So Much More: Moving Beyond Kingdom Principles to Kingdom Power (15 page)

—I
SAIAH
61:1–2

Time and again Isaiah prophesied that the Spirit of the Lord would be upon the Messiah and that would be the source of His power to heal the sick, free the captives from demonic possession, and do all the other miraculous things that He did.

We have already noted that when Jesus came, He came with an assignment: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8,
NKJV
). Yet, for thirty years there is absolutely no record of Jesus confronting the enemy or destroying His works. There were no healings, no miracles, no freeing people from demons, no raising anyone from the dead during this first thirty years. However, at His water baptism when the Holy Spirit came upon Him and baptized Him, everything changed. From that day forward He ministered in power with both the message and ministry of the kingdom. He showed us what a man without sin and completely dependent on the Holy Spirit could do. Is it then possible when a person puts their faith in Jesus as Savior, is filled with the Holy Spirit, and learns to become completely dependent on Him that they can also do what Jesus did? I believe so. But we must be filled with and plugged into the power of the Holy Spirit.

Imagine for a moment that you need a new refrigerator. You go to the local appliance store; and after examining all of the available models, you point to one and say, “That’s it. That’s the one I want.” It is, of course, the top-of-the-line model and thus the most expensive unit on the floor. It has all the bells and whistles. This refrigerator promises to do things in your kitchen that no other refrigerator can do. It even has shelves that slide out automatically when you open the door so you can get what you need off the shelf without having to reach inside the refrigerator, and you are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt this is the most awesome refrigerator known to mankind! And you think to yourself, ‘I know it’s expensive but I don’t really care how much it costs. I want this amazing refrigerator in my kitchen filled with my food!” So you pay for the refrigerator and arrange for delivery later that same day. You can’t wait. You are so excited for the arrival of your new awesome refrigerator. But then, on the way home it hits you. What good is a new refrigerator without lots of good food to fill it? You stop at the grocery store and buy all sorts of food so that when the refrigerator arrives you can make sure it is fully stocked. Everything goes as planned. They deliver it on time, you fill it with food and you’re all set. That night you go to bed proud of your new purchase.

The next morning you wake up and go the pantry and get your cereal. You fill your bowl and make your way to your new state-of-the-art refrigerator. Before you even open the door, you notice the ice cream you put in the freezer has melted and started to run down and leak out the bottom of the door; and you wonder, “What’s up with that?” You open the door to the refrigerator and pull out your milk and realize it’s warm. You know this can’t be good, but to make sure you remove the top off of the milk and take a good whiff. You feel your gag reflexes kicking in as you smell the sour milk. As you investigate further inside the refrigerator you find the vegetables are turning color and all of a sudden it hits you—this amazing, state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line, most expensive model on the floor refrigerator is not working. And you think, “I can’t believe this! That store took my hard earned money and stuck me with a lemon; and now not only do I have a refrigerator that doesn’t work, I have a refrigerator full of spoiled food and sour milk.”

Immediately you decide that you need to call the appliance store, ask for the manager, and give him a piece of your mind—in Christian love of course. You get the manager on the line and you start to rant, “I gave you $10,000 good dollars for a brand-new, top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art refrigerator with all the bells and whistles; and you sold me a lemon! The refrigerator is not working and all my food is now spoiled!” The manager asks you to calm down and assures you they want to make it right. “But,” he says, “before we do anything, would you mind if I just ask you a few questions?” You agree.

First he asks, “Would you open the door and let me know if when you open the door the light comes on or not?” So you open the door and see nothing but darkness and inform him, “No, there is no light.”

Next he asks, “Would you put your ear down by the bottom and see if you can hear a hum?” You get down on the floor and listen closely and inform the manager, “No, there is no hum. It is completely silent.”

He then asks, “Can you kindly look in the back of the refrigerator and tell me if the cord is plugged in?” You take a look; and, lo and behold, the refrigerator is not plugged in! You get back on the phone and tell the manager, “I checked the cord and it’s not plugged in, but for $10,000 that shouldn’t matter!”

Then the manager says, “Let me explain something to you. Appliances are dependent in nature. While this refrigerator has all the component parts to deliver all the bells and whistles the manufacturer promised, it is not made to do it on its own. It needs to be empowered.”

As we consider what it means to advance the kingdom, live in victory, and destroy the works of the devil by taking authority over things like sickness, pain, and death, we need to know that our manufacturer has promised all these bells and whistles. But the reality is we are dependent in nature. We need to be empowered. We must be baptized, filled with, washed, and overflowing with this permanent stream of living water flowing out of us called the Holy Spirit.

I have been in the church all of my life. I became a Christian as a child, studied in Bible college, and even served as a pastor for over twenty years before I understood or experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I was taught that when a person receives Jesus as Savior they receive all the Holy Spirit there is and that there is no such thing as a baptism, greater filling, or release that can take place subsequently in the life of a believer that is different or distinct from that initial experience. However, as I dove back into studying Scripture on my own, I came to believe that what I had been taught is not what the Bible taught but rather there is a clear promise of the baptism in the Holy Spirit that is distinct and different from conversion.

Beyond that scriptural study, I personally received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues and experienced a new power and anointing in my ministry beyond anything I had ever experienced before.

I truly believe the baptism of the Holy Spirit is what is missing in most evangelical churches in America today. That is why so many people are walking around living powerless Christian lives, talking about the words of the kingdom but not operating in the fullness of the kingdom. If we are going to live and operate in the fullness of both the kingdom message and kingdom ministry, we must be empowered by the Holy Spirit. I do not believe the baptism in the Holy Spirit is something the Bible is at all ambiguous about.

The first baptism we read of in the New Testament was not Spirit baptism but water baptism. There was a guy named John who did so much water baptism that they nicknamed him John the Baptist. That had nothing to do with his denomination. He didn’t found the Baptist church. Literally, he was John the Baptizer. John was baptizing people in the middle of the Jordan River. He preached a simple message over and over again. You could fit it on a 3x5 card. “Repent, repent, repent. The kingdom is at hand, repent.” And people so resonated with John’s message that even though the location was not at all convenient, throngs of people traveled a long distance to be baptized by John.

While John baptized many people in water, he spoke consistently of one coming after him, the Messiah, who would practice a different kind of baptism. Evidently this baptism was extremely important because we read about it in all four Gospels. There aren’t many events that are recorded in all four Gospels. Jesus’ birth is only mentioned in two. There are a handful of miracles, such as the feeding of the 5,000 that are in all four Gospels as well as Jesus death, burial, and resurrection. This baptism that John spoke of was so critical for us to get that the Holy Spirit went out of His way to inspire all four Gospel writers to record it in their accounts of Jesus’ life. Here are the four accounts:

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

—M
ATTHEW
3:11,
NKJV

And he preached, saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

—M
ARK
1:7–8,
NKJV

John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

—L
UKE
3:16,
NKJV

I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”

—J
OHN
1:33,
NKJV

All four Gospel writers repeat the same message clearly and consistently. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is not a doctrine created on an isolated scripture taken out of context or misquoted. John said this baptism was unique and something he was not capable of performing. He could only baptize people in water but he promised there is one coming, and he identified that one later as Jesus, who would baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire.

Not only did John tell us that Jesus came to baptize in the Holy Spirit, Jesus Himself was baptized in the Holy Spirit. When John baptized Jesus in water, the heavens opened up and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove and he was baptized in the Holy Spirit (John 1:32; Luke 3:22).

John recorded, “He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, he is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit
”
(John 1:33,
NKJV
). Jesus was not the first person to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament we read of many people who did supernatural things that were beyond their own natural, human limitations when the Holy Spirit came upon them. But those fillings were always for a limited time and a specific purpose. The difference with Jesus was that He was filled with the Holy Spirit, not for a limited time but, as John said, He is the one whom the Spirit descended on and remained upon. Then for the rest of His life and ministry Jesus did miraculous things that ushered in the kingdom: things like healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, calming a storm, turning water into wine, feeding the 5000, and more. He had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and the Spirit empowered Him to not just preach a message about the kingdom but to do ministry that demonstrated the kingdom. That was the source of Jesus’ power for ministry. The Holy Spirit didn’t just come upon Him but the Spirit remained upon Him.

In his book
Surprised by the Voice of God
, Jack Deere wrote, “At the beginning of Christ’s public ministry, both Luke and Jesus Himself made it absolutely clear that the source of the power for Jesus ministry was not his deity but rather His dependence on the Holy Spirit.”
¹

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

—L
UKE
4:14–21

Deere continues,

This same testimony appears again in the middle of his ministry. Jesus said he cast out demons by “the Spirit of God” (Matthew 11:28). Matthew said on one occasion when a great crowd followed Jesus that “He healed all their sick” (Matthew 12:15). At first glance you might think Matthew attributed this healing power to the deity of Jesus, but just a few verses later, Matthew said that this fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, “I will put my Spirit upon him” (Matthew 12:18 citing Isaiah 42:1). After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, Peter summed up his ministry in the following way: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him (Acts 10:38). This is important because John promised that Jesus would baptize his followers in the same Holy Spirit that Jesus was baptized in.
²

Toward the end of His ministry, Jesus began to talk to the disciples and tell them He wasn’t going to be around much longer. There is a discourse recorded in John 14–16 that all takes place in the Upper Room following what we refer to as the Last Supper. In John 13, Jesus and His disciples arrived in the Upper Room to share the Passover meal together and Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. Jesus knew that His time was short on the earth. He was going to be handed over to die on the cross, be buried, rise again, and leave His disciples to carry on His ministry in the world. During this discourse He spent time preparing them for their ministry.