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2.4 The baptism in the Holy Spirit
The Father’s promise, the gift of the Holy Spirit, is connected with the following words: “For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with (in) the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:5).
It is good and very good and clarifying for our insight that God talks about this happening as a baptism.
The students know the meaning of baptism. They were there when John was baptizing in water. And then came also the promise of baptism in the Spirit.
The baptism in water is a visible act in the visible world, while the baptism in the Holy Spirit is an invisible act in the invisible world. For this reason it is good and necessary for us to be able to imagine what happens to us in the invisible world.
With the baptism in water a person is willing to voluntarily surrender to the baptizer, because he is focused on God’s word. The baptizer then baptizes him in water, where he(the person that is being baptized) is completely pushed under. In this way, the person baptized is being made one with Christ’s death, in order to start a new life (Romans 6:4).
The baptism in water has more meanings, you can visit www.rhemaprint.nl for example, if
you would like to know more about this subject. The book on this site is called “The meaning of baptism” and here all Biblical aspects of baptism are being studied. Unfortunately this site is only available in Dutch.
With the baptism in the Spirit a person gives himself, after repentance and faith in God, willingly and voluntarily, from his focus on God’s word to the Baptizer, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ baptizes him in the Holy Spirit. The person being baptized is immersed with this Spirit. In other words: God’s Spirit fully connects with the spirit of the person. In this way the baptized person is being made one with God’s Spirit and is given the authority over Gods spiritual powers and gifts. Compare this with John 14:20 where Jesus says: “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
The unity with God is a fact!
This is such an important matter that all four evangelists emphasize Jesus in their reports as: the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit.
Only John names Jesus also the Lamb of God next to that.
Remarkably…we all know Jesus as the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world and therefore also our sin. Jesus, however, as Baptizer in the Holy Spirit is not known, recognized or honoured by most people. This gives us lots to think about.
Blinding the eyes of people is something satan obviously succeeded in.
In this way he (the thief…) robbed honest and willing people from the abundance of life with Jesus!
This didn’t happen by coincidence. He knows what he is doing. He knows that his rich and demonic works definitely will be conquered by those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Only the dynamic power of Jesus Christ can conquer the spiritual rulers, the authorities an powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). “But you will receive power when the Holy spirit comes on you…”(Acts 1:8).
This is why Jesus’ advice to wait for the outpouring of the Spirit is so important. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is not something we should wish for. It is a true necessity!
Jesus knew the mission for his students. They were confronted with the dark works of satan, to rebuke those. He had talked to them about “…the Kingdom of God” ... exhaustively in the days before Pentecost. (Acts 1:3).
The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a necessary condition to be able to follow Jesus, towards the goal as God wants it to be. If we want to be ‘sent to the world’ like Jesus was sent by the Father, we will also (have to) be part of his loveliness and greatness, which is: the Holy Spirit (John 17:22).
The baptism in the Spirit is not an experience of forgiveness or redemption, nor of happiness and peace. Of course happiness and peace are consequences of this.
The baptism in the Spirit is a continuing experience of spiritual, dynamic power.
This experience of power is not noticeable in your feelings in the first place, although of course this can be part of it. It is receiving power in the invisible world, by the Spirit. From this point this will be manifested in all kinds of situations in the visible world.
God has, because the baptism in the Spirit is an ‘invisible’ happening, as prove of your (human) spirit becoming one with the Holy Spirit, given a spiritual sign in the visible world: speaking languages [3] that are inspired by the Spirit.
These ‘languages’ are signs of the Holy Spirit which we see for the first time in Acts 2:4-
This gift was highly appreciated in the Church of Corinth. Unfortunately some hardly noticed the fact that not al church members were encouraged (‘for the wellbeing of all’). Therefore another expression is needed, this is the expression of ‘translation Spiritual languages’. By this gift, the content of which is spoken in ‘languages’ is explained to the Church. Be aware that this is not about a trained knowledge of languages, it is all about the revelation through the Spirit of what has been said in ‘languages’.
These ‘languages’ are also called ‘tongues’, which is just another term for ‘languages’. This word reminds some people of less comfortable situations, for this reason we use the word ‘spiritual languages’ in this study. These are the languages inspired by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4 – “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues (other languages) as the spirit enabled them.”).
These can be languages from people as well as from angels (1 Corinthians 13: 1 – “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”).
Although ‘tongues’ is used in other Bible translations, it reminds of strange happenings:
• uncontrolled speaking or incoherent, babbling escalation;
• voodoo-
• strange words, pushed out by a stiffened body which is in a hypnotic trance.
Well, enough of that…!Let’s investigate what God Himself has ordered to be written down in the Bible.
At the end of this study we’ll come back to a number of these ‘strange happenings’. .
In the Old Testament we find all other expressions of the Spirit with a few people, only speaking spiritual languages is the new aspect; it belongs to the new situation, to the New Testament!
The ability to speak spiritual languages is therefore the sign of the baptism in the Holy Spirit!
We should not reverse this by saying that a person who doesn’t speak spiritual languages (yet), can not be baptized in the Holy Spirit. We will have to be careful in this. There are believers that prove to be baptized in the Spirit, without speaking spiritual languages.
Initially we will have to stay with what the Bible teaches as a normal experience. In the chapter ‘Spiritual languages’ we will look at several reasons and causes why speaking these languages is not an active practice.
But when we see in practise that there are some exceptions to this, we are not allowed to let this exception(s) rule!
We see that Jesus’ students, by the baptism in the Holy Spirit, receive power against the kingdom of demons. They can now effectively stand against the destructive powers of darkness.
Jesus Himself also didn’t openly stand against satan to rebuke his works, before receiving the Holy Spirit from the Father.
Let us not be mistaken about this. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews reminds us of the first principles, the spiritual primary education. Together with that he talks about the ‘principle of baptism’. As we have said before, the Bible knows three kinds of baptism.
1. the baptism in water;
2. the baptism in the Spirit;
3. the baptism in fire.
These three baptisms belong to the basics, the foundations of our Christian faith. We can’t build a good and strong faith-
The baptism in the Holy Spirit can be received by the laying on of hands; we see this happening a few times in the book of Acts.
This gesture is a Biblical empowering from faith to faith. In this we strengthen each other in accepting the Holy Spirit by faith. In this we make the moment of asking and receiving a set moment.
It also happens that people receive the Spirit in their ‘inner room’.
With the words – promise and gift – the emphasis is on God’s initiative. With the baptism and the fulfilling, the emphasis is on our own initiative (be baptized, be filled, receive).
We can actively surrender to God and His Spirit because we know that this is according to God’s will and desire.
When this happens to the 120 followers of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, it shows that the promised baptism in the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:5 has a close relation to the fulfilment with this Spirit, as stands in Acts 2:4.
3. By this we mean: the languages inspired by the Holy Spirit, spoken by the believers, who are baptized in God’s Spirit. There is a ‘diversity of tongues’, this means: there are several spiritual languages.
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