Skip to main content

Jesus' Baptism

    Yesterday I concluded my posts on the trinity, ending with the Holy Spirit. Today, I thought I would go into further detail on the topic of the Holy Spirit - specifically the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As I mentioned yesterday, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is a frequently debated and misunderstood topic. Many Christians are unaware there is a baptism in the Holy Spirit! This is nothing new.  In fact, scripture tells us that it's been that way since Paul's day.

Acts 19:1-7 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
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. (NIV)

    Paul says, there is a difference between "John's baptism" (water baptism, the baptism of repentance) and "Jesus' baptism" (baptism in the Holy Spirit). As I explained yesterday, the Holy Spirit is Jesus' Spirit! When we are born again, our Spirits are made alive and we are reconciled with God. As part of our reconciliation we are to be baptized in water, symbolizing our new birth and repentance from our old ways of living.  As we are "buried" in water, we symbolize our sins being buried with Jesus.  The water symbolizes our purification, and when we emerge we are "new creations in Christ Jesus!" But there is an additional baptism in the Holy Spirit, a separate baptism. 

    When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, we are filled up with Jesus' Spirit! We allow His Spirit to completely fill us and live through us. It makes the walk as a Christian a lot easier with His power coming through instead of our own. When we have not received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we often feel like we are trying to do things alone, by our own strength and in the power of our flesh. It is often difficult to resist temptation, understand scripture or hear God's leading. 

    This is because we are not supposed to live that way! We are not designed to live through our flesh. You may think that if you're a Christian you are not living by your flesh, but that may not be true. If you are led more by the temptation of your fleshly desires than your Heavenly Father's desires for your life, you are walking in the flesh. 

    When we have Jesus' Spirit working through us, it changes everything! The Holy Spirit brings us many gifts that enhance our Christian walk and experience. If you have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit, I strongly encourage you to do so! Read further into what the word has to say about it (consider checking out the book of Acts) and pray that the Father reveals His truth to you. 

Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (ESV)
Ephesians 1:18 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (ESV)

    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1 2 3, Count on Me

     I am thankful to say that for the first time in my life I am surrounded by friends and a community who I know will always build me up and point me in the right direction. More importantly, I know that they will always be honest with me. Honesty is a rare trait these days and I think it to be (combined with love) the most important thing to have in any relationship.    The Bible instructs us to speak life and truth into one another. To be honest and point each other to Christ when we are failing to see straight. I cannot emphasize how much I have grown since having access to that kind of community. Being in close friendships where I am able to be completely honest about my life, my struggles, my thoughts without fear of rejection or judgement is monumental alone. But take that a step further. I have been blessed to have friends that I can not only share my most intimate thoughts with, but they additionally are on their toes looking out for me and honest wh...
4 comments
Read more

Don't Read This!

     It's amazing to me how God so often uses moments in our daily lives to teach us something instead of the moments we might expect (in church, through Christian friends, etc.). I'm a big believer that God can use anything and anyone to teach us something (See Numbers 22:28 where God actually used a donkey to speak to Balaam). This last week, something a coworker said to me in casual conversation really struck my heart and has had me thinking since then. She told me that she quit smoking by buying herself cigarettes and keeping them with her and telling herself, "you can have one if you want. But do you really want it?"      I found this passing statement proved a brilliant point about human nature. I don't think anyone would disagree with me when I say that we as humans want what we are told we can't have. Tell a kid he can't have the cookies in the cookie jar and all he's going to want is those cookies. But I believe this concept is particularly...
2 comments
Read more

A Life of Servitude

   When we are living in the Kingdom of God, we have to abide by a completely different lifestyle than that of the world. The word tells us that to the world, the wisdom of God seems like foolishness. It is completely counterintuitive! Today, I think of this in the context of leadership. To the world, to be a great leader you are often taught to assert yourself and do whatever it takes to get on top. In the Kingdom we are taught that being recognized as a leader means putting yourself below others and letting God raise you up as He chooses to. Luke 14:11    For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. (NLT)          So what does that look like? Well, it looks a lot like Jesus. During His life on earth, Jesus never asserted Himself over anyone-- even though He is the true King over all!! That's crazy humble. The mere fact that He even came down to earth in the form of a man is mind-b...
2 comments
Read more