“Probably one of the biggest doctrines that I am confused about in the Bible is the doctrine of ‘being baptized in the Spirit.’ Is this for the Body of Christ?”
“Baptized in the Spirit” or “baptized with the Spirit” is misunderstood because of a failure to rightly divide the Word of God, separating God’s prophetic program from the mystery program.
In God’s prophetic program, at Pentecost, those believers were baptized “with the Spirit” (Acts 1:5; 2:4). They were filled with the Holy Spirit to miraculously speak in tongues and perform other signs and wonders as seen in early Acts (Acts 2:4; 4:30; 5:12). Also, it was the Lord Jesus Who sent the Spirit and baptized them with His power as promised in His earthly ministry (Luke 24:49; John 16:7).
Today, in the dispensation of grace, the believer is baptized “by the Spirit” into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). It’s not the Lord Jesus Christ doing the baptizing, but the Holy Spirit Who is doing the baptizing. This takes place when one places their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Eph. 2:8-9). It’s a one-time transaction, and once it takes place, the believer is sealed by the Spirit until the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30). Paul also commands us to be “filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18), which is an ongoing process. This is accomplished as we allow God’s Word to “dwell in [us] richly in all wisdom” (Col. 3:16), and we obey Christ’s commands for this dispensation, given through the pen of the Apostle Paul.