Soaking Prayer

Beyond contemplative prayer is “soaking prayer.” What is called soaking prayer has been around since the beginning of the twenty-first century, yet it is neither widely known nor understood. One’s first assumption might be that it involves long periods of time spent in prayer to God. However, what it really involves is something quite different.

Soaking prayer is in reality a mystical activity. Since it is often described as “resting in God’s presence,” it appears to be innocuous and biblical. This is how many are drawn into it, especially when charismatic church leaders embrace it.

Proponents of soaking prayer are convinced it is nothing more than “positioning yourself to express your love to God.” To get to that stage, however, some quiet instrumental or worship music must pervade the environment, while the participants often lie on the floor. The mind eventually settles down and focuses on God, or so it is thought. The attitude of the participant is to be, “God, do what you want to in me.” After some period, perhaps hours, there might be laughter, crying, or shaking – all supposedly coming from the Holy Spirit. The goal of soaking prayer or a possible end point of it is that the Holy Spirit would give the person a vision or bring a memory to mind that needs healing.

Another emphasis of soaking prayer is that it brings a person into a state of deep rest. Soaking prayer almost always is accompanied by the playing of gentle worship songs, with the participants sitting or lying down. It may involve the repeated praying of short prayers for an extended period of time. It is reminiscent of a devotee of Hinduism chanting a mantra.

Persons practicing soaking prayer attempt to keep their minds free of thoughts and concerns. They continue this until they feel a sensation in the body, perhaps a tingling of the skin, a perception of heat or cold, or a breeze gently blowing upon the body. When this happens, the desired stage has been reached, and one experiences being in the presence of God. The soaking praying may begin innocently enough, but after a while, the participants are in a meditative state of mind. It is here that any connection to biblical prayer has been abandoned.

The following explanation of soaking prayer was found online under the heading “Embark on an intimate journey”: “The Secret Place is not just a listening experience. It is a journey of soaking worship. It is a place of intimacy with the Father, a place where the heart longs for His touch.” In that same website, where music for soaking prayer may be obtained, a soaking prayer facilitator’s comment addressed to a composer of music used for soaking prayer reads:

I prepare the sanctuary to become a resting place for the Lord as people come to soak in His presence. The lights are turned down, there are candles, and the atmosphere is that of intimacy. For three hours we seek His face together and listen to your music, which invites His presence to come. I lead it at our Soaking Prayer Centre at the church and many of our soakers really like it. It is anointed and I have had some awesome visions of angels and God’s glory while worshipping with it in the background.[1]

It is disappointing how similar this sounds to Wiccan techniques used to enter a trance state. And there appears to be an addictive quality to soaking prayer; people crave it and think other forms of worship are boring and devoid of God’s Spirit.

^[1]        Found at http://www.secretplaceministries.org