Recently, my daughter Ester approached me excitedly after I had finished my prayer time. “Mom, I went into your room when you were praying. It smelled so strongly of pastries baking!” She even pulled me back into my room by the hand to try to help me smell what she was smelling. I couldn’t, but I smiled with quiet pleasure. I knew that she was experiencing a spiritual aroma.
I should add that I didn’t quite understand the pastries nuance at the time. However, today I got to the bottom of the mystery, and I’ve got to share this with you. I did a YouVersion search for “pastries.” My spirit gave that now familiar inner joy jump when I saw the result: “The house of Israel called the bread manna; it was like coriander seed, white, and it tasted like flat pastry (wafers) made with honey” (Ex. 16:31, AMP, bold emphasis mine).
That’s what was baking in my prayer closet! Spiritual manna! It was so real that Ester actually experienced it through her physical sense of smell. Spiritual realities are just as real as physical ones, if not more so. As you and I cultivate intimacy with Jesus, His Spirit is baking up delicious, sweet, aromatic nourishment for our spirits. Extremely real nourishment.
When He showed me this pastry verse, I shook my head, amazed once again at His timing. What an apt introductory prophetic picture for this new devo blog! “Feeding on Jesus,” is the name He gave me for it, months ago. Just as God had a perfect measure of daily provision for His children as they journeyed with Him, so today He wants to feed you. The aim of each of these posts will be to serve up a hot, sweet-smelling delicacy right from His oven each day.
I’m reminded of a certain occasion when the Lord had a hungry crowd following Him, hoping for another free lunch. This is what He told them: physical bread was not enough. They needed pastries from heaven. “Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die” (John 6:49-50, NIV).
He is gently communicating this same message to us right now. Do you have a hungry, empty, aching place inside you? If you pay careful attention, you will realize that it’s spiritual hunger you are experiencing. And believe me, beloved child, another Netflix binge is not going to fill it. Neither is a phone call to your best friend. Squeezing yet more busyness into your calendar won’t make it go away either. Your spirit is crying out to be fed. Those cravings are from the very core of you. For this reason, there is only one thing that will truly, deeply, blissfully satisfy. This one thing is sweet bread from Heaven’s own oven. You will only find it as you come away with Him.
Lean in and listen carefully. Jesus is tenderly beckoning you to ingest the closeness of His presence, the richness of His love, the sustenance of His Word to your heart: “I am the bread of life… He who feeds on Me will live because of Me…”
Do you have a special memory of a time when your spirit felt wonderfully fed and satisfied? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Feeding On Jesus 
Oh my goodness! I couldn’t believe it when I read this because I have recently–about 3 to 4 times this past year–experienced this inexplainable, intoxicatingly
aroma at times that I was really deeply in the Word and once just sitting in His presence with a lot on my mind. I just last week had it happen and I was going to tell you about it! It’s like honeysuckle, mom’s banana bread, and my grandmother’s Jergen’s original lotion all wrapped up into one!
First couple of times it happened I checked EVERYTHING, sniffing all around me inside and outside and I couldn’t find anything close. I felt like Samuel going into Eli when it was God calling his name! I finally said –ahh Lord! Sorry for all my checking. It’s you again. Thank you.
His word is living, active, able to go to work in our lives. His presence is addictive, sweet, comforting, filling. Blessings sweet sister–looking forward to “feeding” on this devo some more and for the ones to come!!
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Wow, how EXTREMELY cool is that!!! I had a similar experience some time ago at the Missions School. The fragrance was so sweet and floral even though there were no flowers anywhere close. I love all the ways He manifests His goodness to us!
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Now I understand . Sometimes I smell something perfectly beautiful. Since I do not know my smells well. All I know it was nice! This explains a lot to me and my understanding on a physical senses of the Holy Spirits presence .
May your sweet aroma fill these place. That is one of my prayers. But, never fully understood it was physically possible
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How wonderful that you get to experience spiritual fragrances regularly Priscy! What a gift that is! I’m so glad this was helpful in understanding it more fully. Love you!
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What a wonderful blog. Thanks Jennifer! I remember smelling the strong sense of bread baking years ago when I was working on my sermon. It was very late, and there are no bakeries near by, so I realized I was smelling the bread of Heaven! Since then, I’ve had other similar experiences, all a special blessing from the Holy Spirit where Heaven manifests in some tangible way into our reality.
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That’s also so wonderful Tamara! He is so loving in the ways He makes sure we know how close He is and how much He delights in us!
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Wow awesome, so cool at such a young age she was able to smell your faithfulness in God. Pastor Dawn preached a sermon on Love and part of it was how children imitate us. And today our bible study kinda continued along the same lines. When we honor God and are faithful to him our children will follow and also reap the rewards. My prayer to God is to have my daughter come in and smell the sweet smell of pastries cooking. That means I am on the right track with God.
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Amen, Jill! And the Father is SO very proud of your desire to please Him! He loves you so much!
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I think many also seek to find that filling they are missing by amassing money. They finally get all the money and to their dismay the feelings of emptiness remains. I have had times when I have been known to proclaim how rich I feel, but I have no money so I know that it is simply Spiritual Wealth and it’s a Wealth that can never be taken from me. I praise God each and every day for His presence in my life.
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That really is so profoundly true! We read stories so often of the rich and famous with so many emotional and relational troubles, for that very reason. Thank you so very much for sharing your insight ☺️
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Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford.
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😀 Thank you!! 😀
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