Day 23 – Jesus Baptizes us with the Holy Spirit; Lust Immerses us in Death

Will you live for who John the Baptist prepared the way for, for what the prophet Joel longed for, for life, not death? Then, you must repent of lust.

Matthew 3:11-12 –

[John the Baptist preached,] ¹¹ “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. ¹² 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.”

John 14:15-17 – ¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

John the Baptist came to prepare the way for YHWH the Son. He came preaching repentance and requiring that his hearers show evidence of repentance before he baptized them (Matt 3:8; Luke 3:8). He also prophesied of Jesus baptizing His disciples with the Holy Spirit. Jesus later told His disciples that He would leave them but would send the Holy Spirit to help them. The Spirit was already with them, but when Jesus sent Him, He would be in them.