Spiritual Sense of Smell
Preached by Apostle Aje Pelser, Harvester Reformational Church, Cape Town, Dec. 2025

Smell — The Incensive Faculty (Five Fold correlation: Pastor)
Incensive: adjective Tending to excite or provoke. Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest evidence for incensive is from 1570, in the writing of John Foxe, martyrologist.

Examples of spiritual aromas that reveal Christ in us.

1. “We are the aroma of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15).
2Co 2:15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
2Co 2:16 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?
The fragrance of Christ in us awakens faith in the personally perceiving the aroma – if they reject the word and fragrance of Christ, the stench of death is a spiritual warning signal that could also trigger a change of heart.

2. Aroma of acceptance: Ezekiel 20:40,41
Eze 20:40 For on My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel,” says the Lord GOD, “there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me; there I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the first fruits of your sacrifices, together with all your holy things.
Eze 20:41 I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles.

3. Aroma of sacrifice:
Gen 4:4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering,
Why do you think God accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s? What does the word ‘firstborn’ remind you of in the Bible?
Would it be safe to say that our sacrifice needs to smell like and have the motivating love and obedience, humility and meekness of Christ for God to accept it?

When God smelled the soothing aroma of Noah’s burnt sacrifice, he instituted new cycles on the earth.
God accepted Noah’s Gen. 8:21 God’s covenant with Noah to never again curse the ground for man’s sake, and never to destroy everything. God introduces the cycles of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night.
Operating the fragrance of Christ in our lives, ensures the continuance and sustained love and care of the Lord’s cycles of sowing and reaping, obedience and favour, humility and exaltation. That is stronger than will power and whatever our adversary can throw at us while we are in this realm of existence. We enter that covenant by faith and our reasonable service is to present ourselves as a living sacrifice on the altar daily before the Lord, seeking His face and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth about our existence, proving the good acceptable and perfect will of God for our lives.
Join this thought to the corporate blessing of a church revealing Christ and further – extending the fragrance of Christ’s love and sacrifice to the world we live in – then you see a new cycle of church manifesting the manifold wisdom of God to principalities and powers. Eph. 3:10
When we started this church in Milnerton – no other spirit filled church could break through there.
After years of teaching the word of God daily in MBTC, and hosting dimension shifting and principality displacing apostolic and prophetic conferences, we saw an open heaven in the area. After we moved, many other churches were planted, some of whom have thanked my parents for their spiritual work in the region,
An accurate church and ministry can leave a lingering fragrance of Christ and His church in the spiritual realm

4. Incense accompanying prayers of the saints, rises before God release the seven trumpets (Lev. 16:12–13; Rev. 8:4).
Rev 8:2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
Rev 8:3 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Rev 8:4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.
Rev 8:5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.

God showed us that we are about to trumpet through the earth. It is time to maje your sound as a beliver in Jesus Christ with a clear frequency and lifestyle reflecting that of the original church in the book of Acts: 2:42
Look at the result of adhering to Acts 2:42
Act 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
Act 2:43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
Act 2:44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,
Act 2:45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
Act 2:46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
Act 2:47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

5. Aroma of giving:
Php 4:17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.
Php 4:18 Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.
Php 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Mary’s perfume fills the house (John 12:3).
Joh 12:3 Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

Definition:
Spiritual discernment is the ability to recognize the fragrance of holiness versus the stench of corruption or vice. (Holy vs Profane) The thymos (zeal) becomes purified, no longer reactive but perceptive. You can sense if something’s toxic, fake, or holy. It’s when you can “sniff out” whether a vibe, relationship, or teaching has the aroma of Christ—or not.
Examples:
• “Sensing” in prayer that something carries the wrong spirit.
• Feeling immediate peace in a place of prayer.
• Detecting hypocrisy when words don’t match life.
• Sharing the fragrance of Christ’s love and acceptance, forgiveness, humility and meekness in situations.
• Lifestyle of daily sacrifice and service of God and humanity
• Releasing multiple sensory experiences of Christ through praise and worship, prayer and fasting, serving and functioning in the spirit over a long period of time in a region releases a lingering fragrance of God’s glorious presence.

Analogy:
Like walking into a room and instantly sensing if the “vibe” is off.
You can “smell” the authenticity or deception of a moment.
You pick up the lingering fragrance of Christ in a family, a church, a community that has sacrificially given over time.