The Baptism

Hellooooooooooo good evening. I hope you had an amazing week and weekend. It's a new week; the last week of October and it's time to get things done!.

Today, we discuss "the baptism". Now I'm sure you're wondering or guessing at which baptism I mean. You probably only know of two kinds. Well there are actually three: baptism into the body of Christ (first step), the baptism by immersion and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The agents are the Holy Spirit, the man of God and Jesus Himself respectively.

Now that we've got a brief introduction on baptism, let's narrow the scope of our discussion. The baptism we'll look at today is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Recently I've heard plenty on the subject and I thought to share.

When you read the book of Acts, you see the beginning of the regime of the Holy Spirit here on earth. There's also reference to Jesus telling them of the power they would receive when the Holy Spirit is(was) come upon them.

The Holy Spirit is the source of power for a Christian on many fronts. He enables you to do much more than you could ever have imagined. The power to do God's will not from a place of compulsion but willing obedience? He's your guy! Power for academic success or business success or whatever kind of success you desire? He's still your go-to Guy!

As Christians at the point of surrendering our lives to Christ, we all receive(d) a measure of the Holy Spirit. Someone gave an analogy of a glass only half full of water to illustrate the measure of the Spirit we have at the point of surrender. When we are baptised in the Holy Spirit however, we overflow (again like a glass filled to the brim and spilling out).

When the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples in the upper room, several things happened from the sound of wind, to the cloven tongues of fire and then the speaking in tongues. Clearly today the evidence we see is speaking in unknown tongues(unknown to you,that is ). Speaking in tongues is evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It should however not be taken to mean that you become a perfect person on the spot. That couldn't be further from the truth. It's only the beginning of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life and how much He does depends on how much you let Him.

There's so much we could discuss on the person of the Holy Spirit, His job description and whatnot but today I want to share with you specifically on the issue of speaking in tongues.

Speaking in tongues first off is a spiritual mystery and NOT a mental activity. What I mean by that is, your spirit does the speaking through your body as opposed to when you speak normally where your soul/mind does the speaking. I can tell you for a fact that this is true because I can be driving somewhere and speaking in tongues, be typing something to someone yet praying in tongues. This simply tells you that your mind plays no part in this(sometimes it's even a hindrance🙄).

How does someone get baptised in the Holy Spirit? Well there are a number of ways: laying of hands, personal request and sometimes just hearing someone speak about it. One thing is present no matter what way and that is DESIRE for baptism. The Holy Spirit is not an armed robber that forces His way into people. You want Him? You ask Him to come and BELIEVE He will. It's that simple?😱 YES!

Again there's more on that but let me share my personal experience with you. I had believed erroneously for some time that baptism by immersion was a prerequisite to baptism of the Spirit(it's really not😊) so I didn't even think I could be baptised in the Spirit simply by asking. One day my uncle (who is late now😢) disabused my mind to that.

Years later I'm in the living room watching a message on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I ask for it. I say a few words that are strange but then I tell myself "I probably made that up" (doubt is the most lethal thing to a Christian👀).  Some time later I attended a church service outside school and the preacher made an "altar call" not for sinners to repent but for those who had not been baptised with evidence of speaking in tongues to come forward. I after much hesitation, went forward and she said a few things.

People began to blast tongues o! Brother Nathaniel was still looking andgwaiting for his own tongues to be delivered 😂. I probably wouldn't have spoken in tongues that day had she not said one thing : "if you don't open your mouth, nothing will come out". Remember that the spirit of a prophet is subject to the prophet so your spirit cannot pray if you don't open your mouth. It's not a coup. It's cooperation

The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
1 Corinthians 14:32 MEV

Initially, you may be shy(depending on your person) and unsure of the credibility of what you're saying especially since it sounds different from what you hear "more spiritual" people say 😂. Have faith and rest assured you can't speak words you didn't already know and notice how the words don't go from mind to mouth. They just come through your mouth so it cannot be you coming up with them.

Why is it important that you're not only able to pray in the Spirit but that you make a practice of it? Well we sometimes don't know what to pray for or about and at times we pray amiss. When you pray in the Spirit you pray God's mind and so you can't pray in error. Praying in the Spirit also enables you multi-task. Your mind is free to focus on things you have to do and you can pray simultaneously. How wonderful! The Bible also says that when you pray in an unknown tongue you speak to God and also edify your spirit.

We may discuss this further in the future. Apologies for the length of the post. I trust God that it was worth it. God bless you and fill or refill you with His Spirit and may the works of His Spirit be evident in your life and the works of the flesh fade away till they can no longer be seen.

Abba we thank you for the beautiful gift of Your Holy Spirit that bears witness with out spirits that we are Your children. We ask that You help us to live in the reality of His power in us. Help us to have faith in You that we may unlock the greatness you have deposited in us for our world to benefit from. Just help us in all we need to do to enjoy you more and more and bask in the grace that You have made available through the finished work of Christ in Jesus' name (amen).

Have a blessed week! Thanks for reading and God bless you 😊.  Same time next week by His grace. Pray for me, share this post (and others😊) with your loved ones and I trust that God will set someone on the path of spiritual growth through this blog. Shalom😇