There shall be a stink: The Watch Letter

When I was growing up, there was a young lady who had a strong odor. No matter what deodorant she put on or perfume, it could not be avoided. She was often picked on because of it. People assumed it was because of her family's financial situation. But what I’ve come to learn as an adult is that the odor was not a surface thing that could just be washed away with a shower. It was something happening on the inside of her that she needed to be tended to. In fact, it is scientifically proven that many bodily odors often come from internal conditions that need to be addressed.

What odor is coming from the inside story of our lives?

I read some notes from a conversation I had with our Pastor, Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn, some weeks ago.

He said God can smell the scent of our lifestyle. He can smell the scent of the inner man. As the pastor and shepherd of our church, he said he too can smell the odor of the sin within our flock.

So, no matter how great we smell in the natural, or how many showers we take, our soul can smell like spoiled fish or rotting roadkill when the condition on the inside is the disease of sin. What is the odor of your life and your decisions?

One of the hardest things to mask is odor. People may not be able to hear our inner thoughts or our whispers to others, or see what we do or don’t do behind closed doors but odor permeates walls, clothes, and more. It is obvious and it is truthtelling.

When I was in elementary school at my grandparent's house, one of their chickens had laid some eggs. One of the eggs had died and rotted but I touched it and squeezed or cracked it, when I was not supposed to, and the stench was so bad on my hands that soap and hot water could not get it off. My family members had to get tomato juice, lemon juice, and other items, plus continuously scrub for hours to try to eliminate the smell.

It reminds me of how Chief Apostle Gunn has taught us that we need to use every tool available to us, every day, to stay clean before God. Especially the cleansing power of the word of God -- reading, speaking, living out, and praying what God's written word says. As a matter of fact, the other week, Chief Apostle Gunn sent a text to the saints saying to take time to read our word instead of replacing it with entertainment because that’s how problems and complaining are magnified (become malignant) in us.

One thing about God that demonstrates his grace is he will keep bringing back up his word to get our attention and to fulfill his promise that his word will not return void.

I searched to see if God had spoken through Chief about the odor of our lifestyle before. And he did.

It was November 2020. He said if you go a day without praying, you will carry an order. He said to think of it like this: what if your body smelled the way your heart smelled? We do not wash our hearts before God as often as we should.

He also said the key to a clean life starts with the mind. When our mind is filthy, it will tell our heart to be filthy and a filthy heart will tell us to be filthy with our bodies.

Isaiah 3 says: Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet…. It shall come to pass, that instead of a sweet smell there shall be a stink....

Ephesians 5 says: Be ye, therefore, followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.

Ephesians 5 also tells us that to be clean before God we have to put away all:

-Fornication

-Uncleanness

-Covetousness

-Filthiness

-Foolish talking and jesting

-Ingratitude

-Being deceived by vain words and things

-Being partakers in disobedience or with people who are disobedient

-Doing what is not acceptable to God

-Having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness

-Living foolishly