John the Baptist explained this when he said, "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matt 3:11)."
Some time ago I asked the Lord to give me a simple explanation to help me understand the importance of being baptized in Holy Spirit. He pointed to the marriage relationship, and particularly the wedding ceremony and the marriage bed to help me understand the role and relationship between both baptisms. He explained to me that baptism in water serves, like the wedding ceremony, to declare covenant relationship between two parties. Through water baptism we are bound together with God granting us all the benefits of covenant relationship. We take all that is God's and in exchange he takes all that is ours (an incredible deal if you ask me!). This covenant declaration proclaims the forgiving, CLEANSING power of Jesus' blood over us to make us worthy, a pure bride, to enter the holy of holies - the marriage bed! Water baptism grants us access to all that is ours as co-heirs with Jesus of the Father's kingdom, but having access and utilizing that access are different things.
Where water baptism is for cleansing, Holy Spirit baptism is for FILLING! Holy Spirit baptism is when Holy Spirit comes to live inside a person. As Jesus said to his disciples, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor...the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and WILL BE IN YOU (Jn 14:16-17)." Holy Spirit had been with the disciples, but soon he would be inside the disciples at Pentecost. Needless to say, there is a different kind of intimacy experienced in the marriage bed compared to the wedding ceremony! Holy Spirit baptism brings us more fully into the riches of intimate experience with God. If water baptism grants us access to our Father's kingdom, through Holy Spirit baptism we come into relationship with Holy Spirit where he begins to teach us the practice of accessing Father's kingdom in increasing measure for every area of our lives. (Please understand that I am not suggesting Spirit baptism is of greater importance than water baptism, but that both are equally essential for the Christian life.)
Unfortunately, from fear and misunderstanding, Holy Spirit baptism has been shunned or ignored in many Christian circles. But to ignore Holy Spirit baptism is like getting married and ignoring the rich benefits that are to be exclusively enjoyed within the marriage covenant, namely INTIMACY! When Jesus says "the kingdom of God is inside you (Lk 17:21)," he is pointing to the reality that the reign and rule of God in our lives always begins inside us, with the work of Holy Spirit. Learning to live as children of God's kingdom happens as we develop relationship with God through the intimacy enjoyed with Holy Spirit dwelling inside us. Holy Spirit reveals the heart of God and manifests (makes known experientially) the very presence and power of God's kingdom in us - then through us.
There are many other biblical images that help us understand the difference and importance of both baptisms, yet the marriage relationship serves well to illustrate what I consider the most important issue at stake in celebrating and receiving both - INTIMACY. God created us to be in intimate relationship with himself, to hear his voice and enjoy his presence. Even after sin cut us off from this relationship, God forged a way through the blood of his own son, that we may again have access into the incredible mystery and majesty of relationship with God. To forsake Holy Spirit baptism is to forsake our birthright, to ignore the benefits of marriage after the wedding ceremony, even to shun the very reason Jesus shed his blood. Let me say it this way - Jesus didn't shed his blood on the cross only to forgive our sins. That would leave us like clean, but empty cups to be displayd on a shelf. Rather, Jesus' blood prepares the way that we might be FILLED WITH THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD, HIS GLORY, and to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus, that we might fulfill the purposes for which he created us! God created each of us with unique destinies, and apart from Holy Spirit dwelling inside us through Holy Spirit baptism, we cannot fulfill God's destiny for our lives.
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