by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2026
(Nov. 4, 2026) — Question: I hear talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. What is the difference?
Response: Bible scholars generally agree that baptism in the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit are different and that baptism precedes filling. The baptism is one-time; being full of the Spirit is “habitual.” Barnabas, Stephen, and the seven deacons in Acts 6 are examples of believers who were full of the Holy Spirit. We’re not told when these were baptized with the Spirit, but we’ll see the answer below.
I’ll use my newspaper training to organize my answer around the 5 W’s.
Who: Baptism requires a baptizer. Jesus is that baptizer, as John the Baptist said: “He who is coming after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Just before He ascended into Heaven, Jesus identified when John’s words would come true: “John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).
Who does He baptize?
- “The promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22). Paul equates belief to having faith in Christ.
- “God has given the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:32).
What: We call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles (Peter and Paul, in particular) called it God’s promise.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter told the audience, “…you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39, emphasis mine). He traced this promise back to the prophecy in Joel (Acts 2:16–21, Joel 2:28–32).
Paul said this promise was included in the blessing God gave to Abraham in Genesis 12. “The blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14, emphasis mine).
Associating the gift of the Spirit with a promise is important because it anchors the New Testament experience in the Old Testament. To fill people with His Spirit has been God’s plan in Christ from “before the foundation of the world.”
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When: We’ve seen that Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey and believe the Gospel. Does He baptize before they believe? When they believe? Or after? The narrative of Acts suggests Christ gives the Spirit upon believing.
By necessity, this wasn’t true for the apostles before Pentecost; their experience was spread over time. This was the order:
- Jesus confirmed on the night of His betrayal that they believed in Him (John 17:6–8).
- Having believed, they were prepared for the night of His resurrection when Jesus would anoint them, as it were, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).
- He baptized them with the Spirit on Pentecost 50 days later.
Pentecost dispensed with the delay. When Peter finished preaching, 3,000 believed in Christ, obeyed his instructions, and were baptized—all in one day. This tends to Paul’s question to the disciples he encountered in Ephesus: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2).
The way Jesus baptized believers with the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts reminds me of His miracles: it’s not the same every time. Notice this sequence:
Acts 8:17, 19:6 After water baptism by the laying on of hands.
Acts 9:17 Before water baptism by the laying on of hands.
Acts 10:44 Before water baptism without laying on of hands.
From this, I think Jesus teaches us not to be anxious about the order of things or how He works. The common theme is what Peter and Paul came to understand: Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit those who obey the Gospel and believe in Him.
Where: Since Jesus gives the Spirit when you believe, He baptizes where you are; He is not confined by location. You don’t have to go on a pilgrimage to receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus first poured out the Spirit in Jerusalem, then on Cornelius’ household in Caesarea (Acts 10) and later in Ephesus (Acts 19).
Think back to the Hebrews in Egypt on Passover night. By faith, the Israelites dabbed blood on their doorposts, and God instructed the Destroyer, “Wherever you see the blood, do not enter.” Similarly, by faith we believe the blood of Jesus redeems us, and when He sees that faith in our hearts, God instructs the Spirit, “Enter that one.”
Why: Is the baptism with the Holy Spirit necessary? Absolutely. We cannot enter His kingdom as we are.
- King David recognized this need: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).
- God commanded it: “Get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die?” (Ezekiel 18:31).
- Jesus affirmed it, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3, NIV).
- The Church believed it. As Paul wrote, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Romans 8:9).
Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we remain in the dominion of “the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” and are “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:2–3).
Here’s the amazing thing about God’s grace: what He commands, He provides. He commands, “Get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.” He promises, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
How: How do I know whether I have been baptized with the Spirit? There are three ways to know.
1. How do you answer Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?”
Paul tells us, “No one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). John confirms this: “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God” (1 John 4:2).
Speaking in tongues is not the guarantee, but a tongue that confesses “Jesus is Lord” and a heart that believes Him are.
2. How do you treat other people? Jesus taught us, “Love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34).
Paul tells us, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). Jesus modeled God’s love but did not stop at an example; His love accompanies the outpouring of the Spirit.
The Apostle John concludes, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:20).
3. Are you bearing the fruit of the Spirit? Jesus said, “Every good tree bears good fruit; a good tree cannot bear bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17–18). The Holy Spirit inevitably will produce the fruit that Paul identifies in Galatians 5:22–23
Now, even Jesus acknowledged that “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21). And there certainly are non-Christians who exhibit fruits of the Spirit: kindness, patience, joy, etc.
How are we to detect the “good trees”?
God has given us a precept: Confirm everything by two or more witnesses. Borrowing from the day when Jesus approached a fig tree and, finding none, cursed it (Mark 11:12–14), I envision the Lord coming to each of us, searching for fruit.
The first fruit He looks for is Jesus. When He finds faith in Christ—we have heard His word and believed God sent Him (John 5:24)—He looks for the second fruit—the Holy Spirit and His fruits.
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