The Baptism of the Holy Spirit # 1
The Empowering
Matthew 3:11 and Acts 1:8
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
- As born anew followers of Jesus we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit at the very moment of conversion.
- It is so that we are never alone, Jesus is with us through every event of our lives.
- This is what was prophesied by Jeremiah in 31:31-34 and Joel in 2:28-29.
- John the Baptist indeed baptized in water, but the One he proclaimed as coming after him would baptize with, or in, the Holy Spirit. We see this in Matthew chapter 3.
- Upon conversion, it is biblical and normative then to be baptized in water, that is, to be immersed in water. It is an ordinance that announces our conversion, the dying to sin and self and rising to be followers of Jesus.
- The Baptism in or with the Holy Spirit, or to put it another way, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, may occur at conversion but also at another point in time. This baptism is to give the Christian power to be evangelical. There may be many such.
- This baptism is not for the purpose of being above sin or being enabled to speak in tongues—an understanding that prevails yet today. God gives us spiritual gifts, certainly, but the baptism of the Spirit is something different.
- It is very clear in Scripture that the Spirit of God empowers us to be a witness, to be an evangel, to bold proclaim the full Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- Are Christians to seek this? Yes indeed we are that we might do the work we have been called to.