Full immersion

He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit (1:8) 

Many years ago, I stood in a field near Shepton Mallet with my beloved youngest son in my arms. A few months before we had noticed that the skin around his groin was becoming red and inflamed. We initially put it down to, how shall I put it, male 'dampness', but as it spread it became obvious it was something rather worse. A consultant was seen, a diagnosis was given, and we were presented with a certainty. Your son has Psoriasis and he will need cream rubbed into his groin for the rest of his life. As many of you know he has 'additional needs', and I had a vision of applying it to him as an 18 year old. So as I stood in that field, I had a complaint. Before he was born, I had sensed God promise a son healthy in mind, body and spirit, which he was, but now he had an incurable condition. I made my complaint pretty clear to the Almighty. At this moment, something unexpected happened. A friend of ours came walking through the tent village shaking visibly. Now I knew something extraordinary had happened to him that night. God had spoken to him pretty directly and here he was quaking with the presence of God. If I had ever seen anyone baptised in the Spirit then this was it. So I took my chance. Indeed I grabbed it and him with both hands. 'Here, can you pray for Caleb? He has an incurable skin condition. Please pray for him to be healed.' And he did. And he was. The skin condition rapidly disappeared, to reappear briefly a month later, and then to go for good. That's about 10 years ago. Oh and if you're interested, they snuck my friend into St Thomas hospital to see what had happened to him. As a young man he'd had a major accident and his knees were held together with metal rods. Well, no more. Not only were his knees healthy, but the metal was gone. 

I wonder if John knew what he was promising? He must have had an inkling. For him baptism was not a dribble of water on the head but a full on submersion in a deep river. For him the Spirit of God did not give good songs or allow understanding of the Scriptures but brought the whole universe into being and gave the prophets visions of the future and power to stop the rain and to engulf the earth with fire. I think John knew well enough what he meant. Do we?






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