When we read the word baptized, what does it mean to you? How does it impact your life? Do you categorize it as an intellectual thought, or spiritual delivery?

~ Lisa Blair

To be baptized means you are immersed, dipped, or submerged, to become cleansed of impurity. The truth is you are renewed the moment you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. The act of baptismal is sharing your conviction with the world. The two are linked and create the new creature in Christ and changes how we represent ourselves. As Christians, we enter as sinners, and arise renewed with a change of mind and heart. (Holman Bible Dictionary, Studylight.org) Once baptized we take on a new perspective on life. We become guided by the Spirit who is in, by, and with us. We take on the characteristics of Christ, stripping our own self-motivated, self-determined nature to exude Christ in our breath, actions, and deeds.When we intentionally stay connected with the Holy Spirit, our actions take on the love of Christ. We are no longer isolated, we become one with the body of Christ. Our intentionality in demonstrating the characteristics of Christ is spelled out in Galatians 5.

“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:13-14, 22-23‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.13-23.NLT

This post is extracted from today’s (10/27/2021) LECTIO (app) devotional. I strongly encourage you to download the app. I take no credit, I did not write the devotional, but do plan to apply it to my walk today.

This is a great way to begin and end your day with, in, and by in the Word of God

Yield

As I return to the passage, I listen for a particular word or phrase that the Holy Spirit is highlighting to me today…

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. And so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
1 Corinthians‬ 12:12-14‬

What word or phrase jumped out at me from these verses?

I noticed the phrase ‘baptised by one Spirit’. The Greek word translated as ‘by’ can also be translated as ‘in’ or ‘with’.

I become part of the Body of Christ by the Spirit, I live each day in the Spirit, and I face every challenge, as well as every celebration with the Spirit. 

Closing Prayer

Father, help me to live this day to the full,
 being true to You, in every way.
Jesus, help me to give myself away to others,
 being kind to everyone I meet.
Spirit, help me to love the lost,
 proclaiming Christ in all I do and say.
Amen.

Join us this weekend at The Gathering Online. Book your free ticket to pray with people from the 24-7 movement around the world: https://www.24-7prayer.com/events/GatheringOnline21