THE BAPTISM OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT.
PSALM 8:3-5.
When I consider Your
heavens, the works of Your fingers. The moon and the stars, which You have
ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You
visited him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have
crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the
works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.
These verses are David’s
revelation of Genesis 1:26-28 where God creates man in His own image and
according to His likeness and gives him dominion over creation. Note in verse 5
how David says that God crowned man with glory and honor. Man is crowned with
God’s Spirit and holiness. It is through that anointing that man is meant to
walk in the authority that God has given him.
GENESIS 3:6-7.
So when the woman saw that
the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree
desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her
husband with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and
they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves covering.
At the fall of man in the
garden, Adam and Eve see themselves for the first time in the flesh. The glory
and the anointing that they walked in previously has now departed.
JOEL 2:28-29.
And it shall come to pass
afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, Your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall see dreams and your young men
shall see visions. And also on My menservants and My maidservants I will pour
out My Spirit in those days.
This prophecy in Joel is
pointing to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the last days,
and that God would baptise His people in it.
MATTHEW 3:11.
“i indeed baptise you with
water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose
sandals i am not worthy to carry. He will baptise you with the Holt Spirit and
with fire”.
John the Baptist is here
pointing to the fact that Jesus would be the one who would baptise with the
Holy Spirit.
JOHN 1:29-34.
The next day John saw
Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world! This is He of whom I said; After me comes a Man who is
preferred before me. I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to
Israel, therefore I came baptising with
water.” And John bore witness saying, “I saw the Spirit descending fro heaven
like a dove, and He remained upon Him, I did not know Him, but the One who sent
me to baptise with water said to me, “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending,
and remaining on Him, this is He who baptises with the Holy Spirit. And I have
seen and testify that this is the Son of God.”
John confirms that Jesus
is the Son of God and the One who will baptise us with the Holy Spirit.
LUKE 3:21-22.
When all the people were
baptised, it came to pass that Jesus was also baptised; and while He prayed,
the heavens opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in the bodily form like a
dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, this is My beloved Son,
in You I am well pleased.”
Jesus is baptised in the
Holy Spirit at the time of His water baptism.
LUKE 4:1.
Then Jesus, being filled
with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into
the wilderness.
LUKE 4:14-15.
Then Jesus returned in the
power of the Spirit to Galilee, and the news of Him went out through all the
surrounding region. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
These two passages show us
that Jesus needed that infilling of the Holy Spirit, we know that while He was
in the wilderness He went through the temptation of satan, and after His return
He is ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit, if Jesus, the sinless Son of
God, needed the power of the Holy, how much do we. Jesus was actually walking
and ministering in the same anointing that Adam walked in before he sinned.
LUKE 4:18-19.
“The Spirit of the Lord is
upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has
sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and
recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Jesus here has gone into
the temple on the Sabbath and taken the scroll, opened it to Isaiah 61 and read
this passage out, He says that it is because the Holy Spirit is upon Him that
He can do all those things.
JOHN 17:22.
“And the glory which You
gave Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as We are one.”
This is part of the prayer
that Jesus is praying for His disciples and for the church. He says here that
we will have the same glory that He had, we will have that same anointing, and
out of that anointing we will be able to be one with one another, just as He
and the Father are one.
JOHN 20:22.
And when He had said this,
He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
This is when the disciples
are born again. Jesus here breathes spiritual life into them, in the same way
that He did when He created Adam in the garden and breathed into him in Genesis 2:7. When we accept Jesus as our
personal Lord and Savior and acknowledge Him, He does the same to us, He
breathes spiritual life into us and we are born again.
ACTS 1:4-8.
And being assembled
together with them, He commanded the not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait
for the promise of the Father, “Which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for
John truly baptised with water, but you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit
not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him
saying, “Lord will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” and He said
to them, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father
has put in His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
This is at the time when
Jesus is taken back up into heaven, note that He commands them not to leave
Jerusalem until after the Holy Spirit has been poured out and they are baptised
in the Holy Spirit. He tells them that they will receive power when they are
baptised in the Holy Spirit, remember when Jesus returned from the wilderness,
He came in the power of the Holy Spirit, we cannot be effective witnesses for
Him without that power that only the Holy Spirit gives.
ACTS 2:1-4.
When the day of Pentecost
had full come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there
came the sound from heaven, as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the
whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided
tongues, as of fire, and one sat on each of them. And they were all filled with
the Holy Spirit and began to speak with tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance.
The day of Pentecost was
the fulfilment of what Jesus had promised before His ascension back into
heaven. The Holy Spirit has now been poured out into the world, and the
disciples are now baptised with the Holy Spirit. Note there that with the
baptism of the Holy Spirit came the ability to speak in tongues. Everyone in
Jerusalem heard the sound of the wind, they all came together and they heard
the disciples glorifying God and they heard them in their own language. Peter
stands up and then proceeds to explain what is happening, he quotes from Joel
2, showing that Pentecost is the beginning of the last days, he then goes on to
say in Acts 2:38-39 that they need to repent, to be baptised in the name of
Jesus Christ, that as they do their sins will be forgiven and that they too
will receive the gift or baptism of the Holy Spirit. We know that 3,000
repented that day and were added to the Kingdom.
Note what Acts 2:2-3 says;
it says that the disciples were sitting in the upper room and when the Holy Spirit
came, He came and sat upon them, many pictures depicting this event show the
Holy Spirit as little tongues of fire above the heads of the disciples. This is
not what happened. If someone is sitting down and you sit on them, where do you
sit, you sit on their lap. Note what Ezekiel 8:2 says; “Then I looked, and
there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire; from the appearance of His
waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of
brightness, like the color of amber.”
This is what it would have looked like that day with the disciples, they
were totally immersed in the Holy Spirit. The word baptise means just that, to
totally immerse something.
ACTS 4:29-31.
“Now, Lord, look upon
their threats, and grant to Tour servants that with all boldness they may speak
Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may
be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” And when they prayed, the
place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
This is prayer of the
disciples after Peter and John had healed the guy at the temple gate, and they
had been threatened by the religious leaders not to preach in Jesus name. They
prayed for boldness and that they would continue to see miracles and signs and
wonders performed in Jesus name, the result of their prayer is that they are
filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke Gods word with boldness. This must be our
prayer as well, knowing that we cannot do anything without the power of the
Holy Spirit, they knew that their boldness only came from Gods anointing.
ACTS 10:44-48 ; ACTS 19:1-7.
The first passage is in
the house of Cornelius, and the second is at Ephesus, on both occasions we see
that the Holy Spirit is poured out and they are baptised in the Holy Spirit and
spoke in tongues.
There are two
manifestations of tongues in the Bible, Paul deals with this in 1 Corinthians
12 through to 14. There is the public gift that is used in a meeting, this is
accompanied with the interpretation, one person speaks out in tongues and then
someone else will bring the interpretation of the message, this is used to
edify or build up the body. There is also tongues that we use in our own prayer
life or in worshiping God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:4 that he who speaks
in tongues edifies himself, this is our own prayer language or can be used in
worshiping God, Paul says in that chapter that when we pray in tongues our
minds or understanding are unfruitful, we are actually praying from our spirit.
Paul said that he would sing in tongues, this is obviously an act of worship. He
also said that he would sing in his own language. Paul understands the
significance on his own life of praying in tongues when he says in 1
Corinthians 14:18 “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all.”
Romans 8:26-28 deals with the issue of praying in tongues as well, it says
there that when we don’t know how to pray as we ought about something that the
Holy Spirit intercedes for us, with groans or words that we cannot utter, words
we don’t understand. And in doing that He prays in the perfect will of God
regarding that issue.
I know in my own personal
walk with Jesus I could not do what I do without the baptism in the Holy
Spirit. When I was baptised in the Holy Spirit I got the fire experience, it
was like I was on fire from head to toe. My wife had prayed for me to be
baptised in the Holy Spirit, it didn’t happen that day, but the day after as I
was praying and reading the word.
So how can you be baptised
in the Holy Spirit? Jesus said Himself that if we ask the Father for the Holy
Spirit He will give Him to us, I suggest that you find a time when it is quiet
and you can be on your own, begin to pray and even have a time where you can
worship God, during that time ask Jesus to baptise you with the Holy Spirit, to
fill you and to give you the gift of tongues. Don’t try to force it, just relax
in His presence, what people find is that they will start to get syllables
forming in their minds, words they don’t know, that they have never learnt
before, as they begin to speak these out other words come. It is a bit like a
baby beginning to talk. You have to realise one thing though, your natural
thinking may to try and get in the way. The one thing that I can assure you of
is that when you are baptised in the Holy Spirit your spiritual life, and your
walk with Jesus will definitely go to the next level. You will get greater
revelation out of the word and greater clarity in what god is wanting you to do
because you become more aware of the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit
in your life.
