Life Capsule for Today Date: 15th November, 2023
Theme: Power from on High (4)
Memory Verse: Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” NIV
Topic: Prove of Holy Spirit Baptism
Text: Acts 10:38
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
NIV
Words of the Ministry:
Today we intend to proceed by looking at the prove of the baptism of the Spirit. We learnt in our previous lesson that to baptize means to immerse. To be baptized in the holy Spirit therefore means to be immersed in the Holy Spirit. The word baptize is an ancient Greek work commonly used by dyers, when they use the word concerning their trade, it implies a piece of cloth is immersed in dye and eventually becomes one color with the dye. So is baptism, baptism is to immerse a believer in the Holy Spirit to become one with the Spirit of power. Jesus severally taught he could do nothing without the Spirit, when he cast out devils, he said he did it through the Spirit of God. Baptism therefore makes us act like the Spirit of God. We outwardly express the Spirit power in human sphere.
What then is the prove of baptism, some argue it is the gift of tongues and others argue there is no prove you just know you have been baptized. Looking closely at the word of God, we must start and stop where it stops, the bible said they were promised the Spirit of Power, the same Spirit of power that descended on Jesus after Baptism Mat 3.17. We earlier learnt that this baptism of power is not for salvation but for service, so when Jesus was baptized in the Spirit it didn’t make him born again neither did the account in Act 2 make the disciples born again as they receive the Holy Spirit for salvation in Jhn 20.21-22. So what is the prove of this power from on high, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, simply put, the prove of the Holy Spirit Baptism is POWER!!!
Many argue that tongue is the only prove of Holy Spirit baptism and if you don’t speak in tongues, you are not baptized, first off, the disciples expected power not tongues (Act .8, Jhn 14.12,16), Peter said the tongue was to fulfil Joel’s prophesy in Joel 2.28-29, reading the passage, we would have noticed signs like prophesy, dreams and visions were mentioned while tongues was missing. Just as prophesy was obvious as a sign to prove the presence of power from on high in Acts 19 so is tongue a sign to prove the presence of power in Acts 2. In other words, even tongues were to be an expression of power i.e supernatural ability (Joel 2, 1 Cor 12 and Mark 16.17-18). So when a man is baptized with power from on high, what he receives is power but could be expressed as any of the gifts of the spirit be it tongues, prophesy, healing, miracles etc.
Tongues could have been obvious in Acts 2.4 and 10.44-46, it included prophesy in Acts 19 while no mention of tongues in Acts 8.34-39 and 9.17-19. In Acts 2 and 10 we would notice the events were peculiar because the Acts 2 captured the baptism of Jews before all men from all over the world and what proved to those visiting men that something happened to the disciples was that they heard the speak their languages glorifying God, Acts 10 also was the first record of Gentile believers, they spoke in tongues like the Jews to convince them that the same God that encountered them in the upper room also encountered the gentiles to their surprise. Other accounts barely mentioned tongues. We can therefore conclude that when the Holy Spirit comes upon a man, it is a baptism of power not tongues and the prove of such baptism is power not speaking in tongues. Tongues is just one of the nine supernatural signs to show that a man has been baptized with power from on high.
Bible in One Year: Acts 14-16
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