Encourage
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‘Tis the Season
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What’s it all about?
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The One
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Eden
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Amazing
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Question from a friend
A friend asked me what I thought of this statement:
Would you agree with this? I believe there are three “baptisms.” One, baptism of the soul into the body of Christ which happens at salvation; second, being physical in the flesh, by water after salvation; and the third (this one I hate using the word baptism for, some call it baptism of the Spirit) when the Spirit breathes into your spirit for works.
Let us look at baptism first of all. Originally, the word baptism had nothing to do with water or God. If you had some cloth that you wanted to be another color, you took it to the local baptist who would dye it for you, changing the identity of the cloth. Eventually baptism came to be a statement of identity with a certain creed or movement. This is why Jesus was baptized at the start of his ministry. Not to show his repentance from sin, but to identify with the repentant souls that were trying to follow God and get closer to him.
At the beginning of your salvation, when you ask Jesus to forgive your sins and be your lord, Jesus does indeed baptize you into the Church, the ecclesia, the body of Christ, the called out ones. Your identity is changed as he writes your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. At the same time, as a pledge or seal, the Holy Spirit indwells you, just as it did Jesus, to empower you to walk like Jesus. This justification, this beginning of your salvation, is truly a baptism.
Your justification (first baptism) is usually followed in short order by a physical baptism. This is a public statement of identification with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, what my friend calls the second baptism. See Acts 8:26 – 40 “See, [here is] water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?”
The third baptism he calls “when the Spirit breathes into your spirit for works.” Before someone shouts “Legalism!”, the works he refers to are like the works that James refers to in his letter, the same type of works that the writer of Hebrews referred to in Hebrews 11. These are works that occurred as the Spirit moved believers, as a demonstration of their faith.
This “third baptism” is a process called sanctification, the present tense expression of salvation. Make no mistake: Jesus has fully justified you before the father. Nothing you can do can help or improve that. This baptism occurs as you move out of the way and let the floodlight of the Holy Spirit shine out of your heart. You could say the third baptism is where Jesus identifies himself with you, in that you become a conduit he can flow through to bless the world.
This sanctification is a choice to die to yourself. Jesus said “If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” Matt 16:24 . In John 12:24 Jesus said “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Paul said “I die daily” in 1 Cor 15:31 If these three statements do not qualify as baptism, nothing does.
It is through dying to self that we allow Jesus to shine out from us and do the works which we were ordained to do from before the creation. If we try to do these works by our own power they will get messed up. Jesus has to do them through us if they are to count toward our rewards.
The big question is how do we allow this baptism to occur? We can see this in the life of Jesus. He had two things in his life that we do not have as much as we need. He had an immense knowledge of the word of God, the bible. He always referred to scripture, he thought in scripture. We can have this if we follow the command he gave through Paul in Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Again he said in Eph 5:26 “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word”
Bathe yourself in scripture. Download the bible as mp3′s and just play it all the time. Get music that sets scripture to music, especially the Psalms. Get expositional bible studies on your mp3 player and just stuff them in your ears before bed. That way when you wake up in the middle of the night you have something to do as you fall back to sleep. I do this every night; you cannot imagine the dreams that come from this. If you want to grow a lot in a short time, let the Word of God wash the world out of your brain.
The other thing Jesus had in his life that we could have just like him is a dedication to prayer to and worship of the Father. Just think about it: Jesus was fully God, yet he was always getting up early to pray, staying up late to pray. If Jesus needed to “pray without ceasing”, how much more do we need to spend time praying? God is delighted when we talk to him, think about him, meditate on his word and pray it back to him. We were created for his pleasure, so please him by turning off the TV and spending time with him.
As we bathe in the third baptism we become more conformed to Jesus’ image, get further from the power of sin, walk in more wonderful works, shine forth Jesus for the whole world to see, become more pleasing to him, get more ready for the time when he comes back for us so he can finish history and return to reign on the earth for 1000 years. Are you ready for his return? Are you identified with Jesus, baptized with him?
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The Season
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Surrender All
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