Infilling of The Holy Spirit
January 2014
A Challenging Challenge
After my Baptism of the Holy Spirit took place in November 2013, the Holy Spirit convicted me to preach about it to the Seventh Day Adventist churches here. The event and experience were just too great, and too wonderful not to be shared, but I was hesitant. I did not want to preach about it, knowing full well how the conservative Adventists would react to such an event. But the conviction came so strongly that in the end I had to do it; after all better to grieve a few people in the church than to grieve the Holy Spirit.
As expected, there was uproar in the church after my sermon. They were not happy that I had "obtained" my baptism of the Holy Spirit from Bill Subritzky, a Sunday keeper! I told them that the Holy Spirit baptism was between God and myself, nothing to do with Bill. It was Jesus who baptised me, not Bill. The Bible says that only Jesus can baptise with the Holy Spirit; not even John the Baptist could, never mind Bill. Sadly, this fell on deaf ears, and on hearts that were too ready to judge other denominations - where was the love? The love that Jesus commanded us to give to others.
Their complaints continued, they were not happy with the manifestations of the Holy Spirit either, despite all of it being Biblical. One elder of the church accused my baptism of the Holy Spirit as being evil, not from God. She had the opinion that the Holy Spirit should come from above, and thus the manifestation should be felt from my head to my feet, rather than from my feet to my head. She pointed out that the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus from above, and not ascending on Jesus from His feet.
Even if the Bible gave no description on how Jesus felt physically at the time of His baptism of the Holy Spirit, the church elder had a point, a very good point. I knew in my heart that my Holy Spirit baptism was from God, and not from the devil, but I had no way of proving this to her. I had no answer for her. I had to find some explanation of why it happened to me the way it did - from my feet to my head - if only to answer people like her.
A Genius Answer from God
So, I asked this very question to the One who could explain it best - God! I asked God why did the Holy Spirit travel from my feet right up to my head, and not the other way round? I didn't know how God would ever be able to answer this question; it seemed difficult to me.
Of course, nothing is ever too difficult for God. After a mere two weeks (after I had forgotten about the question), the answer came to me one night as I was settling for bed. God gave me a vision of an empty glass and a jug of water. The jug was pouring water into the glass, and the glass was being filled from the bottom upwards...!!!
Genius God, just genius!!!
This beautifully explains why the Holy Spirit travelled upwards from my feet to my head - I was empty, and I was indeed being filled from above! It was indeed a true baptism of the Holy Spirit from Jesus! Thank you God, thank you Lord Jesus for the confirmation. May your name be praised by those who read this! Amen!
Mark 13:11
11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
John 15:18-24
18 ‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
John 15:26-27
26 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
© Elma Larsen. All rights reserved.
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