Explaining Baptism with the Holy Spirit (The Explaining Series)

When a person comes to Jesus Christ, he receives Christ into his heart. The Spirit of God comes and joins with the spirit of the believer. This "indwelling Spirit" reproduces the life of Jesus in the believer's life.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit is an empowering for service that takes place in the life of the Christian Acts 1: In it we are immersed in the Spirit's life and power. To illustrate, if we drank water from a glass, then the water would be inside us. However, if we went to the beach and stepped into the ocean, then we would be in the water.

We receive, as it were, a drink of the Holy Spirit when we are saved, but when we are baptized in the Spirit, it is as if that initial drink becomes an ocean that completely surrounds us. Just as the indwelling Spirit that Christians receive when they are saved reproduces the life of Jesus, so the outpoured, or baptizing, Spirit reproduces the ministry of Jesus, including miracles and healings.

We need a power beyond ourselves for service and ministry in Christ's Kingdom. When Jesus gave the Great Commission Matthew Therefore, He had a special gift in store for them: It was His plan to give them the same power that He had -- the power of the Spirit of God. So, immediately after giving them the Great Commission, Jesus commanded his disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father promised, "which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" Acts 1: The disciples waited in Jerusalem as Jesus had commanded, and one day when they were all together, "suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing winds, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.

Resources in Scripture

And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance" Acts 2: Then Peter explained to the crowd that gathered that they were seeing the working of God's Spirit and told them about Jesus. The Christian church began that day with the disciples and the three thousand people who joined them as a result of the day's events. We can undertake making disciples of all nations with some degree of success without the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but when we do, we are undertaking a supernatural task with limited power.

It is God's will -- it is His commandment -- that we be baptized, or filled with the Holy Spirit: The knowledge and reality of the empowering Spirit enables us to reproduce the works of Jesus. It can take place at the moment you confess faith in Christ, as in the case of the first Gentile convert, Cornelius Acts Is There Anything To Fear? Some people fear that if they ask for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, what they experience won't be the authentic working of the Spirit.

But once they do ask for it, they are always glad they did. God doesn't cause us to do anything we don't want to, and all His gifts are good and perfect James 1: Jesus said, "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will be? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? The baptism in the Holy Spirit is an even better gift than any material gift you could receive, and God wants you to have it because He loves you and wants the very best for you. The Bible says that a wise man counts the cost before he begins to build a tower Luke This beautiful experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a free gift, but you must be willing to submit fully to God to receive it.

Jesus will respond to a totally yielded vessel. He never asks anything of you that you are incapable of giving, nor does He ever fail to give you something greater in return when you do give your all. The joy He gives through total obedience to Him far outweighs anything you could possibly give up.

Need Prayer?

There is one more important consideration: In Acts 8, a man named Simon, deeply involved in the occult, wanted to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter sharply rebuked Simon, commanding him to repent. Therefore, if you ever at any time had anything to do with the occult Ouija boards, fortune tellers, seances, horoscopes, ESP, transcendental mediation, hypnotism, or other such practices , you must renounce and turn away from all such sinful participation, and you must ask for God's forgiveness and cleansing.

You only have to do two things. First, once you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior you just have to ask God to baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

• Stop Complainers and Energy Drainers: How to Negotiate Work Drama to Get More Done;
• renainosinnjitukagakudetokuaitosei (Japanese Edition).
• Explaining Series - Book and DVD Series?

The Bible says, "Ask, and it shall be given to you" Luke Second, believe you have in fact received this gift from God. The apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians, said, "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

The answer, obviously, is faith. You have to believe that if you ask, you will receive. McAlpine provides a thorough explanation of In this book, Lance Lambert teaches what the Bible has to say about spiritual protection. Roebert explains what spiritual warfare is in a Biblically-grounded way. In this book, Bob Gordon teaches what the Bible says about the cross. He explains what happened to Jesus on the cross and what it signified. This website requires cookies to provide all of its features. For more information on what data is contained in the cookies, please see our Privacy Policy page.

To accept cookies from this site, please click the Allow button below. Welcome guest, enjoy browsing our books! You have no items in your shopping cart.

Open a Trade Account Looking to distribute books? Open a Trade Account. Trade Login Already Registered as a trade customer? Click here to Login. Each book shines light on a key area of the Christian faith, in simple and clear language. With Scripturally-based teachings, these books will help you grow in your faith and are also superb for sharing with new Christians.