A Taste of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
God’s been teaching me a lot about the Holy Spirit and about waiting. He’s also been teaching me a lot about how He works in people. But before we get too deep into that, I wanted to go over the baptism of the Holy Spirit first. In Luke 24:48 and Acts 1:8, Jesus tells his disciples to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because it brings power. Jesus never mentioned anything about tongues. And the disciples knew exactly what He was talking about because they had the opportunity to go out with that power before! Healing the sick, casting out demons, cleansing lepers, and raising the dead (Mt 10:10). But that’s not everything the baptism brought – Acts 2 shows the baptism of the Holy Spirit brought with it great boldness to preach, an ability to praise God in another way, and authority and power for preaching. Even the tongues in the outpouring at Pentecost was different than what we consider a baptism in the Holy Spirit – they received actual languages whereas we usually receive a prayer language. Don’t get me wrong – tongues is important but there’s so much more! We’ve settled into a form of the baptism while denying the true power (2 Tim 3:5). A holy and pure life, a change in character to have in full the fruits of the Spirit, power to evangelize and demonstrate God’s love, the ability to be guided into all truth – all of these are stated in the Bible as results of having the Holy Spirit. Just because you don’t see that radical transformation yet in your own life or the lives around you doesn’t mean that’s not what God has for us! Even if you’ve been baptized in the Spirit once, unless you’re dead, God’s got more out there for you. You can never get to the place where God thinks you’ve had enough transformation or where you’ve “used up” all God will give you. See Acts 4:31 for a time the apostles were again filled with the spirit.
OK, on to what I wanted to talk about… The disciples, when Jesus called them in Matthew 10, received a taste of what Jesus was calling them to but they didn’t step into it until years later. Reinhardt Bonkke, Smith Wigglesworth, Randy Clark, Rolland and Heidi Baker… All of them had the same kind of thing happen. The Bakers saw tremendous fruit from their early evangelism, but worked 20 years with little to nothing before stepping into the truly awesome fruit they have now. Randy Clark was used in signs and wonders a bit before being kicked out of his denomination and working 7 years at a donut shop, and it wasn’t until many years later that Toronto broke out.
This has been really important to me, because I’ve seen so many of the people who I’ve seen that used to be on fire for God kind of peter out and go back to what they were doing before God started rocking their worlds. I never really understood why God would let their ministry slow down enough for them to turn away from it, but I think I know a little more now. It’s God’s grace and love that enables the first step into the things of God. He shows us our destiny and purpose, then lets us decide whether we want it or not! I think it’s a lot like initial Christianity – God first shows us His love, and lets us decide whether or not to accept that love. He so wants us to attain that transformation via the Holy Spirit, so he gives us a taste to get us hungry enough and desperate enough to reach out for it. The same kind of desperation that had the disciples meet in prayer for 10 days straight! Smith Wigglesworth had a good ministry before his baptism in the Holy Spirit, but he was so hungry he prayed and fasted for 10 days – afterwards, his ministry grew exponentially! God wants to see if we really want His way or just want the power to do our way.
So many of my friends have experienced the same miracles and depth of God that I have, but after that season was over many of them went back to their old lives, changed a bit but certainly not living God’s destiny for them. It breaks my heart, but I can’t imagine how God feels. It seems like most of our Christian walks are completely spent on God showing us His love and asking us for a part of our life, then showing us more and asking for another part of our life. But that’s never been anyone’s destiny or purpose. If you really want to live your destiny, do the only thing God ever really asks of you and give Him your entire life right now instead of waiting till He asks for it! And wait on God, because that was His command to the disciples to experience a baptism of the Spirit and because you know His promises are true.
In my own life, I’m just realizing this. I wondered for a long time why God gave me such grace and power for a short time and everything after that has been so hard. There are so many reasons, but I probably only know a few: I took God’s power so much for granted and I didn’t know what a gift it was before, I didn’t see the importance of a life of purity, I wasn’t ready for such power… But this last year has been a time where I’ve come to realize that I have nothing without God and that I’ll never be satisfied with anything else. Every day I get more hungry and more desperate for God to just take this fleshly, sinning vessel of mine and transform it no matter what I have to go through. And every time I see a hungry or lost person, I beg for the ability to show them true life and not just tell them words they’ve heard again and again!
I hope these words stir something deep within your heart. For some of you, you probably forgot the plans God had for you – I pray God would reawaken those desires for a greater purpose. For some of you, you probably never knew God’s purpose for you but dared to dream it was true. For most of you, you probably feel like you’re in a dry place - God’s used you in the past and you’ve so wanted to go back to that time. I’ve got news for you – God’s got something far greater in store if you will seek Him, and I pray for a hunger that groans within you to be transformed into the image of Jesus! Whether we’ll ever get there before eternity is a theological topic – that we can go so much higher and so much closer is fact! God Bless,
- Jon
