You can understand then, that the whole process: Baptised into Christ, and Water Baptism, deals with our old life. Now Baptism in the Holy Ghost, and the Baptism in Fire, refers to the whole new realm of the way you're going to live. So being baptised in the Holy Ghost is just, literally going through the door, into the first of a whole realm of supernatural life.
The original man that God created, Adam and Eve, were connected to God, and lived in the supernatural dimension. They carried the power of God. They carried the creative life of God. When they fell and were disconnected from God, sin ruled over their lives; so when we come to Christ, the power of sin is broken - we're water baptised, declaring now: I've got a new life. It's in Christ. I'm joined to Him. I'm one with Him, I'm part of a body in the world, and now I'm going to immerse into a whole new dimension - oh! An interesting life, and journey, that's supernatural! That's why the church not living in the supernatural is totally short of what Jesus created us for. So let's just have a look at a few scriptures...
The first thing, we're going to have a look at the Baptism in the Holy Ghost. Luke 3:16 – “John the Baptist answered, saying to everyone there: I'm baptising you in water, but One who is mightier than I is coming (that's Jesus Christ) his sandal strap I'm not worthy to loose. He will baptise you with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire.”
Isn't that fantastic! He will baptise you with the Holy Ghost and Fire. In other words, He will put you into a dimension where the spirit of God clothes you, and you are immersed in the life and flow and power of God. That's what he's talking about here. You say: oh, that's not like my experience. Well, we need to bring our experience up to what the word of God says; not bring the word of God down to what we experience.
So it's an immersion into the person, and power, and presence, of the Holy Spirit. Suppose you went into a river, and the river's sort of flowing over, and you stand under a waterfall. As you stand under that waterfall, you are immersed in the water. That's kind of what it's talking about - immersed in something that's coming down from you, and touching every part of you. You are immersed in the waterfall.
So the baptism in the Holy Ghost then, is where your soul, your personality, your life, becomes immersed in a dimension of God – supernaturally; and of course we can live in that, or you can go back to living like you used to live. We have to choose what we're going to live like, so it's an entrance.
Luke 3:21 – “When all the people were baptised, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptised.” So Jesus got water baptised, and following water baptism, as He rose up out of the baptism waters, He immediately was baptised in the spirit. So from a biblical point of view (Jesus being the model), Holy Spirit baptism would normally follow directly after Water Baptism; as you rise, you bury the old life, bury the old nature, declare your old life is over. Now as you come up out of the waters, it's reasonable to expect you'd be filled with the Holy Spirit, so look what happened...
It says: “while He prayed, heaven was opened; the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said: You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased."
Jesus is the pattern for us. Note that after His water baptism, He reached out and prayed - He prayed - that's how He entered into this experience, being baptised in the spirit. Notice the things that happened: