It’s often said that water baptism is an important step in following Jesus, and with so many embracing this platform with such joy, how can it be wrong? God is challenging water baptism because it is not His WAY to grant entrance into His kingdom and family.

The problem is that when your faith starts in the water, it stops in the water. Believers never go beyond the power they embraced in the water. They take the story that surrounds their baptism and imbue it with all they want from God: a new life in Christ, a born-again experience, forgiveness, a rebirth, an entrance into His kingdom and family, a relationship with God, and to be accepted by a loving God.

But a true relationship with God never has a chance to bud and develop when water is the token of your salvation. Water is not God’s pattern and power, but rather the Holy Spirit. Water-salvation turns the gospel away from Jesus and receiving salvation His covenant WAY. God is teaching the church today that what begins with the flesh never produces the things of the Spirit.

The true apostolic stewardship of God’s kingdom reveals the pattern for our relationship with God (where it begins and how it is sustained) that ever increases where Satan cannot corrupt the power of Christ in you.

We see transition throughout the scriptures: the transition of the Abrahamic covenant to the covenant of Moses, to Jesus’ covenant; the transition of the temple from the temple made of skins, to the temple of stone, back to the temple of skin again as Jesus became the temple. In Him is found the apostolic stewardship, the knowledge of His covenant, and all the tokens and tools God designed and selected to take ownership of our soul and to work within the heart.

The transition from Moses to Jesus: The transition that took place in Jesus took the faith of the people from Moses to Himself, from handling physical things to handling spiritual things, from sin to righteousness, from the baptism of water to the baptism of the Spirit. And the Prophet John (John the Baptist) announced the transition. Being the last of the prophets and the greatest of the prophets, he was a transitional prophet.

Luke 3:16
John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

Transitional prophets: And we see many transitional prophets today who are calling God’s people out of the traditional practices that the church adopted in the last two thousand years since the passing of the early apostles, including the more recent history – the practices the church adopted following the Jesus Movement. God has been calling the church back to Jesus’ covenant and this is the transition that’s taking place today.

God initiated transition in order to expose the faithless and to bless the faithful. When Jesus was baptized of John in the Jordan, God bore witness that Jesus was now the token of baptism as He transitioned baptism from the water to the Spirit. We see this in how the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus like a dove, and the voice of the Father was heard to bear witness to the new baptism that Jesus would give, saying, “this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)

The transition and change in baptism from water to the fire of His Spirit was planned by God to adopt us into His house with the token of Himself. (Acts 2:1-4)

Ministers who have not followed the Spirit of God into this transition of baptism from the water to the fire of God’s Spirit continue to look for a reset button that will allow them to fix their mistakes by starting over.

As decisions for Jesus are pressed in the water, ministers continue to refuse to lead seekers into Jesus’ covenant. Having put regeneration in the water completely restricts spiritual growth. Everything about the life of Christ and our relationship with God is set within one’s talents and humanities.

Jesus’ invitation is to follow Him in the regeneration by the Spirit for the promise that now is, and that which is to come: “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Mathew 19:28)

Without the seal of the Spirit (Eph. 1:13) the believers’ illumination of grace grows dim and fades and this is why they seek revival to refresh their first love; they’re trying to build a platform to associate with the past. True stewards build charity in the priesthood where grace is multiplied by truth and never fades. (2 Pet. 1:2)

As ministers lead people back to the water for their baptism (rejoicing in the flesh), they deny them the life of the Spirit. God never gives a gift that restricts His divine work. That’s why His grace has to be multiplied daily. Water is not the source of God’s grace, but rather the Spirit. We sup on the living water of His grace so that we don’t build again with things that destroy.

It can be hard to see salvation as God sees it if all we see is God pouring out His grace freely upon a world seeking His love. There is a choice that’s being made and that’s why Jesus likened the kingdom of heaven to “a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.” (Matthew 13:47-48)

The grace of God is that net; the net of enlightenment was cast into the earth, gathering into it all manner of souls. Thousands are touched by God, but not all those who receive the grace of God continue on in Jesus’ covenant to follow Him in regeneration. Many seek to serve God on their own terms and are cast away. Only those who continue in Jesus’ regeneration are saved.

When a repentant sinner is led to the water rather than to Jesus’ covenant they are put on the wrong path. We see then why water baptism restricts your spiritual growth. When we say that water baptism restricts your growth, we’re saying that there are things water baptism cannot do. I want to lay this out for your understanding and focus on two points that are pivotal as God transitions your faith from water to the Spirit.

1 – Water baptism cannot seal your faith: Despite the fact that people line up to get water baptized and say that it’s a moment they’ll never forget, God doesn’t use water to seal your faith, He uses the baptism of the Holy Spirit (fire) to seal your faith.

Ephesians 1:13
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

God had never intended for the Jesus Movement of the 1970s to fade away, but planned for the apostolic stewardship to follow the awakening to lead the church into the true born again experience. It is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit that God engrafts Himself within you. Having yielded to His grace, He accepts your faith and, in His eyes, you are righteous (you met His standard). and He is ready to seal your faith with a token of Himself.

Your faith must be sealed by a token of God Himself: God is a Spirit (Jn. 4:24), not water. When a person puts faith in his water baptism as a sign of his salvation and the beginning of his relationship with God, he’s saying that God meets him there and accepted his faith based on his prayer to invite Jesus into his heart.

The sinner’s prayer for salvation and confession of faith in Jesus at the water is evocative and brings strong feelings to mind. It makes such a big impact on the heart and stays in your brain, but in truth, your faith never progresses beyond the water. It is not God’s seal for your faith.

2 – Water baptism cannot give life to your faith: One person said, “The church is alive!” in response to what she saw as thousands lined up to receive water baptism. And despite the fact that many assume that a new walk in Jesus is said to take place at the water, regeneration begins with the baptism of the Holy Spirit to begin a new priesthood by the anointing. A new priesthood does not take place in the water, but by the Spirit.

Water baptism cannot give life to your faith. It is a place where heart-felt prayer is substituted for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration becomes a platform for prayer rather than the daily activity of faith, and that’s a major disconnect from God’s plan.

Maybe this prayer is familiar: “Everything I do, it’s done so I can honor you. Resurrect me. Sanctify me. Make me into your image. Holy Spirit, make me more like Jesus. Everyday a little more like Jesus. Crucify my flesh with yours that my new life might be secure.”

This prayer shows what a person desires, not what he is walking in. The intentions are good, but the reality of God’s work does not unfold by a prayer. Everything is hinged on a prayer rather than Jesus’ covenant.

To walk in the life of Christ, our prayers reflect His knowledge, His apostolic stewardship, His work, His tokens and tools. The sample prayer we just looked at is reflective of a person whose salvation was never sealed by the Spirit and stopped at the water’s edge.

In Acts chapter 18, verses 24-26 we read of a man named Apollos who was preaching and teaching and water baptizing, but the Lord takes note of a disconnect that He wants to lift out for the church today: this man knew only the baptism of John – the baptism of water. He preached Jesus according to his own experience and his experience went no further than water baptism.

John the Baptist was a point of transition from Moses to Christ. He stood as a bridge to Jesus’ new covenant, but Apollos could not see this. Apollos needed to be instructed to go beyond the waters edge to come into the covenant God made in Jesus.

The Apollos Way: We learn that Apollos was instructed in “the way of the Lord”, he was “fervent in the spirit” (having cried out to God to use him – he felt the call), he “taught diligently the things of the Lord”, but he could not go beyond what he knew and had experienced and he only knew about water baptism – that was the extent of his experience.

There are obvious parallels between Apollos’ experience and where the church is at today. Apollos prayed and he was learned in the scriptures, but his understanding could not penetrate the allegories Jesus fulfilled and that ignorance was a barrier for him entering into a covenant relationship with God.

Apollos was doing more harm than good: At this point Apollos was doing more harm than good because he was not aware of the changing season. Listening to him preach fervently about Jesus and His gift of life for us, the miracle of His resurrection, His love for us, how He washed us of our sins, how we must be born again, how we can come to Him as we are and receive new life – it was all there.

And the thousands of people who attended his baptisms probably said similar things that are being said today, “This is absolutely amazing praying for all in their new walk with Jesus…. Welcome to the Kingdom family!”

Was the grace of God present? The grace of God awakens people with the desire to come to Him, but when the way of salvation does not include Jesus’ covenant, people are not led into His kingdom and family. They stop short at the water and this is why God sent Aquila and Priscilla to Apollos to “expound unto him the WAY of God more perfectly”.

The WAY of Jesus is His covenant. How many believers today know about the terms of Jesus’ covenant? Like Apollos, very few believers today consider God’s new covenant. Apollos had not transitioned into the covenant, which is God’s perfect design, purpose, and plan for our born-again experience and walk of faith with Him.

Aquila and Priscilla were taught by the apostles and therefore knew how to lead Apollos into the covenant of Jesus through the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that his faith would receive this first token of God.

Apollos’ eyes were opened to the fulness of Christ when he also further received the true foundation knowledge, and in this contrast, he also understood why God installed the apostolic calling into the church.

Apollos’ example is so important for the church today. As many ministers today, Apollos was trying to live for Jesus without His blueprint of truth, without knowing how God tethered his faith to the knowledge of Jesus’ covenant. He was trying to initiate his faith without God’s due process and even though he didn’t know it, that was his breaking point.

What do I mean when I say that Apollos was trying to initiate his faith? Think about all the things that you want God to do for you. These are all the things that you believe are God’s divine purpose:

– to have a living, loving relationship with God;
– the unity of the church;
– to be a fellow workman with God;
– to be God’s garden under His skillful hand to cultivate your heart with His fruit;
– the hope of healing, deliverance, confidence, and discernment;
– to know how to function in your calling;
– to walk in the true fear of the Lord;
– to be called of God and to be used of God;
– to move in the gifts of the Spirit.
– to know how to prophesy

This is God’s active involvement in your faith. These are all things that God initiates when you are in covenant with Him. And we’re going to get into that divine process in a moment. We’re going to look at God’s plan to initiate these things and what changes when we try to imitate these things on our own, and that’s what I want to talk about now.

What we saw in Apollos’ testimony (his fervent zeal and belief in Jesus and desire to be used of God) and the prayer we looked at to initiate God’s involvement (“…Resurrect me. Sanctify me. Make me into your image. Holy Spirit, make me more like Jesus…”) is the language that developed from the experience of missing out on all the things that God wanted to give, but did not develop because faith went no further than the baptism of John.

Many believers, zealous for God ask their pastor, pastor what can I do? I want to serve God. Under the shadow of that zeal to serve God, pastors gave believers many different tributaries or avenues such as music, finances, building and expansion programs, women’s ministry, men’s ministry, children’s ministry; ministry to the lost, and ministry to couples.

Ministries progressed from a small prayer group to a university or mega church which becomes Satan’s stronghold. These believers were promoting an unsanctified gospel called “another gospel” by Apostle Paul (Gal. 1:6-8). The history was correct in as far as recognizing Jesus as the Son of God, but the bonding elements used to initiate God’s work within were incorrect.

Confession of faith in Jesus: When believers talk about accepting Jesus as their savior and making Him the Lord of their life and inviting Him into their heart, this language is missing everything that God put into Jesus’ covenant. People are making heart-felt prayers, but missing out on God’s connections.

Following Jesus: In Romans chapter 10, Apostle Paul was teaching Christians to instruct them in the proper way of the priesthood to believe in the heart from the foundation of truth set in them by the apostolic government. They made confession of Jesus daily to testify of His presence, power, and work in their new priesthood.

Water baptism completely removed the professing believer from the apostolic process for true separation and completely removed them from the foundation for this confession and set them on a strange, wilderness path, seeking for truth rather than abiding in it. There was no foundation to build with.

So, the believer is instructed by the pastor how to “versify” his faith. That is, how to take a verse from the Bible to describe what happened to them. They are also taught to take a verse from the Bible to see what they can take from God. This is thievery at the highest level. Satan also took a verse in order to promote what he wanted God to do. Private interpretation of the Bible is to isolate a verse from the context of the covenant for self-referencing and self-promotion and this becomes fertile ground for fables.

Who brought Apollos into the faith and into this way of salvation through water? What did he see that so impressed upon him to continue water baptism after God had installed the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Someone instructed Apollos in this practice and it had such an impact on him that he was now a major influencer and God had to send someone to teach him the way of Jesus’ covenant.

Believers have the habit of judging God’s work based on a person’s sincerity. Apollos was sincere, but he was ignorant of the way of Jesus’ covenant and had to learn God’s divine process. Apollos could read the language of the time but had to be instructed to know what it meant.

Apollos talked about repentance and Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection, and he talked about the promise of life in Jesus, the reality of the born-again experience and entering into God’s kingdom, but he didn’t know what these things meant. This is the instruction in righteousness he received from Aquila and Priscilla to develop his faith in the divine pattern.

God’s divine process begins with separation and ends with initiation, but when people take themselves out of the process, like Apollos did, they want to initiate the work of God and talk impacting lives, they pray about the work of God, but they don’t actually go through the process. Let’s see what God’s divine process looks like:

1 – Separation: Apostolic government is the oversight of God’s spiritual kingdom here on earth. All the callings are part of apostolic government. The clarion call to come out from among them comes through apostolic government for your separation. That’s the first step to receive the grace of God. Just as God sent Cornelius to Apostle Peter after he received an angelic visitation, God today sends His apostolic government to teach the church what faith in God looks like. (Acts 10:1-7)

Cornelius received grace from God, He received His angelic visitation from God, but he did not take ownership of the revelation to begin his own ministry. Cornelius began his separation by receiving God’s instruction that came through Apostle Peter and God confirmed his faith and sealed it through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 10:45-46)

Acts 11:16-17
¹⁶Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.

¹⁷Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?

Having yielded to grace and accepted God’s covenant terms through Jesus, God separates us from the world unto Himself through the seal of the Spirit. Entering into covenant with God we enter in with nothing more than that first token which God issued to enter into His house with to begin a relationship with Him.

God seals our faith with a token of Himself; therefore, the seal of His ownership is put within Jesus’ name, and we bear that seal now by the gifts we receive and the function of the new priesthood, which makes us wise for fruit bearing.

2 – Preparation: Having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues, our hearts are prepared with truth to know how to serve God according to His covenant terms of contact for our increase in His kingdom.

The foundation of truth is set in the heart by Jesus’ living apostles (Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 3:10-11; 1 Cor. 4:1). A foundation is a starting point, it is the place your mind is coming from. We might desire Jesus to be our new history and desire His new knowledge and life in the Spirit, but we may not see that our habit is to build upon the old foundations of the flesh. Your faith is according to your thinking, and your thinking won’t change until your foundation changes.

Jesus Christ is the living record for our faith to follow. The record contains the terms, commandments, tools, and contact points of our faith, which provide for a framework of truth, which gives us boundaries we are to abide in, called the doctrine of Christ.

God set the boundaries of our faith in Jesus Christ and therefore our faith is restricted to the terms of His new covenant. God gave only one pattern, which apostles unfold to the church. Faith is to follow the living record of Jesus Christ by covenant. Faith then reflects Him and all the fulness of Christ then follows.

A selected verse from the Bible is not the record because its self-referencing. The record is Jesus Christ, which has to do with divine reciprocation. The anointing works with the record, not a verse.

3 – Consecration: Each believer functions in the new priesthood of the new covenant by offering spiritual sacrifices of prophecy to God. Our spiritual sacrifices of prophecy are the testimony of Jesus Christ, as His altar is now constructed in our hearts by the foundation of truth.

The likeness of Christ is formed within the soul through contact with His knowledge and tools at His altar. Regeneration speaks of the new life that God gives and the process of healing the soul undergoes when true salvation is taking place in our daily growth cycles. God transforms the soul by removing the weeds that Satan sowed, as He circumcises the soul and forms Christ within, which is the fruit of the Spirit. Regeneration is a lifetime process and that’s why faith in God is a covenant lifestyle.

The true work of regeneration was replaced by the music ministry. Believers, feasting on the diet of musical necromancy and carnal things, feel they don’t need truth or apostles to find their peace. Fables will be born of these manifestations (2 Tim. 4:4). These are the hands of seducing spirits to mold the perception of faith, which these believers call Jesus. This is rejoicing of the flesh as it puts the gospel context within the boast of man.

4 – Initiation: When truth is set in order it expresses God’s design and is called the doctrine of Christ. Doctrine has to do with this form of knowledge, which expresses His virtue. The doctrine of Christ includes all these things that God gave us to initiate His contact with us and His divine work within us: His spiritual government, His truth, and His Spirit; the gifts, callings, and graces of God; prayer, preaching, and prophecy.

These are the virtues of His light (that carry His grace to the soul) that are sanctified for this expression and by this labor of faith, we grow in Him. God daily initiates this contact and sustains our faith with the substance He gives. Daily, when you touch Jesus by using His tools, His virtue (divine power) touches you to heal your soul. This process is called the goodness of the Lord, which Apostle Peter identified as the divine power we are tethered to.

2 Peter 1:3
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

God’s focus on Jesus’ tools (all things that pertain unto life and godliness) is His focus on the avenue He designed for us to receive the virtues of His grace, which is a necessary power for fruit bearing. We are called to use Jesus’ tools because we are called to partake of the virtues of His grace for fruit bearing. It’s through these gifts that we are now abounding in His fulness. Jesus provided these things on the cross to save us and that’s why Jesus is our Savior.

The divine process we just talked about is what it means to be established in the faith. The instruction in truth follows the baptism of the Holy Spirit to prepare us to co-labor with the Spirit of God to be fruitful in His kingdom.

Apollos’ response to needing to be instructed in the covenant of Jesus before trying to initiate his walk with God on his own could have turned out differently if he had responded as many do today from an independent mindset.

Apollos could have said something like, “I’ll do what I feel God is leading me to do and you do what you feel God is leading you to do. Can’t you see it, man?! All these people are coming to the water because God is leading them to hear this message! God is here, can’t you see it!? People are being set free and experiencing the love of God for the first time!”

When ministers try to initiate the work of God apart from His apostolic stewardship and covenant, then salvation is untethered from God. There are many examples of this on social media. I recently read a post from a leading minister who said, “Each of us has different responsibilities in building God’s kingdom, but all our different callings produce one result: lives impacted for eternity.”

This minister wants to initiate what he wants to see in the church: unity in the body, God’s gifts being distributed to all, each co-laboring with the Holy Spirit. He’s saying things that are true without knowing what they mean. It’s true that unity is God’s will for the body of Christ. It’s true that there are different callings in God’s government and that He equips each calling, and it’s true that God’s purpose is fruit bearing, but what this all looks like to God is quite different from what it looks like to this minister.

Without first honoring God’s divine process (separation, preparation, consecration then initiation) he is again speaking from desire rather than reality. His intentions are good, but the reality of God’s work does not unfold by good intentions.

Unfortunately, one’s enthusiasm often speaks in place of God as a person seeks the religious limelight. You can’t give what you don’t have.

We have only to read some of the teachings of those who went no further than the water to see where it leads. Cathe Laurie, in her podcast, some 50 years after her water-salvation, likened her faith to a dusty, grimy cloudy, windshield. She asked, “how clean and how pure does the windshield of our faith need to be? Just enough to see the road. There are times when I have to say—and some of you have to say—Lord, my faith is not adequate for this trial. I’m anxious, I’m worried, I’m troubled.”

While God describes our faith as Jesus Christ and all that He contains for our contact with Him, Laurie described her faith as the worrisome circumstances and troubling situations of life. She’s not talking about seeing Jesus at all and that’s why she says correctly that her faith is not adequate or up to the task God assigned our faith – to behold Jesus and to reflect Him.

Laurie shifted over to self-preservation and brought God down to the level of the flesh. God designed our faith perfectly for us to observe Jesus in His covenant, but Laurie is describing her faith as something she wants God to initiate (care, intervention, love, covering, confidence, trust, strength, virtue, power) without following His divine process. Her faith, like Apollos’ faith, stopped at the water where she’s now describing her faith without Jesus and says it is dusty, grimy, and cloudy.

How clean and how pure does the windshield of our faith need to be? Clear as crystal; it has to be as pure as God (1 Pet. 1:16). The heart, having skipped over God’s separation by apostolical government and the seal of the Spirit; having skipped the preparation in truth, and consecration in the priesthood, this believer has not been prepared for her growth cycles and does not know how to use Jesus’ tools. Nothing of her water baptism prepared her to live the life of Christ; it just set her in an environment of struggle.

How can your faith produce a virtue you’re not laboring with? The way a person begins their faith believing that God accepts us as we are (broken and unworthy, sinful and in need of forgiveness) has come to mean that God has no expectation for our faith and we can continue as we are – broken and unworthy, sinful and in need of forgiveness. The very foundation of faith is built with the wrong testimony.

This is what I said at the beginning of my teaching, that the problem is that, when your faith starts in the water, it stops in the water and that, what begins with the flesh never produces the things of the Spirit. God is now bringing the church out of the giant shadow that water baptism cast.