To close off this initial series about committing your life to Christ, I want to encourage you to be baptized by water and by the Holy Spirit. Chances are, you’ve heard about at least one of these practices before. I basically want to go through the reasons why we practice baptism and what the goals are.
Baptism is first and foremost a physical action that I believe has an effect in the spiritual realm. In the physical world, you are standing before your church family, your friends and hopefully your own family, and making a public declaration that you intend to live your life as a Christian. I believe that you can be saved without being baptized, but to keep growing in your spiritual walk, it is an important step to take. Some people accept Christ in adverse and extenuating circumstances (for example, on a deathbed). God is gracious and will save them anyway. This can be seen in the example of the thief who died beside Jesus on the cross. In Luke, chapter 23, verse 39 to 43, Jesus promises to take the repentant thief to paradise.
Ideally, as you grow in your Christian life, you will want to be obedient and follow the example that Christ set. DO note that I support baptism as an act that follows Jesus’ example, not as a ritual of the church. If God himself in flesh needed to be baptized, then we should definitely follow his lead. Again, I believe that the act of baptism spiritually helps to empower you to live for Christ.
Being immersed in water is symbolic of being washed and cleansed. You enter the water to make a declaration that you are now living for Christ, and through His transforming power, are becoming a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). What is accomplished in the physical realm has a spiritual implication that you are renewed, rejuvenated, and ready to go to the next level.
Usually before getting baptized, you meet with the Pastor and talk about your salvation experience. S/he will explain to you some of the things mentioned above. At the time of your baptism, you might be asked to speak and share what God has done in your life, or the pastor may speak on your behalf. Usually, you close your eyes, a short prayer is said and then you are pulled into the water backwards and brought back up. These are celebratory moments for family and friends.
I am afraid of water. The idea of being dunked really scared me, but if you’ve read the other posts on this site, I have already told the tale of how I was baptized. Because the experience was not authentically selected by me, I sometimes wish that I had the chance to do it all over again. I believe that God knows my heart and accepted it. I am always happy to see new people step up and make this declaration! As a mature Christian, I encourage you to keep attending baptism services and pray for the people who are taking that step. They will need support and spiritual guidance from that point for times when the going gets rough.
Not every church believes in baptism of the Holy Spirit, but I do. And because I am not a theologian, may God give me the grace to explain this! I believe that being a Christian means living an empowered life, that is, that the Holy Spirit actually lives inside us when we make the decision to accept Christ. That Holy Spirit is what changes us from who we were before, into who we are when Christ is leading our lives. He gives us patience and peace in the midst of a storm. As we do things to strengthen His presence in our life, like reading the Bible, praying, being in fellowship with other Christians and going to church, He gets stronger and is able to be a voice of reason, a gut instinct and give instruction on how to live. If believers interact with the Holy Spirit as a person, as part of the Holy Trinity, I believe that the Holy Spirit will speak back and give them the ability to live differently. And I think that this transformation happens at different times in our Christian walk. It may happen right at the moment of salvation. It might happen years down the road. To each his/her own.
I grew up in a church where it was expected that believers who were baptized in the Holy Spirit would speak in tongues. We would go to really long prayer meetings, and I would hear people who knew how to speak in tongues uttering their heavenly babble. I questioned the validity of this practice, and no matter how I willed it, the gift of tongues never materialized for me. I felt guilty, like I wasn’t a good enough Christian. I felt rejected by God, somehow inferior. I sometimes thought to memorize someone else’s heavenly language and pass it off on my own.
The Holy Spirit was still active in my life, because I cultivated a relationship with Him. If not for this, I might have given up on the faith a long time ago. In 2005, in the privacy of my bedroom, I was fervently praying for God to change some things in my life. Somewhere in that time, my mind disconnected from mouth- meaning I stopped thinking about what I was saying, and was altogether thinking something else- and when I listened to what I was praying, it wasn’t English anymore!
The problem was, the moment I started listening, it stopped and I could not get it started again. Now I speak in tongues easily, but back then it was a real challenge. I knew I could access it, but it took real faith to hear myself speak out loud and not attack it for not being a proper language. This was my experience.
I do not think that everyone gets the gift of tongues, but I do believe that everyone can have access to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. I don’t want to get into specifics beyond my own experience, but I want to encourage you to read these scriptures and do some research on what most people say. And most importantly, I want you to talk to your Pastor! Find out what your church’s beliefs are on how the Holy Spirit fits into the overall picture of our Christianity. Knowledge is power, and you should go to the source for these things. Your pastor cares about you, and will welcome the conversation, I promise!
Scripture references for Baptism:
Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Matthew 28:19-20, Romans 6:3-6
Scripture references for Holy Spirit Baptism:
Luke 3:16, Acts 2:38, Mark 1:8, Acts 11:16
Tell me your baptism story below in the comments!