The Fragrance of Christ
The Fragrance of Christ
(The Fragrance of Jesus)
David Wilkerson
As the lily among thorns, so [is] my love among the daughters.
Song of Solomon 2:2
This is Jesus speaking of His bride in type. And the bride answers.
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
Song of Solomon 2:3
I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me
“David, where is your delight?
You’re sitting down under my shadow.
That’s the secret closet.
But you’re not delighting.
You’re making prayer such a burden.
You’re so uptight in My presence.
Where is your delight in My presence?”
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, …
Song of Solomon 2:3
The apple tree in Hebrew means ‘a wafted fragrance’. The one picks it up and carries it out of the garden, so to speak.
When I was a young boy, we have two big apple trees about the yard, huge apple trees. There were two special times of year. Apple blossoms filled the whole house. The wind blowing the household, the whole house was filled with smell, the wonderful aroma of apple blossoms. Then when the apples came, when they fell to the ground, there was a fragrance.
The apple tree speaks in the word of God as ‘a wafted fragrance’. My beloved, my Lord, my Jesus is to me as a wafted fragrance in my garden. There’s a sweetness. There’s an aroma about Him. It hit me then.
I’ve known Him as my provider. I’ve known Him as my strength, my shield, my fortress, my Lord and Savior, my hope, my healer, my baptizer, my coming King,
my eternal life.
I’ve got to think all the ways I’ve known Jesus, all the ways I’ve preached Him,
all the ways I’ve heard Him, preached Him.
But I didn’t know Him as my fragrance.
Who [is] this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?
Song of Songs 3:6
Look at me, please.
Here’s the picture. Solomon is a type of Christ in the Song of Solomon. The bride, the Shulamite woman is a type of the bride. That’s you and I who serve the Lord.
Here’s a picture. Solomon sending his gondola, a beautiful gondola carried by public foremen. They’re sixty guardsmen of the royal palace, or the king’s own personal guards sent to bring this woman out of the wilderness (Song of Songs 3:7).
Folks, where have we been? We’re in a wilderness. This world is a wilderness, the Scripture says.
Here comes the bride. He senses for his bride. Who is coming out of the wilderness? This bride.
Look at the smoke. Look at the aroma. You can smell the sweet savor fall off before she even comes.
She’s dripping in myrrh. She’s dripping in frankincense. There’s an odor, a beautiful sweet-smelling odor. This bride that’s coming.
The king is sent for her out of the wilderness. She’s coming toward the king. Coming, dripping, she is invited in this fragrance, because she has been meeting secretly on the hill or the mountain of myrrh.
She’s been meeting in His presence secretly on a mountain top.
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense.
Song of Solomon 4:6
Thou [art] all fair, my love; [there is] no spot in thee.
Song of Solomon 4:7
See what’s happened. This bride’s been secretly meeting with the bridegroom.
She’s been on this mountain of myrrh and there’s such a fragrance about this bridegroom. There’s such a fragrance about this man of hers, this love of hers.
She spent so much time in his presence secretly that she has taken on his fragrance.
She has taken on his aroma. She has taken it to her lungs and her body. She was dripping with it. She was covered with the aroma of him. The Bible says she’s just covered with the frankincense.
Until the day break and shadows flee, …
Song of Solomon 4:6
She spend all night secretly in beautiful converse speaking to her lover, so to speak of the secret closet.
It’s impossible for you and I to go the secret closet without His aroma. It’s impossible to spend time with Jesus without becoming like Him, and all the beauty in the graces of Jesus showing forth in us.
I can tell what man or woman was praying. You can see there’s an aroma.
There’s something about Him. There is an Holy Ghost’s dignity.
There’s something about people who spend time with Jesus. They reflect what He is and who He is.
His fragrance clung to her. She’s filled with the aroma of the king.
The Lord says,
“You sit down under the apple tree and you begin to drink the fragrance.
Rest in My presence. Come boldly to the throne of grace.
I’m your fragrance. I’m your perfume. I’m your fragrance.”
There’re a number of people that need to come to the apple tree.
They’ve got to come and say,
“Jesus, I need to spend more time with You so that I can take in more of Your fragrance, so that when I’m pressed, I’ll have Your fragrance come forth.
I have not been showing forth the fragrance of Jesus.
It has been too much flesh, self, the odor of the world.
I really wanna show the fragrance of Jesus.”