A Blameless Conscience (5)

As with anything new we are seeking to establish in our lives, we need to recognize that there is a learning curve in distinguishing between the Holy Spirit’s voice and our own way of thinking.  That is why spiritual counselors and mature followers of Jesus need to be consulted when we are early in this process of renewing our conscience.

The Bible puts it this way:  “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV)  That means that in order to have a good conscience we’ll need to give up our own understanding of life, acknowledge God’s way of living as right, and allow Him to direct us in the path He has chosen for us.  Those who come alongside us will listen as we share our thoughts and responses to life’s daily events.  They will help us recognize God’s voice, God’s way, and even God’s affirmation as we move forward on our new path. 

Where there is no counsel, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety. Two are better off than one, because together they can work more effectively.  If one of them falls down the other can help him up.  But if someone is alone … there is no one to help him.  Two men can resist an attack that would defeat one man alone.  (Proverbs 11:14 NKJV, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 GNT)

The best counselor of all is the Holy Spirit who now lives within us.  As we form the habit of asking for His guidance in all we say and do we will surely develop a blameless conscience both before God and men.

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.  Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.  And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.  (1 John 3:19-24 NIV)

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