Drenched预览

Day 1: The Drenched Life:

Welcome to the Drenched Plan! I'm Jeff Stanford, and on day 1, we're talking about what being drenched really means. Being "drenched" refers to being drenched in God's presence and power. I hope that over the next 7 days, you gain a better understanding of what it means to be—and how you can be—drenched!

First, we need to understand that God wants us to be baptized into Christ. God wants us to be baptized in water. And God wants us to be baptized IN the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew 3:11 (KJV), John the Baptist referred to Jesus:

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

At salvation, the Holy Spirit immerses you in Christ. At Spirit baptism, Jesus immerses you in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit.

John’s statement here is one of just a handful of statements or accounts mentioned in all four Gospels—you can find the other three versions of this verse in Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, and John 1:33. You’ll find accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus in all four, as these events are central to the gospel story and explain vital truths believers need to understand.

I believe it’s significant that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is also in all four Gospels. Scripture clearly shows us Jesus is the one who performs this baptism, immersing us in the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 3:11, Acts 19:1-6, and 1 Corinthians 12:13). Yet because this baptism has been harmfully misrepresented, countless Christians avoid it. How could Jesus baptizing us in the Holy Spirit possibly be a bad thing, especially when it’s so plainly present in the Bible?

This promise of the baptism in the Holy Spirit came powerfully to the disciples in Acts 2. Peter delivered a sermon immediately after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. In response to Peter’s preaching, three thousand of his Jewish listeners fell under the conviction of the Holy Spirit:

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

[“What shall we do?” That’s a pretty broad question. How does Peter respond?]

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” —Acts 2:37-39 (NKJV)

Notice that in these verses, Peter outlined three baptisms. He said:

1) Repent.

2) Be baptized. (Peter urged his listeners to follow Jesus’s example by submitting themselves to water baptism. See Acts 2:38-39.)

3) Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This is the third baptism.

As Peter indicated, the Holy Spirit will not force Himself upon anyone. He must be “received.”

From here on out, through the Word of God, the third baptism continually follows the first two as an essential, critical part of the Christian life. Today, God wants to empower you to overcome sin, the world, and the devil. God wants you to be baptized three times: into salvation, into water, and into His Holy Spirit.

When you are drenched or baptized IN the Holy Spirit, you will receive the Spirit like a wind and like fire. Acts 2:17-18 (KJV) is a prophecy as well as a promise for us today:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

Do you want to be drenched? In the coming days, we'll dive deeper into God's Word to find out how!