SOAKING IN HIS LOVE

Soaking is not a new concept. Tarrying or waiting on the Lord have been common terms used in the church for a long time, especially in Pentecostal circles. People were simply waiting for God’s presence; they were positioning themselves to receive His presence. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart; and wait for the Lord.  Psalm 27:14  They were waiting to be immersed in the Holy Spirit. They were waiting to encounter Him. They were hungry to experience Him.

Soaking is simply resting in His presence, being immersed in His presence, for He wants to reveal Himself to you and spend time with you. Soaking is like a form of “practicing the presence of God” by positioning yourself for the presence of God.

Created to Soak in Love

You were created to soak in love.  You were created to be a receiver from the beginning of life in the womb. You were never meant to lose the ability to receive.  It’s your nature to receive love and to give love away.  In the Father’s presence is love, His love going out to you to be received.  Soaking is learning to do what you were created to do, to receive His love.  Receiving love is the fuel of your life.  To be a good lover you must be a good receiver of love.

Soaking is all about the creative environment of love.  The very presence of Love Himself manifested in an experiential way.  A loving Father expressing His affection to His love-hungry children.  An environment where His love-hungry  children learn to receive His love and then give it back to Him.  An environment of love and intimacy that develops a trusting, intimate relationship with your affectionate Heavenly Father.

Soaking captures the concept: God is love, and abiding in love is abiding in God and God abiding in us. 1 John 4:16

What Soaking is Not

Soaking is not working something up on your own or trying to make something happen.

Soaking is not a form of New Age meditation.

Soaking is not like any form of hypnosis where you give your will over to another person, only to the Father, Jesus and the working of the Holy Spirit.

Soak It In

The idea of soaking brings the concept “to become thoroughly wet, or saturated by immersion, to take in, to soak up.” In this context, you become thoroughly wet and saturated in the presence of God.

His love is the water and you are like the sponge. Without daily times with Him and His love, you get dry and hard and crusty, like an old sponge that has been used many times and left to dry.

Yet when you are soaked in His love you take on a whole new identity, everything about you changes. He wants you to immerse yourself in His love so you become moist and pliable, flexible and usable. A sponge gets so saturated that when you squeeze it, it drips and gushes the fluid or substance it absorbed. You absorb so much of His love that it drips out to others, getting them wet, just like a sponge that has been submerged in water for a while.

You sit in His Presence and soak in and soak up His love. You are refreshed and renewed by simply being in your Father’s presence, in Jesus’ presence. As you spend time in His presence He pours in His strength, peace, patience, endurance, comfort and joy. You can learn to soak up everything you need from Him.

Positioning

Soaking is positioning yourselves before God for the sole purpose of experiencing His presence and His love. Carol Arnott says that “Soaking is positioning yourself before God to experience His love for you and to give your love to Him.”

Soaking is also positioning yourself for an encounter with God. You do the positioning, He does the encounter.

Another aspect of soaking is that it positions you to hear Him. Soaking prepares the way for you to hear God speak through His word also. Biblical meditation includes soaking in His presence: Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Ps. 4:4. You spend time with God so you can follow Jesus’ example of only doing what He sees the Father doing:

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. John 5:19-20.

How to Soak

To soak, just follow these three simple steps:

• sit or lie (rest) in His presence
• listen to anointed soaking music
• open your heart to Him

Just get in a comfortable position and relax. Use a blanket and/or pillow to make yourself comfortable if you’d like. Take a few deep breaths to unwind. Rest in His presence—be still and know that I am God. Ps. 46:10

Listen to the anointed soaking music being played. Let it wash over you, soothing your soul and opening up your spirit.

Then open up your heart to Him. Tell Him: “Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I just want to open myself up to You and Your love for me.” Give Him all your worries and cares, and allow His love to wash them all away.

Ask Him to come and wrap His arms of love around you and spend time with you.

As you rest in Him, do not get discouraged if your thoughts wander. Just rest in Him, and refocus on Him. Do not try to make anything happen.

If you start dozing off, don’t worry about it. God can soak you even while you sleep! Just rest in Him and don’t get anxious about sleeping, for He is still soaking you and giving you His love: …For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. Ps. 127:2 NASB

This is a time to just allow the Father to love you and to surround you with His love and loving arms. You may feel His presence like a warmth spreading through you or a heaviness settling upon you. You may see or feel Him wrap His arms of love around you. You may have an experience with Him, a word from Him, or even a dramatic encounter with Him.

To Feel or Not to Feel?

You may feel immediate benefits such as a renewed love for Him, a lifting of weights or burdens, fresh energy, or a real sense of being loved. You also may feel nothing at all at times, but know that you cannot help but be changed as you rest in His presence, whether you feel it or not.  Often evidence of long term changes will be discovered later in your daily life.

Just know this: soaking in His Presence changes you forever (2 Cor. 3:17-18). You may not sense or feel it but it is true. It is not about your feelings, which are fickle and unreliable. You are soaking up His presence, you are getting wet with His love regardless of any feelings. You will eventually sense and feel the changes going on inside of you.

As you soak in His Presence, and soak up His love for you, you will begin to know that you are truly and totally loved, maybe for the first time in your life. This will change your life in so many ways. You will feel and experience His love and His rest and His peace daily and this cannot help but affect your life.