366 The Spiritual Man
anything which enters their life; otherwise, under the manifold
deceits of the evil spirit, it would be most difficult to live.
The Accusation of SatanSatan has another way to assault those who set their heart on
following the leading of the spirit’s intuition. This is by
counterfeiting or fasely representing one’s conscience with all sorts
of accusations. To keep our conscience pure we are willing to accept
its reproach and deal with whatever it condemns. The enemy utilizies
this desire of keeping the conscience void of offense by accusing us
of various things. In mistaking such accusations as being from our
own consciences we often lose our peace, tire of trying to keep pace
with the false accusations, and thus cease to advance spiritually with
confidence.
Those who are spiritual ought to be aware that Satan not only
indicts us before God but also to ourselves. He does this to disturb us
into thinking we ought to suffer penalty because we have done
wrong. He is alert to the fact that the children of God can make no
progress spiritually unless they have a heart full of confidence;
consequently he falsifies the accusation of conscience in order to
make them believe they have sinned. Then their communion with
God is broken. The problem with believers is that they do not know
how to distinguish between the indictment of the evil spirit and the
reproach of conscience. Frequently out of fear of offending God,
they mistake the accusation of an evil spirit to be the censure of
conscience. This accusation grows stronger and stronger until it
becomes uncontrollable if not listened to. Thus in addition to their
willingness to yield to conscience’s reproof, spiritual believers
should also learn how to discern the accusation of the enemy.
What the enemy charges the saints of may sometimes be real sins,
though more often than not they are merely imaginary—that is, the
evil spirit makes them feel they have sinned. If they actually have