Spirit Led Conscience

Fresh Manna© by Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org

John 14:17 “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you.”

Quite often while people are entering the sanctuary of our church, I will stand at the door and shake hands and greet them as they come in. It gives me the opportunity to connect with people, even if in the smallest of ways.

Yesterday as I was doing this, a big burley guy shook my hand. He grabbed my hand with his big strong grip and gave me a big smile. I couldn’t help but notice how rough and callous his hand was. The feel of his hand was opposite of the feel of his kind heart. Callous hands do not imply a callous heart.

We can live with callous hands. Many do and it protects their hands from being hurt from the very objects they handle over and over again. We can’t live with a callous heart and be okay. One thing that callouses do are keep you from feeling everything you touch with the sensitivity that you’d feel them if you didn’t have callouses. Having a calloused heart robs one of the sensitivity of the heart that would allow him to hear from God and follow God’s leading.

Something precious that God has given us as humans – even though some may secretly hate it – is our conscience. When we know God our conscience is trained by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word. From that point, it helps us discern between right and wrong. It also gives us discernment within our decision making processes. Jesus described that help for our conscience like this: “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you.” John 14:17

If you read that verse closely you saw that it says, “…but you know Him.” Jesus was making it clear that those that truly know God, can sense the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of truth. Because we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit within us, we can feel our conscience being taught, trained, and led by Him. When our conscience is sensitive to the leading of God’s Spirit, then we know we aren’t callous toward Him.

Jesus continues to instruct us regarding this benefit of His Holy Spirit training our conscience saying, “…the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come.” (John 16:13) The Holy Spirit is there to lead our hearts toward every right decision and action – if we remain sensitive to Him. That means we can’t ignore Him or our conscience when are tempted to follow wrong fleshly desires. If we do, our hearts will become callous and there is no reason to believe we would ever be sensitive enough to sense God’s help and wisdom in times of need. Callousness hinders our sensitivity to His divine leading.

The beauty of our spirit and conscience being trained and sensitive to Him is that God will lead us to do all sorts of things that would defy logical worldly thinking. God might lead us to throw money in a Salvation Army kettle when our mind is saying, “you don’t have the time or money to do this.” God may have you give a special offering at your church as a gift from your heart to God for all He has done for you. About that time your mind says, “You’ve just spent everything you have on Christmas gifts and this is the last thing you can afford to do.

A spirit trained conscience is like gold. It will free you up from the earthly bondages and confines of natural thinking and lead you to do things that literally transform who you are and how you think and live – the result being great blessing coming into your life. It will definitively lead you in more great decisions of the heart and teach you that your heart trained by God is much better than your mind trained by this world and selfish worldly thinking.

A friend of mine who has a small business as an electrician was recently telling me how he was given the opportunity to do some work in a huge department store. He spent a number of hours doing some emergency repair for this manager at time when he was in a bit of a fix. When it came time to pay the bill, the manger said, “How much do I own you?” My friend told me that suddenly he remembered something I had taught him in church from God’s Word. I had taught the business group that when I was in business, I often sowed some free work into those I did business for. That it was good to sow blessing as it generated good will and often created blessing. I had been teaching from God’s Word Proverbs 11:24 “It is possible to give freely and become more wealthy, but those who are stingy will lose everything.”

When the manager said, “How much do I owe you?” He suddenly said, “Not a thing,” This first time doing business with you is on me. I want you to become familiar with my work and if you like it, I hope you will call me again.” The manager was almost in shock. He replied, “You know we normally use a particular company who loves to gouge me when I need emergency work done. Not only that but their attitude is usually bad. I have wanted to find a new electrician group for some time. You have just become my new electrician for our store!”

Had this man not had a sensitive conscience toward God and His Word, he would have never thought like this nor yielded to this kind of leading by God. God has a better way and it has to do with have a sensitive heart. Oh and by the way, my friend’s hands are callous.

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
http://www.freshmanna.org