“The Baptism of the Holy Spirit”
Everything God does is through or by the Holy Spirit. It is the active part God in time and space and is without a doubt the most misunderstood and undervalued member of the Trinity. Without the Holy Spirit we would not know God period.
Every time the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the New Testament it is in the context of some kind of activity. Whether it be witnessing, miracles, other gifts like prophecy. Even the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians are manifestations of human character set against the works of the flesh, and they come by walking in the Spirit so that you do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
So what is the baptism with the Holy Spirit and when does it happen? And does the Bible teach that we receive it when we believe?
First of all let’s get the term right. It is the baptism with or in the Spirit, not by the Spirit. Let’s start with the question, do you receive the Spirit of God at the moment you truly believe? Well yes… but. Where does it say in the Bible that you receive the Holy Spirit the moment you believe? Well, the truth is it doesn’t really. There are many places where it says believers have the Holy Spirit in them, but it doesn’t say exactly when. It is inferred in three specific passages used to tell us that it is received at conversion. Listen carefully to what they say:
First Corinthians 12:13 declares, “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.” This says there is one baptism, and it seems to be about the baptism in or by the Spirit, but it doesn’t say when. It just says that all true believers are part of that baptism.
Romans 8:9 tells us that if a person does not possess the Holy Spirit, he or she does not belong to Christ: “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
Well, this certainly doesn’t prove that we receive it at the moment of belief. In fact it puts it in question because he is talking to believers and saying if you have the Spirit of God living in you. He is really saying that if the Spirit lives in you, you are controlled by it.
Ephesians 1:13-14 teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the seal of salvation for all those who believe: “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.” This is picked up in chapter 4 verse 30 and what it essentially means is not that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, but only that we are sealed, or marked, or set apart by the Spirit when we believe.
In both instances the context is talking about not sinning and being predestined to an inheritance. When we believe, the Spirit sets us apart from the unbelieving, but it is a work of the Spirit upon us, not something we do by the Spirit. And the other qualification is that it says when you heard the gospel of salvation and believed, which I have said many times literally means to put in trust with. What happens when you put money in trust? You are literally giving it away to someone who you trust will have it when you want it. It is not mere mental assent.
The key verse in my opinion that puts it to rest is Jesus’ own words in John14 verse 17. The Spirit of truth who the world cannot receive because it can’t see Him and doesn’t know Him… He dwells with you, and shall be in you. He is not in them yet even though they believe and are baptised. He is with them. Think of it as the Holy Spirit comes to you and seals you at your conversion, but he doesn’t come upon you or in you until you are baptized or filled with Him.
So is baptism with the Spirit the same as being filled with the Holy Spirit? Filled and baptized mean very similar things. To be baptized is to be completely immersed or overwhelmed by. The word for filled in the Greek means to be filled to the full so there is room for nothing else, literally crammed. Either way the idea is that the Spirit has complete control of us and there is no other influence whether it be from inside as a filling, or from outside like a baptism.
So yes when you put your faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, you are sealed by the Spirit for God for the day of redemption. You receive Christ and his righteousness, the stamp of the Saviour is put upon you. But that does not mean you are necessarily filled with the Spirit or baptised with the Spirit. Think of it as receiving Christ or the Spirit of eternal life.
So what does it say about when you are baptized with Holy Spirit? First of all every time the term is used, it is made clear that Jesus is the one baptizing you and the word with is more appropriate than in this context than in the Spirit. He will baptize you or immerse you, or overwhelm you with the Holy Spirit.
Now the only time we see a direct result of Jesus baptising with the Spirit is at Pentecost, we can clearly read in Acts 1:5 Jesus saying that in a few days you will be baptized by me with the Holy Spirit. Then the result is what we see at Pentecost when the tongues of fire and the sound of wind rushes upon them and they are all filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus says you will receive power when this happens and you will be my witnesses. So we see that being filled with the Holy Spirit causes people to be filled with Him.
So what happens next, because this is the only real place where we can say that this is clearly Jesus’ baptism with the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at Acts 2. The first thing we can say is that it was noticeable. Now I don’t think the wind and fire are normative, because we don’t see that again, they were given as signs to prove to them at that moment what was happening according to the prophecies.
The next thing was that they started to speak in other languages. Again not normative, because not all people in the New Testament spoke in tongues when they were filled with the Holy Spirit unless it was necessary, and here it was necessary so that the people from other nations with different languages could hear them speak in their own human language.
What were they saying when they were filled with the Holy Spirit? They were telling about the wonderful works of God, no doubt what happened with Jesus Christ. So from this we can see that the baptism of the Holy Spirit gave the believers power to speak openly about the wonderful works of God, and in this case, in any language needed to witness about this. Then Peter goes on to witness about this some more in his sermon that explains what is happening. People are convicted, they repent and are baptized, but notice it says nothing about those 3000 who were baptized being filled with the Spirit or speaking in tongues. And we have no record of Jesus ever speaking in tongues.
In fact every time I can see where the Bible says a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, they are witnessing about God and Jesus, sometimes it is accompanied by a miracle, but it is always for the purpose of telling people about God.
So from this we can conclude that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a supernatural filling up with the Holy Spirit that takes us over and gives us power to praise and talk about God with other people. And I’m afraid that’s all we can say for sure. Yes it may be accompanied with speaking other languages, healing, or some other miracle, but not necessarily, and then only to achieve the witnessing about God.
So is it reasonable to say that we have the Holy Spirit if we don’t experience something, change, and live by His power? It is the Spirit of God after all.
Well here again, when a person or people were baptised with or filled with the Holy Spirit, it was always noticeable. Paul asks the Ephesian believers in Acts 19, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” This questions tells us that it is possible to receive the Spirit when you believe, but it is also possible not to.
The passage in John 20 is insightful here. Jesus is appearing to the disciples after his resurrection and has given them proof of his resurrection. Then there is the little encounter with doubting Thomas. The point is that they all believed now. But they were not filled with the Holy Spirit. Then Jesus breathes on them and says to receive the Holy Spirit, and the specific fruit that comes from this in his words, are forgiveness of sins. This is what happens at conversion or belief in the work of Christ.
But it was after this according to the other gospels that Luke records in his gospel and the book of Acts that Jesus directs them to stay in the city and don’t do anything until I give the power of the Holy Spirit to you. Didn’t he just breathe it into them? It seems they are receiving the Sprit of Christ for forgiveness of sins when he breaths it on them, but it does not really fill them or empower them until Pentecost.
It doesn’t appear that they experience anything when he breathes on them, but they sure do when He fills them at Pentecost.
Now most of us are taught that we receive the Holy Spirit when we believe, remember the true definition of believe, and that Satan and the demons believe but are not saved. So when Paul asks this question of the Ephesian believers, “Did you receive the Spirit when you believed?” we scratch our heads. We make the logical inference that if you believe you have received the Spirit even if you have no experience of it.
Paul, if you assume we believed why are you asking this question? You talk as if we would know that we have received Him, and that it is a separate event from believing. Paul expects that someone would know if they did receive the Spirit beyond just the fact that they believed they did. In fact they answer no, and that they didn’t even know there was such a thing. They believed in Jesus and were baptised in Him for forgiveness of sin and salvation, but had no knowledge of the Holy Spirit, which tells me that simply believing in Jesus and his work, which was adequately explained by Apollos with the help of Priscilla and Aquila before Paul got there, is not sufficient. They had repented and believed but they did not receive the Holy Spirit until Paul laid his hands on them and then they spoke in tongues and prophesied. They had an experience that proved the infilling of the Spirit. It seems that we should know from experience that we have received the Spirit.
Some might want to say then that someone has to lay hands on a person for them to receive the Spirit, but that’s not true because we see many people in the Bible filled with the Spirit without any laying on of hands. Again all we can take from this passage is that a person is not necessarily filled or baptised with the Spirit when they believe.
Let’s just use our reason for a moment. We say we believe that the Holy Spirit is fully God, all of God is in the Holy Spirit. Is it reasonable then to assume that when the full Spirit of God comes to live in our hearts and minds and empower us, that we will experience nothing, that nothing will change? Is that not a great affront against God? Yes the spirit of God which created the universe came to live in me but nothing is really any different. Come on!
So where are we so far? Baptism and filling with the Holy Spirit probably describes the same thing, but may be a little different than receiving the Spirit or receiving Christ at your conversion. It does not necessarily happen at the moment you believe. And there will be some kind of experience, change, fruit that comes very quickly as a result of that filling. The most likely result is intense praise for God and telling people about Him in some kind of language that others can understand.
Once we go beyond that we are treading in the dangerous territory of bias and opinion. That is what happened in the Bible. So…
Is the biblical experience expected to be the same for us today?
Should we expect that the same things should happen today? Well, I think we would all agree that God doesn’t change, that means His Spirit doesn’t change. We also know that culture does change, and we live in much different times today.
Ok, so let’s go back to the purpose of the Spirit filling us, which is to witness about Jesus Christ. All the gifts, all the fruit of the Spirit are designed to witness about Jesus. Certainly that wouldn’t change, but perhaps the way we do it can change. Here is where we need to look carefully at ourselves. What is really different about our time compared to theirs in terms of the need to know about Jesus? Nothing right? Paul says in Romans 10 that we come to faith by hearing and believing the word of God. Do you think that has changed? No reason to believe it has. We still all need Jesus and we can only get Him by hearing his word and believing it.
So frankly the only change I can see is how that word comes to people. In that day it was usually by the spoken word. Today there are many other methods to get the word of God in front of people. But what is also very different today is that people of our day would not understand as well as the people back then. So somehow they have to hear the word with some understanding of what it means. That tells me that we can’t just get in front of someone and read the Bible. We must explain what it means and what it means specifically for them.
So what can we expect when we are filled with the Holy Spirit? Well let’s look at the later Epistles of Paul which are written to Gentile churches sometime after all we see in the first part of the book of Acts.
Galatians is all about the foolishness of falling back into the law after you have been saved by grace, and that we have been set free from the yoke of the Law. But then he says very clearly, that we must walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Not gratifying the flesh and sticking to the Law are not the same thing.
He says you will be given different desires when you have the Spirit in you. So that’s the first thing you should notice when the Spirit fills you. Your desires are to gratify Christ and not yourself. He goes on to talk about the works of the flesh and that if you do them you will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Remember this is written to believers in the church.
He goes on to list the fruit of the Spirit and he says that those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh, and that if we live by the Spirit (in other words if we have eternal life) let us then walk by the Spirit. Whatever one sows, that he will reap. If you sow to the flesh you will reap corruption/death. If you sow to the Spirit you will reap eternal life.
Then in Ephesians Paul talks about receiving forgiveness by grace through faith. That through Christ we have obtained an inheritance and are sealed by the Holy Spirit. He mentions the wonderful gift we were given. Then he finishes that part in chapter 2 with, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Then the whole last half of the book lists all these things that would be impossible under our own power, things like wives submitting to your husbands, husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church, be imitators of God and many, many more things.
Finally in Chapter 5 he says walk as children of light, expose the darkness, and look carefully at how you walk not as unwise but wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Don’t get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Doesn’t that sound like a command? But actually it is a passive tense of the word “be filled”. It is passive, and it is present and ongoing. Allow yourself to be continually filled to completeness with the Holy Spirit.
The filling of the Holy Spirit is a gift and we cannot make it happen, we can only desire it and ask for it. Sometimes we get filled when we haven’t asked for it, other times we desperately want it and it doesn’t happen because it is up to God and not us. But it is never a negative thing. The more we ask the more we will be filled.
I’ll finish with the passage from Luke 11. Most of you know it well but you may not have focussed on the last part. It begins in verse 9, “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Which father amoung you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Many of us are afraid to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is saying, come on who do think my Father is. He loves you, he doesn’t want to make a fool of you or cause you to do something that will harm you. But the does want to give you the Holy Spirit. And always remember that one of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control, so don’t worry about losing control of yourself. In fact I believe you never feel more in control than when you under the power of the Spirit. It is a bold, relaxed confidence that seems to override your fears, and you find yourself really being who God says are and doing what he says you are capable of under the power of His Spirit. So don’t be afraid of all the weird, unorderly, out of control stuff you have seen on TV or other places.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is what you need to boldly proclaim Christ. Ask for this filling if you really want to know and do God’s will. Jesus says after all in Matthew, Luke, and Mark, do not worry about what you will say when you need to defend yourself for your faith, the Spirit will give you the words in that very moment. In Luke especially, this is in the context of acknowledging Christ before men and not fearing those who can kill the body, but him who can cast your soul into hell.
The great epic battles you see in the Chronicles of Narnia, and Lord of the Rings and stories like those are a mirror of this I believe. Going bravely into battles you should not win, but doing it anyway because you have faith and courage beyond reason. That’s what the Spirit of God gives you, so if you don’t experience that, ask for Him to fill you everyday.
