The Scent Of A Leader

 Job

1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ² He had seven sons and three daughters, ³ and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among ALL the people of the East.

⁴ His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵ When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.

⁶ One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan  also came with them. ⁷ The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

⁸ Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is NO ONE on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

~.~

I start here with the Biblical account of a testimony service. Testimony Service? Yes. We know today  that Satan no longer has a place to come before God in heaven. He has been cast down to make war with the inhabitants of the earth and to tempt them into operating in their flesh where the principle and the law of sin can work. 

But this account lets us in on what gets God's attention. Job was a worshiper. He was a worshiper not just for himself, but also on behalf of his family. He was an interceding worshiper. Before there was Harp and Bowl, Job was already creating a private and public altar with God. Though the scripture highlights both WHO Job was and WHAT Job had, God only focused his testimony on WHO Job was. Because, seeking God first had added those things to Job's life. And though the things would be taken away, Job did NOT stop seeking God in the midst of his trials and tests:

 Job 1

²⁰ At this (onslaught of calamity) , Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in WORSHIP ²¹ and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

²² In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Job was INCREASED once again and with MORE. 

 Job 42

¹⁰ After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. ¹¹ All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

¹² The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. ¹³ And he also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. ¹⁵ Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

One of the things that floors me about Job is that his earthly existence MATCHED his heavenly reality. In other words, THE WAY GOD SAW Job was exactly the way Job was on the earth. This is really the goal of a Kingdom Believer. Let your will be done IN EARTH (that's me & you) as IT IS in Heaven. We please the Father when we line up with who He says we are. We are tested and tried to shake that alignment! Job was tried more than once:

  Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he STILL maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.” (Job 2:3)

When you keep a praise and prayer on your lips, you keep an incense going up to God. God recognizes your scent, or rather, your incense. God knew Job personally, I believe, because his life was his altar, and he was sending up sacrifice "as was his custom" (Job 1:5).

God is not pleased when our lives, unrepentant, offer him the stench of sin:

 Isaiah 65

² I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
³ A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;
5b ...These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

 God wants the fragrance that saturates Heaven to be that of your prayers:

Revelation 8

² And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
³ And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
⁴ And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

Many people focus on God coming to check out the stench of sin in His nostrils, but I encourage you to give God a reason to check out the sweet smelling fragrance coming from your life, your heart, your mouth, your hands raised to Him.

2 Corinthians 2:14-17

Amplified Bible (AMP)

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,

¹⁵ For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God, [discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:

¹⁶ To the latter it is an aroma [wafted] from death to death [a fatal odor, the smell of doom]; to the former it is an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]. And who is qualified (fit and sufficient) for these things? [Who is able for such a ministry? We?]

¹⁷ For we are not, like so many, [like hucksters making a trade of] peddling God’s Word [shortchanging and adulterating the divine message]; but like [men] of sincerity and the purest motive, as [commissioned and sent] by God, we speak [His message] in Christ (the Messiah), in the [very] sight and presence of God.

Get a hold of that! YOUR LIFE is the PERFUME of HEAVEN. God knows YOUR SCENT. You scent becomes stronger, and stronger, and stronger as you worship Christ alone. Like any one familiar with their lover's scent when they walk into a room, you KNOW they are there. And when they leave, their scent lingers in the air! 

As a next generation leader, whether you are like Job, prominently wealthy, or like Paul, one who blazes a trail of planting churches and doing ministry all over the world, GOD knows your scent. He wants who YOU ARE, in spite of what you have or have not! Remember, you can always replace things. You cannot replace YOU. So as David said, I will bless the Lord while I have my Being! One of the greatest places of leading is leading in God's Testimony Service. 

Will you be on the Father's lips today? There's only one way to guarantee that--Worship Him!