Assurance & Baptism of the Spirit

In speaking to you about this truth of the immediate witness of the Spirit, I want to also emphasis that this is not an experience which is uniformly experienced in a known and perceived way in every single Christian, nor is it to be sought for, like some people wrongly seek for the experience of the Baptism of the Spirt after conversion. There is only one baptism of the Spirit in the life of every believer, and that is what takes place in connection with the New Birth at the beginning of the Christian life. There was only one Day of Pentecost in which the whole fledgling Church was baptized with the Spirit. But after the gift of regeneration is given, and the Spirit Himself is given to indwell the individual believer, they are placed into the mystical spiritual body of Jesus Christ, by the Spirit baptizing them into that body. It is an act which is done once for all and its effects last for all time. But the Spirit’s bearing witness with our spirit will take place, for most believers, in a regular and on-going way throughout our Christian life. There may be great variety, however, in the experience of individual Christians in this regard. The right formula to understand the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that there is one baptism and many fillings of the Spirit. One baptism and many acts of the Spirit witnessing with our spirit that we are children of God Let’s think a little more about the once-for-all baptism of the Holy Spirit of every believer, and I believe that this will help us to better understand the witness of the Spirit in assuring the believer of their salvation.