15: The Baptism in the Spirit (Part Seven)

What is the baptism in the Spirit? We have seen it expressed in several ways, the Spirit “coming to” believers (Acts 1:8), the Spirit being “poured out on” believers (Acts 2:17; 10:45), “receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38; 19:3), receiving the Spirit and having Him “come on” believers and being “given” the Spirit (Acts 8:15-18; 10:44; 19:6).

The term “baptism” suggests an immersion or washing with the Spirit. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13,

For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

We all also drank one Spirit, or took Him into us. All of these metaphors suggest that being baptized in the Spirit is the Spirit coming into our lives in a continuing way.

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul is explaining how baptism in and drinking of the Spirit results in two things:

One, it made us one body. All believers have the Spirit dwelling in them thus constituting us all as one body in Christ. Just as one human body has one spirit, so all the individual believers have one and the same Spirit, making it as if we are one body.

Two, even as one body has many parts, being baptized in the Spirit made us one body with many parts. The Spirit manifests Himself in different ways through each individual believer making us unique “parts” of the body that perform unique functions necessary to the proper functioning of the whole.

So, baptism in the Holy Spirit is the entrance into and permanent indwelling of each believer’s individual life by the Holy Spirit to unite us as one and to manifest Himself through each of us. We will see that there are many ways He manifests Himself in us that are common to all of us and also ways that are unique to us.

Every believer has been baptized in the Spirit, has drunk of the Spirit, has had the Spirit come upon him or her, received the Spirit, been given the Spirit as He is poured out. Paul can say of all believers,

^{Romans 8:9} You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

It is incorrect to say that Spirit baptism is something that a true believer may not yet have experienced. It is the experience of all believers. You may not have experienced all that the Holy Spirit has for you to experience, but no one who is saved needs to have a baptism in the Spirit. It has already occurred.