"He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and with fire." (Lk. 3:16c-ASV)
The American Standard Version is the only Bible version I have which translates our text, "in the Holy Spirit." All the others use the word, "with." The Greek word for, "in," according to Strong's, means "a primary preposition denoting (fixed) position." Our relationship in Jesus Christ is not primarily a, "with," relationship. It is a, "in," relationship. I know that some think I make too much of this theology, but I don't want to live with the mentality of a, "with," relationship, when I can have an, "in," relationship. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit in John 14:17 "....He dwells with you and will be in you." The word for, "with," in this text is a different word from the word for, "in." Yet the word translated, "in," in John 14:17 is the same word which most Bible versions translate, "with," in our Luke 3:16 text. Translators just seem to find it difficult to accept, "in you," reality.
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is the power of the Resurrected Christ in the Believer, in the Church, present in the world. It is as Paul said to the Corinthians, "You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, (and here from the Interlinear Greek text), "not in tablets of stone, but in the tablets of the heart."
So many are asking for the Presence of God to "come" in our meetings, to "come to our city." But we don't have to ask Him to come. "For where two or three come together in My Name, (literally) there am I in the midst of them." Because we are baptized "in the Holy Spirit," we can now walk in the victory that He is "Christ in you;" He is Holy Spirit "in you," and God, "a very present help."
Father, in Jesus' Name, "What wondrous love" that I should be a bearer of Your Presence. May Your Church fall in wonder, humility, and fear at such privilege and responsibility. Amen.
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"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
