Do We Have all that God Has For us?
In 1900 Charles Parham gathered 40 students together in Topeka, Kansas, to answer the question, “is the baptism of the Holy Ghost for us today?” On New Year’s Eve, that question was answered, and all of Christianity was changed from that moment.
Do we have all that God has for us? John the Baptist spoke of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and added something more:
[Mat 3:11 KJV] 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and [with] fire:
The cessationists (Baptists, etc.) say when you get born again, you receive all that God has for you as defined by Mat. 3:11
Pentecostals and Charismatics rightly concluded – “no there is something more – as reflected in Paul’s question to the believers he found when he traveled to Corinth:
[Act 19:2 KJV] 2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
Of course, “full gospel” believers make the assumption that when the baptism of the Holy Ghost comes, it is “the Holy Ghost and Fire” thence concluding NOW we have it all. Really? Are we sure?
Do we not make the same mistake – commit the same error as the cessationists who were so quick to believe there was nothing more in God than what they were prepared to believe and experience?
John spoke of 3 baptisms – water, spirit, and FIRE. Do we have the baptism of fire?
Under the law, the people were required to appear “three times before the Lord.”
[Exo 23:17 KJV] 17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
Three feasts were celebrated – Passover (salvation), Pentecost (Spirit baptism), and Tabernacles.
What is tabernacles? In salvation, the human spirit is born again.
In the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the mind is immersed in God’s spirit (James 3:8);
What about tabernacles? What is left? I.E., the redemption of the body – something physical, for our bodies are the temple/tabernacle of God (1 Cor. 3:17).
Is there any example of the Baptism of Fire that might manifest or affect the human body?
[Mat 17:2 KJV] 2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
There are three feasts and three baptisms. The first two feasts and baptisms point directly to a personal, intimate spiritual experience impacting the spirit man and the soul (mind, will, emotions). Certainly, it follows that there is a 3rd baptism?
Some call this the rapture, the adjudication of the saints, the redemption of the purchased possession, body-felt salvation, putting on immortality, but whatever it is or is not as modeled by Jesus, it doesn’t take us anywhere out of the earth and after receiving it no one will necessarily physically notice it (Matt. 17:9,19).
Whatever the rapture is – there is that aspect of it that will be personal, intimate, and involve faith to receive, just like salvation and baptism of the Spirit (Heb. 11:5).
The baptism of the Holy Spirit initially came to a people who were seeking and setting themselves aside – suspending business as usual. The result was a total deconstruction of the prevailing religious system and a fresh institution of the economy of God – from the Judaism that crucified Jesus to the living vibrancy of the early church that brought the world to its knees at the foot of the cross.
