Well, if we take the Lord Jesus as our example, these two things really are inseparable.
But, even if it takes time, I must try to make this helpful to you. You will understand that I am not here to try to give a full explanation of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. However, because baptisms are going to take place today; there are those who have said: "Oh, I wish I could be baptized again! I did not understand when I was baptized all that I see now. Should I not be baptized again? Should I not bring my baptism right up on line with my present knowledge?" Well, if we were to adopt that procedure, every bit of fresh knowledge that you received would require a new baptism! If when you were baptized you really meant to give your life to the Lord, your heart was right with Him, then God knew all that it meant, even if you did not. I do not think anyone could have known much less about the meaning of baptism than I did when I was baptized. I wanted to belong to the Lord and to go on with Him, so I was told that I ought to be baptized. There were other people who wanted me to be baptized more than I did myself so, in my simple way, I just yielded to their wishes. The only thing was that I wanted to love the Lord. Years afterwards I came to understand a great deal more about the meaning of baptism, so I went to the Lord about whether I ought be be baptized again, and He just showed me that it was not what I understood but what He understood, and that into the first simple step that I took He put all the meaning of that step and said "I will lead you through your whole life into the meaning of that simple step."
[Shepherd's Note: Later in T. Austin-Sparks writings, he gets the "baptism" of the Holy Spirit and the "anointing" of the Holy Spirit correctly. Perhaps Christ later showed him the difference. We will get to that much later.]
I hope that is helpful. Of course, it would be another matter if you were not definitely saved when you were baptized.
I think we must leave that there and return to our Pattern: These are the first things that have been shown in the Pattern: the meaning of baptism as changing our ground, leaving the whole ground of the flesh and taking the ground of the Spirit, and, by so doing, coming under the direct and complete government of the Holy Spirit. By doing this we become marked out by God - "This is My beloved son". Thus we are distinguished by heaven and among men as being in a new relationship with God. It is a very important thing that every Christian should be a distinguished Christian.
Now, do you notice the first thing that distinguished Jesus as heaven's very important Person? "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil" (Matthew 4:1). If men did not recognize who He was, hell did. satan said: "This is a very important person," and he paid Him very great attention all life. At the end of these temptations in the wilderness it says: "He (satan) departed from him for a season" (Luke 4:13). It was as thought satan said: 'You have defeated me now, but I will be back again' and how true that was!
Heaven's important persons are known by the enemy, and he will do everything he can against that. He will do it by persecution, or he will try it by deception. There is no numbering of the ways in which the enemy tries to counter that. But it is the baptism of the Holy Spirit which gives us our importance - we are not important in ourselves.
Now I think we can leave Jordan and go on. That is the Man presented, the first view of the Pattern that has been shown. From that point the Pattern is described, and that description is all gathered up in a very simple phrase, spoken by the lips of Jesus: "I AM". That means that He is the all-inclusive representation of the Mind of God. Jesus Christ as a single personal reality encompasses all the original intention of God. He is personally universal. We have often said that when God reaches His end, in everything that we shall see and touch, we shall see and touch the Lord Jesus. What a glorious state that will be! You will meet me and I will meet you, and yet we shall snot meet one another - we shall meet the Lord Jesus. All the difficulties that we find in other people will be gone and we shall meet the Lord Jesus. He will be everywhere and in all things. "A great multitude, which no man could number" (Revelation 7:9), and yet one all-comprehensive Person, the Lord Jesus. He is universal, timeless, without beginning and without end. He speaks of the glory which He had with His Father before the world was (John 17:5), and the Word is that that glory is to be in Him "unto all generations for ever and ever" (Ephesians 3:21). He is universal and eternal, and yet He comes down into history. This One of whom we are speaking as God's Pattern, or Vessel is all that.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 34)
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