To baptize is to initiate or to begin a process of transformation. This process is brought into existence through the Holy Spirit, but each of us must yield our hearts so that transformation can take place in our lives.
The act of baptism means to dedicate your life to the Lord. Baptism in the Holy Spirit means that the Holy Spirit has begun to purify your heart and your life. This process is also known as the new birth. “The new birth consists in having new motives, new tastes, new tendencies. Those who are begotten unto a new life by the Holy Spirit, have become partakers of the divine nature, and in all their habits and practices, they will give evidence of their relationship to Christ. When men who claim to be Christians retain all their natural defects of character and disposition, in what does their position differ from that of the worldling? They do not appreciate the truth as a sanctifier, a refiner. They have not been born again.” The Review and Herald, April 12, 1892. In reality, they have not allowed the Holy Spirit to transform their life.
It is our privilege to receive the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” daily, if we will pray for it. This is how the purification process continues in our lives. God promises to give us a new heart and a new spirit and He will cause us to walk in His statutes (Ezekiel 11:19, 20). When we dedicate our heart and life to Him, He gives us of His Holy Spirit to begin that process and to continue that process if we want it continued.
We are told that even Jesus received that baptism of the Holy Spirit daily so He could impart to others. “Daily He received a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the early hours of the new day the Lord awakened Him from His slumbers, and His soul and His lips were anointed with grace, that He might impart to others. His words were given Him fresh from the heavenly courts, words that He might speak in season to the weary and oppressed. ‘The Lord God hath given Me,’ He said, ‘the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned.’ Isaiah. 50:4.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 139.
“O that the baptism of the Holy Spirit might come upon you, that you might be imbued with the Spirit of God! Then day by day you will become more and more conformed to the image of Christ, and in every action of your life, the question would be, ‘Will it glorify my Master?’ By patient continuance in well-doing you would seek for glory and honor, and would receive the gift of immortality.” The Review and Herald, May 10, 1892.
Remember that God wants each of us to be new creatures. He says, “Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:5. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”
II Corinthians 5:17.
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