The Baptism in The Holy Spirit

THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

This expression from scripture is listed in several places, and often with different little prepositions like in, of, or with etc. This has often caused a certain amount of confusion, not in the mind of the Holy Spirit who inspired the various authors of scripture, but in the minds of the hearers. I expect this confusion comes from not closely checking the prepositions used. And also checking out who is the person doing the baptizing, and the medium into which the candidate is being immersed. Let us consider this topic from three different passages of scripture, which I believe refer to three different baptisms.

Baptism # 1--- (1 Cor 12:13) "Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit". I believe this is Paul's description of our salvation experience, the same exactly as John explained to Nicodemus in (John 3:1-8) where he used the expression "you must be born again". No one can become a child of God without coming through Jesus (John 14:6) and being "born again" of the Spirit. This is the only way any person can begin their walk in the Spirit, and it begins when the Holy Spirit baptizes us into the Body of Christ.

Baptism # 2---(Acts 2:38-39) Peter replied, "Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, and to your children, and even to the Gentiles—all who have been called by the Lord our God". This baptism requires "repentance" from our sins, and acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior. At that point in time our Father adopts us into His family and gives us the gift of His Holy Spirit to seal the transaction.

Baptism # 3--- (Acts 1:4-5, 7-8, 2:1-4) This is the historical record of the fulfillment of the promise given in baptism # 2, with the actual coming of the Holy Spirit to the 120 disciples waiting in the Upper Room. This briefly lists the three baptisms, now we will consider more closely each one to see who is the Baptizer in each case, and what the "medium" is into which the candidate is immersed.

In summary then, the first baptism is our "salvation" experience when we are placed into the "Body of Christ", which is another name for the "Biblical Church" that Jesus has been in the process of building for some 2000 years, and the Baptizer is clearly the Holy Spirit. Next comes our "believer's baptism", as soon after our salvation experience as possible. Here the Baptizer is any spiritual leader, who places the candidate into the body of water. The Greek word for baptism indicates a complete "immersion". And the final baptism is our "baptism in the Holy Spirit", first mentioned by John the Baptist in (Matt 3:11) and fulfilled in Acts chapters 1 and 2. And clearly The Baptizer is Jesus, and the medium is the Holy Spirit. And all of these are for everyone who knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, no matter what church they attend it is not a denominational thing. Let us be clear about that, and eliminate any confusion!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                                    22/05/13

IN CHRIST or IN THE LORD

 IN CHRIST or IN THE LORD?

The term "in Christ" is used 68 times in the NT and it is an "affirmational" truth according to Bob Mumford. While "in the Lord" is used 42 times in the NT, and is what he calls "aspirational" which requires some effort on our part, or in other words it is "behavioral" in nature. "In Christ" is a "gift" from God and is completely "by grace through faith", and not by any works of ours (Eph 2:8-10), so be well aware of this fact! While "in the Lord" can be understood from (Matt 7:21-23), where we see many people who call Jesus "Lord! Lord!" but Jesus will reply to them "I never knew you, get away from me you who break God's heart". (NLT) So I think these two scripture passages show clearly the difference between the separate meanings of these phrases. I have read the scriptures for many years, and have heard many sermons preached, but have never understood the difference between these two expressions until I saw Bob teaching this truth on You Tube yesterday. This only made me more aware of the fact that we can often think we understand what certain scripture passages mean, but miss the true meaning by a mile, so to speak. So we all need to read scripture more carefully, and listen to certain people who are proven "teachers" who have been "called" by God to that position in the "Body of Christ" like Bob Mumford has been.

 

One thing I have learned in my some 50 years of being involved in various denominational churches is how easily I can think I know the true meaning of a certain Bible truth, but have the wrong basic concept, based on incomplete teaching. I have no trouble believing that the complete Bible is God's Word from cover to cover, but I have often been led astray by believing certain church "doctrines" that I was taught as being based on Bible truth, only to find out they were based on some man's understanding of some scripture passage. This could very well have been only a theory based on his interpretation of a certain scripture passage taken out of context. This is often what happened with certain doctrines that perhaps sounded good to certain church leaders, and before long they were accepted by whole denominations. I have found this to be true in several cases, which has caused me to use extra caution about any so-called "new teaching". Several NT authors have warned us to beware of "many" false teachers that will show up in our "churches" in these later days. So I take it from that fact that we all need to be careful and know who we are listening to and following. It certainly pays to be extremely cautious!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                  27/04/03

FROM SINNER to SAINT

FROM SINNER TO SAINT

 

This is an interesting journey from being born as a "sinner" from our mother's womb, to becoming a "saint" by being "born again" by the Spirit of God. One of my favorite scripture passages that explain this process is found in the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church he had founded in the city of Ephesus. Read (Eph 2:1-10) for the details, which in the NLT version of the Bible has the heading "made alive in Christ". Paul begins in verse one "Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins". He continues through verses two and three to explain who is the cause of us being sinners, "the devil—the commander of the powers of the unseen world. He is the spirit that is at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else".

 

Then in verse four Paul starts out with "But God is so rich in mercy, and He loves us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's grace that we have been saved!) For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus". Paul continues in verse eight with "God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago". I consider this passage of scripture to be one of the best in the Bible to explain the message of the Gospel of the Kingdom in only 10 verses.

 

Thank God for Paul who was known as the "Apostle to the Gentiles", and for the "mysteries" of God that were revealed to him (Eph 3:1-13), and recorded for our benefit. My observations of the average church attendee would indicate that they don't know the truth of the plain simple gospel message, probably because they have listened to "another gospel" that eliminates that fact that we are all sinners (Rom 3:9-21) and have believed in a "false gospel" like the church in Corinth (2 Cor 11:1-4) and in many churches today. A so-called gospel without repentance and the truth of what Jesus did for us on the cross, He is our one and only Savior from sin!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                               08/05/13

DOES GOD HAVE GRANDCHILDREN

DOES GOD HAVE GRANDCHILDREN

This term is used to identify children of children. In other words, when a couple get married and have children, and their children marry and have children of their own, their offspring are referred to as grandchildren. However in a spiritual sense we cannot use this term to describe anyone, because everyone must come to a relationship with God on their own! When a person receives conviction from the Holy Spirit that they are a sinner separated from God, and repents of their sin and accepts Jesus as their Savior, the Father then adopts them into His family. Then, and only then, are they a child of God! I believe our church traditions might leave room for some people to believe that it is possible to become God's grandchild. Certain churches believe in christening a baby and refer to that as their baptism. They seem to believe that this makes the child a member of the family of God. I believe that "baptism" is the wrong term to use for this christening, and it should be considered a "dedication" of both the child and the parents. The word baptism in scripture usually refers to a believer in Jesus, who has made a decision in their heart to accept what He accomplished on the cross, and desires to make a public declaration of this decision. We often refer to it as "believer's baptism", and it always follows a person's salvation experience! If parents who are followers of Jesus have their baby christened, and are told that they are now a child in God's family, I can see where this idea could have started. But I say no, God definitely has no grandchildren!

 

This is only one of many false beliefs that are circulating in certain church circles. Common sense should tell us that a baby cannot repent of their sins, and realize that the death of Christ on the cross paid the debt for those sins. And the scriptures are clear that baptism in water always follows a profession of faith in Christ. (Acts 2:38) Many of these church traditions that are not based on scripture could be avoided if people were encouraged to search the scriptures for themselves. Unfortunately, many people depend completely on what they are told by their pastor or priest, and never check things out for themselves, like the believers in Berea. (Acts 17:11). If more people did this, I'm sure we would have less confusion in our churches! I am constantly amazed by finding out how many "false doctrines" have infiltrated our "churches" over the years, and how far we have been led away from the Biblical pattern that Jesus had in mind when He declared "I will build My Church" as recorded in (Matt 16:18)!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                Revised 02/05/13

A SAFE DWELLING PLACE

A SAFE DWELLING PLACE. 

I read a devotional message today from ODB based on Psalm 4 by David McCasland called "Overcoming Bad News". I read this Psalm of King David with new interest when I came to the last verse in my NLT version "In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe". Although David suffered a lot of opposition, both before becoming King of Israel, and afterward, he continually seemed to be surrounded by enemies. But many of his Psalms declare his victorious attitude because his faith was in his God. If we can learn anything from reading the Psalms, it should be to see how David always praised the Lord for being his shelter and protector from his enemies. We too, as followers of Jesus today are also surrounded by our enemies, but whereas David's enemies were real live flesh and blood armed warriors, ours today are invisible "demons", that according to Derek Prince are "bodiless spirits", and they are joined by "principalities and powers in the heavenly places" that Paul mentions in (Eph 3:10), that make up Satan's invisible army against us. So in some ways our enemies are as real as David's were, but ours are invisible.

But although our enemies may be invisible, we still have the same God, who is also invisible but has been made visible as "Agape Incarnate" who came to earth to put a face on God, so the speak as Immanuel, which means "God with us". We know Him as Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. And He is available to anyone who will come to Him in the Biblical way. After He went to the cross to take care of our sin problem by dying to satisfy the debt we all owed because of our sin, (Rom 6:23), He then arose on the third day after and ascended back to heaven to be seated beside His Father (Ps 110:1). Then they, the (Father and Son) sent the Holy Spirit to take the place of Jesus on Plant Earth, until the Father decides it is time for Him to return to earth to receive His Church out of the hands of the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation. We must repent of our sinful lifestyle and be "born again", Then we all begin our spiritual life as a new born baby in Christ, (Heb 5:11-14) but God expects us to mature in our spiritual life. This should be our lifelong passion to live a life that will please our heavenly Father. Unfortunately most of us were never told that this should be the goal of our new life in the Spirit, in my case it only became aware to me when I started to follow Bob Mumford's teaching about the Agape Road a few years ago. Now I realize that this should be the desire of our every action!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                              30/04/13