Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Part Four

In our last study we spoke about the context, the atmosphere, the environment in which the Spirit of the living God is poured upon the church. We said that we must consider the possibility of baptism in the Holy Spirit as something for believers today, we spoke about having proper motivation for seeking baptism in the Holy Spirit, and we said that God gives the Holy Spirit in the context of our obedience to him. In this study we want to examine prayer, which is the context in which the Spirit of God is poured out upon us.

Knowledge and Desire

Before we speak about prayer, however, I would like to point out that no one will seek the baptism in the Holy Spirit unless he or she is given understanding into the inestimable value of God’s Spirit coming upon us. In Matthew 13:11 Jesus said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” We need spiritual understanding because the kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field. Others may look and see merely a piece of rock in a field, but when you look, you understand that this is the greatest treasure you have ever seen and you go home and sell everything that you may obtain it. That is what the kingdom of God is like. To seek baptism in the Holy Spirit, you must be given understanding into the greatness, wonder, glory, and majesty of the treasure of the kingdom of God.

Having gained that understanding of the tremendous value of the kingdom of God, you will then have an intense desire for God’s Spirit to come upon you. Understanding generates desire, in other words, and that results in action. Remember the confession Achan made in Joshua 7? He saw the gold, the silver, and Babylonish garment among the plunder from Jericho, and because he understood the value of these things, he coveted them and took them.

We must not seek baptism in the Holy Spirit with mere superficial desire. Superficial desire is generated by the superficial value of what we are desiring. We must desire it with great desire. May God open our eyes to understand what the baptism in the Holy Spirit is that we may desire it with intense desire and seek it so earnestly that the time will fly, we will fail to eat and drink, and everything else will recede into the background until we receive it.

The Context of Serious Prayer

Having said that, let us examine the book of Acts, where we find that God pours out his Holy Spirit on people in the context of serious, intense prayer.

In Acts 1:14 we see the apostles and the one hundred and twenty other believers gathered in an upper room. In our previous study we emphasized that point that these people were already Christians. What were they doing in the upper room? Verse 14 tells us, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” And in Acts 2:1 we read, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” Here again we see the disciples praying, praising, and waiting on God in earnest expectation that God would pour out his Spirit on them, as the Lord Jesus Christ had promised.

I am sure these disciples were remembering how Jesus Christ himself was baptized in the Holy Spirit in the context of prayer. In Luke 3:21 we read, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.”

In Acts 4 we again see prayer as the context in which the Holy Spirit was poured out. First, we read how Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin and rebuked for speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus. Then, in verse 23 we read, “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God,” and we can read their prayer in verses 24-30. What happened at the conclusion of their prayer? “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (v. 31).

n Acts 8 we read how Philip went to Samaria and preached the word of God to the Samaritans. The text tells us people from Samaria believed and were baptized in water–they became Christians, in other words. Then Peter and John came to Samaria and in verses 15-16 we read, “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.” The apostles were praying for these new disciples. And in verse 17 we read that “Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” All of this happened within the context of prayer. And I am sure this was not some kind of superficial prayer. I am sure the apostles and the Samaritan disciples prayed with the type of desire and intensity that a hart has when it pants after water brooks, that the parched land has when it thirsts for showers–a prayer filled with intense hunger and thirst for God, in other words.

In Acts 9 we read about the Holy Spirit being poured out on the apostle Paul. He was arrested by the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, and trusted in him for salvation. In Acts 9:11 we read what the Lord said to a disciple of Damascus named Ananias: “The Lord told him, ‘Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.'” What was Paul doing? Praying. And in verse 17 we read, “Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord–Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here–has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” At that moment, Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Not only that, Paul was also given gifts of the Holy Spirit, including the gift of tongues, when he was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Remember, he wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:18, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” Isn’t that something? The greatest theologian of the Christian church spoke in tongues. In 1 Corinthians 14:15 he wrote, “I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.” This is an embarrassment for some Christians, who like Paul but don’t know what to do with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But that is what the Bible tells us about the great apostle Paul.

Pleading the Promise of God

The first point, then, is that the context of baptism in the Holy Spirit is earnest, intense prayer. The second point is that when we pray for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we must plead the promise of God. God promised that he would pour out his Holy Spirit on his people, and on the day of Pentecost the apostle Peter told the crowd, “This promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off,” meaning it was for Jews and Gentiles, and then he added, “for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39). But this promise does not come to us automatically. We must plead the promise before God in earnest prayer.

In his book Joy Unspeakable the great theologian Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “How do you pray for this blessing? You plead the promises. ‘The promise is unto you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call (Acts 2:39).’ Tell God that. The Fathers used to use this great term–‘Pleading the promises.’ You never hear it now. Why? Because people do not really pray any longer, they sent little telegrams to God. They think that is the height of spirituality. They know nothing about ‘wrestling’ with God and ‘pleading the promises'” (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable: Power and Renewal in the Holy Spirit, edited by Christopher Catherwood [Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1984], 208-209).

What does it mean to “plead the promises?” We see this idea in Genesis 32:12, where Jacob stood on the bank of the Jabbok River, facing his brother and four hundred men. Jacob prayed to God, “But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'” Jacob was reminding God of the promises he had made to Jacob, and asking him to act in this desperate situation.

David did the same thing. God made a covenant with David and David prayed that God fulfill that covenant. In 1 Chronicles 17:23 David prays, “Do as you promised. . . .” In other words, God had made a promise to David, but the fulfillment of it was not automatic. David had to earnestly pray and wait for God to fulfill his promises.

What guarantee do we have that God will fulfill his promises? Just read the words of Balaam, who spoke by the inspiration of the Spirit of the living God. In Numbers 23:19 he said, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” You see, man breaks his promise, but God is not man. God will do what he has promised.

What should we do when we are praying for baptism in the Holy Spirit? Plead God’s promise! Do so urgently, with hunger and thirst, constantly, boldly, and perseveringly. Don’t you make promises to your children, and then they come and say, “Mom, you promised” or “Dad, you promised,” and you fulfill the promises? Even so, God has promised to pour out his Holy Spirit on all his people, and as his children we can plead his promise.

The Example of Jacob

The third point is to examine some examples of earnest, pleading prayer. As we just said, Jacob pleaded the promises of God. In Genesis 32 we find him alone on the northern bank of the river Jabbok. It was night and Jacob was afraid. In the middle of the night a man came and wrestled with him. This was a theophany–God coming in the form of a man.

Jacob was a powerful fellow who had wrestled successfully with his brother, his father, and his father-in-law. Jacob knew how to make plans and carry them out. He was strong and worked hard to achieve his goals.

In this wrestling contest on the banks of the Jabbok River, Jacob was also winning until something happened. The man touched Jacob’s hip, putting it out of joint, and Jacob fell, crippled. This brought great sobriety to Jacob. “What is your name?” the man asked him, and Jacob began to confess, “My name is ‘I am a cheat,'” for that is what the name Jacob means and that is what Jacob knew he was by nature.

In verse 26 we see that Jacob began to realize that the man he was wrestling with was not a man at all, but something greater–it was God himself, the source of all his blessing. After God touched him, he began to cling to him because all his self-confident, carnal, natural strength was gone. Jacob held on to God and said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” And in Hosea 12:4 the prophet tells us Jacob “wept and begged for his favor.” This is how we are to pray for baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Why is it that we do not experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in our lives? We are strong in ourselves. Like Jacob, we can plan and do many things. We have great confidence in ourselves, and God often leaves us in that confidence. But I pray that God touch us on our hips and put them out of joint until we cling to him and realize who he is! Only then will we hold on to him and say, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” And only then we will truly be able to say with the apostle Paul, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

God gave Jacob a new name and blessed him. He never forgot this incident, and In his old age he referred to it, saying, “The Angel who has delivered me from all harm–may he bless these boys” (Gen. 48:16). Jacob had come to the understanding that it is God whom we need, it is God who blesses us, it is God who delivers us from all harm, and it is God who is our power, our strength, and our hope. I am sure that from this day forth, Jacob began to thirst and hunger for God alone, and gave up trying to manipulate God to get something other than God himself.

The Example of Elijah

We find an example of this type of earnest, pleading prayer also in the life of Elijah in 1 Kings 18. In verses 1-2 we read, “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.’ So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.”

Elijah met with Ahab and had a dramatic confrontation with the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mount Carmel. Afterwards, “Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain'” (v. 41). What was happening? Elijah began to feel in his being that God was fulfilling his promise of rain. But the fulfillment of this promise was not automatic. In verse 42 we read, “So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.” What was Elijah doing? Praying. And I am sure he said something like this: “God, didn’t you say that if I presented myself to Ahab, you would send rain on the land? God, you promised! O God, fulfill your promise!”

Elijah began to pray and then he told his servant, “Go and look to toward the sea” (v. 43). The servant went six times, but each time there was nothing. In the meantime, Elijah was praying earnestly, urgently, with great intensity, “God, do as you promised! I am your servant. You promised to send rain upon the land.” And the seventh time, the servant went and looked and came back and reported to Elijah, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea” (v. 44). Then Elijah told his servant, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you'” (v. 44). And we are told the sky grew black with clouds and a heavy rain began to come down.

We must understand that God promises to pour out his Holy Spirit, but the promise is not automatically fulfilled. So we must ask ourselves: Do we have a hunger, a thirst, a desire for baptism in the Holy Spirit? This is the greatest blessing we can have in this world, but is it what we are earnestly seeking, or are we looking for something else? Again, let us ask ourselves: What motivates us? What animates us? What is it that we want more than anything else in the world? What is it our children want?

Oh, have you ever seen a child weep inconsolably when he doesn’t get what he wants? The question I am asking today is: For what are we crying inconsolably? Are we weeping for God, or for something else?

Elijah prayed earnestly, and God fulfilled his promise. But we must realize that Elijah was not a superman. He was a man like us–homoiopathês–as we read in James 5:17, yet, James says, he “prayed with prayer.” That is how it is expressed in the Greek: “He prayed with prayer,” meaning with great intensity. That is how we should pray for the Holy Spirit.

We Must Pray to Our Friend

We must also realize as we seek the baptism in the Holy Spirit that we are praying to a friend, who is God. In Luke 11 we read the story of a poor man whose friend, who was on a journey, came to his house at midnight. (PGM) Having traveled all day and part of the night, the friend was famished and wanted to eat. He came to his poor friend’s house, knocked on the door, and entered, but there was nothing to eat. The poor man was so embarrassed by his inability to provide that he said, “Wait a minute. I have another friend. I will go and see if he has any bread.”

Now, the other friend had gone to bed long before these events, probably at six or seven o’clock in the evening, as was the custom in those days. Everyone in his house was sleeping, but then at midnight there came knock on the door. Did the man in bed respond? No. The poor man knocked again and again and again until his friend called out, “Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.”

What did the poor friend do? He kept on knocking and knocking and knocking with great perseverance. “I am not going to go,” he told himself. “I must keep on knocking.” Finally, what did the man in bed do? He got up and gave the poor man all the bread he needed. The idea here is, if this man gave bread to his poor friend, how much more will God, who is our friend, give the Holy Spirit to us if we ask him?

Do you think God is our friend? I do. In fact, we read that in John 15:13-15 when Jesus said to his disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

If God is your friend, do you have that confidence and boldness to go and knock and knock and knock in prayer until he answers? Didn’t he tell us, “Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and the door shall be opened to you”? This, then, is the way we should pray to God our friend for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We Must Persevere in Prayer

We must pray with great perseverance for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 15 we read about a Canaanite woman, a Greek woman born in Syrian Phoenicia, as we read in Mark 7–a non-Jewish woman, in other words, or in the opinion of the Jews, a dog. Jesus had left Judea and gone outside to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and that is where he met this woman.

This Gentile woman had a problem: her daughter was demonized and living in a wretched condition. As a mother, the woman loved her daughter with great love, so when she heard one day that Jesus Christ had come to her region, she went to see him, because she recognized who Jesus Christ was. In John’s gospel we read that Jesus came to his own, but his own did not receive him. The nation of Israel refused to confess that Jesus was the Messiah, but this woman did. She cried out to him “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”

The text tells us she cried out again and again. No one could stop her, and when Jesus refused to speak to her, she went to the disciples and cried out to them. They, in turn, went to Jesus and said, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” Why do you think she was so persistent in her cries? Because she knew Jesus alone could come to her aid. “Lord, I need you and you alone! No one else is able to help me. You are the Lord! Help me, Son of David!” she cried again and again.

Even though Jesus tested this woman’s faith, she had no other plan, so she kept on crying out to Jesus for help. Her faith proved to be genuine, so Jesus himself commended her, saying, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted,” and it was so. This woman had prayed–passionately, urgently, perseveringly–with no alternative plan. She looked to God alone for the answer to her prayer, and God healed her daughter.

In Luke 18 we find another example of persevering prayer. There we read about a judge who may have been a Gentile, but possibly he was an Israelite. One thing we know: This judge was unjust. He did not base his judgments on God’s law because he didn’t fear God, and he was a hard, harsh man who did not care about men.

I suppose this judge based many on his judgments on the amount of bribes he received. That was not uncommon. But then one day a poor, powerless widow came to this powerful judge and asked for justice. She had no money or influence, so what did the judge do? Nothing. But the widow said, “That’s all right. I am going to come back every day until you hear my case. Why? I have no other hope. I may not have any money or influence, but I can come before you every day,” and that is exactly what she did.

In Luke 18:4-5 we read, “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!'”

What changed the judge’s mind? The persevering, urgent, passionate, totally committed prayer of the widow. She, like the Syro-Phoenician woman, had no alternative plan. She looked to the judge alone for justice and eventually she received it. This is how we must pray for the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Are We Praying for the Holy Spirit?

If prayer is the context in which we receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we must examine ourselves and ask what we are praying for. In Luke 11:11-13 Jesus asked, “Which of your fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake?” The expected answer is “No.” He continues, “Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” Again, the answer is “No.” When children ask for fish, fathers tend to give them fish; when they ask for eggs, their fathers give them eggs. Then Jesus said, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?”

When we talk about seeking the Holy Spirit, we are talking about praying to our heavenly Father, who is compassionate, gracious, and abounding in mercy, and who has promised to give us the Holy Spirit. He is not like human fathers who are evil yet know how to give good gifts. If that is the case, how much more, Jesus asks, will our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

What, then, are we praying for? Fish? Bread? Eggs? Better grades? A better job? A husband or a wife? In fact, most of the time when we pray, these are the things we are seeking. But our greatest need is the Holy Spirit. May God open our eyes so that we will know to ask for the Holy Spirit.

In Psalm 42 the psalmist writes, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” These are the words of one who loves God alone and is seeking him earnestly, passionately and with great urgency.

Son, is that what you are praying? Daughter, is that what you are seeking? Father, what are you praying? Professor, what are you praying? Preacher, what are you praying? Oh, that we would all come before God and say, “God, we are ashamed of ourselves. We ask for everything else but you! We send plenty of telegrams–short, little demands couched in the words of prayer–but we are not hungering and thirsting for the true and living God.”

We must examine ourselves. If we say we are praying for God’s Holy Spirit, then we must ask ourselves: How urgent is my prayer? How persevering is it? How hungry and thirsty am I for God? Will I, like the Syro-Phoenician woman, stand the trial of faith, or will I go away in a huff, saying, “God, I showed up, but you didn’t come right away so I am going now. I don’t really need you. I have other ways of handling my problem. I am a highly educated person. I have lots of money. My 401k is swelling. I can handle things. I have influence and a network and everything else. I thought I could just come to you and receive this baptism, but if you don’t want to talk to me now, I have other ways of dealing with this issue.” Is that what we say to God?

In Isaiah 62:6-7 we read, “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.” I don’t think that sounds like telegram prayers. Do you?

As the deer pants after water brooks, the psalmist says, our souls thirst for the living God. The watchmen are told to give themselves no rest, day or night, until God acts. As we pray for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, may we keep bothering God until he sends the dew of heaven, until he sends showers of blessing, until he sends the rain of the Spirit of God upon the parched land of our lives to revive us, refresh us and give us life.

Seek the Lord!

We have preached the possibility of the baptism in the Holy Spirit and said that, as Charles Simeon of Cambridge, everyone who desires it will receive it. We asked you to examine your motivation and to be in a condition of obedience. Now, we encourage you also to be in a continual state of prayer, because this experience of God may happen anytime–as you are cooking, as you are praying, as you are meditating upon the word of God, as you are going or as you are coming. And if it happens to you, you will never forget it. Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, George Whitefield, John Wesley, John Flavel, Charles Simeon, D. L. Moody, H. A. Gordon, Martin Luther, my mother–they were all baptized in this way in the Holy Ghost, and it changed their lives.

Let me ask you: Are you all satisfied and happy with the things of the world–the fish, the eggs, the bread, and the 401k plans? Children, what do you want? Parents, what are you teaching your children to seek? Pleasure? Power? Position? Or the presence of God? The promised Holy Spirit is for you and your children, but it is not automatic. We have to come to God like Jacob did, David did, Elijah did, praying, “O God, you promised and I need it. Grant it, we pray!”

May God increase our hunger, our thirst, and our motivation that we will seek baptism in the Holy Spirit. May we obey God and pray with passion, with urgency, and with no other plan, that the Spirit of God may come upon us like dew upon the mowed grass. When that happens, we will have assurance and know that God loves us. Then we will have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts and we will find it so easy to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. Then we will rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and we will not hunger for anything else, but the glory of God. Oh, may the Spirit of the living God fall afresh upon us in this way even this day! Amen.