Acts 6- Exuding the Holy Spirit

I know it is a funny phrase. I heard it many moons ago when someone was talking about our Senior Pastor David Clark. This was when I was a little guy and had no clue that later I would be a youth pastor under his leadership. But, someone said that "David exudes the Holy Spirit." Well what does that mean? It means that he is a man of God and when you are around him he radiates godliness or he has such a presence of the Spirit about him that it is noticeable. This is clearly how Stephen was in our text. He was full of God's grace and power and he had wisdom when he spoke. He reflected the glory of God and that got him in heaps of trouble.  But when they looked intently at him he had the face of an angel. 

You read an account like that and you cannot help but feel like you miss that mark completely. Or maybe you haven't even been aiming at that target. But, we all should try to be more like Stephen. We all should try to have such a deep fellowship with God that people can sense the presence of God when they are around us. I like how Paul calls it an aroma of Christ. When people come around you are they keenly reminded by their sense of spiritual smell that Christ is near? Does your life have that sort of effect on people? A heightening of the awareness of God? To some it is a pleasant experience. To some it is the fragrance of death (2 Cor 2:15-16). So, some will be pleased by your godliness and the Spirit radiating from you but in some it will highlight their sin and be the stench of their death. That is how it was for Stephen. He was the stench of death to the Jews because they did not know Jesus like they should. So they despised Stephen.

Is your life anything like that? When you are at school or work do you exude the Holy Spirit? By being in your presence are people made more aware of eternity? If not the remedy is simple. Having the presence of God about you comes from having communion with Him. If you spend more time with God in the morning then the aroma of God sticks with you for the day. The presence of the Spirit is with you and you become more like Stephen. So, if you want to exude the Spirit you have to spend some time with God. Take time today to just sit with Him. Life is busy and we have a busybody mindset. That is why it is so hard for us to have fellowship with an invisible God. We have tasks and projects that we must get to. So, spending time with Jesus takes a backseat to other things. Friends, let that meeting be sacred. Do not let anything crowd out your time with Him. Then you will have the presence of God on you and you will exude the Spirit.