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Dear Lighthouse Trails:
A church I visited when I moved to another State has what they refer to as ‘soakings’. My understanding is that they sit quietly and wait for messages from the Lord. The pastor attends these soakings as well as participates in them. Sounds much like contemplative prayer to me. Several women in that church are tuned into ‘Jesus Calling’. It is an Assembly of God denomination. I have yet to see the term ‘soakings’ in your articles but I am relatively new and may have missed it?
Our Comment:
Lighthouse Trails has been collecting information on “soaking” prayer for a number of years. Here are some quotes about soaking prayer by various authors. To read the entire articles, click on the links following the quotes.
SOAKING
There is nothing in the Bible about soaking or saturating in the Holy Spirit. We are to worship in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24), which means that the teaching in the Church must bring worship to the Lord by upholding the timeless truths of the written Word. – Sandy Simpson, “How to be Unsaturated”
Kundalini Energy & Christian Spirituality
(the same as contemplative or soaking prayer)
Ray Yungen
Kundalini is a Hindu term for the mystical power or force that underlies their spirituality. In Hinduism it is commonly referred to as the serpent power. Philip St. Romain, a substance abuse counselor and devout Catholic lay minister, began his journey while practicing contemplative prayer or resting in the still point, as he called it. What happened to him following this practice should bear the utmost scrutiny from the evangelical community-especially from our leadership. Having rejected mental prayer as “unproductive” he embraced the prayer form that switches off the mind, creating what he described as a mental passivity. What he encountered next underscores my concern with sobering clarity. Read more …. Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality
Physical symptoms, which can include things like a tingling sensation, that occur during Soaking Prayer are similar to those experienced during the Kundalini experience, and both are dangerous and can take the practitioner into a demonic realm.
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“Some of these phenomena are obvious: weeping, cries, exuberant and prolonged expressions of praise, shaking, trembling, calmness, bodily writhing and distortions, falling over (sometimes referred to as ‘being slain in the Spirit’), laughter and jumping. Other phenomena are more subtle: slight trembling, fluttering of the eyelids, faint perspiring, a sheen on the face, ripples on the skin, deep breathing…” Wimber also said that people sometimes experience a sense of heaviness or tiredness, weeping or drunkenness.” “SOAKING PRAYER” by Roger Harper
BODILY SENSATIONS AND “SOAKING PRAYER”
Kent Philpott
“Some leaders get tingling in their hands, some have their hands get warm when healing is about to occur, some feel “power surges” going through their bodies. Some claim that they see a person’s “aura” when soaking a person in prayer. Soaking means pouring out lots of prayer over a person, often with laying on of hands and/or passing the hands over a person. It is reminiscent of what is called “Therapeutic Touch” [Reiki] practiced by new age and alternative medicine enthusiasts. People who believe in soaking prayer get the sense that power is passing through their bodies and actually helping to bring healing, comfort and love. And those who are soaking someone testify that they feel waves coming from the person or going toward the person being prayed for. Certainly something may be felt or experienced, however, is it the Holy Spirit?” TORONTO BLESSING: CHRISTIAN-BASED MAGIC? by Kent Philpott
Also these articles:
SOAKING? A spiritual discipline or Eastern mysticism?
by Kjos Ministries
Contemplative Prayer and the Evangelical Church
by Ray Yungen
Reiki, a Universal Energy Technique to Heal
by Mike Oppenheimer
What is really going on in the church?
By Mike Oppenheimer
To fully understand soaking prayer, it is necessary to understand contemplative prayer and its relation to the occult and Hinduism. Read A Time of Departing
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