Soaking and Seeking

At Friday night’s “soaking prayer time” the Lord showed me a beautiful vision. It was very intimate and precious, something that I usually would keep hidden in my heart, but this time I felt that He wanted me to encourage others with the encouragement I received from Him through this treasure.

I saw myself having a bath, nothing unusual, just an ordinary bathtub and a few bubbles. Then as I sat there, I suddenly realized that the Lord Jesus was there with me, and He began to bathe me. I am trying to tell this as sensitively as possible – it was not weird at all – it seemed like the most normal and natural thing in the world for Him to be there. I felt no shame or embarrassment about Him being there with me (like in Genesis 2:25). You know, we all pray for God’s cleansing, purification, etc. I think when I was younger in the Lord, I probably thought of “cleansing” as a kind of self-service waterfall, but I guess growing in God includes getting more intimate with Him. Anyway, on that particular day, we’d spent much time traveling around the city, and I was frankly quite tired by the time I got to the prayer meeting. There’s no physical explanation as to why one gets so tired here doing the very minimal amounts of exercise required in riding buses and walking a little to and fro, but the stress and atmosphere of the city somehow weigh on you. The Lord conveyed to me that as I’d gone through my day, I’d managed to get some mud on me, and He wanted to wash it off. This was interesting, because I did have some literal mud on me from the melting ice / snow / dirt mixture that’s everywhere this time of year. But He was indicating more the spiritual mud that had splattered on me, due to my own and others’ sin, and the sliming of the enemy. I’d already discarded my muddy clothes outside the tub, and I willingly submitted to His cleansing. He was incredibly gentle, deliberate, and thorough – sometimes you just have to scrub to get mud off! This went on for some time, and I thought of my favorite Psalm (number 23) as I often do – the Lord was tending to me in quiet waters, and was gently restoring my soul. It then occurred to me that I was much lighter. I hadn’t realized I’d been weighed down by some heavy burdens that day, but I certainly noticed when they were gone.

The Lord impressed two things on my heart through this precious vision. In order to allow Him to cleanse us, we have to lay down two very specific things. Firstly, we give to Him our soiled clothes (sin and shame). We do this by admitting to our own wrongs and receiving His forgiveness. We also need to forgive all others who have offended or wronged us. We also have to line up our thinking with who He says we are. Shame is something that began in the Garden after Adam and Eve sinned, and Jesus can and wants to set us free from all shame. Our part is to give Him the bits we’re ashamed of and let Him heal us and change our way of thinking to His way of thinking. Secondly, we can’t get into a bath with all our bags – before He can wash us, we have to lay down all our burdens. Basically, a burden is anything that we are carrying that doesn’t result in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, or self-control. When we allow God to cleanse us, we trade the dirt and baggage we seem to accumulate for one of those big white fluffy bathrobes, which is a picture of His purity, righteousness, comfort, healing, and a myriad of other blessings that accompany the Kingdom of God.

I’m so thankful for this regular “soaking prayer time” every Friday night. There’s no way you can go wrong spending a couple of hours focusing solely on the Lord. He always meets me, always. I don’t know how the Lord will speak to you, but I am certain that He will meet you if you set aside time to seek His face. God is faithful. Every single time I’ve set aside time for Him with no agenda other than to meet with Him, He has been faithful to reveal Himself to me in some way, whether I’ve been in my kitchen, at a mountain cabin, at Unveiled or a soaking prayer time, beside a fire, or on a beach. “God cares enough to respond to those who seek him’ (Hebrews 11:6, The Message). There is a mysterious component of being together with other believers that magnifies the Lord’s presence. It’s one of those Kingdom equations that can’t be explained or calculated. But whether alone or with other believers, let’s make it a frequent habit to seek the Lord and soak in His presence . . . He is faithful to cleanse us, restore us, and use us for His glory.