How does the Holy Spirit actually baptize and cleanse us through fire?
What actually happens in our lives? It requires an adjusting process,
because the adjusting of our thought patterns ("having the mind of Christ")
that He has to put us through is very involved. It's not that we are deliberately,
willfully rebelling against the Lord Christ Jesus, it's just that He knows that our
thought patterns have to be changed ("our thoughts are not His thoughts"),
that our nature has to be cleansed ("partakers of the divine nature"), that our
own self and our own ideas must be crucified. Yet, for our sake and because of
His love for us, He must do it in a way that does not destroy us but edifies, us.
So, He confronts us with situations where there's no way out except for us to cry
unto Him for help. He does help us, and as He does, we learn not to depend upon
our own ideas and thinking and abilities (His ways not our ways) but become
progressively dependent upon Him and upon Him alone. We learn this step-by-step,
first in little things, and eventually in matters of our very being. Bringing
every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Having become
His Bride (dependence) and His Son (Authority) so that on that day we will be
found living and moving and having our being in Him (wise virgins).
