Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Your conscience vs the Holy Spirit



We all have a deep inner voice that is called our conscience. This voice guides and directs our choices and actions. Christians are "moral people". They are usually "good" people. Will God let us into heaven by just being "good". Unfortunately, while the conscience helps direct good choices, it is not perfect. We cannot equate our conscience with the Holy Spirit. The problem with following only our conscience is that everyone's conscience is developed by a person's environment and personal life experiences. Just think for a moment about your family- what were you exposed too? What shaped your conscience? What do we approve of now? What do we tolerate? Knowing that it is wrong, but is it that bad? knowing that your neighbor does a lot worse things, and they consider themselves christians.
When you become a christian, your spirit becomes new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, and the new has come. The spirit of God dwells in our own human spirit. He gives us a new life. Titus 3:5 says: He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. Once this happens the Holy Spirit takes over our conscience and he begins to speak to us. Certain sins in the past that were okay, now disgust us. What the Holy Spirit is doing is changing us- making us think and act like Christ. Things that hurt Jesus begin to cause a pain in us. Also what causes him joy suddenly brings us joy- somethings just can not be explained. You have to experience it. The joy of the Lord is joy that can not be explained. You must experience it yourself. Pray for it. Stay in his word and you'll have it beyond explaination.
We need to pray that God will "shake" our conscience with his spirit. That he will reshape our thinking. When you pray without ceasing and stay in his word, you will hear the Holy Spirit speak to you.
Speak Lord- Speak Lord!
Amy