In this third and final part, how can we use our sight, touch and smell to be “those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14).
Seeing
“I Am Joe’s Eye” (from the Reader’s Digest series) says “For concentrated complexities, no other organ in Joe’s body can equal me … I have tens of millions of electrical connections and can handle 1.5 million simultaneous messages. I gather 80 percent of all the knowledge Joe absorbs.”
Remember how Job explained his repentance: “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5). 20-20 spiritual comprehension!
Without God’s Holy Spirit, Peter said we cannot see afar off (2 Pet. 1:9). We cannot discern spiritual truths. Vines Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words likened it to being near-sighted, “occupied in regarding worldly affairs” (p. 557).
In 2 Cor. 4:4 Paul observed that “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Isa. 44:18 examines us that our eyes are smeared over so we cannot see and our hearts cannot comprehend.
Paul gives the remedy in 2 Cor. 5:7: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
Recently Mary and I served on the staff of Camp Colorado where we focused on “God’s Vision for You.” We don’t have to be a preteen to learn from the Compass Check and Christian Living messages that were given.
Touch
The woman who believed that she’d be healed if she could just touch Jesus … was!
The Bible warns in 2 Cor. 6:17: “Come out from among them and be separate … do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters.”
Gary Chapman in his 1995 classic The Five Love Languages examined gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service and physical touch.
God wants us to keep in touch.
Smell
This is the most direct of our five senses and we can detect up to 10,000 odors. A scent can trigger a special memory.
Women are able to detect odors way better than men, name smells more precisely and remember them longer.
Neuroscience analysis of the brain where smells register found that women engage both sides whereas men only one.
Mothers can pick out t-shirts worn by their newborn, while fathers are doing good to pick out their newborn! Neuroscientist Charles J. Wycsocki theorizes that because humans can detect smells circulating through their own bloodstreams, mother and fetus exchange odors during pregnancy.
Most men will freely admit: women smell better.
Maybe God created men that way so they can live with whatever cooking they are blessed to receive. And so they can go on an annual men’s weekend campout where there are no showers!
Fragrances seem to highly influence mood, stress and job performance. The scent of lemon decreases employee errors. Peppermint boosts attentiveness by 15%. May I suggest you go back to the top and pop a mint before reading this again!
“Let my prayer be set before You as incense” (Psa. 141:2). God wants us to beat our prayers fine (detailed), present balanced issues, be fervent, and make them sweet and pleasant to God.
Studies show that humans are prone to inattentional anosmia and olfactory habituation. In other words, when overwhelmed by a particular bad odor, after about 20 minutes the brain can’t detect it. This makes it possible for dairy farm families to carry on!
So we must smell out fake news, photoshopped pictures, and stinky theology that calls good evil and evil good.
In this three-part series we’ve caught a glimpse at what an amazing creation our five senses are and should be aroused to thankfulness to our Creator. We’ve seen that exercising our senses enhances our appreciation of life.
In the Ever After movie, Prince Henry exclaims to peasant Danielle: “How do you do it! You have more passion in one memory than I have in my whole body!” She will undoubtedly go on to become the next Queen of France!
Remembering the roaring Poudre River, if we have the Holy Spirit flowing through us powerfully and downstream in service, our riverbed bounded on both sides by the Ten Commandments, the water surging over all boulders and obstacles, exercising our spiritual senses to discern good and evil, banking on proper balance and priorities, we will get to become kings and queens in God’s soon-coming Kingdom!
Part 1: What’s It Mean: Exercise Our Senses to Discern Good & Evil
