The “C” s THAT WILL HELP YOU (10)- CONSCIENCE
There was a year at our stewards’ hangout for the ministry when I decided to represent my group in a football match. It was a lot of fun while it lasted. However, by evening, after I slept and woke up, my body began to communicate with me- I was in pain. My entire body, especially my thighs, became very heavy. That pain was communication, that I was doing what I was not used to.
The way pain is to the body is the same way the conscience is to the soul. Your conscience is an alarm clock in your soul telling you when you are acting in the wrong way. You will sometimes hear people say, “Does this man have any form of conscience?”
Do not violate your conscience. The first time you do anything wrong, you are troubled in your spirit but if you keep consistently at it, you adjust to the evil.
Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.
1 Timothy 1:19 NLT
You can violate your conscience by defending and justifying wrongdoing. The first time you do anything questionable, your conscience will be loud, but if you find a reason to justify it, your conscience begins to adjust to wrong-doing. It can get to a point where your conscience does not bother you anymore. Why? You have shut it down consistently so that it does not matter anymore.
Some people would just drink hot tea like it is nothing while you are still sipping on it. Why? They have taken it consistently that the body has adjusted to it. The sensitivity of the cells to the heat is dead. It feels like nothing again. It is like getting numb to pain.
In the same way, there are men with dead consciences.
These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead.
1 Timothy 4:2 NLT
Do not practise wrongdoing so much that your conscience becomes dead. Men cannot appeal to your conscience anymore. You can be demanding by your position to sleep with a girl who is your daughter’s age mate, and the girl says, “Take me as your daughter, sir,” and you feel nothing at all.
You can be a pastor, and there is no demarcation between what belongs to the church and what belongs to you. You are the only Operating Officer of all income. Tread with caution. Do not kill your conscience. Do not let it become normal.
If you are in a relationship where you keep crossing boundaries consistently and you shut down your conscience, it will get worse. Keep your heart tender, and your body will not be violated.
The proof of a good conscience is the desire to live and act honourably in all you do, whether towards God or man, whether you are seen or unseen, or whether you will be caught or not caught.
Pray for us, for our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do.
Hebrews 13:18 NLT
One of the things that can kill your conscience is the wrong doctrine. Doctrine is the regulator of character. Some preachers justify sin. If you listen too long to them, you will be a swimmer in sin. You will enter into the extreme of “It does not bother. I can always ask God for forgiveness”. Your conscience is affected already.
Keep your conscience alive by staying in meekness. When the Holy Spirit corrects you, do not justify it. If you keep winning all arguments and debates against the Holy Spirit, you will lose very soon to the schemes and plans of the devil. The devil enjoys it when you win arguments and shut down the voice of your conscience. He has gotten you to his side of the ring; you will soon fall. You will soon lose the battle. Do not stay there. Can this be your wake-up call?