Dear Friend,

Many Christians today are trying to get by on one work of grace when the first church needed, and received, two. Shortly after Jesus' resurrection, they received a small, initial measure of the Spirit when Jesus breathed on them (John 20:22). Then, just days later, He baptized (overwhelmed) them with the Spirit’s fullness (Acts 2:1-4). And they were on their way.

Today, many Christians are also on their way in Christ, but making little headway. Why? They are rejecting His second work of grace. And why?

Satan’s slander campaign. He has inspired false teaching from theologically biased evangelical scholars claiming we receive the Spirit’s fullness in our new birth experience. He has also used the strategy of revulsion. Anytime charismatics or Pentecostals act eccentrically, overenthusiastically, or strangely, or sin sensationally, biased Evangelical leaders focus on it and claim (or imply) all who hold their distinctive doctrine of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit are equally spiritually misled, deceived, and dangerous. Consequently, loathing everything charismatic, evangelicals draw back in fear and reject everything associated with charismatics. Ironically, these evangelicals affirm the inspired reformation slogan, Sola Scriptura, which teaches that the Scriptures alone are the final authority for all Christian belief, teaching, and practice. So, by rejecting the Baptism with the Spirit, which, as we will see, is fully scriptural, they are contradicting the very Scriptures they assert to be true. Again, the enemy has done this.

Before going further, let’s review the three Christian baptisms presented in the New Testament.

First, is the baptism by the Spirit into the body of Christ. At conversion, every born-again believer is immediately baptized, or inducted, by the Holy Spirit into the spiritual body of believers worldwide, the Body of Christ: “We have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13, NLT). Second, after spiritual rebirth, every believer should be baptized in water by another Christian (usually minister) as a public testimony of his (or her) faith that he has died with Christ to his old life and risen to new life with Him: “Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him” (Acts 8:38, NIV). This is always believers’ baptism, never infant baptism. Third, every born-again Christian is eligible for the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. In this second work of grace, Jesus, from heaven, personally baptizes the believer (with or without laying on of human hands) with the Spirit: “Peter and John . . . prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them” (Acts 8:14-16, ESV). This Spirit baptism completes the anointing of the Spirit given at new birth.

These Christian baptisms each have a different baptizer and substance. The Spirit baptizes, or integrates, the born-again believer into the mystical body of believers. A fellow Christian baptizes newly born-again Christians in water. And the Lord Jesus baptizes Christians, when they so desire, with the Holy Spirit. In this piece, we are focusing only on this last baptism.

The biblical origins of the Baptism with the Spirit are well established. All four gospels record the Messianic forerunner, John the Baptist, identifying Jesus as the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33). Just before Pentecost Jesus prophesied His followers would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit” within days (Acts 1:5, NKJV), thus affirming that their Upper Room experience was indeed the Baptism with the Spirit. At Pentecost, Peter confirmed this, “He [Jesus] hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). So, if anyone rejects the Pentecostal outpouring, and everything seen (visible fire) and heard (wind, unknown languages) there, they are rejecting Jesus’ work. He planned it, prophesied it, and performed it. Every detail.

Furthermore, Paul’s actions in Ephesus reveal he considered the Baptism with the Spirit normal Christian experience, and his personal practice was to minister it soon after water baptism (Acts 19:4-6). In his Corinthian and Ephesian letters, he called the Spirit’s infilling an “earnest,” or down payment on our eternal inheritance, received “after” we are established in the faith and have received our initial new-birth anointing (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:12-14). Acts records five examples of Spirit Baptism. Four times it clearly occurred after salvation (Acts 2:1-4; 8:12-14, 15-17; 9:5-9, 17-18; 19:1-7), and one time at the moment of saving faith (10:44-46; 11:15-17). This last example shows God may, when He sovereignly chooses, combine the two works of grace into one experience. The other four, however, clearly establish that it is His intention, and the church’s normative experience, for Christians to receive the Baptism with the Spirit as a distinct, second work of grace.

The New Testament also answers the key question often posed by opponents of the Baptism with the Spirit. “We have Christ’s nature and the Scriptures, so why do we need this additional experience?” The short answer is twofold: (1) God in His infinitely wise love provided it for us, and (2) Jesus ordered the first Christians not to attempt His work without it (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5). The longer answer is seen in the Bible’s description of the purpose of the Baptism with the Spirit.

John the Baptist saw it as a cleansing fire leading to a fully sanctified heart and life swept clean of all practiced or ongoing sin (Matthew 3:11-12). Paul implied it would enable us to produce mature “fruit,” or Christlike virtues, if we let the Spirit live and have His way in us (Galatians 5:22-23). Jesus declared it would bring new, dynamic, divine, spiritual power into our lives (Acts 1:8). This includes: power to overcome sin, or overrule our sin nature; power to walk closely with Christ, or live fully trusting, obedient lives in not only normalcy but also great adversity; power to be witnesses of Christ and bear witness to Him in this hostile world; power to minister effectively, or successfully impact lives and enlarge God’s kingdom with whatever spiritual gifts He gives us; and power to work miracles, when so gifted or when, even as ordinary believers, such as the deacon, Stephen, we believe God will work in power (Acts 6:8). So, the longer answer to the “why” question is cleansing fire, mature fruit, and spiritual power. Why am I writing this piece?

If the Baptism with the Spirit is fully biblical, as shown above, it is an integral part of Christ’s wise and loving plan for us. If so, we need this experience, and cannot be all He intends us to be or do all He intends us to do without it. If we reject what He has planned and provided, are we not acting in self-opposing pride and bound, sooner or later, to have to face and acknowledge our folly? Lack of Spirit baptism is a primary reason many Christians are weak and ineffective, many churches are rife with carnality, our evangelistic missions are few when they could be many, and our witness to this dying world is dim when it could be bright. A Spirit-unbaptized Christian, church, or ministry, however earnest, simply cannot accomplish what a Spirit-baptized one can. If they can, Christ erred when designing and establishing the Baptism with the Spirit. The truth is, all effective kingdom work is not the result of our wisdom, strength, and ability, but the Spirit’s. “Not by [human] might, nor by [human] power, but by my [divine] Spirit,” says God, His work will succeed (Zechariah 4:6). Only what the Spirit does through us, and what we do in union with Him, will be effective and remain forever. All our own self-initiated, self-energized efforts, however well intended, are merely the work of our religious flesh and thus ultimately bound to fail.

It is also obvious, then, that we, the body of Christ worldwide, will never reach our full spiritual maturity, fulfill our commissions, and attain the unity Jesus prayed for in John 17, as long as many of us continue rejecting the means to these ends that Christ has so graciously provided.

Furthermore, many of evangelical Christianity’s most influential voices have embraced the Baptism with the Spirit, including, Dwight L. Moody, A. B. Simpson, A. W. Tozer, Oswald Chambers, and others. But this knowledge has been intentionally suppressed by stubborn doctrinaires intent on keeping evangelicals far from the full, Spirit-filled experience. Now, let’s examine the other side of this issue.

I would be remiss if I left you with the impression that merely receiving the Baptism with the Spirit means automatic spiritual purity, maturity, power, and the fulfillment of our spiritual destiny. It does not! To the contrary, it begins the process of deeper cleansing which, if we continue in it, leads to complete sanctification. It imparts to us the power to overcome our flesh, if we are willing to walk in the Spirit. It equips us for effective ministry, if we will let the Spirit lead and work through us without hindrance. And it endows us with the miraculous “power of the Spirit” with which we may work the works of Christ, as the early church did. If, however, we decide to stop growing, stop believing, stop studying and obeying Scripture, stop praying and worshiping, stop letting the Spirit lead, and foolishly turn back to our old ways and sins, the glorious potential begun by our Spirit-Baptism will come to an inglorious end. And we will be just as carnal, sinful, evil, proud, and offensive to Jesus and others as any other carnal Christian. Maybe worse.

So, let’s awake to three facts. First, Satan has used lies and loathing to make many Bible-believing evangelicals reject a fully biblical experience! Second, the Baptism with the Spirit opens up a whole, new world of greater spiritual life, fruit, power, and kingdom effectiveness - and who is against that? Third, with signs of Christ’s return abounding, there is a new sense of urgency. It’s time to act. It’s time for this baptism.

Awakened to the facts,

Greg Hinnant
Greg Hinnant Ministries