Jesus' baptism for people constrained by doctrine from a different time
John the Baptist said Jesus came to do this.
John the Baptist explains what the Father had told him to look for and what Jesus was going to do. let’s start in John verse 1: 29.
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness, “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
In Matthew 3, Matthew wrote this about what John the Baptist said,
I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
In Luke, after John Baptized Him, it says that Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit went off to be tempted by the devil. When He passed that test, it says the Jesus came back in the power of the Spirit to go to Galilee.
No denomination has a lock on how it’s supposed to be done
The original Pentecostals in Cherokee County in the Smokies, in Oklahoma, and in the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles got a lot of pushback and understandably got a little emotional. Also, it was all new so they made some mistakes.
The Charismatics of the sixties and seventies also got a lot of pushback. Actually, we used to call it the left foot of fellowship. But we learned a lot more about how it worked because it happened to excellently trained seminary graduates who were leading churches as priests and pastors among the Episcopalians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and eventually almost all denominations—even the Mennonites. There was a lot of focus on the proper uses of the gifts—plus doing it decently and in order.
The corporate denominations work at pushing the Holy Spirit aside because they can’t keep Him under control
That does take a bit of gall, huh? But the result is that almost no churches remain who understand how to work under the leadership of the Lord empowered by the Holy Spirit. As a result, it has virtually disappeared in the American churches—even in the Assembly of God, Foursquare, and the other large corporate spirit-filled organizations.
The bad press from the media—even the Christian media is appalling. Most of the things you have heard about those weird, crazy, out of control, holy roller Pentecostals and Charismatics are simply lies from the pit of Hell. Once spirit-filled believers mature, they learn that the out of control aspects are not often godly.
When Pat and I started Crown of Thorns Non-denominational church in Albuquerque, we were very experienced and could easily explain how things worked. We had no problems with it. But even there, our sheep were so gun-shy from how they were treated in other churches that it was difficult to experience any real freedom, outside of worship.
So, I’ll use Gary Hamrick’s Calvary Chapel model
His stand is that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is clearly Biblical. He expects it in his congregation. But I see sparse evidence while attending Cornerstone Chapel online. It is never part of the sermons unless the scripture of the day is in John 14 and 16, Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 John 2:27. Even then how it works in daily living is not explained. Paul’s writing is filled with it, but that is never covered either.
Gary’s teaching on it is Biblically solid and well taught. He tells the sheep that you should want the Baptism of the Spirit, and that all you need to do is ask the Lord to do it in you. If you are born again, that is all that is required. Just act on it. This is a true teaching. It often works best at home with your spouse. This is how I was taught to walk it out by the Holy Spirit when I met the Lord in 1974.
There are no required acts of depravity or anything like that. You ask Jesus and He does it. Then in faith you move out in what you’ve received. You ask the Lord how to do that. You ask Jesus to lead and guide you. If you get confused, you ask the Lord for more help. You can trust Jesus in this.
You know Him. He’s not going to frighten you, berate you, belittle you, or anything like that. He’s going to lovingly show you how it works. He’ll encourage you, but he’ll help you move at your pace into the new things. You’ll discover that the power available to those who walk in the Spirit by faith is immense.
In fact, it is often so wonderful that you find yourself pushing Jesus for more. There is always more, until we go home to be with Jesus forever. When we get there, we’ll be able to see and understand what is going on and what is available at that point. And we’ll keep on growing.
Remember, Jesus is our example as the first man to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then baptized in the Spirit. He did it perfectly. We’ll need to wait until the Bride is pulled out of here before that is possible to us.
Throughout the New Testament we are consistently told to discern, test, and examine what people do in the Spirit. That’s where the church has messed up. Very few elders are experienced enough to properly discern if a manifestation apparantly of the power of the Spirit is of the Spirit, of the flesh, or of the enemy—or even a combination all three.
Often, for example, prophecy starts in the Spirit. But they are never taught to shut up when the words quit coming. So, they finish it off with strange wanderings and ideas of the flesh. With experience an elder can say clearly, in love, “I believe that started in the Spirit, but at this point, you continued on in the flesh. Did you sense that as you were speaking?” Usually, the person manifesting the gift will agree. And everyone will learn how it really works.
This is very difficult when the prophet is a superstar.
The problem is often old doctrine written to protect from a problem that no longer exists.
We need to remember that doctrine is not scripture, and not anointed. Doctrine is man’s attempt to codify Truth. In doing so, the life is eliminated. It becomes like liturgy. It’s something that can be memorized and recited without anointing or power.
In some churches, doctrine says that prophecy is always positive, and never a rebuke. BALDERDASH! Go read one of the prophets. Jeremiah would be a good place to start.
Scripture becomes anointed, leaps off the page, because the Holy Spirit can freely anoint it to make it relevant to the situation you are in. It is entirely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. The Spirit cannot use doctrine like that because it is rigidly codified with only one interpretation allowed. It is designed to stifle and eliminate discussion about what is covered.
One example would be cessationism which teaches that the spiritual gifts of First Corinthians 12 ceased when the perfect came. Perfect is defined as the completed canon of the Bible. But today we can see a major problem with it. We know that Jesus Messiah is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So, why would He change and decide spiritual gifts were no longer needed?
We can see now that this will happen when we get our perfected bodies after the rapture. Then we will know as we are known and the perfect will have arrived into our daily life. The gifts will simply become tools like speech or the support of love—or they will be forgotten.
The gifts which remain will just be a normal part of everyday life because we’ll be able to see and understand how they work. For example, tongues will go away because of our new direct communication with the Lord and probably with each other. Our lives will no longer be distorted by sin so we will be able to share ourselves without fear or embarrassment. There will be no more sickness or debilitating mental conditions.
But the word of wisdom of +I am+ will simply be available as needed. We’ll be able to communicate much more clearly, with no fear, worry, or manipulation.
I will have posts coming which describe the proper place of the gifts, how the gifts of the Spirit work, and ways that they help in our normal daily living.