This common and interesting question was sent to me recently:
“Bob, I keep hearing about an experience called, “The Baptism of the Holy Spirit.’” I wonder about this because I cannot remember any particular experience that I could point to which was clearly the baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
RESPONSE:
Those who try to separate the experiences receiving the Holy Spirit (i.e. becoming born again) and getting “baptized in the Holy Spirit are sincerely but mistakenly, perpetrating a false theology.
They point to a narrative at the end of the Gospel of John in which Jesus imparts the Holy Spirit.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:21-23
After this, they point to the resurrected Jesus in Acts 1 promising a different kind of rapport with the Spirit:
Acts 1:5
5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”
The coming of the Holy Spirit does take place after Jesus leaves and returns to heaven.We read about it in Acts 2:4
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
This fulfillment in Acts 2 is what charismatic Christians call “the second blessing.” They equate the second blessing with “The Baptism of the Holy Spirit” since that was how Jesus described and predicted it back in Chapter 1.
As you can see, the phrase, Baptism of the Holy Spirit is Biblical. The question remains, is it being accurately defined? Is this some second blessing? Or is it just another way of describing the Holy Spirit coming into our lives?
THE TRUTH:
When you became born again, you were baptized in the Holy Spirit. They are one and the same experience.
Baptism comes from the Greek word baptizo which means “to immerse.”
Water Baptism , where one is immersed in liquid, is symbolic for spiritual baptism.
Let us look again at Acts 1:5 where the resurrected Jesus said,
“John baptized with water but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
What happened a few days later? The Holy Spirit came upon them. They had followed Jesus during His earthly ministry but during that period of time, the Holy Spirit was not being given out as a free gift for all believers.
” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:38-39).
When will Jesus glorified? Well, sometime after He goes away, because He tells His disciples that the Holy Spirit will not come until He goes away.
“But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:6-7).
Well, OK. Go away where? To the cross? Yes, he does go to the cross, but three days later He returns to the disciples. Important as the cross may be, that is not the departure Jesus spoke up. Jesus means He is going away to His Father.
“You heard me say, `I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. (John 14:28)
When did he go to the Father? After His resurrection appearances:
Resurrected Jesus speaking to Mary: “Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father” (John 20:17).
So, being glorified and going away to the Father are the same thing. The Spirit did not come until Jesus went away to the Father.
This means that in Acts 2, we are seeing the Spirit coming upon the disciples for the very first time.
It also means that when Jesus breathed on his disciples and blessed them by saying “Receive the Holy Spirit,” this was pointing toward a future experience.
They did not receive the Holy Spirit on that day. They couldn’t have. He had not yet returned to the father.
This first encounter in Acts, where they received the Spirit for the first time, is what Jesus called, “The Baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
-In addition to the indwelling of the Spirit, the Spirit placed us into the body of Christ.
“For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Cor 12:13).
Baptism also means we are associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus:
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom 6:3-4)
This threefold process happens all at once. The person who gives his/her life to Christ is; immersed into the body of Christ, immersed into the death and resurrection of Christ, and immersed with the Spirit of Christ!
Once again, many today talk about a two step process.
“To be saved, you merely receive the Holy Spirit,” they say, “But there is a second, optional blessing, that of giving the Holy Spirit complete control over your life.”
Is the giving of control really optional? Has one truly received God’s Spirit apart from a decision to obey this same Spirit, allowing Him to change our desires so that we love God more and hate sin more?
Observe Paul’s words in Romans 8:9:
“You however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you you. And if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.”
Catch the importance of these words: If we are not controlled by the Spirit we do not even have the Spirit. And if we do not have the Spirit, we are not even saved at all.
It is simply impossible to get a two step process out of this passage.
Obviously, there are times of sin when we do not focus on the Spirit as much as we can. That is why Paul encouraged us to renew our minds upon God as a continuous habit (Romans 12). But speaking in generalities, a born again Christian is one who has given the reigns of his life to God.
Often people associate the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the the phenomenon of tongues which is listed in scripture as a gift that not everyone has (I Cor 12).
Don’t get me wrong, the Holy Spirit does want to make Himself known in many and varied ways. This may indeed include tongues but that is not any kind of mandatory sign, neither does everyone feel a certain sensation the moment they invite Christ into their lives.
As long as changes came about in the course of time to indicate that God’s Spirit is now working in your life, you do not need to worry about whether or not you experienced any particular sensation at the exact moment Christ came into your heart.
Now, there are times when people realize more personally a power from the Spirit previously untapped and at their disposal.
At such times, the Holy Spirit might be “uncorked” so to speak, like a bottle of champagne. We can embrace and celebrate such experiences and if somebody wants to call this the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” it is their choice.
I am not sure God worries much about what we call these encounters.
Still, to be technically accurate, spiritual baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit, inviting Him to indwell our hearts, are one and the same step.
When God goes beyond this initiation, offering further experiences, there is always the temptation to put Him in a box with a label. But God does not feel obligated to live within our titles and categories. He moves freely at His own discretion.
And so, be open to any new depths God might have for you, but if you are already saved, you are already baptized in the Holy Spirit.
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