Sunday, February 05, 2006

The Baptism Of THe Holy Spirit: Part III

“I indeed have baptized you with water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.” Mark 1:8

God’s Word teaches us that Jesus doesn’t use water to baptize us with; the Word teaches us that Jesus uses the Holy Spirit of God to baptize us. But what exactly is being baptized with the Holy Ghost? To answer that, let’s first look at the Greek word this verse originally used. The Greek word is baptizo, Strong’s Concordance number 907. The example given in the Strong’s Concordance to explain baptized is a cucumber becoming a pickle. The cucumber is first washed, that is a cleansing from all dirt. The Greek word for that is bapto, then after the cucumber is cleaned, you baptizo, or baptize, the cucumber: submerging it in the pickling spices. This baptism forever changes the cucumber into a pickle. The spices become one with the cucumber and it is changed into a pickle. That is baptizo, or baptized. So if you are baptized with the Holy Ghost, you have become one with God, His Spirit is in you, on you, through you, and you are a new creature in Christ, which is God’s Anointing, old things are passed away and behold all things are new to you!

“At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” John 14:20 In the verses right before this one, Jesus is proclaiming that the Holy Ghost was coming. So the day Jesus is referring to is the day of us being filled with the Holy Ghost! The day you will know that Jesus is in you and that you are truly in the Father, is the day that you are baptized with the Holy Ghost, the day that you are filled with Him, the day that He is on you, through you, and one with you! Remember Jesus said for us to be saved is not just believing on Him, but when we believe and are baptized with the Holy Ghost. There are many people who believe in Jesus, think about how many people you know who say they believe that Jesus lived? Yet they don’t trust Him as their Lord and Savior. Man can’t do the things on his own that God has required for a full and rich and eternal life. We could never continue to believe in Jesus throughout our lives without the power of Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God, within us to insure it. We could never even accept Jesus, unless the Holy Spirit empowered us to. The assurance of salvation is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The power of God that birthed Jesus into this world and the power that allowed Him to serve God and to serve us, is the same power that we have been given, and the same power that we have been birthed of!

The third Truth about the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that it is life changing. Once Jesus has baptized you with the Holy Spirit you become one with God, as Jesus is one with God and you are forever changed! “That they all may be one; as Thou Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” John 17:21 We become new creatures in Christ, old things pass away, and all things become new!

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