants us to bind or loose? God will tell us by His Holy Spirit".

"For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say" (John 14:26).

Trish and I still read, study, pray and minister. Not just us, many around us, lay people, even new Christians, leaders, pastors, missionaries, teachers, intercessors - Jesus' people, His ecclesia, at work on Earth, doing (present tense continuous) the Father's will (Matthew 12:50).

Each Christian And All The Church

When God's Word speaks of baptism with Holy Spirit it is often in the plural. Just as each of us is a "temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19), we are all together the temple; we are each a stone which together make up the structure of Jesus' house, His temple, His church:

"You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). 

Each one personally, and all of us together are one body (Romans 12:5). Together we are a part of one another (Romans 12:10; Galatians 6:2; Ephesians 5:19; Hebrews 10:24; 1 Peter 4:10). Can we even imagine how this will be?

Many Views

There are many views about baptism with the Holy Spirit; about what it means, when it occurs, how we know that we, or others, have been so baptised. I believe that all the views contain truth and yet none of them are complete. When Jesus ministered on Earth He seemed, (at least to my reading of Scripture), that He did almost everything in a unique, or one-off, way, as Father God required. As we study His healings there is love and compassion always present, there is an awareness of Father God always present, but there clearly was no set method of healing. Likewise with wise words of help, with teaching, mentoring, rebuke or deliverance from evil spirits. Mystery is present in our Christian life. So with baptism with Holy Spirit.

Each of us knows when spiritual changes occur on our inside. There is no mistaking the change from total human weakness and powerlessness to an understanding that God, and God's power, is within us, that Jesus is leading us into His work, that Holy Spirit is providing words or other needed resources: "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you" (Acts 1:8). The growing "fruit of the Holy Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-23) in us shows that this is true.

Praise Jesus. Amen.

Favourite Scriptures

"You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed:  how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him" (Acts 10:37-38).

"Paul said, 'John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus'. On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all" (Acts 19:4-7).

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Amen.