"The ANATOMY of TRUE BAPTISM!"

"Take me to the water; take me to the water;take me to the water to be baptized.
  None but the righteous shall be saved, so take me to the water to be baptized!"  Nina Simone

How many times have we sung that song and the church went berserk? Now that is an oldy but goody, right? I can see the nurses with the white gloves on lining up in the aisles of the church getting ready to "handle" the church mothers that got "happy" from singin' this song in the old church!

This was the mandatory hymn that had to be sung in the AME Zion church that I grew up in on the Sunday when folks got baptized. Ya'll would put your white tee shirts on and drape the white robes over your head and after a few words of scripture and a short prayer, the Right Reverend would start body slammin' the heathens one by one in the tiny little pool behind the buckboard! They had to start fillin' up that pool on Saturday morning to be ready for service on Sunday afternoon (ya'll laughin' but ya'll know what I'm talkin' 'bout!)

Ya'll would step in the pool, get slam dunked and then come up and the church would go crazy! The feeling of elation from the new Christian is hard to describe. This is a prolific symbolic gesture; it is by no means the end of the story...only the beginning!

John the Baptist baptized Jesus with water; then God baptized Jesus with fire (trials and tribulations) and the Holy Spirit. Immediately after His baptism, the Holy Spirit (not Satan) led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. John said that water baptism would provoke a spirit of repentance in the transformation process of the sinner; but after that, Christ would come in and baptize that new Christian with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11). The hard truth is that spiritual victories are often followed by adversity and testing.

There is a profound difference between being baptized with water versus fire and the Holy Spirit. With water baptisms, you go in and then you come out. You think it's the end, but its just the beginning. On the other hand, with fire and Holy Spirit baptisms, you go in but you NEVER come out! You remain in Him, you rest in Him and He makes His abode in you. This is where the Believer receives his "signet ring; this is the place where the Spirit qualifies him for "son ship" and he receives a bonafide seat in eternity with the Father.

This is the anatomy of TRUE BAPTISM....No WATER can put out this FIRE! Selah...