Flavor-Soaked Potato- Be Thoroughly Soaked in His Presence

01/03/2026 

This morning I was talking to somebody and happened to talk about how I love to eat potato in steamboat. And when I eat potato in steamboat, I soak it in the steamboat for a long time so it inherits the taste of the soup that it is boiled in. And when that happens, the potato tastes of the soup it is soaked in!

That was when I suddenly realised this is also the same in our spiritual walk with God. Whenever we pray, praise, worship, or any acts that are associated with what we call ‘Time with God’, we enter His presence, and when we enter His presence, we are soaked in His presence. Over time, we inherit His presence, just like the potato tasting like the soup it was soaked in.

However, most of us tend to enter His presence in a sweeping manner and leave in a very swift manner because of our other seemingly important things in life, or just that we do it as a routine. However, this is not what God desires of us! He wants us to be thoroughly soaked in His presence so that we can be refreshed, restored, and empowered for the day. He does not want us to struggle. He does not want us to use our own feeble strength to walk the day without His help. He wants to partner with us, He wants to yoke with us. He wants to walk with us such that whenever we encounter potholes in our life, He subtly covers the potholes as we walk. He wants to walk with us such that whenever we face difficulties, the strength comes from Him to deal with it, wisdom comes from Him, so naturally that it is like our second nature.

However, this can only happen when we are thoroughly soaked in His presence.

We know that He promised He will never leave us nor forsake us. His presence is already with us the moment we acknowledged Christ’s redemptive work on the cross—our relationship with God is bridged. Our body is even mentioned as the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, does that mean because of that, we do not need to spend time with Him? And simply ignore His presence? Or is there something more to it? So, where is the missing part of this equation?

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Hebrews 13:5 (NKJV)

“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?” 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NKJV)

We must remember that we are restored to the relationship with Him—not that it is automatic having a relationship with Him. As such, if we do not spend time with Him, or rather be soaked in His presence, we may be saved, but not necessarily having the relationship with Him. And without any living relationship with Him, it is highly likely we still remain as before we were saved—nothing much has changed. You will see that we will have huge struggles with our old ways and our sins. And for that, we may get discouraged at times. We may get very disappointed with ourselves.

I am not trying to imply that after we have the presence of God or have the relationship with God, we will not fall into sin, but I am trying to say that now with the presence of God, our probability of falling into our old ways or falling into sin is greatly reduced.

And even if we did fall, because of the relationship with God, we understand His love and heartbeat for us—that when we fail, His grace increases all the more. And with the conviction and understanding, we will be more confident and more ready to repent and run back to Him to restore us once again. This is because we would have the first-hand understanding of His love!

“Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.” Romans 5:20 (NKJV)

God desires our attention! I remembered a few weeks ago, I was quite preoccupied with matters of the world that I somehow ‘neglected’ Him. I heard what apparently was the voice of God telling me, “Won’t you just give me some attention? I just only need some of your attention.” Then I realised, this is exactly the heartbeat of our Father. He is not asking for much! He just wants us to be aware of Him. He is not the distant or angry God!

And here is the tricky part! When we have given Him the attention—I mean quality attention—it is as if we are connected to Him once again. And when the presence of God overwhelms us! It is not a chore or drag, it is joy in His presence. Or what Singaporeans call: Shiok! Trust me, that is when we want to linger in His presence! Because it is a joy being in His presence!

“You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”- Psalm 16:11 (NKJV)

 

This creates a self-catalyzing reaction: enjoying His presence, leading to remaining in His presence, leading to being soaked in His presence, continuing with enjoying His presence, remaining in His presence, and soaking in His presence… It is a natural upward spiral. We just need to be conscious to ride on to it.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”- John 15:4-5 (NKJV)

 

It is actually true that there are cases whereby sometimes after entering and enjoying His presence, we stop going back to his presence. I called this like applying brake to the cycle. That is the reason why I actually mention that it is a conscious effort and that is probably the major part we need to be aware of to catch on to this equation. In fact, being human, we tend to be quite susceptible to applying brake. And when that happen, it is not a reason to condemn. But rather, it is more of being aware of it and be conscious to get back into this relationship building cycle.

And as we eventually get seasoned to spending more QUALITY time with Him, over time, like the potato being soaked in the essence of the soup. We will inherit His nature naturally- the fruit of the Spirit, His ability, His wisdom and all good things that is from Him!!!

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)