Another Mindset Up For Scrutiny – The Role Of The Five Senses In Worship, Smell

Supernaturally Natural: Rethink The Way We, The Church, Worships Corporately - Part XVII

from Supernaturally Natural: Chapter 15 manuscript by Anthony Bachman

How do we get the mindset of allowing the supernatural, the Holy Spirit, to include the five senses into worship instead of naturally trying to create a multi-sensory atmosphere? 

If you have ever attended a Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox, or High Lutheran church service, you nose becomes a vital part of the activity.  When the priests, pastors, or altar boys come down the aisle in the procession, one usually swings incense spewing aromas throughout the sanctuary. The foundation for such an act comes from Temple worship where the Altar of Incense represents the prayers ascending toward heaven. Can you imagine the menagerie of aromas that were produced in the Temple with the incense and the massive “Grill’n” of all that meat and grains on the Altar?  Smell played a vital part of the Temple worship in Jesus’ day.  For most churches outside the three mentioned above, little is done with smell. 

Mindset to rethink:  Can we honestly believe that the Holy Spirit could bring smell into a supernatural worship setting?

 A friend of ours wanted his newly acquired house spiritually “house cleaned” because pictures on walls were being moved and other weird things were happening.  He did not know of the house’s history, but he sensed occult activity must have present there.  Our small house church fasted once a day weekly in preparation for the upcoming spiritual battle. Only after feasting on a Thanksgiving Day meal, one of the brothers announced that he thought tonight to be the night to go into action.

One lady babysat as the rest of the adults piled into a van and headed to his abode.  Outside his house we decided to have Communion before embarking on the “house cleaning” adventure.  We broke bread and shared the cup in preparation for the Battle that was the Lords. The owner anointed each doorpost with oil before sending me first into each room with my guitar claiming musicians always led the army into battle in the Bible. In each room would we do spiritual warfare, then worship as we proclaimed in faith the cleansing of the room.

With only one room to go, in the foyer outside the door several of us saw a manifestation before our eyes of a pentagram on the floor recognizing the location of previous occult activities. We worshiped, performed spiritual warfare, and in unity proclaimed the room clean. When we went into the last room, nothing evil manifested itself. As we began to worship we all noticed a sweet aroma just like that in the communion cup that we had shared earlier shared in communion.  No one said anything, but eye contact with each other confirmed that we all smelled it.  The Holy Spirit had manifested supernaturally the aroma of the communion cup verifying the success of our mission. By the way, the family that lived there never had a weird thing happen to them in that building for the rest of the time they lived there.  Yes, the Holy Spirit can produce a supernatural aroma to bring glory to Jesus for what He has done on the Cross and through His resurrection as our deliverer. “I AM your Deliverer.” That is worship.