The Baptism with the Holy Spirit – Part 1

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit; a personal reflection.

For some time now I have been wanting to write about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I have delayed putting pen to paper – actually, fingers to keyboard – not really knowing how best to tackle the project.

Then I came up with the idea of sharing my story and using that to introduce the subject of the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

I need however to share some caveats before I start.

First of all, I am not a theologian. I love the Bible but I have had no formal training in Hebrew, Greek, hermeneutics, and exegesis etc. I have never been to Bible school or done any kind of formal study of Scripture. In many ways I wish I had done some of these things, or been in a position where I could have had an opportunity to. However, the direction of my life turned out differently.

Secondly, I do not want to portray my experience as the definitive one for when we talk about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. That is why I have entitled this article “a personal reflection”. Nonetheless my testimony has been significantly linked with my understanding and experience of the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

I have charted my course through life and key events and people for my readers to discover some of the key themes that will relate to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. I may not necessarily note them all, or underline for my readers every association, but I think many threads can be discovered.

Thirdly, as part of my personal journey I wanted to share some of the richness of church life that I personally enjoyed and immensely benefitted from. I do not think my experience was in any way unique, but rather it was reflective of much life and blessing in many assemblies and communities of the Lord’s people at that time. So, if there are occasions where I have expressed disappointment with church life, they must be set against a backdrop of many positive things. This is not intended in any way to be a criticism. It is my own story and my observations and conclusions.

Lastly, I wanted to preserve some of my impressions and memories of my life, especially in my formative years, in case they may be of interest to my family and also to others following behind. As my memory begins to fail me, it seemed important to me to record these things. It makes me so grateful to the Lord for His blessing upon me, all the days of my life. I will be including people whose names will mean nothing to most readers – if anyone even gets to read it at all! However, these names and events remembered have come flooding back to me that I wanted to record them. As I have said above, this is not because I think I am anyone special, or have any right to be listened to, but rather to give glory to the Lord and to acknowledge His goodness to me.