WHAT IS HOLY SPIRIT
BAPTISM?
WE HEAR A LOT ABOUT HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM AND
EVERYONE THINKS THEY KNOW WHAT IT MEANS BUT WHEN ASKED,
NO-ONE SEEMS TO KNOW WHAT IT IS.
BUT THEY’RE VERY INSISTENT THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE
IT.
They use phrases like “Get drunk in the spirit”,
“Get slain in the
spirit” and “Receive the Holy Ghost” to make you feel like you are
missing out
on something and even inferior if you haven’t “had this experience”
yet.
BY THE TIME YOU HAVE FINISHED READING THIS PAPER YOU WILL
HAVE NO DOUBT
AS TO WHAT ALL THIS CONFUSION IS ALL ABOUT.
We will use the King James Bible only as our
inerrant source of
authority.
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You will see:
1. That there is only one baptism with the Holy Spirit.
2. What the Holy Spirit baptism is not.
3. What the Holy Spirit baptism is.
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“One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” Ephesians 4:5
THERE IS ONLY
ONE
BAPTISM!
“There is one
body, and
one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of yourcalling; One Lord,
one
faith, ONE BAPTISM , One God and Father of you all, who is
above all,
and through all, and in you all.”
(Ephesians
4:4-6)
Clearly the
Bible here
says that there is only one baptism
WHO DOES THE
BAPTIZING?
“I indeed
baptize you
with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me
This is John the Baptist
speaking about himself and how he could only baptize the Jews unto
repenting
for their sins. But he says that Jesus Christ who was to follow him
would
baptize them with the Holy Ghost. John says that Jesus Christ does
the
baptizing. The Holy Spirit does not do the baptizing but is the
work of
Jesus Christ himself.
WHAT IS THE
CORRECT
TERMINOLOGY – “BAPTIZED WITH” OR “BAPTIZED IN”?
Matthew 3:11 says: “...
he shall baptize you with the holy ghost...”
If Jesus is the baptizer, He baptizes with
and not in.
Jesus Christ
baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
WHAT DOES IT
MEAN TO BE
BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
“For
as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that
one
body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. FOR
BY ONE SPIRIT ARE WE ALL
BAPTIZED
INTO ONE BODY, whether
we
be Jews or Gentiles, whether
we
be bond or free; and have been all made
to
drink into one Spirit.”
(1Corinthians 12:12-13).
Here
we
see that Holy Spirit baptism is the one which puts us
into
Jesus Christ.
WHAT DOES IT
MEAN TO BE
BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST?
“Know ye not,
that so many
of us were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into
his
death?” (Romans 6:3) From 1 Corinthians 12:13 we see
that we are baptized into Christ by Holy Spirit baptism and from
Romans 6:3 we see
SUMMARY SO
FAR:
HOLY SPIRIT
BAPTISM IS
DONE BY JESUS CHRIST WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND OCCURS WHEN A PERSON IS
SAVED AND
TRUSTS JESUS CHRIST FOR SALVATION. WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT WE ARE BAPTIZED
INTO
THE BODY OF CHRIST BY CHRIST.
Nowhere in the
Bible are
Christians commanded to seek, or receive the Holy Spirit or to be
baptized
“by”, “with” or “of” the Holy Spirit. The Bible doesn’t tell us how to
get the
baptism of the Holy Spirit - IT TELLS US THAT WE HAVE ALREADY BEEN
BAPTIZED
WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT WHEN WE BELIEVED.
WHAT DOES IT
MEAN TO BE
FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
“... but be
filled with the spirit.”
(Ephesians 5:18)
Being filled
is an
entirely different matter altogether for the Christian.
The Bible
clearly says
to be filled with the Holy Spirit but this is not the same asbeing
baptized
with the Holy Spirit. Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a one-off event
when we
are saved but the filling of the Holy Spirit is continuous.
Never are we
told to seek, tarry or pray for the
baptism
with
the
Holy Spirit.
WHAT DOES IT
MEAN TO BE
FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?
We are
told that
the flesh wars against the Spirit. “For the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the
other...” (Galatians 5:17)
`Being filled’
with the
Holy Spirit means to be `controlled’ by the Holy Spirit. The degree
that the
Christian determines to obey the commandments of God is the degree that
the
Holy Spirit can have control. Many Christians are fleshy and lazy and
see this
un-Scriptural “being baptized in the Holy Spirit” as a way out of their
dilemma
of their body of flesh.
They want the
Holy Spirit to come in and drown all their sin with no
brokenness on their part. (Falling over backwards is a sign of judgment
in the
Bible and barking like a dog or getting drunk
in the
`spirit’ is either flesh or demonic.)
WHAT IS THE
COMMUNION/
FELLOWSHIP OF
THE HOLY
GHOST SUPPOSED TO BE?
In 2 Corinthians 13:14, Paul
finishes his letter with the following: “The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ,
and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be
with you
all. Amen”
Many
Christians falsely
see that fellowship or communion with the Holy Spirit is something to
be
enjoyed in and of itself - enjoying each other’s company for it’s own
sake.
This is not the meaning at all. Communion with the Holy Spirit has both
looking
to Jesus, with the Holy Spirit conforming the believer into the image
of Jesus.
IS THERE A
SECOND EXPERIENCE TO BE CALLED
BAPTISM OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT?
NO! When
Charismatics insist that there is a second experience to be
called “baptism of the Holy Spirit”, they are ACTUALLY REDEFINING THE
DOCTRINE
OF SALVATION.
They are
saying that salvation doesn’t really give us everything that we
think it gave us and that we are still lacking
and that we
need something more.
WHAT DOES IT
MEAN TO BE
FULL and “COMPLETE IN HIM”?
“For in him
(Jesus
Christ) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are
COMPLETE
in him...”
(Colossians 2:9-10)
The meaning of the word “complete” is “having all
its parts;
entire;
finished”.
This verse means – “Our fullness comes from
His fullness and His fullness is transfused into you by virtue of your
incorporation into Him.”
“YOU AREN’T MADE FULL IN HIM, BUT IF YOU ARE IN
HIM
YOU ARE MADE FULL.”
GETTING “SLAIN”, “DRUNK” OR “BAPTIZED” WON’T MAKE
YOU FULL OR COMPLETE IN A MILLION YEARS!
All this “carrying-on” detracts from Jesus - not
what He is going to do for us, but what He has already done on the
cross! What
Paul says, is that in Christ the saints find the satisfaction of every
spiritual want.
We possess the Holy Spirit baptism that has placed
us into Christ when we received Christ as Saviour.
At salvation we are baptized with the Holy Spirit,
sealed, indwelt, filled and regenerated. There is no “second
blessing”.
What is lacking is people’s full obedience, full trust and full
submission.
Jesus has paid your way to heaven already. The
church can’t save you & neither can good works, baptism, sacraments
or
doing your best! The only way to escape the eternal fires of hell is to
forsake
your own righteousness & receive Jesus as Saviour. “For whosoever
shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13). Receive Jesus as Saviour
and have the ONE BAPTISM that places you into
His body forever.
Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
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"Wherefore tongues are for a sign
not to them that believe,
but to them that believe not:..."
Australian Bible
Ministries, PO
Box 5058, Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com
