{"id":286,"date":"2014-03-14T00:19:47","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T04:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/?p=286"},"modified":"2015-10-06T00:39:46","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T04:39:46","slug":"what-is-the-purpose-of-the-baptism-with-the-holy-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/what-is-the-purpose-of-the-baptism-with-the-holy-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Purpose of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"powertools_000\"<\/a>In this post, I am going to attempt to answer the following question:\u00a0 “What is the purpose of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit?”<\/p>\n

There are a lot of ways to answer that question, and there are a lot of angles to approach this from, but the short answer is this:\u00a0 It is a power tool* that helps you be more effective on your mission to represent Jesus.<\/p>\n

(*Please note that I am not saying the Holy Spirit is a power tool.\u00a0 He is God almighty, the third Person of the Trinity.\u00a0 Rather, I am referring to the effect<\/span> this Baptism experience has on a believer.)<\/em><\/p>\n

For a more detailed explanation, we will examine what Jesus said about it when He was prepping His followers who were about to receive it.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0 Acts chapter 1, we get to see some of the very last words that Jesus ever spoke to His followers before He ascended to heaven.\u00a0 The Baptism with the Holy Spirit was the topic.\u00a0 Here is the full quote:<\/p>\n

Acts 1:4-8<\/p>\n

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, \u201cwhich,\u201d He said, \u201cyou have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit<\/strong> not many days from now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, \u201cLord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?\u201d<\/p>\n

And He said to them, \u201cIt is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.\u00a0 But you shall receive power<\/strong> when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me<\/strong> in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Jesus, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit brings power to the believers.\u00a0 The result is that the believers will be equipped to represent Jesus better than before.<\/p>\n

You shall receive power…<\/em><\/h2>\n

I want to take a moment to elaborate on the word “power.”\u00a0 It is translated from the Greek word “dunamis<\/a><\/span>” which means miraculous strength, power and ability.\u00a0 In the New Testament, this word is used to describe supernatural signs, wonders, and displays of power.\u00a0 It means “miracle power” or “supernatural ability.”<\/p>\n

So the Lord is telling these disciples that they were going to receive power….power that would enable them to go beyond their natural abilities.\u00a0 He was saying that miracle power would soon be given to them by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 They were about to be empowered supernaturally.<\/p>\n

It is worth pausing here to meditate on this fact.\u00a0 Jesus says that His followers would receive miraculous power and ability when they are baptized with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 He wanted His representatives to be equipped for the mission He was sending them on.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is still true today.\u00a0 He still wants His followers to be equipped in the same way…but we will deal with that in another post.<\/p>\n

You shall be witnesses…<\/em><\/h2>\n

The audience in this passage is a group of people that had been with Jesus for up to three years.\u00a0 They were taught and trained by Him in person, and they had already experienced going out to represent Him (Luke 9:1-6).<\/p>\n

Then, after His death, burial and resurrection…just before He ascended to heaven…He gave them what we call “the great commission.”\u00a0 It included instructions for going out into all the world as His representatives.<\/p>\n

However, Jesus told them not begin until they had been baptized with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 The people who had been trained by Jesus in person still needed some extra equipment.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 They needed more than training, and more than experience.\u00a0 There was something else He wanted them to have.\u00a0\u00a0There was something else that they needed.<\/p>\n

(Side note:\u00a0 If these<\/strong> people needed extra equipment, then I feel very safe in saying that any believers that have not<\/strong> been trained in person by Jesus will need this extra equipment all the more).<\/em><\/p>\n

What they needed was to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 For what purpose? \u00a0 They would be empowered to represent Jesus in a new way.\u00a0 They would receive something that would enable them to be more effective at their mission.\u00a0 They had previously been given an assignment (go into all the world…), and now they are about to be given equipment to help them do it.<\/p>\n

This is like giving power tools to a carpenter, or like giving a calculator to an accountant.\u00a0 It is a “tool” that gives you the ability to fulfill your calling more effectively.\u00a0 Sure, the carpenter can build a house with hand tools.\u00a0 But that same carpenter can be much more effective when he has a power saw, a drill, and a nail gun.<\/p>\n

That leads us to the answer to our question:\u00a0 What is the purpose of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit?<\/p>\n

The purpose is to give supernatural power and ability to a believer that will enable him to fulfill his calling more effectively.\u00a0 It is a power tool that helps you be more effective on your mission to represent Jesus.<\/p>\n

>> Back to SERIES HOME<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

>> Next in series:\u00a0 A Separate Experience<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this post, I am going to attempt to answer the following question:\u00a0 “What is the purpose of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit?” There are a lot of ways to answer that question, and there are a lot of angles to approach this from, but the short answer is this:\u00a0 It is a power tool* that helps you be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[30,31],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baptism-with-the-holy-spirit","category-holy-spirit","tag-baptism-with-the-holy-spirit","tag-holy-spirit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4j58Y-4C","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1280,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/1280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bornofspirit.net\/here\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}