Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus…Song of Songs 7:4 

“The nose has not been spoken of until now. The faculty of smell is found only with the mature ones. In spiritual matters, many have bright eyes and sensitive ears. But not many have a nose that can smell. This sense does not come from spoken words or visible things; it is an inward ability that reaches beyond senses and words, which enables a person to differentiate between good and bad smells. This is a kind of spiritual intuition that enables a person to identify the things that are of God. It is not by reason or logic, but by a spontaneous and inwardly accurate feeling, which enables a person to discern spiritual matters. At the same time, this olfactory sense also enables a person to identify bad smells. Many teachings cannot be considered wrong, and many people have nothing that others can find fault with, yet you sense that something is off. This sense is what the nose is all about. “Thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.” This speaks of its height and sharpness. Today there are too many Christians with a flat nose.” (End Watchman Nee)

Dogs have excellent noses. They use their nose to detect whether or not something is good. I’m often amazed at how their sense of smell is so acute. In observing our dogs the other day, I couldn’t help but notice the correlation between their sense of smell and our spiritual sense of smell in learning spiritual discernment.

Our dogs really make me laugh. Rocky is almost eight years old. Buddy (who belongs to my mother) is about three. Their age difference shows in their different behaviours. Rocky is all about smooches and one-on-one time; even if playing with the ball, he’d prefer it was him and me playing. You might say he has two love languages – quality time and physical affection.

Buddy is all about activity! If it looks like he wants a smooch, it’s really a wrestle. If it seems like he’s after one-on-one time, it’s really to get to play ball. Perhaps his love language is acts of service! 

Typical of the age difference, when Buddy came along, he immediately attached to Rocky and wanted to pal up with him. But Rocky was standoffish and preferred to observe from a distance, lol. But after a few years together they’re really good mates. 

The other day I picked up a mandarin, and the two dogs looked at me with great interest. Although they were standing at the door to go out, their interest in the mandarin sidetracked them. So I lowered it in my hand to their level for them to sniff and understand it wasn’t food they would be interested in.

Typical of Rocky as the older dog, he gave it a little sniff and then looked away. This meant, “Ok, nuh, not interested, and you can have it back now”. But not Buddy! He looked at it and instantly wrapped his mouth around it to grab and chew it, clearly thinking it was a ball! After a few bites and some squeals from me, he backed off. 

Then he came back for a second go. It took him a few tries before he realised, “Ok, it’s not a ball? Really??” Then I said, “Go! Go and get your ball!” And off he went and grabbed the actual ball.

This made me think of us as God’s family. We start as pups just like Buddy, in the way that we don’t often test things. Many of us take whatever is offered to us as young or immature Christians (regardless of age) and assume it’s good for us, what we want, and that it’ll be totally awesome. We do this mainly because we trust the person handing it to us. Selah. 

Even after a few goes, and even when it doesn’t feel quite right, we’ll still blindly assume it must be totally awesome. We’ll put up with it or persist with it until, hopefully, we finally get the message that it isn’t as it appears.

I’ve seen this behaviour in my own life. Critical thinking was something I was afraid of once. In the culture I was raised, one doesn’t question, does one? As a result, I blindly took many things on board that weren’t true, or complete truth, without question, even if they didn’t feel right. 

That sense of unease was the Spirit of God residing in me, encouraging me to test all things. Still, the paradigm of my culture would cause me to squash His voice down and ignore Him. In my spiritual immaturity, I blindly assumed that because someone I looked up to said so or because it looked similar to something else, it just simply had to be totally awesome. And it wasn’t always.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).

Dear old Rocky. Wise and learned, been there, done that. He just took his time, sniffed that mandarin (it only took one sniff, not a dozen) and knew instinctively that it was not a ball and anything he would succeed with or be interested in. 

This reminded me of the more mature believer. God’s word says to test all things, test the spirit behind them. We’re called to be wise and discerning in Christ. Paul says we are not ignorant of the enemy’s schemes; one of them is deception. 

And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14, BSB)

… so that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11)

Rocky didn’t argue; he didn’t have to think about it twice. There is a picture of the Holy Spirit in us. The more we mature in the Lord (and the maturing is the work of the Spirit in us, we can’t mature ourselves), the quicker we can discern the spirit behind a thing. Subsequently, having done so, if we find it is a deception, not what it appeared to be at first glance, we quickly walk away. We don’t even give it a second thought.

The same tests are put before all believers, no matter the level of spiritual maturity. A more mature believer is not exempt from testing permitted or orchestrated by our sovereign Lord for the purpose of our spiritual growth, nor are they exempt from being tempted by the devil. But a mature believer will weigh and judge all things according to the Spirit of Christ in them.

So, that’s my lesson today from the lives of dogs. Here’s a little video clip just to share a giggle.:-)