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Continuing on our journey of Jesus' characteristics in the gospel of John we come across these verses:

'And John [the Baptist] bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptises with the Holy Spirit.’' John 1:32-33

While it is important to note at the outset that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are different Persons in the Godhead, in terms of Jesus' earthly ministry I think it is important to recognise this occurence that John the Baptist bore witness to.

Beginning

The first thing we must notice here is that Jesus' ministry started at this point. Although Jesus is God, he exemplified how we must approach our ministry in that he did not begin until the Spirit had come upon him. It has been my observation that many Christians either deny their reliance on the Holy Spirit or ask for his help only to end up relying on their own initiative and power. Despite the fact that Jesus is God, he still refused to begin his ministry without first being filled with the Spirit. Let us all have the humility to ask God for His help, for His Spirit, to aid us in our ministry so we can do it in His strength rather than ours - and let us do this at the beginning, as a top priority.

'...descend and remain...'

It is interesting that twice John uses these two words, to descend and to remain - the combination of the two must be important! We should learn that the Spirit works by descending upon us, and by remaining with us. My experiences of various churches and events have given me two extreme views of the Spirit's work: first that he comes in an enormous experience in which we see many manifestations and that is all that's important, and second that the Spirit is always there with us but that we would never expect to actually see any miraculous events occuring. The truth is that we must have a biblical definition of what it is to be Spirit-filled. The Spirit descends - so we can have experiences of a particular time of being 'filled' with the Spirit, but he remains with us - as Christians we are always to be 'filled' with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18 instructs us to 'be filled with the Holy Spirit', and the phrase 'be filled' in the Greek is in the continuous imperative i.e. 'keep on being filled'! Being Spirit-filled must be a way of life, but must accomodated individual times of closeness to God as we are filled with his Spirit afresh.

'...baptises with the Holy Spirit'

Finally, Jesus is the Spirit-baptiser. The One who fills us with the Spirit is Jesus himself, who exemplified the Spirit-filled life. The Greek word baptizdo means 'to immerse, 'to plunge, to overwhelm' - and so that is the kind of experience we should expect as we encounter God's Holy Spirit - we can expect to be immersed in the Holy Spirit; to be plunged into the depths of the Holy Spirit; to be overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. Now please catch my heart - I am not saying we should all be screaming and going crazy as the Holy Spirit comes upon us, I would like to be biblical - it is clear from 1Corinthians that God does not take over control of our bodies when we are filled with the Spirit (e.g. 'we prophesy in part' 1 Corinthians 13:9). Our experience must be the same as when we are baptised in water by full emersion; still entirely in control but surrounded on every side by the Spirit!

The fact that the One who pours out the Spirit on us is the One who bore our sin on the cross is a humbling truth, and one which should encourage us - Jesus knows who we are, he's the One who died in our place and so is acutely aware of what our needs and temptations are. To that end he will give the Spirit to us as we need him most - let's be humble enough to ask, and confident enough to receive!

"God's Words For US" from Cecelia Lester

Character