Carrying His Fragrance

(Matthew 5:15-16)  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. 

Out of all the flowers in the world a rose is my absolute favorite. A rose not only has a unique fragrance that is very inviting, it also possesses a unique tenderness that is equally inviting. However, there is an old saying, … “the true fragrance of a rose is never fully released until its petals have been crushed”. For some reason the words tender and crushed don’t seem to go together … but in this case it is true.

I suppose the same thing is true with Christians. Our light, (like the uncrushed rose), will shine to a degree while just living a normal Christian life. However, when Christians go through difficult times, (as the whole world is going through right now), they are like the rose petals that have been crushed. There is a depth of light and fragrance that is released from them that is overwhelming.  As a matter of fact, their depth of tenderness seems to have risen to the highest possible level.

I have been around a long time, but I have never seen so much light and sweet Christian fragrance released through so many people as I do now.

When Jesus said, “don’t put your light under a bushel but put it on a candlestick so all men can see” … I seem to know more of what that means today than at any other time. What is happening today is far beyond just our natural Christian fragrance, there is a supernatural fragrance being released.

Several years ago I was on a mission trip to Bulgaria. After several days of very powerful ministry I went to a large open-air market on a Saturday morning in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. As I walked through the market looking at all the old tools, war memorabilia and old handmade furniture, I spotted something that really caught my eye. Beneath a lot of other stuff lay a little tiny dusty perfume bottle. It probably had not been used in seventy or eighty years. I picked it up and unscrewed the little lid and smelled it. Even though it was empty, to my surprise it still had the smell of sweet perfume.

I later found out that Bulgaria was the rose capital of the world and still grew large fields of roses. The roses had to be harvested at a certain time early in the morning while they were at the peak of fragrance and shipped to Paris to make perfume.

As I stood looking at that little bottle that day in the market place I thought to myself, when I become old and useless in the eyes of others I still want to be a “candle on a candlestick” and possess the fragrance of the Holy Spirit.

Father:

When the disciples said, “Lord teach us how to pray”, it was not because they did not know how to pray.  It was because they did not know how to pray faith prayers. We also want You to teach us how to let our light shine more on a candlestick and not under a bushel. We not only want to shine like You … we want to have the same fragrance as You.

Amen