"In the power of one Spirit we have all been baptized into one body . . . and have all been given to drink of one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13 JND). On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit took up 120 individual believers in Christ and baptized them into one body, thus forming the Church of the new dispensation. By this act He established the believers into Christ, making them one body with their glorified Head and linking them one with another in a union as close as members in the human body. The baptism of the Spirit is therefore collective. It is not something to be sought or prayed for, nor tarried for, since the body has already been formed.
In the four Gospels and the first chapter of Acts the baptism of the Spirit was yet future. In Acts 2 the promise was fulfilled. In 1 Cor. 12:13 we have the only reference to the Spirit’s baptism after Acts 11. It is a doctrinal statement to be believed, not an exhortation to seek after an experience.
Four times, as related in the Acts, special supernatural manifestations accompanied the reception of the Spirit as various companies were incorporated into the body of Christ. In chapter 2 all were Jews. In chapter 8 the same blessing came upon regenerated Samaritans, adding them to the body of Christ. In chapter 10 the nucleus of Gentiles was baptized into the same body. And in chapter 19 a remnant of John’s disciples were brought in. There was a special miraculous endowment in each instance to confirm the souls of the saints and to make known the truth that all distinctions were done away in Christ, and that there is but "one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling" (Eph. 4:4).
What grace on God’s part to give this fourfold testimony in the beginning! But what folly for Christians now to expect a duplication of these initiatory manifestations. The body is formed; all believers have their part in it. And as each individual is born of the Spirit, he or she receives Him as the indwelling Guest and is thus brought into the good of the Spirit’s baptism.
If some scriptures seem to indicate that the baptism of the Spirit is a blessing to be received subsequent to conversion, it is well to examine them carefully, noting the context, and asking, "Was this spoken before or after Pentecost?" The difference is immense, for a new dispensation began when the Holy Spirit descended to indwell the believer.
Let me mention several such passages and seek to help you to place them. Jesus said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him" (Luke 11:13). Many take this as their authority for seeking the gift of the Spirit by prayer. But this was spoken by our Saviour before the cross. The Father gave the Spirit at Pentecost; He does not now wait for us to ask Him to do so again, for the wondrous gift once given abides in the Church and indwells every believer, having baptized all into one body, as we have seen.
What of the words, "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14:17)? Does it not imply that some are only born of the Spirit, and others indwelt? When did Jesus so speak_before or after Pentecost? Before! In this passage the Lord contrasts the two dispensations. The Spirit was with believers before the cross; He is in them now. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Rom. 8:9).
But did not our Lord command His disciples to tarry till endued with power from on high? He did, and He particularly indicated where they were to tarry_"in Jerusalem." No other place would do, for there the Spirit came, just as the Son came to Bethlehem.
A gentleman said to me recently, "I have just come from a great tarrying meeting. Hundreds have been tarrying for many days at San Jose, California, waiting for the Holy Ghost." I asked, "What authority did you have for that?" He replied, "Why, Jesus said, ‘Tarry in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.’ " "Well, my friend," I inquired, "are you not confounding locations and time? You are over 10,000 miles too far away and over 1,800 years too late."
The disciples were commanded to tarry at Jerusalem, and as they waited there, like a rushing, mighty wind He came, sent from the Father and the Son to form the body of Christ, and to endue with power the waiting disciples that they might bear testimony concerning the risen Christ to those of many nations and languages gathered at Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Pentecost.
Let me not be misunderstood. I am not insinuating that it is a vain thing for any believer or company of believers to wait on God for power to overcome the enemy or to preach the gospel or to serve the Lord in any other way. It is always well to be thus before Him. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength" (Isa. 40:31). This is true in all dispensations. But we wait, not for Him to send the Spirit, for He is already here, and by His baptism we have all been joined to the body. We need, however, to wait on God to show us any hindrance in our lives that may be restraining His working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. As we judge ourselves, and learn from our past failures to walk humbly and in self-distrust, we make room for the Holy Spirit to fill us with divine power, and to use us for the glory of God and the blessing of a needy world.
To tarry for the baptism of the Spirit is to evidence ignorance of God’s dispensational ways. Remember, the only place where the baptism is mentioned in the Epistles of the New Testament is this one verse, 1 Cor. 12:13; and here it is distinctly spoken of as a past event. All who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ have been brought into the good and blessing of that baptism.
(From The Mission of the Holy Spirit.)