I indeed baptize you with water . . but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire." Matthew 3:11Have I ever come to a place in my experience where I can say - "I indeed - but He"? Until that moment does come, I will never know what the baptism of the Holy Ghost means. I indeed am at an end, I cannot do a thing: but He begins just there - He does the things no one else can ever do. Am I prepared for His coming? Jesus cannot come as long as there is anything in the way either of goodness or badness. When He comes am I prepared for Him to drag into the light every wrong thing I have done? It is just there that He comes. Wherever I know I am unclean, He will put His feet; wherever I think I am clean, He will withdraw them.Repentance does not bring a sense of sin, but a sense of unutterable unworthiness. When I repent, I realize that I am utterly helpless; I know all through me that I am not worthy even to bear His shoes. Have I repented like that? Or is there a lingering suggestion of standing up for myself? The reason God cannot come into my life is because I am not through into repentance."He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire." John does not speak of the baptism of the Holy Ghost as an experience, but as a work performed by Jesus Christ. "He shall baptize you." The only conscious experience those who are baptized with the Holy Ghost ever have is a sense of absolute unworthiness.I indeed was this and that; but He came, and a marvellous thing happened. Get to the margin where He does everything.
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
When we read the command to go into the world and baptize them . . . I have often seen it, as you mention, as an ongoing act of teaching and urging. Repentance becomes a way of life more than a single act for a single sin. In myself, then, I must recognize that I will see "as through a glass darkly" untill my flesh falls to the ground. And how I have begun to yearn for that moment. It is such a beautiful and unspeakable experience to hear His voice of encouragment and guidance. And I find repentance a far more edible activity when looking into the very eyes of God through faith. Power to live in Christ comes only from Christ Himself. I had a clear thought once. (yea. once.) The difference between a Christian and all others might be summed up by pointing out that a Christian will walk into the very fire surrounding the Holy God, while others only consider or talk about Him. Repentance is, in such a case, automatic. For sin cannot dwell in the presence of God.Thank you for the post.
_________________Paul Horton
