and on this particular night a missionary from Sri Lanka was our guest
speaker; she was scheduled to speak on the Holy Spirit. I had seen it
on the schedule but I wasn’t sure what she was really going to talk
about. Miracles maybe, or how to ‘slay’ people in the Spirit? I just
wasn’t sure.
Shelvy, the missionary, spoke for a short period of time telling
stories from her experiences out on the mission field, about praying
demons out of people and praying health and life into the sick, seeing
them walk away miraculously healed. I was floored. She spoke for two
nights and at the end of each night she invited people forward to be
prayed for, to receive the Spirit. It seemed that each time someone
went forward to receive prayer that they ended up on the ground, filled
with peace, and sometimes speaking in tongues.
She called it baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Now I had seen things like this before watching it on television or
reading it in books, but I always passed it off as fake… not real…
a mere fantasy. I always thought that Benny Hinn was pushing people
over, not God.
But Benny Hinn wasn’t with us under that tent!
There are all kinds of baptisms scattered throughout Scripture,
particularly in the New Testament. There is a baptism of repentance,
done in water most notably by John the Baptist (Matt. 3.6); there is a
baptism of suffering, such as the one endured by Jesus Christ on the
cross (John 19); and there’s also a baptism of the Holy Spirit,
received by the disciples and many thereafter (Jn. 14.15, 18; Acts
2.3-4).
Now the phrase “baptism of the Holy Spirit” is found in Scripture.
While all believers are temples of the living God where the Holy Spirit
does dwell, baptism of the Holy Spirit is referencing to a particular experience where the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense?
This isn’t necessarily identical to conversion because at conversion a
filling of the Spirit doesn’t always take place (i.e. Acts 10.44). But
baptism of the Holy Spirit is oftentimes a very memorable experience
and, typically, accompanied by speaking in tongues, which we can find
referenced in Scripture: a) Pentecost (Acts 2.4); b) baptism in Cornelius’ household (Acts 10.46); c) individuals in Ephesus (Acts 19.6).
So should we all be baptized in the Holy Spirit? My gut-reaction is, yes,
we should all be baptized in the Holy Spirit at some point in our
lives. Maybe I’m biased, but I think it’s a significant experience we
should all have as Christians. The disciples received this baptism
under the direction of Christ, as did thousands after them. They
didn’t just baptize people in water in Jesus’ name; they also made a
point to baptize them in the Holy Spirit (Acts 19.2).
I have been baptized in the Holy Spirit. My experience was not a big event with a lot of people standing around praying, but more an intimate moment with my Father. I was riding in a large bus (think Greyhound) from Nicaragua to Guatemala with some of my WR teammates. Titanic was blaring in the background in Spanish and I was sitting with a blanket over my head trying to block it all out. As we rode along I got the sense that the Lord wanted to speak to me in a new way late that night. As I prayed I started saying words that didn’t make any sense to me; I also realized the words weren’t really words at all, but a new language…
I’ll address speaking in tongues tomorrow, but I want to leave you with
some words from John Piper on the baptism of the Holy Spirit:
Receiving the Spirit Is a Life-Changing Experience: This is
why Paul can say in Acts 19:2 when he meets the confused disciples of
John the Baptist, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
What would a contemporary Protestant evangelical say in response to
that question? I think we would say something like, “I thought we
automatically received the Holy Spirit when we believed. I don’t
understand how you can even ask the question.” How could Paul ask that
question? He could ask it, I think, because receiving the Holy Spirit
is a real experience. There are marks of it in your life. And the best
way to test the faith of these so-called disciples is to ask them about
their experience of the Spirit.
Do you still have more questions? Write them below in the comments
section, I’ll address them in a follow-up post or you can interact with
one another.
