The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

A brother said to me the other day, “this Christianity stuff is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I used to think Christians had it easy, but this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done”. I thought to myself, “at least he’s getting it.” It’s true. As G.K. Chesterton said, “it’s not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting. It’s that it’s been found difficult and not really tried.” That’s what Jesus said, too: “strive to enter through the narrow gate… because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Christianity is in many ways both the easiest and the most difficult path that a person could choose to walk. The standards are high because the goal is lofty – God’s desire is that each one of His children be conformed to the image of His Son. Not just that we be “better” people… or “nicer”… or more religious… but that we become perfect, as He is perfect. But the promise that He holds out to us is “life” – not just being “alive”, but living in the sense that Jesus lived and lives. As someone once said, “the glory of God is man fully alive.”

But here’s the thing: how much of that do we see in reality as we look at the Church today? Most Christians walk around tired and defeated, barely alive, going through life as if they’re making excuses for being believers in Jesus. I often say that if Christians are the winners in this life, I’d hate to see the losers. Honestly. Yes, we’re going to Heaven, and yes, most of us are better people than we used to be… but there’s little evidence of anything really supernatural happening in our lives. We don’t open our mouths in public to say that Jesus is our deliverer, and one of the main reasons is that we’re not so sure we’ve been delivered ourselves. Most Christians live the Christian life like they’re driving a car with no gas in it… you have to push it, struggling and striving, every step of the way. It’s not natural to us… not real. In fact, it’s nothing but frustrating to try and be what we believe God wants us to be. But what we have to see is that God never intended for us to live that way. He calls us not only to go to Heaven but to have life more abundant, here and now. Life in Jesus’ name. That’s what I’m after. “Not that I have attained… but I press toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus…”

It’s my belief (formed from time in the Word, pastoral experience with people, and my own personal experience) that none of us can actually live the Christian life properly without something, or more properly Someone, coming into us from the outside and giving us the ability. In fact, I don’t believe that we’re told anywhere in the New Testament to even attempt to live the Christian life on our own, without the overflowing power of the Holy Spirit. He never intended for us to “go out there and do it for God” any more than He created a branch to live and bear fruit on it’s own, without being connected to a vine. We were created only to live as vessels of God’s grace and power. Much of our striving and even most of our preaching today neglects this vital truth, and the results are evident, as stated above. You can add to that the reality of hypocrisy in the Church – it happens because anytime you lay out a standard of behavior for people and then don’t give them the source of power to live it out, you create hypocrites. People will be and say one thing in Church, and be and say something entirely different out there in the world or even in their home, because there’s nothing in them to really meet the demand in a way that’s genuine and consistent. Others will become time bombs, looking right on the outside but on the inside ready to blow up eventually all over the place in burnout and condemnation.

The good new is that there’s an answer, and it’s in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That’s when God comes, fills us, takes over and lives through us. It makes all the difference in the world.  In fact, I believe that when we learn to walk in the Spirit, we don’t have to concentrate on “doing Christian things” any more than we have to concentrate on breathing, blinking our eyes or digesting our food, b/c it’s no longer us that is at work - it’s “God Who works in us, both to will and to do for His good pleasure”. It’s important that we get this down – because if we’re going to have any chance at all of becoming all that God wants and intends for us to become, it’s going to start in the place of knowledge and belief in who we are in the Holy Spirit, and Who the Spirit is in us.

    That’s why I want to dedicate this portion of my site to discussing the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which I believe is the most important subject we can look into. The links on the right lead to articles on different aspects of the Person of the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives. There are also audio links to messages I’ve given dealing with those particular areas, and I would encourage you to give them a listen, as some of what’s written will not make much sense without the audio teaching. I hope that all this will help lead you closer to understanding Who the Holy Spirit is and what He wants to do in your life. If you have any feedback, or would like to contribute to the discussion some writing of your own, please Email me or post on the blog.