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 of 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 the lost 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 them 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 or values; 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 many 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 then they notice not long after, that it seems like nothing has really changed in them; So they tend to either return back to the old life they thought they had left behind, or they begin to work hard by their own will-power to please God...
With the Holy Spirit, there is only one standard and that standard is God and God's nature is perfect and complete Holiness (one that no natural person can ever attain by their own self-effort); Which goes to say that the power/voice of the conscience is on a lower plane in comparison to the power/voice of the Holy Spirit... But if a Believer has trained his mind to align to the laws of God; often times the voice of the believer's own conscience would 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 life, being that his conscience (his natural inner witness) is already sensitive to 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 due to the relationship he has with God through Jesus Christ...
The conscience may or 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 judge a person, and the Enemy can use that to his advantage to keep a person in the bondage of fear and guilt...
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 Christ already paid for all sins on the cross (the grace of God)...
So in conclusion, a Born Again Believer lives a more victorious Christian life by living by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and also seeing himself how God sees him (in Christ): Redeemed, Forgiven, Saved, Safe, Blessed, and Heaven-Bound...
And this does not mean that the person never falls into sin occasionally in the natural, but such a person would never make a habit of sinning and enjoying it, or sinning intentionally and displaying false repentance...
And its not just because he has a conscience (in the natural), but more importantly because he has a holy and perfect spirit (the supernatural nature of God), as a son/daughter Born of God (in Christ)...
And like a quote said: "A conscience without God, is like a court without a judge!"... And quite so, with such a conscience, anything goes... Because there is no such thing as a truly good conscience outside of God!
Romans 1:28 (NLT) "...when they refused to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done..."
Hebrews 9:14 (NKJV) "...how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
Thanks for reading!
#GodisStillinCharge
