Have you been baptised? Your experiences

[Lanolin]

Please share, do you remember your water baptism? What happened and how do you understand it,

 

[Waggles]

I certainly do remember my water baptism.
It was a Wednesday night, the 30th October 1996
I was a Roman Catholic but I had been preached the full gospel of salvation
so there I was in a non-church hall experiencing a true-blue Pentecostal service
Bob, who had witnessed to me, came over after the meeting had ended and asked,
"Well Nick are you going to get baptised?"

Immediately a voice spoke within my mind and quoted scripture to me.
I knew there and then it was yes or no.
So I obeyed and chose salvation.
And got baptised by full immersion confessing my faith.

Not a lot happened in the sense of a changed lifestyle.
I didn't feel clean or saved or justified.
Kept going to the Catholic mass in the morning and to the
Revival Fellowship in the afternoon.

But then I got baptised in the Holy Spirit a month later on
the 1st December 1996 and spoke forth in a new tongue.
Then I changed. My life changed dramatically for the better.
I was instantly healed of many sins and addictions.

Now I appreciated how water and Holy Spirit baptisms go hand in hand.
Just like we read in the NT.

 

[Brad Huber]

I have been baptized twice, the second time, because I knew that by doing so would please the pastor enough that I would able to be more involved in the ministry, and although I despised that I did so, its one of the reasons I dislike most earthly church's/ministry's. They dont trust new people enough to allow them into their ministry, they typically just want you to show up, pony up, and clean up, leaving the important work to others who are either more connected or more financial backing. They dont care about what gifts you have that would actually benefit that church/ministry. But the good thing was that God decided to bless me on the second baptism with a double dose of gifts and talents, no doubt buried in the ground by some other christian who dont use them.

 

[Born Again 2004]

You can be Born Again inside or outside the water

 

[Wired 4 Fishen]

Yes Mam I truly do.
I came up Free and Speaking in Tongues and coming from my past, that was nothing short of God's Awesome Love.
Blessings
W4F

 

[B-A-C]

Yes. Immersed in water.

 

[Lanolin]

Great please share how do you all understand it I mean what does it truly mean for you. How would you explain it to an unbeliever?

 

[Waggles]

2 Certainly not! We have died to sin---how then can we go on living in it?
3 For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus,
we were baptized into union with his death.
4 By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that,
just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.
5 For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one
with him by being raised to life as he was.
6 And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power
of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin.
7 For when we die, we are set free from the power of sin.
Romans 6: (GNB)

 

[Waggles]

It is important to share the scriptures pertaining to baptism in water
for they speak openly of the significance of it -

You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself.
Galatians 3:27 (GNB)

For when you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and in baptism you were also raised with Christ through
your faith in the active power of God, who raised him from death.
Colossians 2:12 (GNB)

which was a symbol pointing to baptism, which now saves you. It is not the washing off of bodily dirt, but the promise made to
God from a good conscience. It saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1Peter 3:21 (GNB)

 

[B-A-C]

Mark 16:16; He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

Heb 10:22; let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

1 Jn 5:7; For there are three that testify:
1 Jn 5:8; the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

 

[Waggles]

What about you Lanolin?
What is your experience of baptism?

 

[Lanolin]

I was baptised or rather dunked (full immersion) when I was 17 but I did not understand it and nothing much changed. I went to church for a while when I was staying at Uni with friends but when I went back home had nobody to take me so I fell away. A whole bunch were being baptised and I thought ok I want to be a christian so I will do it. I had no real idea! I remember it was at a motel spa.

years later my heart was ready I heard the gospel when I was 30 and baptised with the holy spirit at home when I asked God, and spoke in a new tongue. Then later God led me to a church where, I received the holy spirit understanding of the Bible, whereas before I would be reading it and not making sense. The elders asked me do I want to repent of anything before receiving and I said yes, 'pride'. A year or so later, God impressed on me to be water baptised, with understanding of dying to self and having a new life also showing fruits of repentance so I obeyed and did that at church that was baptising at the time and went and did it that evening. It was full immersion in their baptism pool. I got delivered from a lot of things.
I would mark that as the beginning of a new life in Christ.
And I haven't looked back.

Some churches aren't keen on baptising people esp if you seem to already have been they will say nah you don't need to be, just as long as you attend. They don't really check. So I was attending one for a while and God kept impressing me to be water baptised but nobody was doing it, so He led me to a different church. I didn't end up staying at that church but the important thing was obeying God. The water baptism is important because I guess God wants me to understand what was done in the spirit with the water.

I invited my friends to come along and they prayed for me and sang hymns it was a really joyous occasion! They even gave me a certificate of baptism, I kept it cos I don't want to forget it.

 

[Waggles]

Yes we also do 'Baptism Certificates'
A good reminder worthy of an album set aside for memorabilia.