Every person carries an atmosphere with them. Many call it an attitude, but I like to call it an atmosphere because it invades the room when they arrive and it departs when they depart. Some people’s atmospheres are more pronounced than other peoples, but nonetheless, everyone carries an atmosphere with them and people adjust to your atmosphere or they resist your atmosphere. An atmosphere is invisible but noticeable. People do not walk in the room with a sign on their chest that says angry, wounded, cynical, sassy or some other label, but the atmosphere they carry speaks of what they carry.
Not only do individuals carry an atmosphere, but marriages, families, communities, churches, companies and even countries carry an atmosphere. Atmospheres are experienced by others even if they are not recognized by the one carrying it. Many have wondered why an omnipresent God does not move in all churches in the same way.
Some have asked how revival and the power of God can break out in one church but not in the other church down the street? Or how can healings happen in that man or woman’s ministry but not in the other man or woman’s ministry? It is because of the atmosphere that people create when they walk into a room.
If you are the leader of any given space, you set the atmosphere for that space. Leaders of churches set the atmosphere of their church; executives of companies set the atmosphere of their business; moms and dads set the atmosphere of their home. When people walk into a place where you are the leader, they can sense the atmosphere of the place, and they adjust accordingly to the created atmosphere.
The analogy of a thermostat versus a thermometer has been used in a variety of settings as it pertains to this thought. Some people are like thermometers (they take the temperature of the room), while others are like thermostats (they set the temperature of a room). I would propose that leaders are thermostats and that they set the temperature of the room whether they are in a titled leadership position in that room or not, because lovers have a fragrance.
In Luke 7:36-50 it says: “One of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. So He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down for supper. There, a woman of the city who was a sinner, when she learned that Jesus was sitting for supper in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment, and stood behind Him at His feet, weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw it, he said to himself, ‘If this Man were a prophet, He would have known who and what kind of woman she is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ He said, ‘Teacher, say it.’ ‘A creditor had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they had no money to pay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered, ‘I suppose he whom he forgave more.’ He said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’
“Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with ointment. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.’ Then He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’
“Those who sat at supper with Him began to say to themselves, ‘Who is He who even forgives sins?’ He said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.'”
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