We have the choice of at least two baptisms!
If MY HEAVENLY FATHER offers me a gift, I will accept it unconditionally. All believers have a measure of The Holy Spirit, but there is more!
Israel is a type and shadow of the two baptisms Jesus mentions in Acts chapter 1.
Israel had been a slave to Egypt (the world). When they painted their doorposts with the blood of a Passover lamb, they were saved from the death angel and were released from Egypt.
Paul wrote by The Holy Spirit in 1st Corinthians chapter 10:
1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,
2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
3 all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
The first baptism of water is represented by Israel going through the Red Sea. This was known as the Baptism of Moses. They were supposed to be on an 11-day journey but instead, it took 40 years. They got out of Egypt, but Egypt did not get out of them.
To get to the Promised Land, they had to go through a second baptism. The first was a sea, the second is a river (Jordan River). Jesus spoke of this “river” in John chapter 7:
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
39 But this He spoke concerning the Holy Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Until Jesus was taken up, He spent forty days speaking to the disciples about The Kingdom of GOD in Acts chapter 1:
2 until the day in which Jesus was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.“
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, Who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
Some of Israel lived on one side of the river. Some of Israel lived on the other side with a river separating (dividing) them as it is with the church today.
Israel had to go through that second body of water to come into the land of promises. Jesus spoke of one such promise: you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
Living in the land of promises is a prophetic picture of living in the Kingdom of GOD. The Promise of the Father is the Baptism of The Holy Spirit. It’s on the other side of the riverbank. Will you step into the river to go to the other side of promise? If you do, the river parts and you go across on dry ground and walk into those promises. Joshua and Caleb did!
What is FATHER’S promise in the New Testament? It is the immersion into the power of GOD so that HIS purposes can be worked in and through us to bring transformation to the world around us.
Luke recorded by The Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2:
32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
33 Therefore being exalted to the Right Hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
39 For God’s promise of the Holy Spirit is for you and your families, for those yet to be born and for everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.”
The Baptism of The Holy Spirit is for every generation and has continued to be available for all those who desire It. It was never meant to be relegated to the initial generation of believers.