Aromatherapy By God

It’s fall! I love fall! Like many of you, it is actually my favorite time of year. The harvest, the changing leaves, fall colors, football games, cheerleading, and marching bands. There’s just a different feel to this season and, in my opinion, a special fragrance to the crisp coolness of the air. I am exhilarated and energized, ready to prepare for the long winter ahead. This is what I would call God’s own aromatherapy.

Did you know God also enjoys certain aromas?

In Leviticus, God gives Israel instructions for sacrifice. Bulls, goats, lambs, turtledoves, or young pigeons, each without spot or blemish, and grain offerings made by fire for a “sweet aroma to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:17; 2:2). However, each sacrifices pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the ONLY Lamb without spot or blemish. Ephesians 5:2 tells us to “…walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”

Did you know that you also have an aroma? I’m not talking about your physical human scent; I’m talking about your spiritual aroma. “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 [Diffusion is like spraying perfume in your bedroom and the smell traveling throughout your house.] For we are to God the fragrance of Christ, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.” (II Corinthians 2:14-17) Therefore, if the Holy Spirit of God indwells you, you are aromatherapy, like it or not.

Believers, filled with the Holy Spirit, are different from the world. If their heart is open and God has begun drawing them to the Lord Jesus Christ, (John 6:44) our aroma to them is life.  If not, it’s like death. I remember before I came to know Christ, when I would hear someone say, “Praise the Lord” or “Thank you Jesus”, I would literally feel nauseated. The praise of true believers was a stench in my nostrils just as I imagine the “aroma of death” to be. What is so amazing is that I never forgot it. In fact, it was an enigma; a mystery I needed to solve. How grateful I am that our God is longsuffering. He gave me a chance to repent, accept Him as Lord and Savior, and deeply inhale the aroma of life.

When you are a Spirit-filled believer, because you are to God the fragrance of Christ, you cannot help how your aromatherapy affects those around you. Some you will repulse and some you will exhilarate and energize to prepare for life eternal.