The importance of baptism

From: https://www.goodsalt.com

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter Him, saying, I need to be baptized by You and do You come to me? Jesus replied, let it be so now, it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness. Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, ”This is My Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased’‘ – Matthew 3 : 13 – 17. (Message bible version).

After the baptism, nothing changed in His physical body but something has shifted in the spirit realm. The bible says that the Spirit of God  descended on Him like a dove and a voice followed. Immediately after the baptism, He was led into the wilderness and He was tested by satan after which He started preaching the way to enter into the kingdom of heaven because He has been empowered. He was not tested before the baptism but rather after. He could have been tested even before the baptism as a child of God but He went to baptized first so that we should know how vital baptism is in the life of a believer.

During His teaching, He explained what will be stumbling blocks or what will deprive us from inheriting the kingdom of heaven. He made us to know who owns the key of life in His hands and who has the authority over everything.

It is the samething when one receives anointing, physically no change is seen but something has changed in the spiritual realm. When Samuel went to go and anoint David in the presence of his brothers and father 1 Samuel 16 : 1 – 13. After anointing David, he has to go back to the shepherd’s field. The spiritual shift starts preparing him for the kingship. The anointing kept him alive no matter how hard Saul tried to kill him, after killing Goliath he didn’t succeed and later what God has said concerning him came to reality.

With the above we should take baptism to be very important. When we go for baptism, we might not see any physical change in our body or the garment we put on, but we should be confident that a shift has happened in the spirit realm. After accepting Jesus Christ into our lives the next stage of a believer is to go for baptism so that our old self will be laid to rest while our new self will rise as we go out of the water.

PRAYER: O Lord, thank You for the gift of baptism give us the grace to be patient so that we can be partakers of the blessings that go with baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.