To have our consciences purged

I am thankful for the way in which God allows us to grow in His graces or not with faith as an underlying lesson attached to all of it; He is Sovereign! He sometimes allows us to bear fruit which in turn glorifies His brilliance and there are times where the tree remains barren for what seems like an eternity. The skill of the honed Gardener at work, the more I get a glimpse of God’s brilliant ingenuity the more I am humbled and my dead works are quickly silenced. The Holy Spirit opens this gateway and at times leads us into the spiritual world and shows us snippets of this great universal production that God is in the process of directing. We all have a part in His production, that is a given, whether we believe that to be true or not is irrelevant. The greatest Director, the great I AM, Jehovah God has set the wheels rolling with His invention and nothing will stop His will from unfolding. This is such a comforting thought and I treasure it with my entire being as it fuels my faith and helps to cement my hope in Him, the only true God.

What is it that you treasure the most? Is it a weekend away from the hustle and bustle of life, your yearly holiday, a healthy bank balance, or “goodies?” It could be your children, your partner or a potential partner that you still looking for. This list could be endless, however when we learn to treasure the Word of God above everything else we are most certainly on the right road, its only when we neglect the Word of God that we lose our way. This is why ever Christian, regardless of your gifting in Christ must make and spend an allotted time with their God through His Word the Bible. Christian books are good but the Bible is better and the Holy Spirit has been commissioned within the Godhead to lead you into all truth and just like David this will become our resolve; “Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” (Psalm 25:5) – We wait on the Lord through prayer and supplication, but how will we know how to pray efficiently if we haven’t learnt from the forerunners penned in scripture? The Bible reflects our God and reveals the Lord Jesus in all His glory. We may not always understand the depths of scripture, for not all gifted as teachers, however we all have been given a measure of Christ; we will get glimpses of His glory when we spend time in the Word of this I am convinced. 

I am in God’s army and I have my instruction, which is to be faithful to His call upon my life. However there are many violent snares and individuals that look to stop me from ever finally arriving at the finish line, this God has also allowed. Just as car needs fuel so too does the Christian need the work of the Holy Spirit to fuel His resolve; without His work in our lives we would never arrive. Religion of any kind without the work of the Spirit in our lives will never produce anything other than dead works; “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. "A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me." (John 16:13-16)  

He is the fuel that gives us life, without Christ’s accomplishments and the Will of the Father working together with the Holy Spirit we will never reach our goal of repentance from dead works. I hope this is clearly understood. Although Scripture teaches us the varying roles of God, with God the Father as head; it is clearly understood that all of the Godhead (three in one) works in unison, without any hint of contradiction. Perfection personified!

To have our consciences purged from dead works is a miracle. This would be an impossible feat to achieve without His intervention; it all starts with the realisation of “Jesus in my place” and without that snippet of this reality hitting home we will always look to ourselves too arrive, which is beyond our capabilities, because of our sinful natures. There has been no exception to the rule, save the man Jesus Christ; the one who through the spilling of His own blood has purchased the ransom for many. Only those who have His covering will understand this term “repentance from dead works and faith towards God”, and without it that which I hone in on, will elude the masses. It will keep them continually looking for “stuff” to do in order to find favour from God, which is an impossible quest. Sure, there is plenty “stuff” to do but it will remain dead to our heavenly Father; it will pass-by unnoticed and we wont be able to pull on it as a drawcard when Judgement Day eventually arrives if those works have not been sanctified by the blood of the Lamb. These types of often public display will be appreciated by bystanders and they will receive their praise but not from God. Men may appreciate your efforts but not God. We have all fallen short of the glory of God; “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” (Romans 3:23-25) - Nothing we say or do will ever change this truth, outside of repentance for our sin and the acceptance of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. You could be Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi if you haven’t been sanctified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ all your works will remain dead before God the Father and it will not give you a pass into heaven. In other words He isn’t interested in them and you won’t find forgiveness for your sins by them. Therefore let us stop wasting time as we progressively learn to trust Our God and King and pay attention to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our live as He stirs our consciences toward good works. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)  

       

Considering the workings of our consciences, my beloved brother Trent Eayrs opened my eyes to a deeper understanding of how the conscience works with its resolve. It is an awareness that help us understand the will of God for our lives. We do not drive those thoughts but God the Holy Spirit shows us right from wrong, training us up for godliness; when we err on the side of sin it drives us to a point of repentance and when it has run its course in a particular area of our lives we will understand the depravity of our sin, not to be repented of, over and over again. It brings us to a place of understanding, we begin to see and understand the price that Jesus Christ our Messiah had to endure and therefore we are repulsed by the sin that so easily besets whilst being trained up into godliness. We begin to learn that the pleasure of overcoming the deceitfulness of sin has greater reward than the taste of what that sin offers. Our consciences are our allies. There are times when we look to balance the scales of our sinful conduct, known throughout scripture as “dead works”, where we begin to rely on our own efforts to find favour from God instead of resting on the finished work of Calvary. We are instructed to repent from these effort and we must turn away from them as we learn to provoke one another towards good works; understanding that God alone must be glorified. Boasting of any form outside of His achievements has been excluded in God’s economy.     

There are times in a believer’s life where our sin can sear our conscience; it is one of those violent traps I referred to a little earlier in this post. As new born believers we are very in tune to our consciences and the slightest sin triggers it into action, however when we become dull off hearing and we look to ignore our blunders as repetition kicks in our consciences become seared. It is a treacherous place to flirt with as Christians, we must repent if that is where we find ourselves and just like David we must cry for help. Our plea must go something like this; “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalms 51:10) – Thankfully our God has immeasurable storehouse of mercies that He affords His children, without His longsuffering we would all be doomed, however He looks out for His own, but we should never ignore sin as acceptable, for it is vile in the eyes of God.

Signing off

Tyrone