Comparably to Drinking and Being Filled

Let us now briefly summarise the lessons we may learn from the seven New Testament passages where the phrase “to baptise in the Holy Spirit” is used.

In six out of these seven passages the experience of being baptised in the Holy Spirit is both compared and contrasted with being baptised in water. In two out of the seven passages “fire” is joined with “the Holy Spirit,” and the experience is described as “being baptised in the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Apart from the verb phrase “to baptise,” the only other verb used in these passages in connection with the Holy Spirit is the verb “to drink.” In 1 Corinthians 12:13 Paul says: “We ... have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” In modern English we would say more simply: “We have all been given to drink of one Spirit.” The use of the verb “to drink” agrees with what Jesus Himself says concerning the Holy Spirit in John 7:37-39.

“Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Here Jesus likens the gift of the Holy Spirit to the drinking of water. This in turn harmonises with the passage in Acts 2:4 concerning the disciples in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, where it states that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

It agrees also with various passages in the book of Acts which speak about believers receiving the Holy Spirit. For example, concerning the Samaritans converted through the preaching of Philip, we read that Peter and John were later sent down to them from Jerusalem.

“Who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit... Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:15,17)

Peter says, concerning the people in the house of Cornelius upon whom the Holy Spirit had just fallen:

“Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptised who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10:47)

Paul asks the disciples whom he meets at Ephesus:

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2)

In all these passages, the use of phrases such as “to drink of the Holy Spirit,” “to be filled with the Holy Spirit” and “to receive the Holy Spirit” suggests an experience in which the believer receives the fullness of the Holy Spirit inwardly within himself.