Daily Word

Conscience and relationship with God are intimately connected.

It is not possible to "have peace with God": to live in an intimate and harmonious relationship with God, without having a good conscience.

Conscience is the voice of our spirit, which guides, accuses or defends us, depending on how we listen to it and follow it.

When we are born again and the Spirit of God is united with our spirit, the voice of our conscience becomes more and more one with the voice of God.

The deeper our relationship with God becomes, the more fine-tuned and sensitive our conscience becomes.

That is why it is so extremely important to live in a constantly open and genuine relationship with

God, and learn to live in immediate obedience to your conscience, so that you do not "grieve the Holy

Spirit."

We have received "a good conscience" through the atonement, and it is our personal responsibility to keep it spotless by a constant walk in the light, where the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from all sin and we can live in unbroken communion with God.

This means that we immediately confess every little deviation from the Holy Spirit in thought, feeling or action as sin, so that the Lord can forgive us and cleanse us "from all unrighteousness".

We must develop a life-long habit of response to the Spirit of God.

If we stifle the voice of conscience through refusal to listen and disobedience, our heart becomes hard and we run the risk of “suffering shipwreck in regard to our faith," as Paul warns in 1 Tim.1:19. Only by "fighting the good fight" against everything that wants to influence and weaken our relationship with God, will we at the end of our life be able like Paul to stand there and say: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;  in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”