Power From On High
Please read, understand, and believe, fellow believers.
If you have not received the “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” you are missing the greater part of the gospel message as that “good news” relates to this life. Period. And while it is a gift for you, that is not its greatest purpose. Its greatest purpose is to work through you to glorify the Father and the Son, which has everything to do with God’s work and spiritual maturity in and through your life and for the benefit of the work and spiritual maturity of the lives of those believers with whom you fellowship.
What is more, if you have not received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, you are not fully equipped to face what is rushing its way into the world here at the end of this age. One hundred academic degrees in theology and ten thousand hours of teaching the Bible cannot match the knowledge of God and the power of God that you can have once you have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Of all that I would advise the believer, it would be to ask God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit until He gives you that gift. He wants to. Jesus said:
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13)!
Born of the Spirit and Baptized in the Spirit
The Holy Spirit makes the believer a new creature in Christ as a part of the salvation experience and He continually resides in all those who are truly born again. Thus, everyone in Jesus Christ is in Him because He is born of His Spirit, by which we are also sealed until the day of redemption. Jesus said, “You must be born again” to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Romans 8:9).
But there is also another endowment of the Spirit called the “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus describes that baptism as “power from on high,” to His first disciples after they were born of His Spirit but before they were empowered to bear witness of Him, utilizing God’s mighty power.
“Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).
They received the Holy Spirit on the day of His resurrection and were “born again,” but they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, fifty days after His resurrection, during the Feast of Pentecost. It was the result of the power of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that they turned the world upside down, and if the body of Christ is going to turn the world upside down today (wake it up from its spiritual slumber and death), it will be by God’s power from on high, which comes by receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is an endowment of spiritual gifting given so that we may more effectively demonstrate and testify of the One in whom we have believed. Even Jesus, who always possessed the Holy Spirit, having always been one with Him, was given the anointing of the Holy Spirit by His Father immediately after His Baptism in water (Matt. 3:16). That was necessary before Jesus entered temptation in the Wilderness, followed by His ministry when He continually demonstrated His Father by His mighty power.
The Prophet Isaiah said the Spirit of the Lord would rest upon Jesus, where also, the Bible lists the seven manifestations of the Spirit (Isaiah 11:1-3), and Jesus Himself, confirmed His baptism in the Spirit. At the outset of His ministry here, Jesus stood in the Temple and said: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me…” (Luke 4:18a; Matt. 12:18).
Rivers of Living Water
It is the result of receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit that “rivers of living water will flow out of his [your] belly” (John 7:37-39).
It was not until after Jesus was baptized in water and was anointed with the Holy Spirit that He overcame temptation and demonstrated the mighty power of His Father in ministry. Up until that time, the Spirit was clearly in Him, when even as a young boy, He debated the Pharisees, astounding them with His wisdom—the wisdom of the Spirit.
It was not until Peter and the other disciples received the baptism of the Holy Spirit that they knew and walked in the mighty power of God. Before that they knew God and were born of His Spirit (John 20:22), but after that they “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).
I know that I was born again by the Spirit in 1964. The evidence of His presence in my life through His guidance, His care, the knowledge of His will and way and the desire to know Him more were all there. But it was not until after I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit in 1974 that God unfolded His Word to me with spiritual understanding and that He began to let me see and know Him more deeply. It was not until after 1974 that I began to taste what it means to know “power from on high,” having received the gift of faith along with that baptism (along with other gifts) that sent me around the world on nothing but a Word from God.
Ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and keep on asking until you receive. Set aside your formal Church doctrine and believe God’s Word.
The Majority of the Church Has Quenched Him
One of the most egregious sins by the vast majority of the Church throughout the ages is to nullify the present-day gifts of the Holy Spirit as so clearly taught and encouraged throughout the New Testament. This brief article is not meant to thoroughly teach the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but it is meant to encourage everyone born of the Spirit to ask the Heavenly Father for the baptism in the Holy Spirit also.
I was born of the Spirit at the tender age of nine. I made that profession of faith public and was baptized in water by submersion in March of 1964. But I was not taught that there was a “baptism in the Holy Spirit” too, so consequently, I didn’t receive that experience with Him until the summer of 1974, ten years later.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit has been available to believers since Pentecost, but many faithful believers have yet to receive it. Most of the Church throughout the Church Age has erroneously taught that it was a one-time experience for those in the upper room at Pentecost, or that it is synonymous with being born of the Spirit at the moment of new birth. Hence, the world sees far more religion in Christianity than it sees God or His Son, Jesus Christ. And also, after two thousand years of the availability of the Holy Spirit, His giftings and callings, the Church at large is nearly completely impotent, ignorant spiritually, and hasn’t a clue of what’s going on around them, or of what’s about to happen, or of how to prepare. What is worse, most are not interested either.
He Will Glorify the Father and the Son
The Spirit of God is here to glorify the Father and the Son, not to glorify any man. The baptism of the Spirit does not make any one believer superior to another, but it is essential to the members of His body if we would know and walk in God’s mighty power.
I would encourage any believer to read John chapters 14-16, as well as the Book of Acts and Paul’s letter to Ephesus, over, and over, and over, while asking our Heavenly Father to help you believe and receive the baptism of the Spirit until done. You will never look back. You will never go back.
Then yield to the Spirit like you never have before. He is speaking today and He is the One who will “guide you into all truth,” “and tell you things to come” (John 16:13), and more.
His baptism is an important part of spiritual maturity, yet many believers still shy away from it because it is also associated with the gift of tongues—something that the natural mind cannot understand; thus, our natural mind argues whether it is legitimate for today or not. It is one of the most abused and misunderstood gifts of the Spirit. Sadly, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues have been so misunderstood and/or abused throughout the church age, beginning with the New Testament church at Corinth, that many faithful believers have distanced themselves far from them. They miss some of the greatest experiences of the gospel when they, for whatever reason, do not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The gifts of the Spirit still await us today. He is constantly speaking, guiding, teaching, empowering, moving.
Again, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is going to be essential to stand strong in faith through the days ahead.
