His Winnowing Fan Is in His Hand

by Terry Wane Benton
Daily Points of Light from Heaven

"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:11-12).

John the Baptizer said that Jesus would do what John could not do! Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Jesus would also baptize with fire. John went on to explain that the work Jesus would do would separate the good from the bad. The good would be “gathered” into His barn. The rest of what is left and separated from the good by His “winnowing fan” would be “burned up” with unquenchable fire. Most of modern scholarship has concluded the device was a winnowing fork or shovel, rather than a fan for blowing. The wind was already blowing across the threshing floor, and the winnowing fork was designed to scoop and toss the wheat or barley into the air and let the wind carry the lighter chaff a distance away from the good grain that fell to the threshing floor. This tossing-up tool may have been a fan-shaped shovel. The unquenchable fire is in the final judgment when He “comes in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who know not God and obey not the gospel of Christ” (II Thessalonians 1:7f).

John's visual is a threshing floor, where they would thresh out or beat out the wheat stalks and use a winnowing fork to toss the wheat or barley into the wind and let the wind blow away the lighter husks or shells. Boaz was mentioned as winnowing barley on a threshing floor (Ruth 3:2). The grain was heavier than the chaff. So they would toss up the wheat or barley and use a winnowing fork to let the wind separate the lighter chaff from the heavier grain. The separation was caused by the moving air or wind, and the winnowing fork tossing up the wheat or barley. That image is key to understanding the greater baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus would perform, which separated the good grain from the chaff.

The power of the Holy Spirit coming on the apostles on Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) gave them the means by which to begin winnowing, or tossing up, into a force of separation of good grain from the chaff. The result was on that day a separation of 3000 disciples from the multitude of Jews gathered in Jerusalem that day. More threshing followed that day and continues to separate out (sanctify) a people for God. The Spirit is still using the word of God to thresh out and sanctify a people for Himself. Jesus said, “Sanctify them by Your truth! Your word is truth” (John 17:17). So, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles gave the threshing tool, the winnowing fork, that separates out God’s people, adding them to His church, or as the metaphor says, “gathering into His barn.” The gospel is the result of Jesus sending the Spirit in power upon the apostles, and this tool, also metaphorically described as “the sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18), is the power that brings in the good grain and blows away the chaff that will be burned. The gospel both draws and repels. It draws good hearts and repels bad ones.

The gospel gathered a harvest that day, separating the good from the bad. Those who obeyed that gospel call were gathered into the church of Christ (Acts 2:47), and the rest would be left to be burned later. The baptism of the Holy Spirit was upon the twelve appointed witnesses. They were told to wait in Jerusalem for this “power from on high” (Acts 1:4-8). Their miraculously guided and confirmed testimony, the gospel of Christ, was the power to save and gather into His barn. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit was directly from Jesus in heaven. Jesus alone had the power to perform this Spirit baptism.

We have a record of only two times Jesus did this directly from heaven. Pentecost (Acts 2) on twelve Jews, and on the Gentiles, the house of Cornelius (Acts 10). Both times it was directly from heaven, with no human hands involved, and demonstrated with undeniable miracles and signs from heaven. That baptism on the apostles was to empower them to perfectly recall and deliver the truth that delivers all from sin and condemnation. Three thousand people were separated out of the crowd to be gathered into the church, His spiritual barn. Those who refuse to hear the Spirit-confirmed message will be as chaff that is to suffer the final judgment of a baptism of fire. They will be cast into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:33ff; Revelation 20:10ff).

With the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Jesus gave His special eyewitnesses divine confirmation that their words were God’s words (Hebrews 2:1-4); their testimony was God’s testimony, and the miracles showed that theirs was no mere human message of no consequence. This message is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes” (Romans 1:16-17). The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is what Jesus did to the apostles to reveal and confirm their saving testimony, and that Spirit-revealed and confirmed testimony has been winnowing out the wheat from the chaff ever since that great day of Pentecost.

There is now one baptism because the baptism of the Holy Spirit has finished the revelation and confirmation work Jesus sent Him to do. There are no new apostles or prophets, no new revelations to be added to the scriptures, and the Spirit’s testimony is still quick and powerful (Hebrews 4:12) and is so complete that it “thoroughly furnishes the man of God” (II Timothy 3:16-17). The Spirit’s complete testimony tells us there is one baptism (Ephesians 4:4) and He lead the apostle to ask, “Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized?” (Acts 10:47). Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ is the baptism that remains for all nations and every creature (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15-16) and it is done “in the name of the Lord” (by His authority) “for remission of sins” (Acts 2:38; 22:16). The Holy Spirit directed the believers to be baptized in water in the name of Jesus for remission of sins. That is the one baptism, and it holds the authority of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit until the end of the world.

We either hear and obey the Spirit’s call through the gospel, or we will be chaff that will be left to be burned in a baptism of fire in the end. We are beneficiaries of Jesus’ baptism of the Apostles and Cornelius, or we will be the recipients of that baptism of fire He gives in the last day. The wise will benefit from His work through the Spirit, and the foolish will suffer from the final baptism of fire in the lake of fire. It is an easy choice for the wise! We hope you are among the wise whom the Spirit’s message gathers into His barn!