Living from Conscience (Part II)

Friend,

How goes it with you and God this day? Is He your undisputed source of life? Do you live this day as From Him, Though Him and Unto Him? He is your bread of life. He is your fount of living water. Honor Him as such. Feed on Him. Live from Him and with Him. Flee all other objects and desires that seek to be as God to your soul.

Beloved,

If you have not yet read Living from Conscience (Part I), visit and consider that post before venturing further. May it prompt you to imagine what your life, and that of Christ's Body as a community, could be like, if living from conscience were understood and faithfully pursued.

Dear Reader,

Your conscience is that final back-drop of self-witness in your life. So it is with all others, as well. Often hidden, though, the voice of conscience seems dead, chained, or faintly heard. The natural self hates conscience, seeks to remove it. What is fallen in you fears you living from your conscience. The fallen self passionately works to turn you away from your conscience. Conscience because of fallen-ness and sin is not free to most of us, not able to live joined to who we are in Christ and all we do, whether in private or public. It is as if one must first be thoughtful of having a conscience, then momentarily examine one’s life, instead of living continually from a platform of conscience. Living from Conscience, therefore, seems unlivable.

In respect to edification, the desire is to lift you, dear Christian, to see the path of life with God which He has given for you to travel. The natural disposition which you retain, that related to your fallen-ness, cannot see this without divine illumination effecting what is of God in you, nor does the natural disposition want this path. What remains "fallen" in you wants with all its natural strength to retain is own life of self-love and godlessness. What is of God in you craves the journey with and toward God, away from all that is natural, godless and temporal. God has given us His word to speak to us of such distinctions and to enlighten us to where we can see His life for us and see our way with Him. You must, dear Christian, feed on God’s word.

Having been built up to see and understand the way, we remain in need of being encouraged to move in concert with God's life and His ways for us, which is a movement internally in mind and heart "and" a movement externally in our relations with others because of our renewed mind and heart. We must "see" and we must "move." [Christian, you will see and you will move. The questions pertain to what you are seeing and how you are moving.] This seeing and moving is how God relates and the Christian life works. Godly movement, though, stems from humility and a yielded life, not duty void of love. Such movement is a grace-based consequence of those with eyes to see and hearts that truly desire God above all else.

Conscience serves as the personal witness of one's life to one's self: self testimony. The New Testament speaks of one's conscience regarding one's self, with respect to others, and with respect to God. It may be pure, good, weak, wounded, evil, defiled, seared or cleansed. It may testify of another person’s life. One may be convicted by it, yet may also corrupt it. One can subject one's self to it and subject one's self to the conscience of another. One can live for one's own conscience and live for the sake of another's conscience. In summary, one can live for the sake of a conscience without offence toward one's self, others and God. I submit, we as Christians should desire this life, that of living without offence toward God, self and others. It is presented in the New Testament as part of the structure for the Christian life. Sadly, it remains absent.

You see, beloved, the deep worth of understanding the centrality of conscience and living by conscience, letting conscience fulfill its role? Conscience is like a glass cube which one can remove from the heart and hold up to the rays of God's omniscient love and honestly examine before and with God and understand its cleanness. The presence of God's Spirit and His Word enable us to examine our conscience unto ourselves and with Him. Yet, we can also petition others to address our lives in good conscience. This speaks not only to how we live in relation to others, but it shows us and others our trust in God's work in their lives as they speak to us. We submit one to another in love. (See 2 Corinthians 4:2)

Christian, is the dynamic of Living from Conscience excluded from your life? Do you perceive it in the life of any you know? Do you ever hear of its reality in the life of those in your Christian fellowship? If so, God be praised! If not, and if you recognize its absence in your own life, begin to petition God to show you His way regarding Living from Conscience. Introduce this dynamic to others on the pilgrims way with you. Perhaps God would be pleased to ignite a holy passion for Him in your life, and those you meet, which would transform the life of Christ's Body on earth.

There remains yet more to uncover on Living from Conscience, and at least one future entry will speak to that. Yet, lest you be discouraged and turn away from considering before God how you are living in relation to your conscience, be aware that it is a moment for you recorded in time and eternity. God has given us His Son as the means of cleansing our conscience (Hebrews 9:14, 13:18). Relationally, we need this continually, for none of us will live from consciences as we should.

To the Honor of His Name,
A struggling Christian