John the Baptist had become the most popular preacher in Israel by the time he was to introduce Jesus to the people. He had become the most powerful, because he was filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Nor had he grieved, quenched or disobeyed the Holy Spirit, so he was at his zenith in spiritual power and public influence when it was time for him to present Jesus Christ as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
I would like for us to consider three effects of the Christian believer's "baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire:" (1) Purification; (2) Illumination; and (3) Radiation.
Purification
"Blessed are the pure in heart," said Jesus, "for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). The apostle Peter states that we are called to this state of grace "through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit" (I Pet. 1:2). Being sanctified holy is a part of our heritage in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. New Testament apostles were not hesitant to illustrate this experience of purification by comparing our purging by the Spirit with the refiner's process of putting the precious metal to the flame until the dross (the false) came forth to be skimmed off, leaving the true to be cherished. There had to be a destruction of the wrong, the phony, the false before the right, the genuine, the real could be seen. Just as the flame purified, tempered and strengthened the precious metal, so the fire of the Holy Spirit purges, purifies, shapes and prepares the heart and life of the believer for the glory and honor of our Lord Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist assured believers that the Spirit's "baptism with fire" would "burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." But if the believer, instead of obeying the Spirit (walking in the Spirit), as we are urged to do, what if he "grieved," "quenched," "disobeyed," "resisted" or ignored the Holy Spirit? Then, I think he would be stuck with his sins and would be a contradiction to the witness he was meant to be. I regret to say that I have known a few professing Christians who were better and nicer before they made their profession than they became afterward. Their claim to know Christ was negated by their selfishness, their unforgiveness, their constant criticism and condemnation of others, their holier-than-thou religiosity. Their children fled their presence and could not be persuaded to join them in prayer at home or worship at the church. Their friends shook their heads and prayed for them to come to a true knowledge of the Savior. Their pastors sought to bring them more deeply into the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Some broke through to faith and today they are powerful examples of the sanctifying grace of God. Many refused to believe the promise of God to cleanse the heart from sin, and today they are more confused, more bitter, more lost than ever.
Pastors, teachers and evangelists in the Wesleyan-Armenian churches need to be prayerfully careful in the way we teach the doctrine of sanctification. My dear friend and mentor, Dr. William M. Greathouse, writes, "Sanctification for Wesley, like justification, is from first to last the work of God. Justification is what God does for us through Christ; sanctification, what He does in us by the Holy Spirit." (Exploring Christian Holiness, Beacon Hill Press, Vol. II, p. 207). Both Wesley and Greathouse teach that the sanctifying experience for the believer is both a crisis and a continual one. There is an initial "baptism," or "filling," or "anointing;" but the promise that the Holy Spirit in us will "burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" is not always an instantaneous experience. We holiness teachers need to acknowledge that the burning of the "chaff" (the natural, fleshly, selfish tendencies of our humanity) still crops up now and then. This is why Jesus taught, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). The apostle Peter was confronted with his prejudice of the Gentiles in Acts 10. Before he could go to the home of Cornelius and preach the Gospel under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he had to die to his pride, prejudice and sin of rebellion against the will of God. Thank God, Peter allowed the Holy Spirit to burn the chaff, and then he went down to proclaim Jesus to Cornelius and his house full of Gentiles. As he obeyed, "the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles" (Acts 10:44-45, RSV).
Then we also hear the apostle Paul acknowledging some chaff in his own heart and life in II Corinthians. He admits in the early part of the chapter that because of certain revelations and "out of body" experiences that he had no language to describe, he had to deal with his tendency to be "conceited" (II Cor. 12:7). According to Webster, conceit means "an excessive appreciation of one's own worth or virtue." I need to confess that I've also known a few times how the apostle Paul felt. And it is painful to have the Holy Spirit reveal this pride that we try to mask in so many words. But the answer to the pride is to confess it as "chaff" -- sin, faults, ignorance, selfishness, weakness -- confess it and put it to the cross. The Spirit knows how to destroy it, so that we can move on in grace and power. Eventually, we will be ready for the next round of chaff.
To come up against "chaff," whether it be in the form of pride, lust, greed, hate, rebellion, or any other sin, and refuse to acknowledge or confess it, is to slip into a gradual darkness that will bring on all kinds of bondage. So many are living so far from the kind of freedom that Jesus Christ died to give us. He came to set us free. There is sanctifying power for every believer in God's plan of redemption for each and all of those who will surrender to Christ and continue to surrender our "chaff" to the Spirit's fire.
Illumination
If we are followers of Jesus Christ, then we must remember His claim, "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6). Paul the apostle appealed to believers, reminding, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. That is why it is said, 'Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you'" (Eph. 5:8-14).
Those who are anointed of the Holy Spirit live in a blaze of the light of Christ, and their lives shine out to penetrate the darkness. He lights up our lives so that we may attract and draw our friends and loved ones to the true light, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of light. We can trust Him to give us light and understanding concerning His Word. The same Spirit who inspired the Scriptures will illumine our minds and hearts to love and understand them, and then enable us to obey them. This will assure our fruitfulness in sharing our light with others. One evidence that we are living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit is that we are letting our light shine, penetrating the darkness of those who do not know our Savior. When they see our lives illumined with love, they are drawn to our secret. We are then given the privilege of telling them the truth about the One who is "the light of the world."
Radiation
When I was filled with the Spirit I was led by the Spirit to focus on Jesus. Then in my early Christian life I came across an important book, The Radiant Cross, written by Dr. Paul S. Rees, who would later become one of my mentors. In his book, Paul Rees presents Christ as the radiant one whom we are to gaze upon. As we do, we ourselves become radiant in the Spirit, just as the apostle Paul points out: "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (II Cor. 3:18). In our contemplative worship of gazing on Christ, there is a spiritual metamorphosis -- the Holy Spirit works supernaturally in us, empowering us to deny the natural urges to defend or promote or gratify self (to put aside those thoughts of how to exalt ourselves); the Spirit strengthens our will to say no to the urge to cut someone down with condemning words; the Spirit empowers us to turn aside lustful thoughts. And when we have dealt with temptation by denying ourselves, The Spirit comes with powerful revelation of a greater knowledge of God. He comes with a deepening love for God. He also comes with a yearning to be used of God in such a way that He is praised and worshiped.
Modern Christians must get back to concentrating on the Lord Jesus Christ in the secret place of prayer, where the Holy Spirit intensifies our thinking and feeling to know Christ. Gazing, reflecting, worshipping, surrendering, we move from one degree of Christ's glory to a higher degree of His likeness, thus becoming partakers of His glorious Person.
The real beauty of all this is that when we leave the secret place of worship, we are changed. The Holy Spirit will, without our realizing it, emit from our lives a love and compassion for people that will transcend even the transmission from the glory that lingered on Moses' face when he had been in the Presence of Jehovah. Though we still remain in the flesh, there will radiate from our lives a divine love that will affect saints and sinners and bring honor and glory to God.
O God, multiply the number of your children in these days who will submit to your cleansing, and who then will beg for the baptism of your Holy Spirit with fire, and who then will linger daily in the secret place to gaze upon the face of our Lord, and remain long enough for the metamorphosis to begin. Then bring us out among people to worship You, to love You, to trust You for the mighty moving of your Spirit among your people in revival until it spreads like a prairie fire across the land to bring in a great harvest of souls. Amen!
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