Humans are known to be made up of spirit, soul, and body...
The body enables man to navigate and relate in this physical Earth realm. The soul which comprises his mind, will, emotions, and intellect, enables him to function as a living, intellectual, and social being; While his spirit is the core part of him with which he can relate with God and the spiritual realm...
The conscience may be viewed as that faculty in the soul of man which enables him to differentiate between good and evil or right and wrong, and it would usually drive a feeling of guilt or self-condemnation if a person does something wrong...
God probably put the conscience in man to ensure that the lost and sin-laden humanity maintains some level of sanity and ethical behaviour even if they do not acknowledge Him in their lives and their spirits are not alive to connect with Him...
This is probably the reason why every human being including unbelievers who are not Born Again also have consciences too, which makes some of them to strive to live good lives and do good in their relations with others....
The conscience often accuses and condemns a person for doing something wrong or something against their knowledge of good morals; But not necessarily for doing something that goes against God's laws...
Because the definition of right and wrong to the conscience can be affected by other factors such as the person's background and training... So what feels wrong to the conscience of one person may not necessarily feel wrong to another...
Also acknowledging the fact that an unbeliever who has no relationship with God has a spirit that is dead and dull of hearing the voice of God, except the voice of his own conscience...
But the voice of the conscience alone is not enough to make a person become Born Again, because only the voice of the Holy Spirit has the power to convict a person to come to Christ to be saved consequently bringing about a lasting transformation in the person's life...
This may explain why sometimes when people hear a gospel message and it touches their emotions (their conscience); they may develop a sudden desire to please God and they may repent and give their hearts to Christ at the height of the emotions...
But they stop at that level and then notice not long after, that it seems like nothing has really changed in them; So they tend to either return back to their normal life or they begin to work hard by their own will-power to please God...
The power/voice of the natural human conscience alone is on a lower plane in comparison to the power/voice of the Holy Spirit... But if a Born Again Believer has trained his mind through imbibing the Scriptures (the Word of God) to align his thoughts and guide his actions according to the laws of God; then the voice of the believer's conscience would oftentimes be in agreement with the voice of the Holy Spirit...
Therefore the Holy Spirit would not necessarily need to always speak to the believer on every single detail of good behaviour, being that his conscience (his natural inner voice of reason) is already in alignment with the dictates and demands of God's nature...
The voice of the conscience emanates from the soul realm and every human being has one which speaks to them based on how their minds have been trained... While the voice of the Holy Spirit emanates from the spirit of the Born Again believer which is now alive and in contact with the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) due to the relationship he has with God through Jesus Christ...
The conscience may not always speak the thoughts or mind of God to a person, because it depends on the person's own mindset, but the Holy Spirit always speaks the mind of God... The conscience can accuse and condemn a person even for past wrongdoings, and the Enemy can use that to his advantage to keep a person in the bondage of guilt and fear...
But the Holy Spirit convicts, not with an intention of condemnation, but to draw the person to a point of true repentance, with an assurance of the Father's mercy and love no matter what they have done wrong; because of the price which Jesus Christ has already paid for all sins...
So a Born Again Believer would live a more victorious Christian life by maintaining a good/clear conscience always and living by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and also seeing himself how God sees him now (in Christ): Redeemed, Forgiven, Saved, Safe, Blessed, and Heaven-Bound, regardless of their past...
Though this does not imply that the Believer never does anything wrong or does not make mistakes, but he never makes a habit of violating his conscience by intentionally doing wrong or willfully disobeying God's Word repeatedly, which if done consistently can lead to a dead conscience where both the voice of that inner sense of reason and the voice of the Holy Spirit becomes silent, and consequently the person may no longer be able to choose right over wrong...
So the Scriptures admomishes:
"Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked." 1 Timothy 1:19 (NLT)
May the help and grace of God keep abounding towards us all I pray.
Thank you for reading!
#JesusChristIsLORD
#GODisStillinCharge
