JOHN 3:8… HOLY GHOST BAPTISM
UNDER THE OLD TESTAMENT PLAN, ONLY CERTAIN KINGS & PROPHETS & LEADERS RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT & the whole burden of leadership fell on them. But when the NEW Testament age dawned, on the day of Pentecost, God completely threw out the old system of making them so totally dependent on human leadership for their guidance, & He made every single individual Christian responsible, directly, to His Own Holy Spirit.
BORN AGAIN
Everyone who has ever received Jesus into his heart, who is saved, has received a measure of the Holy Ghost, the spirit of god! in fact, you cannot be saved without the holy spirit, because salvation is a work of god–being “born again of the spirit”! (John 3:8) otherwise you’d be saved by works, & you can’t be saved by your own works!
Before he was filled with the spirit, almost everything Peter did was a mistake! but it showed that whatever got accomplished was not of him, but of Christ that lived first with him & then in him. “For we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of god, & not of us!” (2cor.4:7) so we all certainly need the baptism of god’s love & power & to be filled to overflowing with his precious holy spirit in order to have the strength to really pull through & be what he wants us to be!
FILL’ER UP BOSS
I always like to use a glass of water as an illustration: a glass may not be a full glass of water, but if it has some water in it, at least it’s not completely empty. It is a glass of water, even though it’s not full to overflowing & running over. Well, many Christians are like glasses with just a little bit of water–a little bit of god’s spirit–in the bottom, just enough to save them.
But being baptized with the Holy Spirit is as if water was poured in till the glass was filled up & running over! It’s such an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that you fill up & run over! In other words, you’re so endued with power from on high that you’re full to overflowing!
This is the primary purpose of the power of the Holy Spirit: to help you to be a witness!–to fill you with such power that you will blast off of your launch pad “into all-the world, preaching the gospel to every creature!” (Mark 16:15)
BAPTISM OF LOVE
So the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism of the love of god! of course, at the same time, it’s also a baptism of the power of god, the power that enables you to tell others about Jesus, to be a witness, to share his love with others! It is a baptism of so much love that you cannot contain it, so much love that you simply must overflow on others. when you feel you’ve just got to tell someone about Jesus, you feel you cannot hold it in, you just have to tell them–this is the overflowing, the baptism of god’s spirit!
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