Baptism with Fire

.... To fully understand how the Holy Spirit applies His lessons of Jesus' character, and how He uses them to transform us, we must grasp the full context in which He offers them. Remember that Jesus was said to baptize ‘with the Holy Spirit and fire’. The original Greek in this passage implies a single, unified thought. In other words, the baptism with the Holy Spirit is always accompanied by fire, and to try to separate these elements of thought does violence to the meaning of the passage.

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.... The ‘fire’ of our baptism refers to the trials in our lives (which none of us are immune to anyway, so we might as well achieve some progress by trying to learn from them). For just as the apostles shared in the trials of Jesus (Luke 22:28), the Holy Spirit will share in our trials with us, while pointing us to Jesus in every way. He is called the parakletos or ‘Helper’, which means ‘one who comes alongside’. In this way He will guide us into all truth, and use each opportunity to remake us a little more into Jesus’ image:

.... "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

(Ephesians 2:10)

.... In the Scriptures, our trials are likened to a refiner’s fire, and using this as a parable allows us to understand the process better:

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.... Through trials, we are put through the ‘heat’ of life, so that our hardness will soften or even melt, that we may become pliable in the Master’s hand – just as silver or some other precious metal would become pliable. This way, the Master can begin His work to change our lives into a new shape that pleases Him.

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.... As a part of the same process, the impurities within us (called dross,) will boil to the surface where they may be spooned away. Thus, the vessel becomes purer at the same time. The Apostle Peter described the process well:

.... ". . . In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

(1 Peter 1:6-7)

.... And in very similar words, the baptism with the Holy Spirit was described by John the Baptist:

.... "John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."

(Luke 3:16-17)

.... The Holy Spirit’s lessons will match the life of Jesus to our own situations, which will give us an opportunity for applying His life in our own, to live a little bit more of our life with Him.

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Daily Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 14