352 The Spiritual Man
accumulated, we ought only to heed the intuition and conscience of
the spirit. Perhaps one’s knowledge may influence his conscience;
even so, what he must follow directly is his conscience. God is
looking more for our obedience to His will than for the “correctness”
of our conduct. Our listening to the voice of conscience guarantees
the genuine character of our consecration and obedience. Through
our conscience God examines our motive—whether we desire to
obey Him or we seek something else.
Another thing one must guard against is the blocking of his
conscience. It often loses its normal operation through a kind of
blockage. When we are surrounded by those whose conscience is
deadly numb, ours may be numbed also through their argument,
conversation, teaching, persuasion or example. Beware of teachers
with hardened consciences: beware of man-made consciences: reject
all attempts of man to mold yours. Our consciences must be
responsible directly to God in all regards. We ourselves must know
His will and be responsible for executing it. We will fail if we
neglect our conscience to follow that of another.
Let us recapitulate. The conscience of the believer constitutes one
of the indispensable faculties of his spirit. We ought to follow its
guidance fully. Though it is influenced by knowledge, its voice
nonetheless represents God’s highest will for His children today. It is
well for us to arrive at the highest for today. Other matters we need
not worry about. Let us continuously maintain our conscience in a
healthy condition. Do not permit any sin to hurt its feeling. If at any
time we discover that it has become cold and hard as though nothing
can move us, let us recognize by this that we have fallen deeply into
the flesh. In such a case, all the Bible knowledge we have acquired is
but stored in the mind of the flesh and is lacking in living power. We
ought to follow the intuition of our spirit unceasingly, being filled
with the Holy Spirit, in order that our conscience may increase daily
in sensitivity and our repentance may be as instantaneous as our
knowledge of anything wrong between us and God. Do not be