John's Witness: The One Who Baptizes With The Holy Spirit

John also said Jesus was the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

The word baptism comes from the Greek word “baptizo”, which means “immerse” or “wash.” The baptism of the Holy Spirit is an immersion in the Spirit, a total saturation in God that washes away all sin and changes you from mortal to immortal. A new life is created within you by the Holy Spirit, and that new life is eternal.

Are you wondering if you’ve been baptized by the Holy Spirit?
1) Scripture explains that the moment you put your faith in Jesus, then you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

2) If you know you believe in Jesus, and you know that you’ve put your faith in Him, then you know you have the Spirit

3) Your life will show it. With God’s Spirit comes all of Who God is, and His character will become visible in you

4) You also receive gifts from the Spirit, an empowering to serve others, especially other believers, in a variety ways. Your prayers are answered in powerful ways, you notice that God makes what you do and say effective in other people’s lives.

5) This is a one time event, scripture explains. But again and again you can be filled to the brim and overflowing with God’s life and power, His Spirit.

Being baptized with water is the visible way of illustrating this profound and powerful spiritual thing that has happened, God creating new life in you.

Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world and baptizes with the Holy Spirit

Have you put your hands on Jesus and confessed your sin?

Have you accepted the substitute that God has provided so that you can live forever, instead of suffering the corruption and death that sin brings?

Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit?

This is the very heart of being a Christian.

When you tell people about Jesus, it’s not about God fixing all their problems, or making sure you have all the things you want, or that you will never suffer again, or that life will be smooth sailing. We think we want those things. But what we really long for is what we really need, to be forgiven, and to be made one with God and with each other through His Holy Spirit.

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John's Witness: The Incarnate Word Dwelt Among Us

Because we are made in the image of God, our original design was to display God's holiness. And because God made people like Himself, people have the ability to be in relationship with God. Being in loving fellowship with God is every person's greatest purpose, every person's greatest good, deepest fulfillment, pleasure, happiness and satisfaction.

So John went on to say that

...The Word became flesh and dwelt among us

Literally, that word “dwelt” means “tabernacled,” which would have made the Jews think immediately of God’s tabernacle in Exodus. During the desert years, the Hebrew people lived in tents, and God had a tent pitched for Himself as well, which would be His home, so He could live among the people.

God’s Shekinah, the pillar of fire and cloud which was the visible aspect of His presence, descended on the tabernacle and tented with the rest of the Hebrews in the desert.

The law was kept and put on display at the gate of God’s tabernacle. It was the place of revelation, where Moses would speak to God face to face, and God would speak to the people.

People came to God’s tent, the tabernacle, to worship Him and at the tabernacle, the sprinkled blood of sacrifices would symbolize God’s forgiveness for their sin. Now Jesus fulfilled all that by taking on a body to tabernacle in with His people

...And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The glory that Moses had asked God to show him, John saw in Jesus.

Jesus was fully man, but He never stopped being God. John the Baptist gave his testimony that even though Jesus had been born six months after the Baptist, and even though Jesus started His ministry after the Baptist had start prophesying in the desert, still

John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'"

Jesus is from eternity.

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