Day 22- Internal vs. External

As I was reading in Mark 1 in verse 8 John The Baptist is saying "I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” As we all know the word BUT gives a contrast or a comparison between two things. So here in this statement John is giving this contrast between his baptism and the baptism that Jesus will give. John is saying that his baptism is going to be this external thing where it is going to be more ceremonial thing. I mean we'll get a certificate and frame it and probably put it on our wall. It is this preparatory washing that we get when we are dunked under and then come back up. However Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit, which is an internal thing. This is so cool I get really excited about it when I get to explain it. See when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist He received the Holy Spirit it tells us that later on in the next section. I struggled with this fact that Jesus didn't have the Spirit before this point, however it doesn't mean that He didn't have Divine Nature it just meant He didn't have the Spirit sourcing Him. So when this happens it tells us that At Once, depending on the translation, but immediately The Spirit begins to move in His life and moves Him out into the desert to be tempted. So again we have this external baptism of John the Baptist that gets us ready for the baptism by Jesus that we know is an internal baptism and the Spirit of Christ comes to live inside of us and source us. I don't know about you but when I submitted over to Jesus completely I truly could feel the Spirit moving in my life. In fact that is when I felt the call to ministry, now that's pretty extreme and pretty fast however that is what happens. When the Spirit moves He takes us outside of our comfort zone and stretches us to the point that we have no other option but to trust in Him. When we reach that point we are called Christians. Not before where we hear songs or people say you carry your cross until you can't anymore and then Jesus takes over...NO!! Not true, you never carry your cross, He is the one doing it the entire time and He is stretching you and molding you until you have the actual vision, mindset, and plan of God working and moving in your life. It's a Divine Movement and quite an experience. What would it take for our generation to get a hold of this Divine Movement and take fire and shake our world of religion and the way we always do it mentality? The only answer to that question is of course JESUS! Let it be so in my life!!