Immersed In The Holy Spirit part 1

I have found in recent days, that the Lord has been reigniting in me a deep hunger to see Christians receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. It’s odd to think that in my seemingly short tenure as a Christian, I have watched the church in America awaken to the baptism in the Holy Spirit, begin to embrace the host of benefits that come with it, only to slowly drift back to sleep in regard to this great gift. Sadly, there are still huge portions of the church today that deny the present day work of the Holy Spirit, and become very nervous at the mention of the gifts. I find that so odd given the amount of time Jesus Himself gave to instruction on the subject, and the fact that the entire New Testament is filled with references to the Holy Spirit’s powerful work in and through His people.

I am fully aware that even as I write this blog, there are those that will feel uncomfortable with the subject for any number of reasons. There are those who have been confused by misinformation, those that have seen some genuinely weird behavior attributed to the Holy Spirit and decided they wanted no part of it, and those who grew up around genuine God-loving people that denied the present day manifestation of the Holy Spirit. There are even some who are just not comfortable with the idea of supernatural things. To all of these I say, please give me a chance to address some of your questions. I don’t intend to cover this in one article, but there are several specific things I believe the Lord has put on my heart to address over time. All I am asking is that you hear me out, take what is written here to Jesus, pray about it, look up the Scriptures, and let Jesus influence your heart. You and I can certainly agree that Jesus will not lead you astray, right? You can trust Him, even if you’re not too sure about me at this point. Fair enough, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

In this article I want to begin to address one foundational issue; what is the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and is it for us today? First of all, Jesus, not some wacky chandelier-swinging preacher, coined the term “baptized in the Holy Spirit.” You can find this in your Bible in Acts 1:5. If you read John’s gospel, chapters 14, 15, and 16, you can’t miss the fact that, at the very end of His earthly ministry, when time was short and only extremely important issues were being discussed, Jesus spent a lot of that precious time preparing His disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. In our passage in Acts, after He had gone to the cross and been raised from the dead, He refers back to those discussions and again talks about the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Now, I want you to think about whom Jesus is addressing in Acts 1. He is talking to His disciples. These are men who have already believed on Him as Lord and Savior. We will go into this in more detail in a future article, but suffice it to say, these are people who are already following the risen Savior. They have received Him as Lord; we would say that they are already born again. These are the very ones that Jesus is about to release to carry the message of salvation to the whole world. They know Him; they have eaten with Him, walked with Him, even ministered along side Him. And, they already have the Holy Spirit residing in them because they are born again (see John 20:21, 22). To these people Jesus says “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Notice, the Holy Spirit lives in them, but Jesus wants them to be baptized, that means immersed in and saturated with, the Holy Spirit.

Just one more thought today; if this was the only New Testament example of people who are already born again receiving this second aspect of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, called by Jesus being “baptized in the Holy Spirit,” maybe we could write it off as an anomaly. But we will examine multiple references that ALL follow this same pattern throughout the 30 year period recorded in the Book of Acts. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is something that Jesus Himself gave to His own disciples to equip them for the Christian life and ministry. I believe it is for every Christian. Thanks for reading, and I hope you will watch for upcoming articles.