“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized…” (Acts 2:41)
Many of us contend about baptism and are distressed and deceived about what baptism really is. The Word of God shows that BAPTISM IS A COVENANT MADE WITH GOD by a physical operation. You say, “What kind of covenant is that?” Just think about it: when you marry someone, there must be witnesses, a ceremony, and a certificate. All this is necessary, because we are still human beings. It is the same with the baptism. We must go down into the water, be covered by the water and arise out of the water. This is the symbolism. If you do not do the symbol right, then you do not have the baptism.
The symbol of baptism is a three-step operation. People baptize in water and the water covers us. This is the symbol of death. We rise out of the water and are covered by the water. This is the symbol of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. When we go into a spiritual baptism, the baptism in the Holy Ghost, the Spirit must cover us over, just as the water covered us. Then, we go into the fullness of baptism, the Baptism into Christ, learning our lesson from the physical operation.
God says that baptism is making a covenant with Him. The covenant is that you will go the whole way – through death, through burial, and through resurrection. This is the symbolism of baptism. All of this is very scriptural. I would encourage you to study it out for yourself. However, I am pressing it upon you that baptism in water is absolutely necessary. God told Moses that the tabernacle must have been built exactly according to the pattern He gave him. Obedience is absolutely necessary in serving God.
Have you ever heard of a one-sided covenant? When Jesus Christ gave you salvation, it was one-sided, because you had not yet responded. You were in the darkness. I can remember my own condition. It was very bad. I was like an explosive waiting to be triggered. I couldn’t trust myself. If I saw a fight, I had to run the other way before I could get involved. I just couldn’t trust myself. And then, one day I had a dream. In the dream I was in a dark pit. The pit was so deep that I could barely see the sky above. It was hopeless, because the sides of the pit were going straight up. I was like ‘itsy bitsy spider’ climbing up and falling down; climbing up and falling down; determined to climb up but falling down again – there was no hope! Suddenly, I heard a sound, like a wind – oooooohhoooo. It came down into the pit and lifted me up! I hitched onto the sides of the pit and could see the depths below me. The wind went off, but came back! This time it took me out of that pit into the clear blue sky and landed me into a wood. When I looked into the woodland, there were big honeycombs hanging down. They were dripping honey. I knew it was God. Remember, I didn’t know God, but I knew it was God. After He came into my life and made the covenant with me, this covenant of mercy reached my soul, and I saw that God had saved me from all those things.
One day, Jesus came into my room, nodded His head and said to me, “You need to be baptized.” I said, “Yes, Lord.” I thought I knew exactly what He meant and there was nothing to it. I thought baptism was going and getting dunked in water. So I went to a Baptist church where they were having a baptism and told them I wanted to be baptized. They made me join their baptismal class, dipped me in the water and took me out again. I was baptized, immersed. They also told me to give a testimony. I said, “Brethren, I hear everybody testifying that they are happy, glad and free. I am unhappy, I am not glad, and I am not free.” I was just telling the truth. I was so hungry! I wanted God more than anything else! And I was not happy at all. I wanted more God.
I came back that afternoon to meet Jesus, as it was my plan during those seven months to meet Him at four o’clock in the afternoon. When I saw Him, I said to Him, “Well, I’ve done what You said I should do.” He looked at me, shook His head and said, “You need to be baptized.” I was confused for I did not know what I had done wrong. I began to search the Scriptures. The strangest thing is, I never felt to ask Him. And He wouldn’t tell me; He wouldn’t teach me baptism. He just said, “Go to your Bible.”
I, therefore, began searching the Scriptures and studying baptism. The more I did so, the more I was confused as to what I did wrong. Then one day, I heard a man preach the Word on baptism. He explained that baptism was three parts, like a set of stairs with three steps on it. When you take the first step, you must have the intention of taking the second and the third or else the first is invalid. You will be going nowhere if you refuse to move from the first step to the second. You must make a covenant with Him that you will go with Him the whole way.
The little pieces in the Scripture suddenly began to fall into place. I found out that Baptism is more than just being dipped in water. It is an inner work that has to be done to bring you into covenant relationship with God. It is a work in your heart, in which you make up your mind and say, “I am finished with the world. I want Jesus and I will go with Him all the way.”
When you get that perception, you don’t go to those who have a contrary perception and ask them to baptize you. For they will baptize you in a contrary way – they will dip you in water and say, “You’ve got it all.” When I went to this church and was baptized, the first thing that happened was that they gave me the right hand of fellowship. I was not baptized unto Christ, but I was baptized unto a membership and unto the church. The next thing that happened was that they began to teach me their doctrine. Their doctrine did not believe in the second step, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I am not even talking about the third step, the baptism into the Body of Christ. So I went and got baptized properly.
Baptism then is the surrender to God. It is a covenant with God, in which you say, “Yes, Jesus, I accept Your covenant of the Blood that you shed for me. I accept the Blood and the power that it gives and I will be true to Your Blood, to Your death, to Your resurrection, until I become like You.”
