In recent years, there is an unprecedented increase of New Age practices and mysticism in many churches around the world.

These mysterious and mystical experiences threaten to replace sound Biblical teachings with emotion-driven feelings and beliefs. They are not a "factual faith" based on the Bible but a "felt faith" based on what and how we feel.

Soaking is one of these mystical activities. It is designed to empty our minds. While playing some gentle worship songs, some "prophets" or "apostles" will share what they feel or see, either by praying, proclaiming or prophesying. As they do so, we begin to position ourselves to receive supernatural revelations, insights, images, sounds, words or pictures. We may also have dreams, visions, trances, out of body experiences, angelic visitations or being transported in the Spirit to heaven or other places.

Sometimes we feel some heat or electricity, and begin to shake or laugh uncontrollably. Sometimes we make loud and funny animal sounds. Sometimes we feel peace and quiet, and begin to weep and wail. Totally paralyzed and unable to move, we become drunk as we soak in all the things they pray, prophesy and share even if those words are not from the Bible or have any Biblical roots. Instead of filled with the Spirit of God, we become filled with other spirits.

1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits,
whether they are of God;
because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

We begin to enter the gateway towards the supernatural realm. We begin to indulge in angelic and heavenly visions. We become very unnatural and mystical.

It is perfectly okay to have some inspirational background music while praying, reading the Bible or meditating on the Word of God. But soaking goes very much beyond, and quickly degrades into a trance-like posture and state. It ceases to be Biblical. It then becomes a New Age practice, something adherent of some pagan religions.

The Bible exhorts us to avoid sorcery, mysticism, divination and such. Soaking and other mystical exercises are contemplative spirituality that are totally ungodly.

The Bible does not exhort us to empty our minds and meditate on nothing. We must meditate upon the Word of God.

Joshua 1:8
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth,
but you shall meditate in it day and night,
that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.
For then you will make your way prosperous,
and then you will have good success.

Psalm 1:2
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

Once a Christian told me that she no longer read the Bible (the Logos) because she had now the Rhema Word. This heresy is taught by many false teachers today.

John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.

Luke 4:21
And He began to say to them, 
“Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Rhema is Logos becoming alive or fulfilled. It is the Written Word becoming flesh! It is not what we feel in our spirit or what we have heard from this "prophet" or that "apostle." It is not prophetic insights or apostolic proclamations shared by some people. It is simply the Written Word of God becoming the Living Word when the Spirit of God reveals to us or brings it to fulfillment! Without the Logos, we cannot possibly have any Rhema! God will never speak a word that will contradict His Written Word!  

Without the Holy Scriptures, many Christians have no built-in safeguards and protections against false teachings, heresies and erroneous misinterpretations.

2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but according to their own desires,
because they have itching ears,
they will heap up for themselves teachers;
and they will turn their ears away from the truth,
and be turned aside to fables.

1 Peter 1:22-24
Since you have purified your souls
in obeying the truth through the Spirit
in sincere love of the brethren,
love one another fervently with a pure heart,
having been born again,
not of corruptible seed but incorruptible,
through the word of God
which lives and abides forever, because
“All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

Only the Word of the Lord endures forever. The "prophetic" insights, "apostolic" teachings and supernatural encounters of this "prophet" and that "apostle" will fade away!

The Bible teaches us to love, praise, worship, seek and obey God with all our heart:

Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Psalm 9:1
I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart;
I will tell of all Your marvelous works.

Psalm 111:1
Praise the LORD! I will praise the LORD with my whole heart,
In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.

Psalm 119:2
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!

Psalm 119:10
With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!

Psalm 119:34
Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law;
Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Psalm 119:58
I entreated Your favor with my whole heart;
Be merciful to me according to Your word.

Psalm 119:69
The proud have forged a lie against me,
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.

Psalm 119:145
I cry out with my whole heart;
Hear me, O LORD! I will keep Your statutes.

Psalm 138:1-2
I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

But soaking let others do the job for us. They will pray, praise and worship while we enjoy and indulge ourselves, asking for more and more. Give me more. Give me more. Not enough. Not enough.

Instead of loving, praising and worshipping God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength, we just idle away and indulge ourselves with our feelings and emotions! Feeling so good! We are loving ourselves more than we love God. We are unknowingly worshipping ourselves instead of God! We become the focus of worship instead of God. If we don't feel it, the worship is bad. If we feel it, the worship is awesome. It is all about us and what we feel. No longer about Jesus!

The Bible teaches us to pray to God and according to His will:

Philippians 4:6-7
Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2:1-2
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
for kings and all who are in authority,
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life
in all godliness and reverence.

1 John 5:14
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him,
that if we ask anything according to His will,
He hears us.

But soaking prayer is contemplative, lost in thought and emptiness in a supernatural world and realm. Not supplicating, praying, interceding and giving thanks for all men but now engrossing in angels, heavenly visions, mysteries and mysticism!

The Bible teaches us that God’s presence is always with and in us:

Psalm 139:7
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?

Matthew 28:20
"...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

1 Corinthians 6:19
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

2 Timothy 1:14
That good thing which was committed to you,
keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

But soaking teaches us that unless we feel God, we don't have Him! Soaking focuses on obtaining a spiritual experience and encounter by seeking out the presence of God through mystical exercises.

Soaking does not have any connection with Christianity. As it always dishonors the Holy Scriptures, it therefore dishonors the Holy Spirit. By claiming miracles, signs, wonders, visions and dreams as their authority and basis, they will eventually become outcasts in the kingdom of God:

Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day,
‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name,
cast out demons in Your name,
and done many wonders in Your name?’
And then I will declare to them,
‘I never knew you; depart from Me,
you who practice lawlessness!’

Calling it “intimacy with God”, these lawless people will market an experience-driven method of reaching out to the supernatural realm and mystical world. By purchasing their books, tapes, CDs and DVDs, they will promise supernatural and mystical encounters at the expense of solid foundations in the Word.

Finally, let us take a look at the example of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Matthew 27:46
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

On the Cross, our Lord Jesus Christ felt that the Father had forsaken Him. God the Father seemed so far away. But in fact, He was very near. There was no soaking music, prophetic prayers or apostolic utterances to bring and usher in the Manifest Presence of God! God is with Him there and then. Always. Forever!

John 17:20-21
I do not pray for these alone,
but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You;
that they also may be one in Us,
that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Jesus while on earth as a human being, didn't have any soaking time. He knows that He knows that He knows that God the Father is with and in Him always! From everlasting to everlasting. Not by what He feels at this or that moment but by what the Written Word of God says!

Sources:
http://www.gotquestions.org/soaking-prayer.html
http://standupforthetruth.com/2013/10/sid-roth-promotes-soaking-prayer-tutorial-on-wnd/
http://fortheloveofhistruth.com/2013/01/27/soaking-prayer-the-new-nar-pagan-approach-beware/

Written on: 6 March 2015