John the Baptist came baptizing with water, but the Lord Jesus came baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire. Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16. And in John 1:33 God our Heavenly Father testifies of His Son and says: "...the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." The Holy Spirit is given to everyone that accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. So, the first step obviously is to accept Christ's Lordship and deity and recognize one's own sinfulness and rebellion against God. The word is: R E P E N T A N C E. The Holy Spirit then is given to seal our righteousness in God's sight through the acceptance of Christ's sacrifice on our individual behalf. The Holy Spirit then gives us identity in the sight of God and He becomes our guarantee for our final redemption.
For all believers, the event that marked the beginning of one’s Christian life is their water baptism and their public confession of faith in Christ. Church-going and other so-called Christian activities become the next stage of one's life. But for many an average Christian, a victorious life is something that we hear or read about, but is rarely one's own personal experience. The persevering and continual thriving Christian life are stories to be read in the Holy Bible, and other's testimonies, people whom you and I would probably never meet one to one. If Christ came to give life and life in abundance then why couldn't you, why couldn't I and why couldn't everyone that trusts in Christ enjoy that life even long after our water baptism? Can we bring back the missing ingredient? Has the Word of God made provision for including and bringing in this missing ingredient? I think the answer to these questions is a resounding "Yes!"
God had made provision beyond the water baptism for an everyday victorious Christian life. The Name of the One to be born the Saviour of the world was proclaimed as "Emmanuel." So He is to be an ever present God for us. And Christ’s presence with us is made possible by the promised Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enters our lives, inhabits even our bodies when Christ baptizes us with His Spirit. When an individual is baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God comes to literally live, tabernacle in and within that person. What an amazing God?! What an amazing Companion we could have for life?! What an amazing provision that God had provided for us?!
The Holy Spirit counsels us, advises us, prods us continually like a pilot helping to steer our lives in the direction of the will and purposes of God. God's voice is heard that bit clearer and when we open the Word, it becomes that bit alive and we begin to see the relevance and even begin to have an insight on the application of the Word of God for our everyday life.
The crux of the matter is that we do not have to try hard to please God. God Himself comes into our life, transforms us and helps us to align our wills with His and so please Him in every way of our lives. Ah! Isn’t that a victorious Christian life?! All we have to do is be baptized with the Holy Spirit and God will begin to work inside of us and as we choose to listen to the Holy Spirit’s leading in our hearts, God will be able to mould our hearts for the better and we will begin to see transformation begin from deep inside of us. The Holy Spirit helps us to overcome the weaknesses of our flesh and enables a victorious Christian life. As we practice this obedience to the Spirit of Christ, over a period of time we begin to be following God with a single-minded devotion and dedication.
Now, let’s look at the following verse in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. Now the Lord is the Spirit. Verse 17. The Lord Jesus is being addressed as the Spirit of God. We could also read this as the Spirit being referred to as the Lord. So, when the Spirit is Lord in our lives, He requires our obedience, He deserves our willingness to follow His lead in our lives in devotion to Christ.
1 John 4:13 reads as follows: By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. Now, the Apostle John is also recalling Christ’s Words from the night of the Passover in the Gospel of John chapter 15 when he was writing the above words in his letter. Abide in Me, and I in you. Verse 3. From the above two verses, we can know that Christ abides in us when we are indwelt by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God in us is the presence of Christ in us. So, now we are also placed in a position where we could be potentially led by the Spirit of God, because we could also hear from Him, because He is living within us. The Letter to the Romans has some profound insight on the Spirit of God especially in chapter 8. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Verse 14. What this simply means is that those who follow and work in conjunction with the Holy Spirit for the purposes of the Kingdom of God and for the glory of the Son of God are called and seen by God the Father as His sons and daughters. And these can also easily address God as “Father, Abba, Daddy!” Our sonship and inheritance in God is made known to us by His Spirit. Our identity in Christ in God is revealed to us by the presence of His Holy Spirit in us.
With the Holy Spirit in us, we are also empowered to live as powerful witnesses of Christ in our everyday lives, so sign-posting our lives to Jesus. In the Holy Spirit, we also stand on the ground where we could perform works that Christ prophesied we would be able to accomplish, even greater things than He had done while on earth in the flesh. Wouldn’t that be a victorious Christian life indeed?
Remember though: the Holy Spirit always says what Christ tells Him to say, even as Christ had done exactly what He saw His Father in Heaven do. God the Spirit glorifies God the Son, God the Son glorifies God the Father and God the Father glorifies His Son through His Spirit. For God does not do anything except by His Spirit. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” Says the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6.
