Hi, it’s me again. For the past three days, the word 'fragrance' has been stuck in my head, I keep thinking about the word and what it means, thinking about how perfumes work, how the cheapest of men can suddenly seem classy if they wear expensive perfume. Fragrance is so important in the world because how you smell determines the people that will relate with you and how they relate with you.
Nobody likes a person that smells bad and you know, the funniest thing I’ve noticed on this issue is that when someone has a “bad fragrance” they are always the last to notice, everybody is aware of it but them. It’s something I’ve never really been able to understand. How can you be so blissfully unaware of the “bad fragrance” you carry?
Another thing that comes to my mind about fragrance is something a friend of mine mentioned yesterday. Oh, wait. Before I mention this, let me tell this story from the beginning
I went to visit some of my friends a few days back and while I was there, one of them was telling me about a verse of scripture that she found to be very profound; 2 Corinthians 2:14 “But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ’s victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere” she went on and on about the revelation she got about the scripture, how she even ended up writing a song about it and she was so excited, I just laughed at her and ignored it. I wish I had listened to her because later that night, she posted the scripture on her status and for some reason, I decided to casually read through it and my eyes got caught on the word fragrance and since then I have not been able to get this Scripture out of my head.
So many thoughts have crossed my mind since then. Now to the other thing I wanted to say about fragrance. It’s something my revelation friend said to me, she said fragrance determines the atmosphere. It’s like when you spray perfume, the air around you changes, it becomes pleasant, people want to come close to you, they acknowledge the pleasantness of the fragrance; "wow, that smells so good." They begin to ask you; what fragrance is that? Where did you get it?
Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of thoughts have crossed my mind. I remember something my spiritual father, Reverend Temilolu Aliu explained when this Scripture came up in a discussion, I didn’t catch the full story but I’ll tell what I was able to understand from what I did hear. He said we’re to be diffusers of the fragrance of the knowledge of God meaning that anywhere we go to where there seems to be darkness on a quality or the Person of God, as soon as you get there, there should be a shift. I’ll give an example, there’s this home/village where there has been a stench of barrenness, couples have been getting married and years after, still no children but as soon as you get there, God through you diffuses fragrance of the knowledge Him as the Giver of children, the covenant keeping God and instantly that stench of barrenness is replaced by the fragrance of fruitfulness.
If you notice, for the past two paragraphs, I’ve been trying to mention the things that have come to my mind but I keep remembering other things that the anointed people in my life have said about this Scripture lol. Okay for the last time, a lot of things have crossed my mind since I read this Scripture and one of them is that every fragrance, no matter how strong usually has an expiry date, a lasting period. No matter how concentrated it is, it will eventually wear off but as the people say, there is always an exception and this exception is the fragrance of the knowledge of God.
What determines the lasting time of a fragrance is it’s composition. Perfumes that have the highest concentration of oils usually last much longer than those diluted with water and alcohol but even with the highest concentration of oils in a perfume, it’ll eventually still wear out. The fragrance of the knowledge of God is composed of God. Lol. God is eternal, He was there before the beginning of time and He will most definitely remain after time passes away so as a result the fragrance of God’s knowledge is forever
The last thing I want to talk about is a perfume spray bottle. A perfume spray bottle will continue to diffuse that fragrance for as long as it is full of it. Once the bottle becomes empty, no matter how much pressure you apply on the nozzle, nothing will come out and it’s the same thing with us. God can only diffuse the fragrance of His knowledge through us for as long as we are filled with it. If you’re an empty bottle, no matter hard God presses, all you’ll bring out is scentless, undetectable air.
In order to remain a relevant perfume bottle in God’s closet, you must make sure that you’re filled with knowledge, not just head knowledge but revelational knowledge. Spend time studying and meditating on the Word until it comes alive to you, until like my friend, you can’t stop yourself from excitedly telling everyone about it, until you’re inspired to write a song on it, until it becomes the life you live.
I guess it’s only fair for me to share the lyrics of the beautiful song composed from the verse of Scripture by my wonderful friend Deborah Meribole…
The Fragrance of Lord fills this place
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
We Triumph in Christ!
The Bible can be so funny sometimes, who knew that 2 Corinthians 2:14 would be a big part of how Habakkuk 2:14 would be fulfilled?
Habakkuk 2:14; “But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Brothers and Sisters of the Christian spray bottle society! Let the diffusion begin!
Image credit: gearpatrol.com/