Christ's disciples
were baptized with the Holy Ghost:.Matthew
3:11 "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that
comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.
He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
The word 'fire'
here is symbolic of Creator's presence in one's life and the trials
and sufferings one goes through in order to have character molded:.Isaiah
64:8 "But now, O Lord, you are our father, we are the clay and you
our potter. And we all are the work of your hand."
Character is necessary for
a high eternal position in the Kingdom
of the Creator:.Jeremiah
18:6 "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says
the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in mine
hand, O house
of Israel."
Paul is showing here in
Romans
chapter 9 that all physical stuff like 'I'm of Israel', I'm a Gentile',
I'm a Roman', 'I was taught by Paul', 'I was of Peter'.(1Corinthians
1:12; 3:4),
just doesn't cut it when it comes to spirituality.
The Creator did things in
the physical the way He wanted to:.Romans
9:20,21 "Nay but, O man, who art you that replies against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?
Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour and another unto dishonour?"
In Galatians here, it shows
that the physical, ordinary consciousness humans is preliminary
for spiritual higher consciousness humans:.Galatians
3:28,29 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor
free, there is neither male nor female, for you
are all one in Christ Emmanuel.(what
is.'Christ'?).
And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise.".
The Holy Ghost came upon
them:.Acts
1:8 "But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come
upon you.....".
The Spirit was shed forth,
poured out from the invisible realm
that we offen refer to as heaven and fell upon them:.Acts
11:15,16 "And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as
on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that
he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with
the Holy Ghost."
This is baptism! Immersion
into the family of the Creator by means of being covered with the Holy
Nature of love, the Holy Spirit.(or
'ghost'; as some verse renderings elicit).
John
3:5,6 "Emmanuel answered, Verily.('in
truth'), verily, I say unto you. Except
a man be born of water.(physical
birth; how else could a man be born anyway?).and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
From
David Guzik's Commentary:."Water
in verse 5 may represent physical birth as verse 6 refers to flesh. Water
may represent the Word, as we are washed by the water of the word:.Ephesians
5:26 "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word."
Water may represent the Holy
Spirit, the living water:.John
7:38,39 "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Emmanuel stood
and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He
that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, out of his belly.(his
'food' for life will then be that which is to do with the spirit – the
spiritual things, the higher consciousness things, because now he or she
realizes that this life is just a preparation time for us going into eternity:.Romans
8:18; 1Corinthians 2:9).flows
rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that
believe on him should receive..." John
20:17 "Emmanuel saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended
to my Father, but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my
Father and your Father and to my God and your God."
Water is also represented
as the water of cleansing:.Ezekiel
36:25-28 "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be
clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse
you. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within
you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will
give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause
you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them.
And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall
be my people and I will be your God." Ephesians
5:26 "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word."
In this we are daily developing
the Creator's character quality of love and sloughing
off the old man:.1Corinthians
15:31 "I protest.(used
in the affirmation of oaths back then, or, to put it another way 'I say
truly and firmly').by
your rejoicing which I have in Christ Emmanuel our Lord, I die daily.".Paul
wanted continuous growth in his life and daily he was in an attitude welcoming
change.
Paul was in confidence that
he was daily becoming more like his Creator.(Philippians
2:5,6).and
that his old nature was daily being eradicated:.Galatians
6:15; Ephesians 4:22; Romans
6:6; Colossians 3:9.
Emmanuel says "you
do not understand everything about the wind, but you see its effects;
that is just how it is with the birth of the Spirit" Remember the emphasis:
This is something the Creator does in us, not something we do for the Creator.
Once the Creator awakens
you, that is, activates
His holy nature in you that your life
covered up from you, that holy nature Creator-God of all good made
you with before the world was made.(2Timothy
1:9).and
irrespective
of whether or not you have chosen any physical type of baptism,
then you are free of any constraints.religion
would have bound you to.
Everybody in the religious
world has some doctrine
about baptism. What does Paul say about it? Paul calls us to move on.
From such 'dead works' Paul
calls us to move on to perfection:.Hebrews
6:1,2 "Therefore.leaving.the
principles of the doctrine of Christ.(Hebrews
9:15), let us.go
on.unto perfection,
not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead
works.(such
as being sorry for not keeping any of the commandments, which were part
of an old law that was completely abolished:.Hebrews
10:9).and
of faith toward God and of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying
on of hands and of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment."
Hebrews
9:9 "Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices
that could not make him that did the service
perfect, as pertaining to the conscience."
Paul is saying to leave all
that for what? For a higher calling, a calling to a higher consciousness
of living:.Philippians
3:14.
Paul here suggests leaving
the doctrines alone, getting away from them in fact, in order to move on
to perfection. They were only to provide a foundation, a pathway, from
which one could grow from:.Ephesians
4:15. Perfection is of the
heart
through the
faith of Emmanuel
the Christ.
But what if you had learned
that repentance is important if you miss the mark of that perfection? Does
the Bible guide us to again repent? If it did, why indeed would
Paul have said what he did about moving away from the doctrine of repentance?
1John
1:9 tells us what to do if we again miss the mark, the meaning of the
word 'sin'.
The Creator tells us He looks
on the heart. And yes, it's true that once Creator gives us His
Holy
Spirit, we are forever immersed in it and our names are permanently
in the book of life. We
have reestablished our connection.
