CONSCIENCE
Memorise: How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who thought the external Spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrew 9:14
Conscience is an internal judge examining all that you
do or say. It cries out before any wrong-doing. It does not keep quite during
the act and keeps on talking even after the act. Every man has a conscience.
This fact is pointed out in 2 Corinthians 4:2. The conscience can exist in
different states. These states affect the character exhibited by the
conscience. Based on this character, the conscience can manifest itself as any
of these: evil conscience, convicted conscience, weak conscience, good
conscience and conscience devoid of offence. Consequent upon the fall of man in
the Garden of Eden, man’s conscience became darkened and defiled. Our Bible
reading for today tells the terrible story of what happens when the conscience
becomes defiled, depraved and evil. It is an evil conscience that directs a man
to bow down and worship an idol. It is an evil conscience that accuses a man of
being anti-social when he refuses to entertain others with alcoholic drinks or
partake in an immoral gathering. The conscience becomes convicted when a man in
the heart. When the hearer receives the word, he does one of two things: either
he yields to the working of the Holy Spirit or he excuses himself, (Roman
2:15). If he yielded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, he begins to feel
sorrowful for his sins and soon, he is on his way to repentance. Have you
yielded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit? The conscience becomes purged when
a man yields to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and his awakened conscience
puts pressure on him to conform to God’s stand on sin and righteousness. He
begins to realise the evil of a depraved conscience, and this conviction leads to
conversion or salvation. Such a person has his conscience purged and he begins
to find joy in serving the living God. Conversion is therefore the recreation
of a conscience which has long been silenced. A young convert will however find
out that his conscience is still too weak to be replied upon ( 1 Corinthians
8:7). Such weak conscience may accept anything that is “not too bad”; ignoring
the fact that anything that is not too bad is definitely not good. This
weakness can be overcome by prayer, Bible study and constant obedience. To a
sinner, the conscience is a burden; but to the saved, the conscience is a help,
a friend to know, to love and a messenger from God which constantly reminds him of God’s standard, which is
perfection (Matthew 5:48). The desire of God for every born-again believer is
to have a good conscience (1 Timothy 1:5). One of the highest goals of a Christian
life is to have a conscience devoid of offence toward God and toward men (Acts
24:16)
Prayer Point
I apply the blood of Jesus in cleansing
your conscience from all dead works, in Jesus’ Name.
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