Baptized with Fire

"He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Matthew 3:11

Christ is the manifest presence of God. When John the Baptist declared that Christ would one day baptize people in the Holy Spirit and fire, he put his finger on both the role of Christ and the role of the Holy Spirit.

To be baptized is to be immersed and saturated. Christ’s ministry to us is to immerse and saturate us in the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit might immerse and saturate us in the fire of the manifest presence of Christ. (You may want to read that again. Smile!)

Just as we were immersed in water baptism by a pastor, Christ is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. We do not baptize ourselves; only Christ can baptize us and saturate us with the Holy Spirit and with fire of the manifest presence of Christ.

Lord Jesus, I wade into the waters of the Holy Spirit today. I surrender. As only You can do, immerse me now in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Saturate every area of my life, every cell of my body, with the manifest presence of God.