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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

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.

I will end this article with all of the incredible benefits and blessings that you can expect to receive if you decide you want to receive this gift.

These benefits and blessings are extremely powerful and life changing, and they will all completely change and transform the quality of your life.

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.

Once the Holy Spirit releases to come up into your soul, you are going to be as close to Him, God, and Jesus as you possibly can get while living down here on this earth.

Through the Holy Spirit, you will have direct access, a direct connection to both God and Jesus in heaven.

This gift is just going to bring you that much closer to the Three of Them due to the fact that He will now be residing with you up in your soul area.

You will be truly Spirit-filled when this happens.

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:

Sandile

Wednesday 11th of January 2023

which verse supports the second baptism, which is of the soul? Also which verse supports the "more" closeness to God once the soul is baptised.

alan

Monday 21st of June 2021

i was reading your words ,and i read about weeping,i may have clicked on a high lighted portion on readiong all.can you direct me to where i read that.thanks.i also received on three seperate occasions.physically received.when i was 20 years old,when i was 33 years old and recently when i was 63 years of age.each one was different in its own way,i'm sure it is the trinity i am now 68 and acquiring wisdom,through the holy spirit.i wanted to tell you this,but my reason and question was about the section on weeping.thanks from alan.

Joseph Bissinger

Monday 31st of May 2021

Hello Michael,I have been struggling with being "filled" with the Holy Spirit for years! Yes I had hands laid upon me, nothing, Baptized, nothing,asked God to fill me with the Holy Spirit,Nothing. I currently have been "flat lined"meaning I don't feel like reading the Bible,don't feel like praying,I feel forsaking.I prayed for understanding (Bible)my prayers are lackluster and seem like a waste of time.Sorry for the long e mail but this has been most of my life! I'm 62.And the strange thing is my son is going through the exact same thing!Actually he went through it first I tried to encourage him and now I know what he was talking about!I have been an ineffective Christian. I even tried years ago to just give up, but like Peter said "Lord where am I to go..?" Embarrassingly,I have talked to about 20 Pastors and Christian Counselors,but they basically said the same thing."sounds like you love the Lord and are on the right track keep praying about it".I haven't tried what you said yet quite frankly I'm afraid,because if i do and nothing changes,well I'm not sure how much more my faith can take!Thanks for listening.And if your right, Thanks for saving my walk.

Helene Mitchley

Thursday 28th of January 2021

Michael I am confused, In Acts 19:2 Paul asked did you receive the Holy Spirit....they said no, whereas he described when baptised with water (John the Baptist) you show your desire to turn from your sin to God, but to be baptised in the Name of Jesus and hands laid on you you receive the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. Now my questions why did Paul tell them to be rebaptised to receive the Holy Spirit? Even Paul was baptised (when he was Roman soldier) and when he converted he was baptise to receive the Holy Spirit? Please give me more clearance on this subject Kind regards

Gary L Riedl

Wednesday 10th of February 2021

Although it was common practice to baptize with water, water doesn’t guarantee that the Holy Spirit will dwell in us. When people say they have been baptized, we have to probe a little to find out just what they mean by that. If they say that water was poured on them, it was the ceremony; however, if they say they had an experience in them that was life changing, it was the Holy Spirit (this, however, is very subjective). Therefore, while water was used to baptize people, there is a secondary baptism that takes place through the Holy Spirit. Peter explains this in a very straight forward way in 1 Peter 3:21 when he says, “Water symbolizes baptism that now saves you...not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection.”

Katrina Barber

Friday 25th of December 2020

I’ve already been baptized in the Holy Spirit and it was a wonderful experience..like one you can never imagine. He searched my heart then too and gave me the gift of prophecy. But I never prepared for it, I didn’t know I was going to even get baptized this way with the Lord. I thought water baptism was the only way and I did that at 12, but no the Lord did this Himself and said He chose me so I don’t think being mentally prepared is important just spiritually. Anyhow my question I was searching for is with all this being said am I still able to have an unclean spirit? Someone mentioned this and I wanted answers..if anyone can help please and thank you.