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G.W. North
George Walter North (1913 - 2003). British evangelist, author, and founder of New Covenant fellowships, born in Bethnal Green, London, England. Converted at 15 during a 1928 tent meeting, he trained at Elim Bible College and began preaching in Kent. Ordained in the Elim Pentecostal Church, he pastored in Kent and Bradford, later leading a revivalist ministry in Liverpool during the 1960s. By 1968, he established house fellowships in England, emphasizing one baptism in the Holy Spirit, detailed in his book One Baptism (1971). North traveled globally, preaching in Malawi, Australia, and the U.S., impacting thousands with his focus on heart purity and New Creation theology. Married with one daughter, Judith Raistrick, who chronicled his life in The Story of G.W. North, he ministered into his 80s. His sermons, available at gwnorth.net, stress spiritual transformation over institutional religion, influencing Pentecostal and charismatic movements worldwide.
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G.W. North emphasizes that the Church is the earthly manifestation of the spiritual body of Christ, which is indwelt by Him just as His physical body was. He explains that baptism in the Holy Spirit is essential for membership in this spiritual body, allowing individuals to function within it. This baptism not only immerses believers into the body of Christ but also into the person of Christ, enabling them to be alive with His Spirit. North highlights that this spiritual baptism signifies a believer's spiritual birth and their transformation into a living member of Christ. Ultimately, it is through the Spirit that believers are united with Christ for both life and function.
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(We Are) Baptised Into Him
Viewed in the light of information supplied in verses 12 and 13, this all seems natural and quite normal. The Church is seen to be nothing less or other than the manifestation on earth of the spiritual counterpart of the body of Jesus of Nazareth. At present it is being indwelt and used by Him in the same way as that past body of flesh and blood was indwelt and used by Him then. Though not in a literal, identical manner, nevertheless in the same sense as His physical body was but one and yet was a unity of many easily distinguishable members, so also is the spiritual body of the person of Christ. Membership in His body is synchronous with our initiation into His life and takes place when we are baptised in Holy Spirit. For this reason baptism in the Spirit is absolutely necessary for each one of us. In that Spirit we are immersed by Jesus Christ into actual membership of His spiritual body, with a distinct individual function readily understood by all. However, far more importantly than this aspect of the Baptism, at the same time we are each one individually baptised into the spiritual person of Jesus Christ. This is accomplished in us only because when baptising us, He also causes us to drink into one Spirit. Seeing that the body is His body, it follows that the Spirit we drink into can be no other than His Spirit. It certainly cannot be anyone else's, for there is only one spirit per person and body: that is why a body can only be one person's body. As upon being baptised into the body of Christ a person becomes a member of that body, so it is also that upon being baptised into the person of Christ, a person becomes alive with the Spirit of Christ. By such means and only by them can a person become a functional, living or life-member of Christ. At our spiritual baptism we go into the person of Christ for life and into the body of Christ for function. Obviously it is at this time that a person becomes Spiritual, for all is of and in and by and for and from the Spirit. Because this is so, it must be the actual time of spiritual birth, for how can it be anything other?
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George Walter North (1913 - 2003). British evangelist, author, and founder of New Covenant fellowships, born in Bethnal Green, London, England. Converted at 15 during a 1928 tent meeting, he trained at Elim Bible College and began preaching in Kent. Ordained in the Elim Pentecostal Church, he pastored in Kent and Bradford, later leading a revivalist ministry in Liverpool during the 1960s. By 1968, he established house fellowships in England, emphasizing one baptism in the Holy Spirit, detailed in his book One Baptism (1971). North traveled globally, preaching in Malawi, Australia, and the U.S., impacting thousands with his focus on heart purity and New Creation theology. Married with one daughter, Judith Raistrick, who chronicled his life in The Story of G.W. North, he ministered into his 80s. His sermons, available at gwnorth.net, stress spiritual transformation over institutional religion, influencing Pentecostal and charismatic movements worldwide.