As we approach Pentecost Sunday, June 9th, 2019, let’s ask the Lord Jesus for a fresh ‘infilling’ of the person and presence of the Holy Spirit. One of the keys to a powerful intercessory prayer life is ‘praying in the Spirit.’ Dutch Sheets states boldly, “Without a doubt the greatest single key to successful intercession is learning to co-operate with the Holy Spirit allowing him to be all he was sent to be in us!”
As John the Baptist stated,
“This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes in and with the Holy Spirit.” (John 1:30-33)
God-the-Son in our flesh who comes to take away the sin of the world, is also the One who comes to baptize in and with the Holy Spirit. The two works belong together. When these two titles are kept together the gospel is really ‘good news.’ Jesus-to-the-rescue takes away sin, and then baptizes humans in and with the Spirit of God.
The term baptize simply means to ‘immerse.’ The Greek text uses both ‘in’ and ‘with,’ the Holy Spirit. The ’in’ relates to that which we are immersed into, and the ‘with’ speaks of that which saturates us or literally, overwhelms us. Therefore, Jesus the Baptist dunks us in and drenches us with the very life of the Triune God!
Dallas Willard uses the word ‘engulfment’ to describe this experience. Jesus promises an engulfment in the Spirit of God. He promises to clothe us, or dress us with ‘power from on High.’ Jesus of Nazareth, God-in-flesh, redeems us from the power and grip of sin and then baptizes us, immerses us, soaks us, dresses us, saturates us, drenches us, and marinates us with the very Life of the Living God!
When the text says that Jesus ‘baptizes,’ it is in the present tense. In New Testament Greek the tenses of verbs speak of the time of action and the kind of action. The ‘present’ tense speaks of continuous action, literally ‘to keep on.’ Jesus is the one who keeps on baptizing in and with the Holy Spirit. In other words, He comes to keep on soaking us, keep on drenching us, keep on immersing us, keep on filling us with the Holy Spirit, until every fiber of our being radiates with the very presence of the Living God!
We see this confirmed in the story of the early church! Jesus promises, “in a few days you will be baptized in and with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5). On the day of Pentecost, ‘they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”(Acts 2:4). And then a few chapters later in Acts 4:31, the text says, “the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:31).
Paul says that it is God’s will that we ‘be filled with the Spirit.’ Not just once, twice, but over and over again!
“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,” (Eph. 5:17-18)
Whereas wine can ruin one’s judgment leading to debauchery, in contrast ‘being filled with the Spirit,’ leads to empowerment, self-control and a life exhibiting the fruits of the Holy Spirit! It is the nature of Jesus to keep on giving his life to us. He fills us and keeps on filling us in stages, ‘grace upon grace’ as John puts it, transforming us from, ‘glory to glory’ as Paul teaches us (2 Cor. 3:18).
Barriers
I believe there are two common reasons why many do not experience the fullness of the Spirit in their lives. The first is fear. We fear that if we really open up to Spirit we might be swept up into something beyond our control. The fact it is, Jesus is beyond our control. We are talking about the Living Lord Jesus coming to occupy and possess us by the Holy Spirit! Out of fear we can settle for a form of religion devoid of power. We try to domesticate the One who is an All-Consuming Fire and settle for the predictable even if it is no longer satisfying.
The second reason is the lack of hunger. We think we have all we need. We are content with what God has done for us, and we no longer come to God desperately needy and poor in Spirit.
However, the reality is that we need the life of God ever-increasing, ever flowing like a river out of our innermost being (John 7:37-39). We need to come more and more under the sway and influence of the Holy Spirit!
We need to be invaded, and permeated, saturated, and flooded with the life of the Spirit in every aspect of our lives! From the very beginning, God has revealed his passion to give his Very Self to the world.
The Holy One intends to fill the whole created order with his Glory! The filling of the Holy Spirit makes fully alive, fully human! We are finally what we were created to be when filled with and animated by the life of the Triune God!
In Luke 11, Jesus writes,
“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
The Father is a good father and gives good gifts to his children. In our life of prayer we come to him in dependence recognizing we can’t do anything apart from Jesus.
We need HELP! As Alvin VanderGriend states, “The Father is in the prayer-assistance business. He has appointed his Son, Jesus to be our enthroned prayer assistant, and his Holy Spirit to be our indwelling prayer assistant.” Jesus is telling us to ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking for the great Helper, the third person of the Trinity!
So this Jesus comes as a Lamb- to- the- rescue to take away the sin of the world. And He comes to baptize again and again and again in and with the Holy Spirit. And whenever he does “there enters into our helplessness and fatigue, ‘a surge of new life,’ and we are freshly empowered, “to do the undoable, to face the un-faceable, to bear the unbearable.” (William Barclay)
Let’s return to the Holy Spirit, turning away from our own works to a total dependence on the Holy Spirit!
Dr Jason Hubbard - Executive Coordinator
International Prayer Connect