Luke 3:16-17,20-22 NASB
John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. [17] His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” [20] Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison. [21] Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, [22] and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased (in my favor rests).”
Matthew 3:16-17 NASB
After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, [17] and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My Son; the beloved, in whom I am well-pleased (in whom My favor rests.).”
In the Song of Solomon the love of God is referred to as a “vehement flame” in chapter 8. Often throughout the Scriptures fire is a description of God’s love because God’s love is so intense and so full of holy passion. I’ve heard various people over the years try to explain what being baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire is all about, and it has all been good stuff; but I would like to add a different perspective. I think everyone would agree that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is about the release of the power of God in and through the life of a believer, but I believe the fire that the Holy Spirit baptizes us in is a revelation of God’s love for us. It says in Romans 5:5, “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” My experience has been that it is the relentless and unquenchable fire of God’s love for me that burns away all rivals for my affection and obedience. The Scripture says that we love because He first loved us. All genuine acts of surrender, and extravagant acts of obedience are acts of love in response to the unquenchable fire of the love of God in Christ.
Jesus, as the Son of Man stewarded the life of faith perfectly. We are told in the book of Hebrews that he was the author and the perfecter of faith. The foundation of his life of faith was that he knew deep inside that He was beloved of the Father. Jesus never moved in supernatural power until his baptism in the Spirit, but when he heard the father say to him that he was beloved, I believe that was his baptism of fire. The favor of the Father rested on him, and Jesus lived like he knew that to be true, because he knew He was the beloved. Jesus lived as our representative as the second Adam, and as the father spoke to Jesus that he was the beloved in whom his favor rested, he was also speaking all of that to us who are in Christ. When you know that you are beloved of God, and that revelation burns in you like a fire, then you don’t spend your days bent towards the world, or the people in the world to affirm you. The issues of self rejection are healed when it burns in you that you are beloved of God. When you know that you know that you are beloved of God then you can be thrust into any wilderness confident in God’s love for you, and his delight in you, and his favor resting on your life; not because you’ve done anything to deserve it, but simply because in Christ you are The Beloved of God. Faith works through love according to Galatians, and the Christian life is lived by faith, but if we were going to live a life of childlike faith, then there must be, not just the baptism of power, but the baptism of fire that is released in us, so that it can be released through us to heal a lost world. It is imperative that you hear God speak into your inner man by the Holy Spirit that you are God’s beloved, and because of that he is well pleased with you, and his favor rests on you.