“Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” ~ Philippians 3:19
Our hearts are idol factories. We are always tempted to make temporal things into ultimate things. We must be on guard against idolatry in our lives. Shouldn’t we assess the state of our hearts to see what we may have turned into an idol? Anyone or any thing can become an idol in our life. That is because we love them or it more than God.
“I baptize you with water for 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. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear his threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:11-12
“And he preached, saying, “After me comes He who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Mark 1:7-8
John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” Luke 3:16-17
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
What Is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit?
First, the Holy Spirit speaks to the hearts of unbelievers, showing them their need for salvation (John 16:7–11). When a person accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside the believer (John 14:15–17; 1 Corinthians 3:16).
The baptism in the Holy Spirit occurs when the Spirit of God comes upon a believer. Jesus Christ “sinks into the Holy Spirit” the Christian who is baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit has the idea of putting on clothing. Therefore, Jesus Christ “sinks us into or clothes us with” the Holy Spirit. We are to remain clothed with His power, as St. Paul says, “be being filled with the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit empowers the believer’s mind with a genuine understanding of truth, takes possession of the believer’s abilities, imparts gifts that qualify the believer for service in the Body of Christ, and begins a work of grace in cleansing and sanctifying the believer.
“And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Acts 1:4-5
Believers need the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit for every Christian?
Yes, because to do God’s work, we need God’s power. “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:49
The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is for all who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord (Act 2:38–39).
Why Do We Need the Baptism in the Holy Spirit?
The purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is to empower believers for service, witness, spiritual warfare, and boldness in their testimonies (Acts 1:8; 4:19–20, 29–31; 6:8–10; 1 Corinthians 2:4).
Jesus commanded the disciples not to begin the work to which He called them until they were Baptized in the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:48–49; Acts 1:4, 8). When the apostles met other believers in Christ, they at once asked whether the believers had received the Holy Spirit. If not, they made sure they received Him (Acts 8:14–16; 19:1–5).
The baptism in the Holy Spirit is an absolute necessity in every Christian’s life for the service to which God has called us.
God’s energies in the Person of the Holy Spirit are communicated to believers for three particular purposes.
1. That He might be in them, a sanctifying comforter, fortifying their souls and bringing to their remembrance whatever Jesus had before spoken to them.
2. That their preaching be accompanied by His demonstration and power to the hearts of their hearers, so that they might believe and be saved.
3. That they might be able to work miracles to confirm their pretensions to a Divine mission and to establish the truth of the doctrines they preached.
How Do I Know That I Have Received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit?
Speaking in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives the utterance is evidence of being Baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking with tongues are inseparable biblically (Acts chapters 2, 8, 9, 10, & 19). The cumulative Scriptural references of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit corroborates with the doctrine of speaking in other tongues is one evidence of the experience. St. Paul says he spoke in tongues, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” 1 Corinthians 14:18 This experience announces the beginning of a life of full service in Jesus Christ.
How do we receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit?
We must pray and ask God to baptize us in the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13). God fulfills His promises in a variety of ways, and no two human beings are alike in how they receive spiritual things.
Ask a Spirit-filled elder of the Church to lay hands on you and pray for the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:16-17, “For he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”
The New Testament tells us that some believers received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit the moment they placed their faith in Jesus Christ, such as Cornelius and his family (Acts 10). Others, such as the believers in Ephesus, received it later:
“And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.” Acts 19:1-7
We should never limit God by our own expectations. God is sovereign and He will work in whatever way He chooses.
Prepare your heart. Repent and confess your sins. Pray and ask God to baptize you in the Holy Spirit and Fire today!
Some of you may have little or no experience with what I mean by preaching. What I mean by preaching is expository exultation. (This is how I preach – took it right out of my mouth!)
Preaching Is Expository
Expository means that preaching aims to exposit, or explain and apply, the meaning of the Bible. The reason for this is that the Bible is God’s word, inspired, infallible, profitable—all 66 books of it.
The preacher’s job is to minimize his own opinions and deliver the truth of God. Every sermon should explain the Bible and then apply it to people’s lives.
The preacher should do that in a way that enables you to see that the points he is making actually come from the Bible. If you can’t see that they come from the Bible, your faith will end up resting on a man and not on God’s word.
The aim of this exposition is to help you eat and digest biblical truth that will make your spiritual bones more like steel, double the capacity of your spiritual lungs, make the eyes of your heart dazzled with the brightness of the glory of God, and awaken the capacity of your soul for kinds of spiritual enjoyment you didn’t even know existed.
Preaching Is Exultation
Preaching is also exultation. This means that the preacher does not just explain what’s in the Bible, and the people do not simply try understand what he explains. Rather, the preacher and the people exult over what is in the Bible as it is being explained and applied.
Preaching does not come after worship in the order of the service. Preaching is worship. The preacher worships—exults—over the word, trying his best to draw you into a worshipful response by the power of the Holy Spirit.
My job is not simply to see truth and show it to you. (The devil could do that for his own devious reasons.) My job is to see the glory of the truth and to savor it and exult over it as I explain it to you and apply it for you. That’s one of the differences between a sermon and a lecture.
Preaching Isn’t Church, but It Serves the Church
Preaching is not the totality of the church. And if all you have is preaching, you don’t have the church. A church is a body of people who minister to each other.
One of the purposes of preaching is to equip us for that and inspire us to love each other better.
But God has created the church so that she flourishes through preaching. That’s why Paul gave young pastor Timothy one of the most serious, exalted charges in all the Bible in 2 Timothy 4: 1-2: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word.”
What to Expect from My Preaching and Why
If you’re used to a twenty-minute, immediately practical, relaxed talk, you won’t find that from what I’ve just described.
I preach twice that long;
I do not aim to be immediately practical but eternally helpful;
and I am not relaxed.
I standing vigilantly on the precipice of eternity speaking to people who this week could go over the edge whether they are ready to or not. I will be called to account for what I said there.
That’s what I mean by preaching. Amen!
~ John Piper
A passion is a spiritual disease that dominates the soul. When one repeatedly falls into a certain sin, it becomes second nature – a passion – for him to keep falling into this sin. Thus, one who misuses the God-given powers of the soul of desire and anger, or one who continually succumbs to temptations of lust, hate, malice, or jealousy, or one who succumbs to pride and vainglory, acquires those passions. It is primarily through repentance, faith, obedience to God, submission to His will, and dying daily to self is one healed of the passions.
The passions are:
harshness, trickery, malice, perversity, mindlessness, licentiousness, enticement,
dullness, lack of understanding, idleness, sluggishness, stupidity, flattery, silliness,
idiocy, madness, derangement, coarseness, rashness, cowardice, lethargy, dearth of
good actions, moral errors, greed, over-frugality, ignorance, folly, spurious knowledge,
forgetfulness, lack of discrimination, obduracy, injustice, evil intention, a conscienceless
soul, slothfulness, idle chatter, breaking of faith, wrongdoing, sinfulness, lawlessness,
criminality, passion, seduction, assent to evil, mindless coupling, demonic provocation,
dallying, bodily comfort beyond what is required, vice, stumbling, sickness of soul,
enervation, weakness of intellect, negligence, laziness, a reprehensible despondency,
disdain of God, aberration, transgression, unbelief, lack of faith, wrong belief, poverty of
faith, heresy, fellowship in heresy, polytheism, idolatry, ignorance of God, impiety,
magic, astrology, divination, sorcery, denial of God, the love of idols, dissipation,
profligacy, loquacity, indolence, self-love, inattentiveness, lack of progress, deceit,
delusion, audacity, witchcraft, defilement, the eating of unclean food, soft living,
dissoluteness, voracity, unchastity, avarice, anger, dejection, listlessness, self-esteem,
pride, presumption, self-elation, boastfulness, infatuation, foulness, satiety, doltishness,
torpor, sensuality, over-eating, gluttony, insatiability, secret eating, hoggishness, solitary
eating, indifference, fickleness, self-will, thoughtlessness, self-satisfaction, love of
popularity, ignorance of beauty, uncouthness, gaucherie, light-mindedness,
boorishness, rudeness, contentiousness, quarrelsomeness, abusiveness, shouting,
brawling, fighting, rage, mindless desire, gall, exasperation, giving offence, enmity,
meddlesomeness, chicanery, asperity, slander, censure, calumny, condemnation,
accusation, hatred, railing, insolence, dishonor, ferocity, frenzy, severity,
aggressiveness, forswearing oneself, oath taking, lack of compassion, hatred of one’s
brothers, partiality, patricide, matricide, breaking fasts, laxity, acceptance of bribes,
theft, rapine, jealousy, strife, envy, indecency, jesting, vilification, mockery, derision,
exploitation, oppression, disdain of one’s neighbor, flogging, making sport of others,
hanging, throttling, heartlessness, implacability, covenant-breaking, bewitchment,
harshness, shamelessness, impudence, obfuscation of thoughts, obtuseness, mental
blindness, attraction to what is fleeting, impassionedness, frivolity, disobedience,
dullwittedness, drowsiness of soul, excessive sleep, fantasy, heavy drinking,
drunkenness, uselessness, slackness, mindless enjoyment, self-indulgence, venery,
using foul language, effeminacy, unbridled desire, burning lust, masturbation, pimping,
adultery, sodomy, bestiality, defilement, wantonness, a stained soul, incest,
uncleanliness, pollution, sordidness, feigned affection, laughter, jokes, immodest
dancing, clapping, improper songs, revelry, fluteplaying, license of tongue, excessive
love of order, insubordination, disorderliness, reprehensible collusion, conspiracy,
warfare, killing, brigandry, sacrilege, illicit gains, usury, wiliness, grave-robbing,
hardness of heart, obloquy, complaining, blasphemy, fault-finding, ingratitude,
malevolence, contemptuousness, pettiness, confusion, lying, verbosity, empty words,
mindless joy, daydreaming, mindless friendship, bad habits, nonsensicality, silly talk,
garrulity, niggardliness, depravity, intolerance, irritability, affluence, rancour, misuse, illtemper,
clinging to life, ostentation, affectation, pusillanimity, satanic love, curiosity,
contumely, lack of the fear of God, unteachability, senselessness, haughtiness, selfvaunting,
self-inflation, scorn for one’s neighbor, mercilessness, insensitivity,
hopelessness, spiritual paralysis, hatred of God, despair, suicide, a falling away from
God in all things, utter destruction –
Altogether 298 passions……….
These, then, are the passions which have been found named in the Holy Scriptures.
St. John Climakos states: “If you seek understanding in wicked men, you will not find it.”
For all that the demons produce is disorderly. In common with the godless and the unjust, the demons have but one purpose: to destroy the souls of those who accept their evil counsel. Yet sometimes they actually help men to attain holiness. In such instances they are conquered by the patience and faith of those who put their trust in the Lord, and who through their good actions and resistance to evil thoughts counteract the demons and bring down curses upon them.
From A LIST OF THE PASSIONS, Saint Peter of Damaskos The Philokalia; The Complete Text compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth Volume Three Translated from the Greek and edited by G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherard, Kallistos Ware faber and faber, 1984
Esther 9:22 – “As the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, & from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor.”
There can be a lull in the battle. The enemy, Satan, waits for a time or a season to bombard us with something painful. When you are feeling somewhat good about your life, the attack begins. The enemy comes at you with curve balls, hand grenades, mortars, and a frontal attack. All this to test how fragile you are. This is to test your faith in God.
There is no rest from our enemies. They stand ready to attack at a moment’s notice, regardless of the situation or timing. They are ready to pounce heavily. These attacks happen daily to those in the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ must maintain its guard, and watchfulness to protect itself.
That is why the Church, the Body of Christ exists, to help one another and to stand together and fight the enemy.
We are soldiers of Christ (Miles Christi). The Church is One and reveals a great and generous heart. The Church, deeply moved by the heart of Christ, struggles with how indifferent people respond to God’s love through her. She looks to the Cross upon Calvary with affection, knowing all too well all that has been left at its foot. A change must come upon the Church. The Church fears in horror that she may become mediocre, useless, and express an empty life. Now, the Church must look upon the Lord and ask, “What have I done for You, what am I doing for You, and what must I do for You?”
In The Hands of the Refiner 
