Soaking Secrets: 4 Key Components
“Soaking” is basking in God’s presence to be refreshed by His love. Not a time for prayer lists, soaking is about cultivating intimacy through mainly “being.” “Prayer [soaking] is being unbusy with God instead of being busy with other things.” (Henri Nouwen)
Most people find it helpful to soak in a lying down position with Spirit-drenched instrumental music playing in the background. (Lying down keeps me from fidgeting!)
I find soaking to be most fruitful when four key components are included:
- Offload
- Upload
- Download
- Overload
OFFLOAD: Accumulated Cares & Ugly Attitudes
Casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. (1Peter 5:7 AMP)
Ever try to soak in God’s presence while anxiety the size of Jabba the Hutt squeezes your brain? Or try to mellow out with Jesus while you’re having attitude issues that would make the Grinch seem like Santa on steroids? Me, too.
As I begin soaking, I ask Holy Spirit to reveal to me any anxieties or toxic attitudes that may hide in my heart so I can offload them.
UPLOAD: Fortify Your Faith & Tone Your Trust
Next, it’s time to upload some things to God, specifically our faith and trust. Sometimes our trust is weak, and timid trust does us little to no good. Through soaking, we’re able to flex our trust muscle until it’s strong again. We can tone up our trust by affirming:
Lord, You are good to me…You’re always faithful…thank You…
DOWNLOAD: Replenish, Refresh, Refill
Now we are ready for the download. When Paul says, “be filled with the Spirit,” the Greek depicts an ongoing process: Be being filled. (Eph. 5:18)
While soaking to be filled, it’s important to let our words be few—less is more. It is impossible to talk while drinking a glass of water. Similarly, the Spirit fills us, not because we neurotically ‘talk Him into it’—but because He wants to fill us even more than we want to be filled!
OVERLOAD: Greedy for God’s Sake
“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! (Psalm 68:19)
Now we’re ready for the overload! We are best positioned to serve others when we do so from an awareness of abundance. This is why soaking is so valuable; it allows us to to be loaded with blessings, so we have more than we need. Often the overload occurs as we’re reminded of what we already have—that “He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (Eph. 1:3)
Important: Many times I have completed a soaking time without sensing much of anything happening—until later! It’s like I’ve taken a time-release capsule with an upgrade in anointing and revelation. Result? Greater fruit!
Have you tried soaking? What works for you? What results have you noticed?
