What Is The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit

In this article, I will show you exactly what this gift of Baptism of the Holy Spirit is and how to properly receive it. Many have tried to receive this gift at an altar call at their local churches, but they have failed to receive it.

They then walk away thinking that maybe there was something wrong with them or they were not worthy enough to receive this gift from the Lord.

I believe the number one reason why some Christians do not properly receive this gift when they try the above approach is because they have not been properly prepared to receive it.

To really receive this gift the first time you try asking and pressing in for it, you have to know exactly what it is you are receiving, and then you have to properly prepare yourself to receive it. Once those two things have been properly done, then it becomes very easy to receive this gift the first time you ask and press in for it.

This is a gift that God wants all of His children to have, just like His gift of eternal salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.

I will first start off by explaining exactly what this gift is, and then I will show you how to properly prepare yourself to receive it. Once those two things have been done, I will then show you exactly how to receive it once you are ready for it.

What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?

The first thing that you will need to know is exactly what this gift is. The Bible tells us that we will all receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of our salvation with the Lord. The Bible also tells us that we are “sealed” with the Holy Spirit the minute we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

So if we have already received the Holy Spirit at the moment of our salvation with the Lord, then what is this “second” baptism of the Holy Spirit that the charismatics are talking about? The Bible tells us that there is only one baptism.

To fully understand what is meant by the baptism of the Holy Spirit – you have to know what the difference is between your body, soul, and spirit. The Bible tells us that we have three distinct parts to our being – body, soul, and spirit. Here is the verse specifically telling us this:

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Your body is your natural, physical, flesh body. Your soul is located on the inside of your body. Your soul is who you really are. It is your total personality – it is your mind, will, emotions, and intellect. Your soul is spirit in form, which means it cannot be seen by any natural means. It is completely invisible to the naked eye.

On the inside of your soul is your spirit. The Bible refers to our human spirit as being our “innermost being.” I believe another word for our human spirit is “heart.” When people refer to having had a broken heart in a romantic relationship that has been dissolved, a broken heart is really a “wounded spirit.”

I also believe Jesus gives us a clue as to where our human spirits may be located at in our beings in the following verse. The New King James Version uses the word “heart”, but the Original King James Version uses the word “belly.”

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart (BELLY) will flow rivers of living water.

But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:38)

When we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes and enters into our human spirits. Our spirits are thus baptized with His actual presence at the exact moment of our salvation with the Lord. This is the baptism that the Bible is talking about when it says that there is only one baptism.

However, what the charismatics are referring to is a second experience where the Holy Spirit now comes up and enters into your soul.

Your spirit has already been baptized with the Holy Spirit at the moment of your salvation with the Lord, but now God wants to take it one step further. He now wants to baptize your soul with his Holy Spirit.

Another word that can be used for the “baptism” of the Holy Spirit where He will now enter your soul area is the “release” of the Holy Spirit into your soul. The Holy Spirit will release from your spirit to come up and enter into your soul.

I believe this is what Paul was referring to when he commands us to be “filled with the Spirit.” If our spirits are already filled up with the Holy Spirit at the moment of our salvation with the Lord, then what else needs to be filled up? It is our souls.

When you have received the second gift of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, you are now considered “Spirit-filled.” Both your spirit and your soul are now filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus tells us in the above verse that out of our “belly” will flow rivers of living water, I believe that He may be telling us that our human spirits are located in our belly areas.

For those of you who have ever felt any kind of heart pain in a broken love relationship – if you will recall, the pain you were feeling was in your belly area. It feels like there is a knife on the inside of your belly area just tearing you up. Again, a broken heart is really a wounded spirit, and when your heart or spirit has been wounded and hurt, you will literally feel physical pain in your belly area.

1. The House Analogy

Another way to try to understand all of the above is what I call the house analogy. When you buy a house, you will get two things – the house, and the front and back yards. The analogy is that your house is your soul, and your front yard is your spirit.

When you receive God’s free gift of salvation through accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes and enters into your front and back yards, which is your human spirit. However, He now wants to go one step further and come into your actual house, which is your soul area.

Why? Because this is where you really live at. You spend most of your time in the house as versus being outside in the front and back yards. Jesus says in the following verse:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)

I believe Jesus is not only telling us that He is literally going to come into our human spirits at the moment of our salvation with Him, but that He can also enter into our souls through the Holy Spirit. Even though Jesus is in heaven, He now lives on the inside of us “through” the Holy Spirit.

Just as Jesus is living on the inside of us and making contact with us through the Holy Spirit, we likewise can make direct contact with both Him and God the Father through the Holy Spirit. It is “by, in, and through” the Holy Spirit that we have direct access to both God and Jesus who live and dwell in heaven. Here are several good Scripture verses proving the above points:

a) This first verse tells us that the Holy Spirit literally lives on the inside of each of us.

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

b) Now that we know that the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of each of us, and that both God and Jesus live in heaven – watch how we make direct contact with both God and Jesus in heaven, which is through the Holy Spirit:

1. “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.” (Ephesians 2:18)
   
2. “And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” (1 John 3:24)

These two verses specifically tell us that we can make direct contact with both God and Jesus who live in heaven “by the Spirit.” The second verse tells us that Jesus literally lives and abides in us “by the Spirit.”

2. The Telephone Cord Analogy

Another analogy to fully understand how we can make direct contact with God and Jesus in heaven through the Holy Spirit is what I call the telephone cord analogy. We can pick up a telephone and call someone 800 miles away.

Even though that person is physically far away from us, we can still hear their voice as if they were only two inches from our ears. It’s as if that person is literally in our actual presence.

It is the same way with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.Even though God and Jesus dwell in heaven and do not live on this earth, we can still make direct contact with the both of Them through the Holy Spirit.

It is by, in, and through the Holy Spirit that we can make direct contact with the both of Them – the same way we can make direct contact and talk to someone else 800 miles away because of the telephone wires that will connect us to the person that we are talking to.

The Holy Spirit is like the telephone wire that enables us to connect to and make contact with both God and Jesus in heaven. We can talk directly to God and Jesus as a result of having the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us, and both God and Jesus can also talk directly to us through the Holy Spirit as well.

Once the Holy Spirit comes up and enters into your soul as a result of having received this gift – you will be able to hear God much better and much clearer because the Holy Spirit has now moved up into where you really live at – your soul. This is why this gift is so important for all Christians to have.

3. Final Note

If you have not been able to receive this gift at an altar call at your church, here is a very simple 5 step process that you can take that will help you to be able to properly receive this gift from the Lord. However, before I go into each one of these five steps and exactly what they will entail, I would like to state one more thing before leading you into this gift.

In my opinion, this gift is the second greatest gift that you can receive this side of heaven. The first greatest gift is the gift of eternal salvation – where you accept and receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

There is no greater gift than this one. With this gift you are truly born again into the kingdom of God and you will go straight to heaven when you die and cross over. This gift now gives you true eternal life with the Lord.

However, I believe that receiving the baptism or release of the Holy Spirit to come into your soul is the second greatest gift that anyone can receive while living down here on this earth. Just stop and think for a minute what is really happening when you do receive this gift.

You receive the Holy Spirit into your human spirit when you get saved. However, this gift will now take you one step further.

This gift will now allow the Holy Spirit to release from your spirit to come up and enter into your soul. Your soul is who you really are. The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead. He is God and Lord Himself.

For some Christians, this may be a bit too scary. Many Christians are afraid of God and they would prefer to keep Him at a safe distance. This gift is really only for the true seekers.

This gift is only for the those who are willing to completely lay down and fully surrender every area of their lives over to God the Father for whatever His purposes and plans are going to be for their lives.

For those of you who do have this fear of God for whatever reason, I can tell you without any shadow of a doubt, that there is absolutely nothing to fear about either God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit.

Once you really make direct contact with the three of Them, once you really feel Their perfect and unconditional love that They really have for you, any fears that you may have had in the past will completely melt away.

God will perfectly and gently handle you at your present level of spiritual development with Him if you decide that you do want to take this bold step and receive this gift. God will gradually work Himself and all of His ways into you so as not to scare you or overwhelm you.

Remember – since God is totally perfect in His very nature and in all of His ways, this means you can completely and totally trust Him to perfectly handle you in your own personal relationship with Him. He has nothing but your best interests at heart.

This article has been divided into 4 sections: