My Fragrance

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. ¹⁵ For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

What a beautiful thing that we can be the fragrance of Christ to the people around us! Because just as fragrances exist and influence the natural, they also do in the spiritual realm. And what a powerful thing that we can change and have impact to the atmosphere around us just by the fragrance we carry with us.

Imagine yourself sitting inside a room and someone with a terrible smelling perfume comes in and sits himself next to you. You would smell it, feel it through your body, react on it and if possible you would even find another place to sit. On the other side, someone with a very pleasant and good smelling perfume would not disturb you. Investigation has even proved that some ones smell has a powerful impact on the way people are attracted to others. In this case, as it is in the natural it is also in the spiritual. If we carry the fragrance of Christ with us we will impact our atmosphere. Every evil spirit and demon will smell it, tremble of it and will hurry to find another place to be. People would feel that something good is nearby, something pleasant and even attractive to be around.

Carrying this fragrance is all about being cleansed and purified by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This is a cleansing that starts from the inside out and will revolve in the refining of the way we think, we speak, we act, we look and what we put our interest in. As this progres proceeds we will be able to spread more and more of His fragrance.

Thoughts.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

I just love this verse as it is so powerful and radical that David longs that all the meditations of his heart, his entire thought life, will be acceptable in the sight of God. To accomplish this we have to train ourselves in bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, because out of the heart without God proceed evil thoughts (Matthew 15:19) It is a process of dying of ourselves and completely surrendering and yielding to the leading of the Holy spirit. This purifying of our heart will take time, discernment, obedience and repentance as we draw near to God. We need to endure our own dying and let Gods spirit correct and renew us. But in time our thought life will be more and more under the control of the Holy Spirit, as He teaches us the will of our Lord and to meditate on whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy.

Words.

What we speak is so significant and powerful. Our words will always have impact on the atmosphere around us, for Death and life are in the power of the tongue! (proverbs 18:21) What a power God has given us, and what a great responsibility we have to control our thong. For as small as it is it will control the course of our life because it shifts and moves things around as they are spoken. And as they fill the airwaves of the natural and spiritual realm, they can be like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

Works.

¹⁴ What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? ¹⁷ Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. ¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your^[d] works, and I will show you my faith by my^[e] works. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! ²⁰ But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?^{[f] 21} Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? ²² Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? ²³ And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”^[g] And he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. ²⁵ Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? ²⁶ For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

What more is there to say about this? And if you ask yourself this question: How can a young man cleanse his way? The answer is also given: By taking heed according to Your word.

Appearance.

You might wonder, what has my appearance to do with this? But this is the first thing people see when they look at you. And when we study scripture we will find that God speaks and reveals through pictures,  images and different kinds of clothing’s. Pictures can prophesy about the God of the light and on the other side about the god of this earth. Our Gods nature is creativity, He created heaven and earth in all of its splendor. God loves to bring forth His creative character  through His children and fulfill our longing for fresh and good styles. And through the creativity that is inside of us we are able to show Gods character in all kinds of styles and new looks.  But when we walk around with pictures of sculls, pain, death or all kind of evil words on our clothes we showcase the way of the satan and walk in the way of darkness. This is the same for clothes that draw a sexual attention. For the character of what you use to draw attention will be the same then the character you attract. Rather Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— ⁴ rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God

Input.

(Matthew 6:23) “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness”

This is a important question we need to ask ourselves: are the things that I am seeing shining light or bringing darkness into my heart, spirit and soul? Because if we long for this fragrance of Christ, which is a spiritual fragrance, we need to guard our eyes so that no filth can enter in. The verse is very clear that the eye is the lamb of the body, so whatever it sees shines inside. We have to take the task to protect our eyes, and by that our body, serieus to be a holy, pure and accepteble sacrefice unto God. For this to acure we need to keep in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit for discernment. And then, as we work the ground of our body and let it be filled with good fertilizer as our eye captures light, we will be able to diffuse His fragrance more and more.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ²