From the ministry archive
Understanding the Holy Spirit
"I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images" (Isa. 42:8). So God refuses to give his glory to another? And he won't share his praise with any graven image? Uh huhhhh. Well let's take an updated look at this statement and see where it sits in modern times. The last time I checked, this new covenant and gospel is ALL ABOUT the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he died and rose to provide us with (Do I really need to reference half of the new testament writings here?). Okay, if I've done this once I've done it ten thousand times; and the truth is that I will probably need to do it ten thousand or more times again. Nevertheless, here goes: We should allow the scriptures to show us who it is that we should listen to about what Jesus died and rose for: "And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost" (Mk. 1:6-8). Do you know that John the Baptist was the ONLY man sent by God to introduce Jesus onto the scene and to tell of his mission for coming? And do you know that the ONLY thing that John said Jesus was coming for was to BAPTIZE WITH THE HOLY GHOST? Did you know that? Go ahead and search it out for yourself. Oh I know he said "and with fire" in another place, simply to signify that those who ARE baptized BY Jesus WITH the holy Ghost are going to be tried as by fire (Mat. 3:11; I Pet. 1:7). And yes John said that Jesus would "throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Mat. 3:12). That simply means that those who allow the fire to burn sin out of their lives, and keep it out, will be saved; while those who do NOT let the power of the holy Ghost purge and keep sin out of them will be lost to eternal damnation. And yes he told certain peoples some of the finer details of HOW they should repent (Lk. 3:12-14). And that is absolutely all that John's message consisted of, and it still comes down to the simplified statement that Jesus came to make the way to baptize with the holy Ghost, along with just a little bit about what that entailed. Period. In fact, we even have record of what GOD HIMSELF said to John, in in regard to John's expectation of Jesus appearing on the scene: "And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which BAPTIZETH WITH THE HOLY GHOST" (Jn. 1:32,33). So there we have it; John's testimony about Jesus and his mission here, and even GOD'S testimony about Jesus and his mission for coming. And like any true prophet, John's testimony was no less and no more than the word of God that was delivered to him from heaven. Oh yeah, there is one other point, and like the former point, it has been VASTLY OVERLOOKED! And it's something John had to say about himself and his ministry, and about Jesus and his ministry: "He must INCREASE but I must DECREASE" (Jn. 3:30). Sounds to me like a whole lot of "Christian" folks need to think long and hard about what this messenger of God had to say, especially seeing that Jesus said the following about him: "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist" (Mat. 11:11). But just to be sure John did not miss something, let's look at what Jesus had to tell his followers as his final instructions to them, after he had ministered for three and a half years, died, and risen from the dead. Just before he ascended back to heaven he told these words to those who followed him till the end: "And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Acts 1:4,5). And we might throw in here what it was that Jesus preached about for three and a half years. In fact everything he preached had to to with "the kingdom of God" and the things that the kingdom of God consists of, which we are told by the scripture is the following: "For the kingdom of God is NOT meat and drink [natural things]; BUT righteousness, and peace, and joy IN THE HOLY GHOST" (Rom. 14:17). Oh, and I almost forgot, he did say some things about him providing believers with LIVING water, which he clearly said was the SPIRIT, but NOTHING about NATURAL water (Jn. 4:13,14; Jn. 7:37-39).
So the message about why Jesus came and accomplished all that the did, did not change from the beginning of the gospel being preached by John, till the end of the earthly ministry of Jesus; and that message once again was that Jesus was going to BAPTIZE WITH THE HOLY GHOST! If that is not the truth, then send me the scriptures that show otherwise. No answer for that? That's exactly what I thought! Okay, we know that Jesus sent back the holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, and unfortunately we know that Peter said on the day of Pentecost that those who would receive the Spirit needed to be baptized in water in the name of Jesus first for the remission of their sins (Acts 2:38). And I say "unfortunately" because Peter was flatly IN ERROR! YES, I said that Peter was flatly in error! Why? Because what had just happened there at Pentecost was that the high priest and mediator of the new covenant had just taken his seat at the right hand of God, and had just sent back from heaven the NEW TESTAMENT remission of sins, which just happens to be THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST! (Heb. 1:3; Heb. 10:12-15; I Cor. 6:11). And that is EXACTLY what Jesus came to this world to accomplish, as both John the Baptist AND the angel of the Lord also stated (Mat. 1:21; Jn. 1:29). Now BEFORE Pentecost John's baptism, which was continued by the disciples of Jesus also, HAD BEEN for the remission of sins, in the same vein that the old covenant day of atonement had been for the remission of sins. But that baptism was of the law, which is to say the old covenant, and Jesus came to FULFILL the law and the old covenant (Mat. 3:15; Mat. 5:17). So Peter was preaching what he knew to that point, not realizing the details of what they had just experienced, and again that being the new testament remission of sins. And water baptism being of the law, and the Jews having been under the law of a long time; God did not reveal the fulfillment of the law fully to anyone for a season. Therefore they continued with water baptism and many other facets of the law as well, the gospel not having gone beyond the Jews. But when Jesus sent Peter to the Gentiles for the first time, he [Jesus] made a profound statement that has been totally missed to this very day. Jesus baptized the first Gentiles WITH THE HOLY GHOST merely on the merits of their FAITH IN HIM, at the preaching of Peter, BEFORE Peter had the chance to baptize them in water (Acts 10:43-46). That profound statement came at that particular juncture because the Gentiles HAD NEVER been under the law, and the law was merely placed to lead ISRAEL to faith in Christ (Gal. 3:23-25). Therefore Christ having already been manifested and set at the right hand of God to baptize believing souls with the new testament remission of sins, that being his Spirit; God did not want the Gentiles to go backward to symbols that merely pointed the way to his Son, but rather to take the direct route of FAITH in his Son, which faith ALWAYS produces the same baptism of the holy Ghost with the accompanying sign of speaking with other tongues, even as it did at Pentecost (Jn. 7:38,39; Acts 2:4). But as if missing the ENTIRE POINT of what happened at the house of Cornelius is a light thing, everybody wants to run as hard and fast as they can to support another honest mistake of Peter's, which was to baptize these Gentiles in water AFTER Jesus had baptized them with his Spirit; as if Jesus had left them incomplete by taking their sins away and filling them with his love and peace. And the result of all of this misguided zeal for Acts 2:38 and Acts 10:47 is that God's own Spirit baptized people have made him not only SHARE his glory with another [water baptism], but they have exalted this dead ceremonial ordinance ABOVE the very experience of the Spirit baptism, for which Jesus suffered, died, and rose again to give to us. No? I've been around too long, and I have seen with my eyes and heard with my ears far too many times, that those who have this ridiculous zeal for ACTS 2:38 are NOT zealous of the part that says, "And you will receive the gift of the holy Ghost;" but rather for the erroneous water baptism part! No my friend, "[we] are COMPLETE IN HIM," and we are IN HIM only by means OF the baptism of THE SPIRIT! (Col. 2:10; I Cor. 12:13). If we are going to give Jesus all the glory, even as we say in our songs and praises; then we had better stop making him SHARE HIS GLORY WITH ANOTHER!! The scripture plainly says, "Now the Lord IS that SPIRIT" (II Cor. 3:17). And there is no clause there that continues on to say, "and he is ALSO that WATER." The gospel message has not changed since the preaching of John the Baptist, and that is why the apostle whom God sent to teach the Gentiles the fulfillment of the law, said in one of his latest letters; "There is... ONE baptism" (Eph. 4:4.5; Rom. 15:16; Rom. 8:4; Rom. 10:4). As long as the body of Christ honors the dead and buried baptism in water as a graven image along side the baptism that Jesus died and rose to give, there will be virtually no power, no unity, "no mercy, no truth, and no knowledge of God in the land" (Hos. 4:1). Amen.
