What Is The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit And How Do We Know If Someone Has Received It?

Q: What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and how do I know if someone has received it? I’ve always been taught it is evidenced by speaking in tongues, but I’m reconsidering that view.

A: I believe that we can and should have subsequent experiences with the Holy Spirit. To deny that we can and should have ongoing experiences with the Holy Spirit is unfair.

Regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I believe it can be something that happens subsequently in a person's life, but I don't think of it as a one-time experience necessarily. I consider the baptism of the Holy Spirit as being more of a condition than a singular experience. To be baptized means to be immersed or overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit. This is like a piece of cloth being dunked into a liquid vat where it is dyed. It is immersed and overwhelmed in that substance. That’s what it means to be immersed in the Holy Spirit—to have Him upon your life in a great measure, not just in a tiny trickle.

Now, what's the evidence that a person is baptized in the Holy Spirit? It is not speaking in tongues. While speaking in tongues is not evidence of nothing, it is not the evidence of being baptized with the Holy Spirit. I think the classic teaching of most Pentecostalism is mistaken. This teaching has done a lot of damage because it has made people seek the gift of tongues for completely wrong reasons. They seek the gift of tongues to prove something to themselves or to somebody else.

The proof that a person is filled with the Spirit or baptized with the Holy Spirit is that they have the fruit of the Spirit in their life. That is the true evidence. It’s not about how many spiritual gifts you can exercise. I believe they are real and have their place, but that’s not the measure of whether or not a person is truly Spirit-filled. Show me the fruit of the Spirit in your life; that’s what matters.