What’s in it for You?

Ten Powerful Blessings . . . . .

1. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit brings every other blessing in it’s train!
2. You will realize that the Lord has chosen you.  When you were “under the fig tree” He saw you.
3. You will receive assurance of adoption into the family of God. As God the Father spoke to Jesus in your behalf, you realize that God says to you. “You are my beloved son, daughter, in whom I am well pleased”!
4. You will gain victory over sin in your life.
5. You will experience more of the joys of salvation than ever before.
6. You will daily be filled with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance, faith.
7. You will receive words from the Father to speak in season to the one who is weary.
8. You will receive power to witness through your spiritual gift/s.
9. You will receive protection from the 7 last plagues.
10. Your reward in heaven will be in the form of eternal fellowship with those who have come to Jesus through your testimony.

THE LORD HAS CHOSEN YOU!

You might be tempted to think that you are like a lone planet drifting off in space with no sun to orbit. You may wonder if God knows anything about you or cares what happens to you. Yet Jesus says concerning you, “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” Matt. 10:29,30, NASB).

The very fact that you have shown interest in this web site is evidence that the Holy Spirit is drawing you. No human being by nature takes the initiative to seek after God (Romans 3:10-18). Jesus says: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who  sent Me draws him” . . . (Jn. 6:44, NASB).

Jesus promised the baptism of the Holy Spirit to His disciples (Acts 1:4.5).  In John chapters 14, 15, & 16 Jesus tells what would happen when the Comforter would come to them. The declaration that he chose them is in the center of these promises. Jesus said to his disciples: “ You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain” (Jn. 15:16, NASB). 

 If you have wondered how the Lord would ever want to have anything to do with the likes of you, that thought may well be evidence that the Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin so that you will long for the comforter to come to you with the assurance that He has chosen you. Those He pardons, He first makes penitent.

If you ask for the  the Holy Spirit and claim this promise you can expect to be comforted by the assurance that God has set His affection on you and called you by name. You are his (Is. 43:1). 

ADOPTED INTO THE FAMILY OF GOD

The shocking reality sinks in when one realizes that adoption into the family of God is not a bland platitude, but a tangible reality.

When Jesus was baptized by the Holy Spirit at His water baptism, the Father declared Him to be His Beloved Son in Whom He is well pleased, though He inhabited our human flesh. His perfect obedience becomes ours by faith when we receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

“We are not to be anxious about what Christ and God think of us, but of what God thinks of Christ, our Substitute. Ye are accepted in the Beloved. The Lord shows to the repenting, believing one that Christ accepts the surrender of the soul, to be molded and fashioned after His own likeness” (Ms 39-1907, par. 6). 

“And the word that was spoken to Jesus at the Jordan, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,’ embraces humanity. God spoke to Jesus as our representative. With all our sins and weaknesses, we are not cast aside as worthless. ‘He hath made us accepted in the Beloved’ (Ephesians 1:6). The glory that rested upon Christ is a pledge of the love of God for us. It tells us of the power of prayer,—how the human voice may reach the ear of God, and our petitions find acceptance in the courts of heaven. By sin, earth was cut off from heaven, and alienated from its communion; but Jesus has connected it again with the sphere of glory. His love has encircled man, and reached the highest heaven. The light which fell from the open portals upon the head of our Savior will fall upon us as we pray for help to resist temptation. The voice which spoke to Jesus says to every believing soul, This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased” (DA 113).

VICTORY OVER SIN

The beautiful truth is that when you are adopted into the family of God by faith, and when you abide in Him by faith, the life giving power of God is passed on to you similar to the way that living sperm begets a human son.  Since God cannot sin, He gives power to resist temptation (Jn. 1:12; 1 Jn. 3:9). Our part is to choose to put to death the deeds of the body by means of the  Spirit (Rom. 8:13). This does not mean that we go back into bondage trying to create holy feelings, but we confess our need and claim adoption into the family of God. The Holy Spirit gives the victory and the assurance that we are the Sons, and Daughters of God (Rom. 8:14-16). Roman slaves owned nothing but they could be adopted into a wealthy family by going before the magistrate and declaring “this is my father”, and the adopting father declaring “this is my son”.  The adopted son then became a co-owner with the father.

If we have a daily baptism of the Holy Spirit bringing assurance that we are sons and daughters of God, we can ask Him to help us identify temptations to sin when they come, and  to remember to ask for the mind of Christ. The deliverance is most often immediate.

MORE OF THE JOYS OF SALVATION THAN EVER BEFORE

If you have accepted Jesus as your personal savior, like the woman at the well, you are so thrilled with acceptance by the Lord that you feel like leaving the water pot of mundane living and sharing the good news of salvation. “Therefore you will joyously draw water From the springs of salvation” (Is. 12:3, NASB).

The one who receives an infilling of the Holy Spirit can expect to be filled with joy. Review the following scriptures from the NASB: “And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52). “having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thes. 1:6).

“When you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, then you will understand more of the joys of salvation than you have known all your life hitherto” (5MR 231.2).

FILLED WITH THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in the believer. This fruit is described as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22,23 NASB). All these qualities of character are produced miraculously. They cannot be manufactured by the believer in his/her own strength or by sheer will power. The love that is produced by the Spirit is like a torrent of compassion (Jn. 7:38,39).  The Joy created by the Spirit is an inner happiness that is present in spite of outward circumstances (Phil. 2:17; 1 Peter 1:6). The peace given by the Holy Spirit is a peace that passes understanding, and is ours even though the storms of life surround us. We have patience as a gift. Kindness, goodness, and faithfulness will flow through us to others. We will be gentle with all and we will have self control.

WORDS TO SPEAK IN SEASON TO THE ONE WHO IS WEARY

The power to witness that comes with the baptism of the Holy Spirit is most often found in wisdom to speak a word in season to the one who is weary.

Speaking of Jesus, inspiration says: “Daily He received a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. In the early hours of the new day the Lord awakened Him from His slumbers, and His soul and His lips were anointed with grace, that He might impart to others. His words were given Him fresh from the heavenly courts, words that He might speak in season to the weary and oppressed. ‘The Lord God hath given Me,’ He said, ]the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakens morning by morning, He wakens Mine ear to hear as the learned’ (Isaiah 50:4)” (COL 139).

As we prayerfully consider all those within our sphere of influence the Holy Spirit will bring to mind things that have been said that indicate a spiritual weariness, and we will be given insight into how to speak to the one who is weary. (See Post – Rest for the Weary and Harassed, on this web site.)

EMPOWERMENT OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS

“The promise of the Spirit is not appreciated as it should be. Its fulfillment is not realized as it might be. It is the absence of the Spirit that makes the gospel ministry so powerless. Learning, talents, eloquence, every natural or acquired endowment, may be possessed; but without the presence of the Spirit of God, no heart will be touched, no sinner be won to Christ. On the other hand, if they are connected with Christ, if the gifts of the Spirit are theirs, the poorest and most ignorant of His disciples will have a power that will tell upon hearts. God makes them the channel for the outworking of the highest influence in the universe” (COL 328). (See menu on top of first page, click on Spiritual Gifts Inventory, Spiritual Gifts Placement Grid.)

PROTECTION DURING THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES

Speaking of Herod’s slaughter of innocent babies:

“This calamity the Jews had brought upon themselves. If they had been walking in faithfulness and humility before God, He would in a signal manner have made the wrath of the king harmless to them. But they had separated themselves from God by their sins, and had rejected the Holy Spirit, which was their only shield” (DA 65).

“I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful and were looking to the time of “refreshing” and the “latter rain” to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord and to live in His sight. Oh, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! They had neglected the needful preparation; therefore they could not receive the refreshing that all must have to fit them to live in the sight of a holy God” (EW 71).

“I saw that Satan was at work in these ways to distract, draw away, and deceive God’s people just now in this sealing time more than ever before. I saw some who were not standing stiffly, their knees were trembling, their feet were sliding, because they were not planted firmly on present truth, and the covering of Almighty God would not be drawn over them. While they were thus trembling Satan was trying his every art to hold them where they were until the sealing was over and the covering drawn over God’s people, and they left out without protection in the time of slaughter. God has begun to draw this covering over His people, therefore it will very soon be drawn over all of those who are to have a shelter in the time of trouble or day of the Lord” (Lt5-1849 (April 21, 1849) par. 14).

“Those that overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, will be the favored ones who shall receive the seal of the living God. Those whose hands are not clean, whose hearts are not pure, will not have the seal of the living God. Those who are planning sin and acting it will be passed by. Only those who, in their attitude before God, are filling the position of those who are repenting and confessing their sins in the great anti-typical day of atonement, will be recognized and marked as worthy of God’s protection. The names of those who are steadfastly looking and waiting and watching for the appearing of their Saviour—more earnestly and wishfully than they who wait for the morning—will be numbered with those who are sealed”(TM 445).

YOUR REWARD IN HEAVEN

When you know God as it is your  privilege to know Him, you will realize the meaning of this inspired verse: “To comprehend and enjoy God is the highest exercise of the powers of man” (OHC 61). The greatest joy of heaven and the new earth will be fellowship with God, Holy Angels and the redeemed. Only there will we realize the privilege that is ours to be used by the Lord to bring salvation to others. It will be like being instrumental in giving a universe and eternity to them, for they will live to appreciate it. Living with our loved ones for eternity and knowing that we played a part in their being there will be the greatest reward imaginable.