The Baptism with the Holy Spirit: What it is and what it does

Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a distinct work of God that empowers believers for service. It clarifies that this experience is separate from salvation, clear and recognisable, and brings spiritual gifts and strength tailored to each person’s calling.

Through Scripture and real-life examples, the chapter shows how this baptism equips believers to serve effectively, bringing both power and moral uplift.

While a great deal is said these days concerning the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, it is to be feared that there are many who talk about it and pray for it, who have no clear and definite idea of what it is. But the Bible, if carefully studied, will give us a view of this wondrous blessing that is clear and remarkably definite.

I. First of all, we find that there are several designations in the Bible for this one experience. In Acts 1:5, Jesus said, ''For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit." In Acts 2:4, when this promise was fulfilled, we read ''All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit." In Acts 1:4, the same experience is spoken of as ''the promise of the Father,'' and in Luke 24:49 as "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." By a comparison of Acts 10:44, 45, 47 with Acts 11:15, 16, we find that the expressions " Holy Spirit came on them, and “The gift of the Holy Spirit,” and “receive the Holy Spirit are all equivalent to "baptised with the Holy Spirit."

2. We find in the next place that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is an exact experience of which one may know whether he has received it or not. This is evident from our Saviour's command to the Apostles: "but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:49) If this enduement with power or Baptism with the Holy Ghost were not an experience so definite that one could know whether he had received it or not, how could they tell when those commanded days of tarrying were at an end? The same thing is clear from Paul's very definite question to the disciples at Ephesus.

Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? (Acts 19:2.) Paul expected a definite "yes" or a definite "no" for an answer. Unless the experience were definite and of such a character that one could know whether he had received it or not, how could these disciples answer Paul's question? They knew they had not "received" or been "baptised with" the Holy Ghost, and a short time afterward, they knew they had "received" or been "baptised with" the Holy Ghost.

(Acts 19: 6.) Ask many a man to-day who prays that he may be baptised with the Holy Ghost: ''Well, my brother, did you get what you asked, were you baptised with the Holy Ghost," and he would be suprised. He did not expect anything so clear that he could answer positively to a question like that, "yes" or ''no." However, we find in the Bible nothing of the uncertainty and lack of clarity that we often encounter in much of our modern prayer and speech regarding this subject. The Bible is an obvious book.

It is very clear about salvation that a man who knows his Bible can say positively "yes" or "no” to the question, "Are you saved?" It is equally clear about "the Baptism with the Holy Ghost:" so that a man who knows his Bible can say positively, “yes, “or” no, ' ' to the question, "Have you been baptised with the Holy Ghost." There may be those who are saved but do not know it, because they do not understand their Bibles; however, it is their privilege to know it. There may be those who have been baptised with the Holy Spirit, but do not know the biblical name for what has come to them; however, it is their privilege to know.

3. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a work of the Holy Spirit, separate and distinct from His regenerating work. To be regenerated by the Holy Spirit is one thing, to be baptised with the Holy Spirit is something different, something further. This is evident from Acts 1:5. There, Jesus said: "But in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”'' They were not then as yet "baptised with the Holy Ghost." But they were already regenerated. Jesus Himself had already pronounced them so. In John 15:3, he had said to the same men, “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you."

(James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23) and in John 13:10 "And you are clean, though not every one of you," the one unsaved man in the Apostolic company, Judas Iscariot, from the statement "You are clean." (See John 13:11.) The Apostles, excepting Judas Iscariot, were then already changed men, but they were not yet "baptised with the Holy Ghost." From this, it is evident that being born again is one thing, and that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is something different, something further. One can be born again and still not yet be baptised with the Holy Ghost.

The same thing is evident from Acts 8:12-16. Here we find a company of believers who had been baptised. Surely in this company of baptised believers, there were some saved men. But the record informs us that when Peter and John came down, they "prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them).”It is clear then that one may be a believer, may be a saved man, and yet not have the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is something distinct from and beyond His saving work. Not every saved man has the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, though, as we shall see later, every saved man may have this Baptism.

If a man has experienced the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, he is a saved man, but he is not fitted for service until, in addition to this, he has received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.

4. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is always connected with testimony and service.

Look carefully at every passage in which the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is mentioned, and you will see it is connected with and is for testimony and service. (For example, Acts 1:5, 8; Acts 2:4; Acts 4:31, 33.) This will come out very clearly when we come to consider what the Baptism with the Holy Spirit does. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is not to cleanse from sin, but to empower for service.

There is a line of teaching, put forward by a very serious but mistaken body of people, that has brought the whole doctrine of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit into disgrace. It runs this way: First proposition: there is a further experience (or second blessing) after transforming, namely, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. This proposition is true and can be easily proven from the Bible. Second proposition: This baptism with the Holy Spirit can be immediately received. This proposition is also true and can be easily proven from the Bible. Third proposition, this baptism with the Holy Spirit is the elimination of the sinful nature. This proposition is untrue. Not a line of Scripture can be mentioned to show that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the cleansing of the sinful nature.

The conclusion drawn from these three propositions, two true and one false, is necessarily false. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is not to cleanse from sin, but to empower for service. It is indeed the work of the Holy Spirit to cleanse from sin.

Furthermore, there is a work of the Holy Spirit where the believer is strengthened with might in the inner being: that Christ may dwell in their heart by faith, that they might be filled with all the fullness of God.

(Ephesians 3:16-19) There is a work of the Holy Spirit of such a character that the believer is "made free from the law of sin and death," (Romans 8:2) and through the Spirit does ''mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body." (Romans 8:13.) It is our privilege to walk daily and hourly in the power of the Spirit that the carnal nature is kept in the place of death. But this is not the Baptism with the Spirit, nor is it the elimination of the sinful nature. It is not something done once for all; it is something that must be momentarily maintained. "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16) While insisting that the Baptism with the Spirit is primarily for the purpose of empowering for service, it should be added that a great moral uplift accompanies the Baptism. (See Acts 2:44-46; Acts 4:31-35.) This is necessarily so, from the steps one must take to obtain this blessing.

5. We will get a still clearer and fuller view of what the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is; we will notice what this Baptism does. This is stated briefly in Acts 1:8. ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses," etc.

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit imparts "power," power for service. This power will not manifest itself in precisely the same way in each individual.

This is brought out very clearly in 1 Corinthians 12:4-13 "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them, To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are the work of the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

"In my early study of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, I noticed that in many instances those who were so baptised "spoke with tongues," and the question came often into my mind, if one is baptised with the Holy Spirit, will he not speak with tongues. But I saw no one speaking, and I often wondered, is there anyone today who actually is baptised with the Holy Spirit? This twelfth chapter of 1st Corinthians cleared me up on that, especially when I found Paul asking those who had been baptised with the Holy Spirit, "Do all speak in tongues?" (1 Corinthians 12:30) But I fell into another error, namely, that anyone who received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit would receive power as an evangelist, or as a preacher of the Word. This is equally contrary to the teaching of the chapter, that "there are diversities of gifts, but the one Spirit." There are three evils arising from the mistake just mentioned: first, disappointment. Many will seek the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, expecting power as an evangelist, but God has not called them to that work, and the power that comes from the Baptism with the Holy Spirit manifests itself in another way in them; many cases of bitter disappointment and almost despair have arisen from this cause.

The second evil is more serious than the first, presumption. A man whom God has not called to the work of an evangelist or minister rushes into it because he has received, or thinks he has received, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. Many a man has said, "All a man needs to succeed as a preacher is the Baptism with the Holy Spirit." This is not true: he needs a call to that specific work, and he needs the study of the Word of God that will prepare him for the work.

The third evil is still greater, indifference. Many know they are not called to the work of preaching. For example, a mother with a large family of children knows this. If then, they think that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit simply imparts power to preach, it is a matter of no personal concern to them; but when we come to see the truth that, while the Baptism with the Spirit imparts power, the way in which that power will be manifested, depends upon the work to which God has called us, and that no efficient work can be done without it, then the mother will see that she equally with the preacher needs this Baptism, for that most important and hallowed of all work, to bring up her children ''in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

I have recently met a very happy mother. A few months ago, she heard of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, sought it, and received it. "Oh," she joyfully exclaimed as she told me the story, "Since I received it, I have been able to get into the hearts of my children, which I was never able to do before."

It is the Holy Spirit Himself who decides how the power will manifest itself in any given case; "the spirit dividing to each one severally as He will (I Cor. xii: ii R. V.). We have a right to desire eagerly the greater gifts." (1 Corinthians 12:31), but the Holy Spirit is sovereign, and He, not we, must determine in the final issue. It is not for us then to select some gift and look to the Holy Spirit to impart the self-chosen gift; it is not for us to select some field of service and then look to the Holy Spirit to impart to us power in that field which we, and not He, have chosen. It is rather for us to recognize the divinity and sovereignty of the Spirit, and put ourselves openly at His disposal; for Him to select the gift that "He will" and impart to us that gift, and to select for us the field that "He will" and impart to us the power that will qualify us for the field He has chosen.

I once knew a child of God who, hearing of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and the power that resulted from it, gave up at a great sacrifice the secular work in which he was engaged and entered upon the work of an evangelist. But the expected power in that line did not follow. The man fell into great doubt and darkness until he was led to see that the Holy Spirit divided "to each one separately, even as He will." Then, giving up selecting his own field and gifts, he put himself at the Holy Spirit's disposal for Him to choose.

In the final outcome, the Holy Spirit imparted to this man power as an evangelist and a preacher of the Word. We must then surrender ourselves absolutely to the Holy Spirit to work as He will.

But, while the power that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit brings manifests itself in different ways in different individuals, there will always be power. Just as surely as a man is baptised with the Holy Spirit, there will be new power, a power not his own, "the power of the Highest!" Religious biography is exemplary in instances of men who have worked as best they could until one day they were led to see that there was such an experience as the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and to seek it and obtain it; from that hour, there came into their service a new power that utterly transformed their character.

Finney, Brainerd, and Moody are cases in point. But cases of this character are not confined to a few exceptional men; they are becoming common.

The writer has personally met and corresponded with hundreds during the past twelve months, who could testify to the new power that God had granted them through the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. These hundreds of men and women were in all branches of Christian service. Many of them were ministers of the gospel, others mission workers, Y.

M. C. A. secretaries, Sundayschool teachers, personal workers, fathers, and mothers.

Nothing could exceed the clearness, confidence, and joyfulness of many of these testimonies. What we have in promise in the words of Christ, many have, and all may have, in glad experience: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”

To sum up the contents of this chapter: The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God coming upon the believer, taking possession of his faculties, imparting to him gifts not naturally his own, but which qualify him for the service to which God has called him.