The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

i'm writing this in response to a brief conversation with a group of friends. i will attempt to put forward my understanding on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. my belief is based on what i have read in books, heard from people and most importantly studied from the Bible. it is not the final word and i am not a scholar of the Bible, so feel free to comment and leave your thoughts and counterarguments. (i also apologise for the messy thoughts and long introduction, i have tried my best to sort out as best as i can, but my talent is clearly in engineering and not writing)

i believe that salvation, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit are three separate events although they most certainly can come at the same time. salvation happens when a person is convicted by God to confess the truth that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that He died and rose again so that we may have eternal life as new creations in Christ. the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an event further to this, as we are promised by Jesus that the Holy Spirit will be given to us as power from on high. and the filling of the Holy Spirit is post-baptism of the Holy Spirit, when we are given renewed power to carry out our ministry.

as a preface i'd like to note that there are different expressions of the same baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. Acts 10:44-48 help us understand that the phrases 'the Holy Spirit came/fell on all', 'Holy Spirit poured out on', and 'baptism of the Holy Spirit' are synonymous.

Acts 10:44-48 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all (KJV: fell on all) who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

so now, done with definitions and all, on to the topic proper.

one of the reasons why this is such an arguable topic is that in many instances, the baptism of the Holy Spirit comes immediately after the person is saved. but there are several instances in the Bible that have the baptism of the Holy Spirit happening at separate times from salvation.

most obviously, pentecost. the disciples were regenerated christians, as they waited for the day when Jesus would send the Holy Spirit to the disciples. it is unquestionable that if any of the disciples had died in those days, they would surely have gone to heaven (John 13:10 Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.") obviously this is so as they were believers and they believed that Jesus had redeemed them.

it can be argued that this was a one time event, and subsequently the Holy Spirit was given immediately to all who believe. one big argument is that the baptism of the Holy Spirit and salvation is a package deal; you cannot receive one without the other since the Godhead is a trinity. yet clearly in this instance we see that it can be separated, and while it is a package deal, they do not arrive in the same parcel.

how can someone can be baptised in the Holy Spirit without knowing it? if the disciples were told to wait until power came from on high, how can this 'power' be of an indefinite experience? if Paul can ask in Acts 19:2 the question "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?", it shows that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a clear and distinctive event separate from believing.

continuing on from Acts 19:1-6, They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?"/ "John's baptism," they replied. Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. (NIV)

the group of believers were baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus. AND when Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them. (the 'and' appears in KJV) distinctly separate from salvation.

in Acts 8, Peter and John were sent to some of Philip's converts (converted in verse 12), and they arrived some time later, and verse 15-17 reads "When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. "

these verses make it clear to me that salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit are separate events. some confusion arises when we read verses like 1 Cor 12:13 "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body..." and we think, so if we are not baptized in the Holy Spirit are we not saved? perhaps the explanation is that in biblical times, all believers were prayed for to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit as quickly as possible after salvation. (in Acts 8, after Philip converted the people, Peter and John were sent to lay hands on them.) and it is obvious why it was so important to receive these 2 together.

because the purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is power. the empowerment to witness and conduct effective ministry. Acts 1:8 reads "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." every mention of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is followed by witnessing in power. 3000 people were saved on the very first outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

if the baptism of the Holy Spirit is this powerful, it is certainly most necessary for our christian journey. whether or not the baptism of the Holy Spirit is coupled with salvation becomes somewhat irrelevant; the question is are we baptized in the Holy Spirit? if the disciples were told to wait for power to come (despite having 3 years of hardcore training from Jesus himself), do we dare to do powerless ministry? is God dishonoured by powerless ministry?

i cannot wait for the day when we will finally understand the Word. but until then i pray that we keep seeking to know Him more, to live His truth and to be a testimony to the world. a powerful testimony as we seek His filling everyday. may we walk in the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, be taught by the Spirit, and as we start this week let us seek to experience the enriching of our life in Christ Jesus and wealthy in the things of God. may God give us abundantly from His infinite love, grace, wisdom and mercy. and let us be receptive to receive these gifts and grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. let's finally make time for God, the time we promised Him when we made our new year's resolutions.

technology takes over the world!!! aaah!!!

ok, i cant sleep. so i shall let my brain type stuff. let us speculate on the future of technology, and it's integration with humankind. i suppose it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when technology will fuse with flesh and we become part machine.

there are already exoskeletons used by the military that are worn by soldiers, and it helps them carry much heavier loads. the speed of technology has always been rapid, and very soon they will have wearable suits that make a person faster, stronger.

but, that is physical. what about mental powers? we have managed to figure out what part of the brain is responsible for certain actions, emotions, etc. we have antidepressants that prevent neurons from firing in regions that make us sad. one day these things will be controlled by a microchip implanted in our brain, and at first it will be for the sick people, who have mental conditions. then normal people will have them as mini calculators, so that we can mentally compute stuff. then it will have memory space, for when we need extra brain power to remember stuff (and it will record emotion as well), then we will use it to make us high. we wouldnt need drugs since we can directly control our brain patterns electronically.

someone will put in the ability to communicate wirelessly. we won't need to talk, but send through our brains images, emotions, ideas. like telepathy. we will interact on a level beyond words and actions, and we'll bridge the language barrier. we can download stuff onto our brains, so we don't actually have to go to school.

and then we can be immortal, just clone our bodies, and transfer our brain files. we all become alike because we all know the same things. we become dull and not need interaction because we never feel lonely, we are always happy. and thennn a religious radical (who probably isnt so radical really) one day sets off an EMP bomb.

and we die.

good night :)

australia australia!

arrived in australia at 1130pm last night because of a problem with the plane, which delayed it about an hour :( arrived at lydia's house at 1am plus, skyped with lala and showered and prepared for the next day, and then i slept at 2plus.

hur. today my sister and i went to school first to attend a getting started and accomodation session, which was useful :) i'll be finding an apartment as soon as i can, cos i wanna settle down so that we can actually shop and all.

then went around shopping in town (after the museum), and bought some essentials like lip balm and moisturizer (this place is dry and cold man!) and got myself the optus cards. the registration process is a bummer man! they asked me for a contact number when i was registering for a phone -_-

surprise!

heh, angela and my sis planned a surprise party for me at the mind cafe; bloody scheming people had me on for a whole week!

anyway, angela wanted to go mind cafe, so we went and she influenced me to choose mind cafe by saying we can have a bacardi on the river afterwards. so i was like ok let's go boat quay (i originally planned to go to city hall so we could get a webcam too haha)

so i walked into the third floor, and i saw my NS friends there and went up to them and was like oi! bo jio! and then i was like hello hello to everyone and out of the corner of my eye i saw my church people and then i moved over to their table and said went hello hello! to all of them (kind of wanting to surprise my NS friends that like there was some super coincidence). and then while i was shaking hands it dawned on me -_-

and all this while they were watching me (purposely not telling me it was a surprise)

so yes hahaha i got punked by the two girls i love the most. and i was pleasantly surprised at the ability of angela to lie hahaha she's usually damn readable.

haha thanks to all who came :D it was really fun <3

reflections 1

overall, my ns experience was useful: i learnt many things about leadership, diligence/hard work and appreciating friends. but these are lessons that i would have learnt anyway, and given the choice i would not serve these 2 years; they are much better spent doing other things (unless some favourable changes are made, such as the option to choose where you want to serve)

inefficiency
one of the things i learnt about a secure organization is that safety and security are on the opposite side of the see-saw from efficiency. to get a simple job done, there is a long string of processes in order to approve, organise and perform the job. in some ways this is much like the swiss cheese model which i learnt about in 'human factors'. where every layer of 'defense' has a hole, and the more layers you have the better because the holes won't line up and you cannot pass through it.

the army is comprised of four general groups of people:
the regulars who love the army
these are the people who sign on to serve the army full time because they love it. they love soldiering, they love defending their country, they love leading men and inspiring them to do so too. the army is built on these people.

the regulars who didnt have any other choice
these are the people who sign on because the pay is good, and/or their educational qualifications aren't too good (and they don't wish to study), and/or they are lazy people who want to earn a decent salary while doing nothing. these are the people that make the army a pitiful place to be, especially if you are the first type of person, or the third:

the NSFs who give their best
to these people, NS is an opportunity to learn, to gain experience, and to be prepared for working life. these are also the people who have an idea of what they would like to serve as in NS, but of course, as life would have it, never get it. but still they work hard; these are the people that make NS work, along with category 1. I used to be this person, but after realising (after like 1 and a half years) that people in cat 2 exist, i became

the NSFs who dont give a shit and just want to be done with it
dont get me wrong, everyone wants to get it done and over with, but these are the people who drag their feet on the way there, making everything difficult for everyone, complaining about everything, and doing nothing. (much akin to how the press thinks it can be a better president of the US). these are the people who are at the bottom of the food chain later in life, so i dont give a shit.

thus concludes part 1 :)

reflections on ns

i've been thinking about what NS means to me, what it has done to me, and what difference it has made in my life, good or bad. more later.

meanwhile i feel contrained by my laptop. small screen, puny keyboard and an irritating as ass mouse.

oh, and vista is the testicles of a shitzu. it completely sucks, and is as slow as can be. takes me 2 minutes to start up, even after i deleted all the junkshit and deleted alot of startup services.

windows 7 please come faster!

big week!

this week has been a big big week!

i bought a laptop (acer) which doesnt want to recognise my graphics card (cos i reinstalled everything, i dont trust OEM crap). i originally wanted to port to XP only but it seems to be too much of a problem with my gfx card, so now i just installed vista and trimmed it down alot. like alot. its now running twice as fast as before the crap.

then there's my camera! which lala bought for me :) panasonic lumix lz8! i LOVE it. its so crystal clear i could take a picture of my face and brush teeth, pop pimples and floss from that picture.

just so we can photodate when im in AU! SHES SO AWESOME RIGHT.

best girlfriend ever.

oh and i checked out FCBC today, by God's provision delirious was there leading worship! awesome stuff, God really used them to minister to me. i wish angela was there though, to enjoy it with me and maybe she'll find that she likes that church. -shrug-