I love writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit! Especially when I’m writing about God’s Word, and He opens up amazing “little” nuggets that I never expected.
I’m working on the manuscript for a non-fiction book about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As a “side note” I mentioned it was interesting that John the Baptist prophesied of Jesus as the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. It had always seemed a little funny that John would choose that one thing to describe Jesus, when Jesus never baptized a single person in the Holy Spirit until after He left the earth!
Suddenly, revelation began to unfold. Here’s the passage I wrote this morning. I pray it is an eye-opening blessing to you as it was to me!
John’s Description of Jesus
Before Jesus began His earthly ministry, there was a man who went before Him, announcing His arrival. John, called the Baptist, had this to say about Jesus:
“…After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.†(Mark 1:7-8 NASB)
Isn’t it interesting that of all the things John could have said about the long-awaited Messiah, he chose this? He could have said, “One is coming who is mightier than I, who will heal thousands with His touch.†Or, “He will open the scriptures to you like you’ve never understood them before.†Or, “He will cast out demons and forgive sins, calm stormy seas and raise people from the dead.â€
But he didn’t. It is significant that he described Jesus as the One who would baptize His disciples with the Holy Spirit. This was the defining characteristic John announced when he foretold Jesus’ ministry on earth. When you fit this in with what we know of God’s plan of redemption, this baptism remains highly significant.
Jesus came to fulfill a work of reconciliation that would restore mankind’s relationship with God. The ultimate goal of this restoration involves the believer becoming the very dwelling of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. In John 14, when Jesus spoke of how He was in the Father and the Father was in Him, He immediately followed that up with the promise to send the Holy Spirit to be in the disciples, saying even further, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.†(John 14:20, NASB)
The context of these passages about abiding in love and keeping the commandments included walking in the truth that the Spirit would disclose to them. The implication throughout this passage is clear: the coming of the Holy Spirit, and therefore the Spirit’s indwelling of the believer, was integral to the fulfillment of these promises.
We know that the reason Jesus came to earth was to go to the cross a perfect sacrifice. But have we considered what happens next? Why the sacrifice? So that God could come and dwell in His people, as the Old Testament prophets prophesied, giving us new hearts and writing His commands on our hearts and minds.
We know that the reason Jesus sent His disciples to preach the gospel is so that men could be saved from destruction and receive eternal life. But perhaps we have missed the fullness of what Jesus intended for every believer – for each of us to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, so filled with the presence of God that we overflow with His power and ability to minister to the lost like Jesus did. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor, and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound. (Isaiah 61:1, AMP) This same anointing of the Spirit on us would inevitably result in the types of signs and miracles that Jesus Himself performed, as demonstrated by what was experienced by the disciples who were first filled with the Spirit at Pentecost.
Let’s not stop there. We know that the end of the story as told in various scriptures, including the book of Revelation, tells of the return of Jesus and, when all is said and done, the Father’s arrival to dwell forever with His people. What is the New Jerusalem? What is God’s glorious dwelling place on this earth? Imagine! Not only are individual believers the temple of the Holy Spirit, but the Church as a whole is being built into a perfect dwelling place for God, with each believer a living stone in that temple (1 Corinthians 6:19, Ephesians 2:1-22, 1 Peter 2:5). This is being accomplished as each believer is sanctified and transformed by their interaction with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
With these considerations in mind, John the Baptist’s description of Jesus as the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit becomes more than just a title. It begins to look like the very reason Jesus came to earth.
(end excerpt)
Amazing thought, eh?