Soaking in the Spirit Brings Healing, Visions, and Signs

Receiving Healing

Resting in the presence of God heals us. When we soak in His presence, God will speak to us and heal us of our past hurts. Sometimes he’ll even do things in our hearts and heal us when we didn’t know it, just like going under anesthesiatic for surgery. He is a gentle healer! He wants to deal with the issues of your heart, to bring you peace where there is anxiety, and to bring you comfort where there is pain. In our School of Ministry in Toronto, the students have time allotted in their schedule to soak every week. When this was first implemented, the leaders noticed a dramatic difference in the student’s’ needs for one- on- one ministry and counseling because they were bringing their needs before God and letting him minister to their hearts.

I’ve also seen many examples of people soaking, or receiving soaking prayer, and then receive dramatig physical healing.

Dreams, and Visions, Signs and Wonders

The anointing of God’s presence increases as you spend quality time with Jesus. I’ve seen people strive to attain the supernatural in their ministry, but it’s so much better to allow God to move through you when it’s from a place of rest.

Dreams and Visions

Before I started soaking I never had a vision. I also believed that I didn’t dream. Then I realized that God loves to speak to people through dreams. I quickly repented and asked God to speak to me through dreams and visions.

Just as Mark Virkler teaches, we must allow God to speak to us through pictures. God wants to use the eyes of your imagination. Dreams and visions are a really important part of the way that God wants to speak to us. We see them all throughout the Bible. One of my favorites is Joseph. God spoke to Joseph in dreams and he had to learn how to use this gift. Eventually, his ability to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams saved a nation from famine.

Three weeks into the revival in 1994, not long after I’d repented of believing that I couldn’t see visions or dream dreams. I had a long 45 minute open vision in technicolor about the bride and the bridegroom that totally deepened my awareness of spiritual realities. . All of a sudden, I could see for myself that God can give us visions and dreams. It was amazing.

Sometimes, when I’m soaking, I’ll ask the Lord if he has anything to show me, or anywhere he wants to take me. Often, he’ll show me a picture of me walking with Jesus beside a beautiful river with a big oak tree beside it. It’s bright aqua blue, reminding me of the rivers in British Columbia, Canada. In the vision, there’s a meadow beside the river. Jesus and I will just talk. It’s such a peaceful, restful place, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

I grew up believing that I couldn’t see in the Spirit, but I’m so grateful that it’s possible for all of us to hear God through dreams and visions. I wouldn’t say I dream a lot, but when I do, they’re usually pretty profound. God has spoken to me with warnings and with blueprints and plans in dreams, that have affected the direction of my life.

It’s possible for all of us to hear God through dreams and visions.

Signs and Wonders

Many of us are hungry to see signs, wonders, and miracles happen in our lives and through us. This is such a wonderful thing to pursue, but it must always come from intimacy and relationship. Otherwise, pride will always get in the way. Through soaking, you learn that God is really present. You immerse yourself and know that he wants to spend time with you. If we want to see miracles, signs, and wonders, we must listen to what God wants to do, just as Jesus said and did what he heard and saw the Father saying and doing.

With miracles, you’re always walking on the water. It’s about trust—putting your hand in his hand, knowing that Jesus paid the price for people to be healed. Miracles don’t always happen in the way that we expect. Sometimes healing happens more slowly than we would hope, but God is always the healer. We must always trust that when he directs us to do something, that’s because he wants to move in people’s lives.

With miracles, you’re always walking on the water. It’s about trust—putting your hand in his hand, knowing that Jesus paid the price for people to be healed.

I’m still very much learning how to hold Jesus’ hand and trust him to see miracles happen. I know that every meeting that I minister in is a training ground. In 2017, I was in England at our Revival Alliance conference. We were doing two conferences back to back, one in Oslo, Norway and one in Birmingham, England. John’s plane was late arriving from Norway and he was due to be teaching an afternoon session. Lori, our daughter, asked if I could facilitate people giving testimonies while we waited for John to arrive. The night before, Bill Johnson had taught. At the end, he had done a call for healing, with some words of knowledge.

I got up on the platform and invited people up to give testimonies from the night before. Lori met a woman at the side of the stage who had got out of her wheelchair the night before, but she wasn’t walking very well. She asked me if I wanted to invite her up to testify, even though she hadn’t received her full healing yet. I said, “Of course, God’s doing something in her. Let’s corporately pray for her.”

Soaking people in prayer will very often facilitate greater healing. A lot of times, when John does a call for ministry and someone is not quite fully healed, maybe they’re 70% percent better or so, I’ll spend five or ten minutes with them. We’ve discovered that many times there is a forgiveness issue, or trauma, or words spoken over the person by a doctor that is are blocking their full healing. Taking a few minutes to pray through forgiveness and repentance often brings greater breakthrough.

Soaking people in prayer will very often facilitate greater healing.

We brought the lady up to the front of the meeting. I helped her forgive and repent for the areas that God was leading us into, and then as a whole room, we started to believe and pray together for her complete healing. I started walking her back and forth across the stage, which was a fairly large stage, and after a few times back and forth, she was walking totally normally!

While I was with this lady, I had a word of knowledge. Sometimes God speaks to me through symptoms in my own body, which is harder to discern the older you get because there’s always a little pain somewhere! This time, I had a sharp pain like glass shards going down my legs. I had no idea what it was, so I explained on the microphone what I was feeling and that I thought it was because God wanted to heal somebody. All of a sudden, a lady got up from her chair and started screaming. Lori brought her up to the stage and she explained that she had cancer, and every time she had chemotherapy, she had pain in her legs which that felt like glass shards in her veins. The instant that I announced what I was feeling, all the pain left her body. It was totally God!

Then, out of my mouth came, “I want everyone in wheelchairs in this place to come up. God is going to heal you.” Immediately I wanted to take the words back! The meeting room was huge and there must have been so many people in wheelchairs there. I knew I couldn’t do a single thing to help them in my own strength. I asked the Lord, “Oh God, what did I just say?” I put my hand up to my chest and touched a little heart necklace that Beni Johnson had given me. Inscribed on the heart is, “God’s got this.” I said to him, “God, I don’t have this. Do you have this?” and he said, “I have it, Carol.” I knew that if he had it, I could go for it. I felt like I was walking on water. Together with everyone in the room, we prayed for all of the people who came up in wheelchairs and saw everyone who had been in a wheelchair walking! Some incredible breakthrough.

When best friends spend a lot of time together, they begin to really know each other’s hearts. It’s the same with Jesus—the more time we spend with him, the more we know him and the safer and more trust-filled our communication with him becomes.

In that kind of situation, you need to know that God is with you. You need to have practiced that intimate communication already so that you know you can trust him. If he asks you to do something, or you find yourself in a situation ministering to someone and you have no faith, simply tell him, “God, I’m really scared. I don’t know what to do. How are you directing it?” Then, step back into his presence. Find out how he wants to order the battle. Ask him what his plans are.

It’s all about communication, about knowing him. When best friends spend a lot of time together, they begin to really know each other’s hearts. They know the intonation of the other’s voice if they’re struggling that day and they’re trying to put on a good face. Have you seen how some best friends even start to dress similarly? They have similar tastes and things that they enjoy together. That comes with spending time together. It’s the same with Jesus—the more time we spend with him, the more we know him and the safer and more trust-filled our communication with him becomes.

Carol Arnott