A story is told of an elderly couple relaxing on their front porch in their rocking chairs. They discussed what the other one would do if one of them died. The husband thought awhile and said, “Well, if one of us dies, I’ll move back to the city.”
Human nature always assumes that you’ll die, but I won’t die.
Some things in life just make us uncomfortable. We know we will die we just don’t want to think about it. Billy Graham said, “I’m not afraid of dying. It is just the process I’m afraid of.”
Sin falls into the same category as death, as sin is the cause of death and death is the result of sin. Just look at a person who has lived a worldly hard lifestyle and you will see the toll sin takes on a body in this life.
We would rather talk about the evil in the world around us than the evil that is within our own hearts. Injustice, greed, fraud, deceit, gossip, crime, violence, immoral behavior, unnatural behavior all are easier to point the finger at in someone else than it is to look into the mirror and say, Well, I may die before you, or “I may not have been completely truthful at work, or at school, or at the store, etc.” “I may see a little bit of me in that person under the right circumstances.”
Our society teaches us to concentrate on the outer-self for appearances and on the mental-self for getting ahead in this life.The outer-self and the mental and emotional self are the self that Jesus taught us to deny each day in order to be able to follow Him into His Kingdom of eternal life.
But there is another self we all need to look at each and every day.This self is called the ‘inner-self’ or the ‘inner-man’.
The Voice of Conscience
The inner-self has a voice just like your mental-self and just as your outer-self. The voice of the inner-self is the conscience.
At work, at school, or anywhere in public, we are trying to put on a good impression. We watch what we wear to what event and we behave differently at each event around different people. Appearances, especially first appearances are very important in society. The same goes for our mental-self. We are watchful over our words around different groups of people in different settings. Our words tell people a lot about us, and even Solomon said that a fool can be considered wise when he keeps his mouth shut.
“Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent.” (Proverbs 17:28)
The inner-self is the one we have to deal with when no one else is around, and its small quiet voice of conscience begins to bug us about who we really are before our God. We don’t like to hear this voice convicting us of what is displeasing to our Lord Jesus Christ. We usually try very hard to silence it by staying very busy and allowing lots of distractions to keep our mind and emotions busy. But, in the middle of the night it will awaken us, sometimes in dreams, reminding us we need to change some behaviors and ask God for forgiveness.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit for Jesus said He would convict us of sin, (what displeases Christ) and of righteousness, (what pleases Christ) and of the coming judgement where we know we will have to answer for our words, thoughts, and behavior before the one who created us. (Matthew 12:36)
The conscience is the soul’s warning system that actively watches for what is right and what is wrong in our thoughts, feelings, words, and behavior. We have been taught by New Age and Occult teachings to silence the voice of our conscience, by seeking deceptive demonic spirit guides to help us arise to our higher selves. The same message was given by Satan to Eve; “God knows that in the day you eat, you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” God never wanted us to know anything but good and His purity. Now look at our world, how evil it has become.
Your conscience can be pure, good, and cleansed by the Blood of Jesus Christ, or it can be guilty, defiled, and seared as with a hot iron according to scripture. (Hebrews 13:8, I Timothy 3:9, Acts 2:38, Titus 1:15, I Timothy 4:2)
The voice of your conscience was designed to work together with the Living Words of God. David said that he would hide God’s Word in his heart, to be a deterrent from sinning against his God. (Psalm 119:11)
God will use His Word by bringing it to your mind and convicting you that you are about to do something that is not pleasing to God. If you ignore that warning, over and over, the voice becomes quieter and quieter until you can’t hear it speak anymore. Just like scar tissue on your body, you feel something when you touch it, but for the most part there are no nerve endings to respond to that touch, so you quickly ignore it.
Three Ways God Revives Our Conscience
Sometimes God will send barrenness, sometimes He will send pain, and sometimes God sends an extended period of testing trying His best to revive our conscience; to get our attention back on the things of the Kingdom of God instead upon our own little selfish world, where we always look for the sin and death in the other guy, making plans to move into the city, instead of seeing the sin and death in our own selves as we look into the mirror of God’s Word.
Joseph was used by God to revive the conscience of his brothers. It is interesting that he called them spies when they appeared before him in Egypt, for this is what his brothers said of him, when their father sent Joseph to check up on them. The law of sowing and reaping is a real law in the spiritual world.
Click here to read Voice of Conscience-Part Two