Tag Archives: Conscience

Run to God

By its very nature, sin—especially hidden sin—just naturally opens wide the floodgates of guilt and shame. So we try to bury it, just like everyone else does, hoping that those around us will never discover who we really are.

Satan has used the tool of shame in countless Christians’ lives to drag them into a back-slidden condition where alienation from God becomes a way of life. Just think how being more open about our weaknesses would serve to cripple this strategy the devil so routinely exploits.(James 5:16)

Rather than allowing sin to drive us from God, we need to run headlong to God when we sin. This can be very difficult for us, though, because we’ve been taught throughout life to behave ourselves. And when we don’t, our conscience tells us we must clean up our act before we can ever go to God with the problem. After all, how else might we feel like we’re worthy enough to deserve His help? Though this assumption is entirely false, it’s very real to us all the same.

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

Righteousness through Law

Man’s motivation to be righteous before God is the product of his conscience. And the bedrock of man’s conscience is God’s law. Law has reached its pinnacle of perfection in the Law and Prophets of the Old Testament. The Law is indeed the epitome of God’s will for man prior to His revelation of what Paul calls God’s mystery—Christ Jesus Himself.(Colossians 2:2)

The truths of God’s law have filtered into all cultures in varying degrees to become the cornerstone of man’s attempt to gain acceptability in the eyes of whoever he perceives to be his god. Such law is the “elementary principles of the world” identified in Scripture. (Colossians 2:20)

There are two basic elements of man’s attempt to be righteous before God: doing good (in an attempt to please Him), and restraining ourselves from doing evil (to keep from displeasing Him). These elements are at the heart of the activities of all religious systems, and may be thought of as the positive and negative aspects of man’s attempt at righteousness—the opposite sides of the same coin. But all this effort boils down to just one thing: earning one’s own way in an attempt at self-justification.

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

Vibrant Relationship!

Can you see how important it is to have the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling our being? Only through an impartation of His life can our conscience be restored to a healthy state. Our conscience then has tremendous influence on our will, which in turn is able to dictate itself more intentionally to the thoughts and feelings of our mind.

The transformation of the mind brings about change in our behavior not merely by attempting to control our flesh through an external system of do’s and don’ts. Rather, genuine change comes from a deep rebuilding of our character—that quality which directs our actions from within and stands firm no matter what we find facing us.

None of it’s possible, though, without a vibrant connection with the Spirit of God. Consequently, developing a lifestyle of communing with God is the key to genuine change. We can’t simply pay lip-service to this spiritual discipline. It has to be real; it must be alive.

Vibrancy in any relationship comes as the result of intimacy. The beauty of it is that such intimacy with God is not only possible, but His design brings with it the expectationfor both growth and bountiful flowering in each and every one of His children. But if that’s truly the case, why do we so often stubbornly refuse it? In a word: self.

Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself