Spirit of Truth

I've noticed something about church and baptism.  The longer I have been involved with this whole church setting and watched people get baptized the more I have noticed a definite struggle afterwards.  It seems to always come. People will be doing so good with God.  They will be on fire. Reading what they should read, watching what they should watch, having a true life changing life, then they get baptized and "fall away".  I've always thought it was because they were attacked by Satan more afterwards.  I'm not so sure I was right.  

Welcome to a recent revelation/understanding, a thought process that I am still processing.  This past Sunday, I was reading in Acts and came across something that held me pause for a moment.  "8:15-16...They were especially eager to see if the new believers would receive the Holy Spirit because until this point they had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus but had not experienced the Holy Spirit." (Pause)
What is it about the Holy Spirit?  When people get baptized, do they have to keep searching?  Was their confession of God not enough?  What more do we have to do?  I thought that God did everything?  Do we have to know the mysteries of the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, cast out demons, heal the sick?  What more do I need to do? Are these acts separate acts?  Can they be linked?  What is it that I need to understand better?

Then I moved on.  A short pause very early in the morning that got my heart and mind ready for my answer later that day.  I didn't know that my questions on baptism and the Holy Spirit would come, but they did.  At church Pastor Steve was in Acts, no coincidence since that is what we are studying together as a whole.   While he was teaching he took us to several other places in John... 14:16-17, "I will ask the Father to send you another Helper, the Spirit of truth, who will remain constantly with you. The world does not recognize the Spirit of truth, because it does not know the Spirit and is unable to receive Him. But you do know the Spirit because He lives with you, and He will dwell in you." 15:26-27, "I will send a great Helper to you from the Father, one known as the Spirit of truth. He comes from the Father and will point to the truth as it concerns Me. But you will also point others to the truth about My identity, because you have journeyed with Me since this all began." 16:12-14, "I have so much more to say, but you cannot absorb it right now. The Spirit of truth will come and guide you in all truth. He will not speak His own words to you; He will speak what He hears, revealing to you the things to come and bringing glory to Me. The Spirit has unlimited access to Me, to all that I possess and know, just as everything the Father has is Mine. That is the reason I am confident He will care for My own and reveal the path to you."

Why does it appear that newly baptized individuals struggle?  Why do they have such a hard time?  Is it because Satan is attacking them? I used to think so, but this answer is different than any I had ever received.  I don't think it is only because Satan turns up the heat.  I think it could also be because the Holy Spirit is revealing truth to us and there is nothing harder than looking at the truth within our own hearts. How do we handle that truth?  I think we often believe it.  This is when it appears we have "fallen away."  We know this truth about our own hearts and instead of accepting that truth and allowing God to do a mighty work with us, we give up and accept our ugly truth in the name of failure, and step away from the body of Christ.  "Work out your own salvation"... Work....Work is the key.  It does not come easily.  Yes, being saved is easy, but the rest is hard work and this is where most of us give up and think we cannot continue.  

I have been baptized (fully immersed with water) twice in my life.  The first time was when I was 12.  I really did not understand or have the right heart. I was doing it because I was told that if I didn't, I would go to hell.  Not true... Not ok... Anyways, the next time I was 33.  I had already been going through the whole Truth thing.  I had spent years looking at who I had been, discovering God and His true love for me, looking at the truth within my own heart, looking at who I was without Him, looking at Him... on and on it went, but all of it looking at Truth and accepting Him.  Truth, "He comes from the Father and will point to the truth as it concerns Me. But you will also point others to the truth about My identity, because you have journeyed with Me since this all began."  Before we are ready to start on the journey of pointing others to the Truth about God, we must first be willing to accept the truth He is revealing to us, about us.  My truth did not come just when I was baptized, but it came in between my baptisms.  It was not some miraculous slaying of the Holy Spirit, but The Spirit of Truth that I had to accept so that I could be of more use to God and His Kingdom.  

After we have accepted The Spirit of Truth there should be evidence of that acceptance.  I believe the first part of that evidence lays within this Spontaneous Love for others.  It is having Mercy for them, the way God has had for you.  It is in accepting them, not as they are, but as they could be with God.  It is in the ability to set your own thoughts and desires aside and allow His Love to be felt through you, passed on to them.  But it all starts with The Spirit of Truth.  Are you willing to accept the truth God is showing you today about your own heart?  Are we ready to move on to the rest God has for us and through us?

Side note.... I am in no way a Theologian on the Holy Spirit!  This is just a fraction of the mysteries of the Holy Spirit as was revealed to me.  Always, the question we should be asking ourselves....
Are we willing to look at Truth within ourselves, with God.  Can we look closely enough so that He can do a mighty work within us?