Power by the Baptism in the Spirit

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Now, if the power of the kingdom is the Holy Spirit, then kingdom power was given to the church on the Day of Pentecost. It is more than power and authority. In a saying of key importance, Christ announced to His followers, “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

Believers inherit the kingdom “lock, stock, and barrel.” The kingdom power, which rested on Christ Jesus, was there to work signs and wonders. The same Spirit is given to those within the kingdom of God for the same kingdom purposes. 

As John the Baptist revealed, “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptises with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). The Spirit, who endowed Jesus, now endows His people with the same power.

There is a difference between Christ and His followers, and it is rather noticeable! The difference is first Himself—who He is. Those who say, “The words of Christ on our lips are the same as those on Christ’s lips,” must remember this: it is not the words that matter but who says them. 

We may be adopted sons of God, but Jesus is the eternal and only begotten Son of God. The second difference is that the Spirit comes from Him. He is the source. We are not sources but channels, riverbeds through which the waters of His fullness flow.

Until Christ, nobody had been baptised in the Spirit. The term means something different from the attachment of the Spirit to Old Testament men and women. 

First Samuel 16:13 says Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed David, and the Spirit of the Lord “came upon David from that day forward.” Such experiences are never expressed as a “baptism.” The Holy Spirit’s relationship with blood-washed, born-again believers is new. John 14:17 says that the Spirit “dwells with you and will be in you.” That is why a new expression is used. It is to express a new kind of experience.

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