RSS

Tag Archives: baptism in the spirit

Christ Our Example

14 Jan

JesusI’m posting about Christ as the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. In my last article we saw how Jesus manifested the power of the Spirit. How else did this power reveal itself?

The Lord healed the sick, but they did that in the Old Testament as well. Here are some other manifestations of the Spirit in His life.

One time, when dealing with the Pharisees, we’re told…

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things?”
Mark 2:8

The Holy Spirit gave Christ the supernatural knowledge of what the Pharisees were thinking.

Another time, when the Lord went to the grave of His friend, Lazarus, the Scripture gives us some insight.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
John 11:33

Literally this verse says that He groaned in the spirit and was stirred up. That’s the same thing the Word says about us. (Romans 8:26) We’re told that the Spirit uses groans that cannot be put into words. I believe one of the secrets to His power was His sensitivity to the move of the Spirit within Him.

In His ministry, Jesus sent out 72 men to go throughout Israel and preach. One day they came back and reported what happened.

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”
Luke 10:21

The literal Greek of this verse will probably offend the legalistic, churchy crowd. It reads that Jesus jumped for joy, danced, and spun around in the Spirit. Many folks do not want to hear that Christ danced in the Spirit, but that’s exactly what He did. I believe that it happened on more than one occasion.

Let’s look at one more example. Once when Jesus preached in the wilderness, it started to get late. He sent the disciples across the lake in a boat. Then He dismissed the crowd.

After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them…
Mark 6:46-48

Christ saw the disciples. Miles away, at night, and in a storm. He didn’t see this with His physical eyes. It was revealed to Him by the Holy Spirit as the Lord prayed up on that mountain.

These are the same manifestations we see in believers who are baptized – immersed in the spirit. We should be doing the same things that Jesus did.

But in order for this to happen, we have to walk the same walk. We need the power of an immersed life.

Question: How would our evangelism be different if we walked as Christ did?

© Nick Zaccardi 2015

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on January 14, 2015 in Ministry, Power of God, Prayer, Prayer in the Spirit

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Christ the Baptizer

12 Jan

 

DoveI believe that America is ripe for revival. I also believe that prayer in the spirit will play a major role in this move. John the Baptist preached about this subject.

And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Mark 1:7-8

We will need an understanding of this if we’re going to flow in revival to the level God desires. I want to take a few posts to talk about Christ, the Baptizer. He’s the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

But there’s a question that this brings up. How can Christ do that if He wasn’t baptized Himself? I believe that Jesus was baptized in the Spirit and prayed in the spirit.

Of course Jesus prayed in the spirit without the manifestation of tongues. The reason for this is that speaking in tongues is the reaction of our sinful flesh to the work of the Spirit. Our flesh can’t comprehend what’s happening when we pray in the spirit.

In the Gospels, we see John the Baptist witnessing something unique.

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’”
John 1:32-33

This was unheard of in their day – the Holy Spirit remaining upon a person. This was the point where Jesus was baptized in the Spirit. I believe that from this day forward, Jesus prayed in the spirit.

But I think that the key word here is remained. The Holy Spirit remained upon the Lord and Jesus remained in the Spirit.

That’s something we need to see the importance of. Very often we think that what Jesus did was a special case. He said that the same works He did, we would do. But in order for that to happen it will take the same preparation.

We need the same remaining in the Spirit. You could also call it immersion in the Spirit.

Before He ascended to the Father, Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for this gift. Don’t preach, don’t make disciples, don’t do anything, just wait.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8

That was fulfilled in the baptism found in Acts chapter 2.

What about Jesus. He was baptized by John who testified that the Spirit remained on Him. Then Jesus went into the wilderness to fast and pray for 40 days. There, the Lord was tempted by the devil himself, yet…

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.
Luke 4:14

What power did He walk in? The power of His immersion in the Spirit.   We need this same power to be evident in our lives. We must remain in the Holy Spirit.

Question: How does Christ exemplify the Christian walk?

© Nick Zaccardi 2015

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on January 12, 2015 in Ministry, Power of God, Prayer, Prayer in the Spirit, Revival

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The Language of the Spirit #prayerinthespirit

28 Feb

JumbleI’ve been posting about Prayer in the Spirit.  The last point I mentioned is that when you pray in tongues, you are not hearing the actual prayer.  It is the spiritual communication with God that’s the important thing.

Remember that until Adam sinned he didn’t hear God with his ears.

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
1 Corinthians 14:14

Paul goes on to say that not even your mind understands what is being communicated in the spirit with God.  This is an intimate conversation between your spirit and the Spirit of the Lord.  All of this is great, but what does it have to do with the power of God in my life?

Let’s get back to where we left off in that discussion.  When you’re saved, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you.  You are now connected to God’s wireless network.  You have everything you need to access the power of God for your life.  However, there’s still something you need in order for the connection to function properly.

Look at it this way.  You may have a state of the art computer with a cutting edge wifi or 4G adapter, but there’s still something it needs.  That’s because the internal language of your computer in incompatible with the language of the internet.

In order for the computer to talk to the internet, it needs a piece of software called a browser.  It’s the browser that translates the internal language of your computer into the language of the internet allowing it to access everything that’s available.

It’s the same in the spirit.  In order for you to use God’s network you need a “download” from the Holy Spirit.  Your spirit needs to learn the language of the Holy Spirit.

You’ve spent you whole life never speaking to God on His level, in the spiritual realm.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is the language of the spirit.  As a matter of fact the word tongue is the old English word for language.

The gift of the Spirit is really the gift of language.  The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the download of the spiritual language you need to access the power of God’s network.  This is why I usually call it the gift of language or the heavenly language.  I want to take the emphasis off of the physical (the tongue) and place it on the spiritual where it belongs.

Think about it.  According to language experts, what’s the most effective way to learn a new language?  They call it the immersion method, where they literally immerse you in the language you are trying to learn.  What’s the Biblical term for immersion?  It’s the word baptism.

It’s amazing how perfectly God chooses the words that He uses to describe His gifts.  The Baptism of the Spirit is your immersion into the language of the Spirit.  Unlike a natural language which may take months and years to learn, God can do the supernatural work in an instant.

This gift, the Baptism in the Spirit, opens up a new walk of power in the Holy Spirit.

Question: How has the Baptism in the Spirit blessed your life?

© Nick Zaccardi 2014

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on February 28, 2014 in Power of God, Prayer, Prayer in the Spirit

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Learning God’s Language

26 Feb

LanguageIn my last post I began to talk about the Gift of the Spirit.  We looked at the following verse.

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:4-5

According to Christ, the Gift of the Holy Spirit is the Baptism in the Spirit.  This gift brings up so many questions surrounding it.  Is it important?  Is this gift even for today or not?  Was it just a one time thing to get the early church going?

I believe the Scriptures answer all these questions.

For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God.  Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.
1 Corinthians 14:2

At one point, Paul wrote that he spoke in tongues more than all who were in the church of Corinth (I Cor. 14:18).  This tells me that he had an intimate knowledge of the use and the function of the gift.  Paul wrote about his experiences in the Greek language, which is a very descriptive language.

In order for us to understand what Paul wrote we rely upon translators to help us.  I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of these translators.  I’m in awe of the amount of work they have before them and realize that I could never accomplish half of what they do.  I’m very grateful for their work.

That being said, I also have a problem with a particular portion of their work.  As I’ve said, Paul wrote to us about his experiences in the deep usage of the gift of the Spirit.  Unfortunately, the translators who worked on that passage may not have even experienced the Baptism of the Spirit, let alone the deeper works.

In reading the words that Paul wrote, these translators didn’t understand why Paul was using the words that he used.  So they tried to explain Paul’s words instead of telling us exactly what he said.

Because of this, many of the deeper truths of the Gift of Tongues were lost.  It’s my prayer that the Lord will once again restore our knowledge of these concepts through godly teachings such as this.

The verse I just quoted is one such verse.  The English words used in the translation are not the Greek words used in the original text.  After Paul tells us that the person is speaking to God, not to man, the next sentence actually reads (in Greek), Indeed, no man hears him; his spirit speaks mysteries.

This gives us fresh insight into the gift.  When I pray in tongues, I’m not speaking to man, but to God.  What is coming out of my mouth is immaterial to the spiritual communication.

According to Paul, no man even hears what I’m saying to God.  It’s not your flesh that’s communicating with Him.  There’s no correlation between what’s coming out of your mouth, and what is being exchanged with God in the spirit.

This is an important truth in understanding the gift of the spirit.

Question: How important is the Baptism of the Spirit to your walk with God?

©Nick Zaccardi 2014

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on February 26, 2014 in Prayer, Prayer in the Spirit

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

God’s Wifi

24 Feb

WifiIn my last post I concluded with the truth that our spirits are now alive to God – the lines of communication are open in Christ.  This is why the preaching of the Word is so important.  The only way God can speak to an unbeliever is through the church.  God speaks to us, then, we bring His message to the world.  This in itself is a supreme privilege.

Since the Holy Spirit now lives in you, your spirit is reconnected to the Holy Spirit.  I want you to see incredible opportunity that God has opened up to us because of this gift.

Until this generation there was no easy way of illustrating the spiritual principles that are at work here.  Now, because of our modern technology, it makes it easier to picture the work God has done in us.  Let me explain.

Before you came to Christ, you were an old, broken-down, unusable, burned out computer.  Then, Christ saved you, cleaned you up, fixed you and put a brand new processor on the inside.  He also wired you up with a cutting edge wireless network adapter – His Holy Spirit in you.

Before this generation, we couldn’t conceive of being connected to something bigger than us, wherever we go.  Think about the internet.  The internet covers the earth.  You can wirelessly connect to it wherever you are, 24/7.  That’s what God has done in our spirits.  He’s hooked you into His wireless system – His network.

It’s through this network that we have access to the power of God.  It comes from the very throne of God, through the Holy Spirit, into our lives.  That’s what this series of posts is about.  I want to show you how to access and utilize the incredible power of this spiritual network.  It’s greater than any human invention.

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1:4-5

There is probably no subject in all of Christianity that sparks more controversy than the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.   Even among the so called Pentecostal, Full Gospel, and Charismatic churches there are many divisions, inconsistencies, and misconceptions concerning this teaching.  So many terms are thrown around without the knowledge of what they mean in Scripture.

Terms such as the Gift of the Spirit, receive the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, Baptized in the Spirit, tongues, and prayer in the spirit.

It’s through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we have access to more power than we could ever even dream about.  There’s much more to it than just “speaking in tongues.”  It’s the greatest gift that we could ever receive, yet the most underused.  It’s my prayer and desire that the church enters into a fuller and deeper experience in this gift.

In my next post I will begin to explain this spiritual gift in more detail.

Questions: Have you been baptized in the Spirit?  How often do you use this gift?

© Nick Zaccardi 2014

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on February 24, 2014 in Power of God, Prayer, Prayer in the Spirit

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Newer posts →