Regeneration and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

The New Testament Scripture makes it very clear that regeneration of the human spirit and the baptism in the Holy Spirit are two different distinct experiences. This statement might offend many theologians who seem to obscure the distinction. This is very unfortunate. The result of this deception is, many churchgoers believe that when they have repented of their sins, said the "sinner's prayer", saved and genuinely born again they have "got in all" and there is no question that they have not received the Holy Spirit yet! Consequently, they are missing what God has in store for them.

It is interesting to note that according to the Scripture John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus in ministry and message; it follows that John's baptism of repentance was also the forerunner of Jesus' baptism in the Holy Spirit:

Jesus said, "John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (Acts 1:5, NKJV).

Any Christian who takes Jesus's Word seriously would surely like to be baptized by Him with the Holy Spirit!

When a natural person repents of his sin and turns toward Jesus and confesses Jesus as his Saviour and Lord his spirit is instantly regenerated and his recreated spirit is ready to receive the Holy Spirit.

What happens when a person is regenerated?

Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit producing a new nature in the spirit of man. The dead spirit of the natural man is recreated by the incorruptible seed of the Word (Jesus) of God at the time of regeneration. The result of this instant transformation is that the Jesus nature, the Word of God nature is reproduced by the Spirit of God within the believer. This is what happens when a person is born again by the Spirit of God.

Every born again believer is able to say boldly:

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ live in me; ..." (Gal. 2:20, NKJV).

Every believer knows the mystery (1 Cor. 2:7) of God that has been hidden:

"To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiels: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27, emphasis added).

In other words, when Christ is in you, there is hope of glorifying with Him when He comes again. On the other hand, there is no hope when Christ is not in you because you are not regenerated! This mystery is made known to the regenerated spirit of Gentile believers.

The Temple of the Holy Spirit and the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

The New Testament Scripture says true believers as a body of Christ (worshipers in the Local Church) are collectively the "temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in them" (1 Cor. 3:16). In other words, God the Spirit dwells in the midst of the local congregation of the true Church of Jesus Christ. The next verse says anyone defiles this temple of God, God will destroy him!

The Scripture also says the physical body of the individual believer is also the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).

God chooses the physical bodies of regenerated men to do His works on earth. Our earthly bodies belong to God and are created to be holy vessels for His Spirit to dwell in so that we can to do His work effectively. Always remember that whatever work we do for God is accomplished by the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. Without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). Power in preaching and witnessing (Acts 1:8) are two examples.

The recreated spirit of man is now led by the God's Spirit and is given the privilege of welcoming the Holy Spirit into the body which has become His temple. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is essentially the welcoming of God's Spirit into His temple.

I hope the following Scripture passage will help to make my point clear.

Paul wrote to the Spirit baptized Christians of the Church in Corinth:

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price" (1 Cor. 6:19, NIV).

There are two important things to take note of:

1. The body of every believer in the Corinthian Church is the temple of the Holy Spirit because all of them are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Everyone has received the Holy Spirit from God and everyone has the Holy Spirit dwelling in his body.

2. Paul is reminding them that they are redeemed by the the blood of Jesus even though at the present time the redemption of their individual body is not complete yet. As I have mentioned before, complete redemption will only come at the resurrection when the believer's body will be transformed into a glorified body. But, Christ's ownership of the believer's body is already established because He has already paid the full price of redemption!

Paul said, "The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also"(1 Cor. 6:13 and 14, NIV, emphasis added).

Notice that the reason why Christ (in His Spirit) dwells in the body of the Spirit baptized believer is because his body is rightfully His! The devil has no claim on the body of the Spirit baptized believer. Furthermore, if our bodies do not belong to the Lord, God would not raise us up - which means no resurrection.

What happens when the Holy Spirit comes into the temple?

I hope the following two examples will throw in some lights:

1. Solomon said, "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart" (Proverbs 20:27).

A lamp needs oil to burn and to give light. The spirit of the un-regenerated person is like a lamp without the oil and without the light. The spirit of the regenerated person is like a lamp with oil but without light. But, when the Holy Spirit comes in and the spirit of the regenerated man is set on fire and becomes the lamp of the Lord searching the inner depths of his heart or belly (King James). So, until you are regenerated and baptized in the Holy Spirit you are in the dark about yourself. You simply do not know what is inside you. But, when the Holy Spirit comes in and the light of God begins to shine inside you, you might be shocked to find out all the unclean and rotten things inside you. This happened to me when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit years ago. I did not know how sinful I was until God's Spirit came to dwell in my body! We must not expect the Holy Spirit to say that we are perfect, for if we are perfect we would not need the Holy Spirit.

2. Jesus was in the company of unbelieving Jews and the Pharisees. They believed in Moses but not in Jesus. They were having some religious festival for several days. At the end of the last day of the feast Jesus stood and cried out to them:

"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" (John 7:37 and 38, emphasis added).

The next verse indicates that Jesus was talking about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Notice that John's record of this incident in the Gospel is prophetic.

"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 (verse 39, emphasis added).

Notice that the Holy Spirit was sent by God the Father after Jesus was glorified (John 16:7 to 11). This happened in the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).

Jesus was saying when the believer is baptized in the Holy Spirit, out of his heart (his belly) would flow rivers of living water. Not just one river by rivers! The transformation is simply amazing. Man's spirit is created to relate to God and to receive His Spirit. He has a thirst for God after regeneration. This thirst could only be quenched with the filling of God's Spirit. When he thirsts for God, God will fill him with the Holy Spirit. When he is filled, the "rivers of living water" will flow out from him to touch lives and he will be an effective channel of God's blessings for others.

Notice that religion (comes from the human soul) does not satisfy the thirst of man's spirit. The Jews and the Pharisees were practicing religion during their ritualistic religious festival. They could only understand things of the soul (mind, reasons, theology, rules and regulations) but not things of the Spirit. They failed to understand what Jesus was talking about.

What happens when Spirit baptized believers speak in tonques?

As we have seen in my previous postings when a person is born again, his spirit is recreated and the original purpose and functions of his spirit, soul and body are restored. His spirit, led by the Spirit of God directs his soul and his soul directs his body in this order.

The spirit of man does not normally directly control his body without going through his soul. There is one unique activity of the spirit that does not go through a person's soul. This is speaking in tongue. In speaking or praying in tongue the spirit of the spirit-filled Christian directly controls the five senses of his body without going through his mind and his reasoning. His tongue utters things according to the Spirit of God - things our natural mind, intellect and reasoning could not understand (Romans 8:26).

Paul said, "For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful" (1 Cor. 14:2 and 14, NIV, emphasis added).

When a person speaks in tonque he speaks to God and not to men. No one understands him because "understanding" comes from the soul realm. In fact, he himself does not understand what was speaking or praying about unless this person has the gift of interpretation of tongues! All these are "mysteries" to men but not to God.

Praying in tongue is the only effective way of praying according to the perfect will of God!