Jesus Christ baptizes with spiritual water, i.e. living water, i.e. holy Spirit. Water and Spirit is a figure of speech hendiadys wherein two nouns are used to mean one thing - water and Spirit i.e. spiritual water.
John 4:10, 13,14 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. . . . Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
John 7:37,38 In the last day that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Amen! In Jewish writings water is a very rich symbol. In Jeremiah 2:13, God Himself is called the
"fountain of living water." For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the
fountain of living water, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water. Also in Jeremiah 17:13 - O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You shall be ashamed. "Those who depart from Me Shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the Lord, The
fountain of living water." In Isaiah 12:3 we read, "With joy you will draw
water from the wells of salvation."
Jesus, in offering the Spirit for those who
believe in Him (John 7:38-39), this
living water does depict the Spirit and Life and is able to satisfy people's thirst for God. The cries of the psalmists are answered. David prayed, "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul
thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (Psalm 63:1). The sons of Korah sang, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul
thirsts for God, for the living God (Psalm 42:1-2).
"Whoever is
thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the
water of life" (Revelation 22:17). "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a
drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you
living water" (John 4:10). but whoever
drinks of the
water that I shall give him will
never thirst. But the
water that I shall give him will become in him a
fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14)
..drink into one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13).
Jesus connects living water with everlasting life and living water is not water baptism. I find it interesting that those who teach salvation by water baptism never seem to have much to say about
living water.
I believe that if a person confesses Jesus as Lord and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead, they are saved. Once you are born again Jesus baptizes you in holy Spirit.
Amen! Romans 10:8 - But what does it say? "The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart" (together) that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, (notice the reverse order from verse 9 to verse 10) - that if you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. Confess/believe; believe/confess, which is
not two separate steps to salvation (believe today, confess next week, finally saved next week) but
chronologically together. 1 Corinthians 12:3 - Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and
no one can say that Jesus is Lord except BY the Holy Spirit. There is divine influence or direct operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a person when confessing Jesus as Lord.