A Time of Waiting
Saturday, May 29, 2004
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My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Thank You for another week of life! The gift of physical life is so precious and yet, You give us eternal life as well through Your Son, Jesus! Thank You for loving us so much that You sent Jesus to live, die and rise again for us. Thank You for promising to send Him back to us one day that He may complete the purpose of all history. I pray that You will fill me anew with Your Holy Spirit right now that I may live a life that is pleasing to You in every way. Pour out Your blessing in my life as I live in faith and obedience. This I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God's Word For Me Today
Acts 1:1-5
1Dear Theophilus:
In my first book I told you about everything Jesus began to do and teach 2until the day he ascended to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions from the Holy Spirit. 3During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time and proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. On these occasions he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.
4In one of these meetings as he was eating a meal with them, he told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you what he promised. Remember, I have told you about this before. 5John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Thoughts...On Being Baptized with the Holy Spirit...
One of the more divisive truths taught in the Bible is the “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” During John the Baptist’s ministry, he told people that he baptized with water, but that there was one coming after him that was more powerful than he, one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. That “one” is Jesus. After Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, and shortly before He ascended to heaven, he made the promise to his apostles that we just read, “5John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” All week long we have been considering what it means to wait for the Holy Spirit to come, and what it means to wait for God’s call and direction in our lives. Before we can be or do anything in the Kingdom of God, we must become members of God’s Kingdom. The question that has divided Christians down through the ages is this: When does the baptism in the Holy Spirit take place? We know that on the first Christian Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell from heaven and that all the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability. The question is: Was that the “baptism” of the Holy Spirit. For obvious reasons the answer to that question is, “Yes.” Jesus told the apostles that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit in just a few days. This event took place ten days later. Jesus told them they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came—they did receive power that day! Throughout the Book of Acts, we find that when people became believers they were baptized in the Holy Spirit and this was accompanied by speaking in tongues and other signs and wonders.
So what about today? Do we still get baptized with the Holy Spirit today? What happens when we do? Does everyone get baptized with the Holy Spirit when they receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord? Many answers have been offered for these questions. Some say, “There is only one God, so when we receive Jesus, we receive the Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit as well.” That is certainly true. However, the first apostles believed in Jesus and they still received the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The Bible makes it clear that we don’t just get filled with the Holy Spirit one time, but that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the time. Ephesians 5:18 reminds us to be filled with the Holy Spirit—and it is a present passive imperative meaning “be being filled,” an on-going.
Is being filled with the Holy Spirit the same as or different from being baptized with the Holy Spirit? That’s a question that faithful Christians have debated for a long, long time. The key matter is that the Holy Spirit IS active. He is still working in our lives. He does fill and baptize us so that we can be empowered and transformed for spreading the Good News of Jesus to the end of the earth. In my life, I have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit from my teenaged years, and was baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was seventeen. That has meant that I have experienced the gift of a prayer language, and have seen God use me in many ways to share His Good News. It means that while Chris still gets in the way a lot, when I move over and let the Holy Spirit fill me and empower me that God does great things in and through me.
If what I have written has confused you, remember that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in and among us. Remember that ALL of Jesus’ promises are true, so the promise that we will be baptized with the Holy Spirit IS true for us. The when’s and how’s are sometimes difficult to understand, but we know that the Holy Spirit’s purpose is to give us the necessary power to live boldly in Jesus’ name—and we can all certainly agree that we need that empowerment and boldness. My prayer for each of us is that we will trust Jesus to baptize and fill us with the Holy Spirit that we may fulfill His Great Commandment and Great Commission, individually and together, to His glory and the advancement of His eternal Kingdom!