Let us fervently seek the true baptism in the Holy Spirit, so as to be cleansed and to be made like Jesus

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The Church of Jesus was born on the day of Pentecost. Before then, the disciples of the Lord Jesus were led by the Holy Spirit who was with them, but Jesus had said : "He will come and dwell within you. He is going to live in your hearts, right inside you ; in your bodies, which are the temples of the Holy Spirit". To accomplish that, Jesus had to ascend into heaven ; then, from above, he caused the glorious outpouring of the Holy Spirit we read about in the second chapter of Acts.

 

I am now going to read from Galatians 3, verses 13 and 14. Those two verses show us that Godís ultimate purpose was to fill us with His Holy Spirit ñ at long last ! God had been waiting for thousands of years to be able to do that, ever since He had created the world and since Adam and Eve had sinned. God had been waiting for the day when He could fill His children with His Spirit.

 

In Galatians 3:13 we read : "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us". He was nailed to that cross and He died on it. "For it is written : Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." Why, then, did Christ hang from that tree, why was He nailed to it ? Why did He die on it ? Verse 14 tells us why : "in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

 

So you see why Jesus became a curse for us on that cross. He was made a curse so that the blessing of Abraham might be ours, and so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. We could not have received the Spirit before then : first, Jesus had to die, He had to atone for our sins, ascend into heaven and pour out His Spirit. Godís purpose is now fulfilled : Hallelujah !

 

We need to be enabled to live in a way that brings honour to the Lord ; we need to receive Holy Spirit baptisms that are true Holy Spirit baptisms, because when we read the Book of Acts, when we see what a radical change came about in the lives of the disciples from the day of Pentecost onwards, it is obvious that they received something very special, something we all need. We cannot live as Christians in this world (of course we can go on existing, but what I mean is that we cannot demonstrate the life of God) without being filled with His Spirit. To be filled with Godís Spirit is more than just speaking in tongues, or exercising the spiritual gifts : it is to be filled with the very life and nature of God, in order to bear His fruit and be like Jesus as we live in this world. That is what God gives us His Holy Spirit for.

 

So you see how deeply those Jewish disciples were changed. They were fearful, they lacked power, they lacked love, they lacked God's gifts, they lacked fruit, they lacked everything. They were exactly like us, they lacked everything. Jesus said to them : "Donít you leave Jerusalem before you have received power from on high, the Holy Spirit whom I will pour out upon you. Donít you move till then !"

 

Too many Christians canít stay still and keep on running around without having been filled with the Holy Spirit ; so God canít produce the fruit He wants to produce in their lives, and they are unable to do the will of the Father. Even Jesus had to wait : remember how He began His ministry. He didnít begin before He was baptised by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, and you know what took place when He came out of the water : the Holy Spirit came down on Him in the form of a dove, and that was when he began His ministry. Of course He already had the Holy Spirit, but that was when He received Him with power from on high, as an anointing that came upon Him. He came into the fullness of the Spirit, the fullness of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and that was when the Spirit led Him into the wilderness where he encountered the devil. He overcame the devil ; after a forty-day fast, He prevailed over the evil one, and it was only then that He began to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit. So even Jesus didnít begin His ministry before receiving the Holy Spirit from on high, the Spirit who came upon Him on the day of His baptism, before He was tested in the wilderness where He demonstrated His utter consecration to His Father.

 

Jesus knew that he was one hundred per cent consecrated to the Fatherís purposes, but He had to be tested. The devil also knew that Jesus was consecrated, but our Lord had to be tested, to prove to His Father, to the whole world, and to the devil that he had consecrated His whole life, spirit, soul, and body, to serve the Lord. In the third chapter of Matthew, just before the passage I mentioned concerning Jesusí baptism in water and in the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist declares: "I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his threshing-floor." (Matt.3:11).

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