For as long as I can remember, my mother has made me strawberry “shortcake” birthday desserts. Sometimes it has been pound cake, angel food cake, or white cake, and always with whipped cream and strawberries. This year she made buttermilk shortcake and the little’s made birthday cards!
Then hubby made me shrimp scampi. This whole week little lovely things have rolled into my life. I am loved, blessed, and honored. Thank you!
If you are interested in a write-up I did on Integrity:
Read here: Day 5 – by Starla Smith – Starla’s Substack
Middle of the night prayer
I woke in the middle of the night and began to pray for the ladies’ retreat our church is doing this weekend. Praying the Armor of God over the ladies. Praying for the Spirit of God to be at work amongst us. Praying for prophetic words, words of knowledge, and healings. Praying for the breaking of chains and the transformation of Christ within.
The Word of the Lord in the night
When I was done. I asked the Lord if there was anything He wanted to talk about. The Lord said, “Go read Romans 9:1”
I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit
Romans 9:1
Right away, I was intrigued by the statement: my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit.
Side note: I think this portion of writing that I am going to add below on the conscience is part of what God is doing with "rebuild the altar" from Nov 2 - thoughts and things - I had written in my journal while reflecting on our church "rebuilding the altar," and I wrote - November is for recalibration, and my hubby had said, "reprogramming the safety measures." The conscience is one of those safety measures.
Paul was speaking about his heart for the Jewish people. He had just spoken about the triumph of the Gentile believers. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who can separate us from the love of Christ? We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. But his heart is in anguish over Israels rejection of Jesus. That is the context of the statement.
He says, “I speak the truth in Christ.” This is like saying – I swear I’m telling the truth. “I am not lying.” He says I am being honest with you. And he says, “My conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit.” — then he tells the truth he is being honest about.
…that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises. 5 The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.
Romans 9:2-5
His heart was afflicted. But he is describing a process or a function of the conscience. The conscience is an internal moral faculty that evaluates your thoughts, motives, and actions. It can confirm, bear witness to what is happening, and the Holy Spirit is a co-witness that confirms and illuminates, or validates through or with biblical principles.
The conscience is like an alarm system or a feedback monitor in your life. But like any warning system, it has to be trained to know what is a threat or a cause for alarm. It must be sensitive enough to be activated. And it can be vulnerable to compromise.
So we have then 3 things:
- Training – which is very important
- Sensitivity – what is the capacity for discernment
- Compromise – how can it be misinformed, and by what
With that in mind, let’s dig in:
13 For the hearers of the law are not righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.14 So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them
Romans 2:13-15
Notice he is talking about people, namely Gentiles, who don’t have the law but are doing what the law demands, even though they do not have the law. This is a bit like saying I didn’t grow up in church, but I knew this was good, and this was right, and I followed that “knowing feeling” in my gut. He goes on to say that this is the work of the law written on their hearts. Their conscience confirms it through a function of thought that actively accuses or excuses what they are doing and saying.
So when we believe in what Jesus did on the cross. The Holy Spirit moves in, and we are born again. The Holy Spirit works with the human conscience and dwells in the believer. Real quick, let’s lay out some things about what the Holy Spirit does.
- He indwells us and fills us
- He sanctifies us
- He produces fruit in us
- He imparts gifts to us
- He teaches us
Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit:
7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: 9 About sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
John 16:7-11
The Holy Spirit guides people into truth and convicts us of sin and actively shapes and recalibrates the human conscience to align with the Word of God. And we must be careful because we can very easily operate as if our conscience is not infallible and we may make the mistake of treating it like is is a final authority. It is supposed to function like an alarm system that needs a co-witness. It must be trained, actively shaped, and maintained rather than blindly trusted.
The Bible talks about 3 kinds of consciences
- Good and clear conscience – the heart and mind are aligned with the Word of God. (Acts 24:16 and 1 Timothy 1:5)
- Weak conscience – an untrained, self-righteously precise, easily guilted, and easily defiled. (1 Corinthians 8:7) This is a conscience not standing on truth.
- Seared conscience – hardened by persistent sin or hypocrisy, calling good evil and evil good. (1 Timothy 4:2 and Isaiah 5:20
And there is a 4th catagory: CLEANSED BY CHRIST
9 This is a symbol for the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper’s conscience. 10 They are physical regulations and only deal with food, drink, and various washings imposed until the time of the new order.
Hebrews 9:9-14
11 But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), 12 he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?
Jesus’ sacrifice, through His blood, has cleansed our consciences. When we accept that sacrifice, it is like getting a clean slate, or a new hard drive to be programmed.
A conscience only works according to the standard it is given. What is yours? Is it the Word of God, how you grew up, the traditions of your ancestors, the bent of the current culture through social media? (Psalm 119:11)
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
The conscience needs a battery. What is yours being empowered with? The Holy Spirit to be a witness and through prayer, or the spirit of fear through worry and anxiety. (Romans 8:26 and 2 Tim 1:7)
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
We must be careful not to go against our conscience. If you think or don’t feel right about doing, saying, or going somewhere. Don’t do it. It is better to trust your inner judgment when it is saying no; it is trying to protect you. (1 Corinthians 10:28-29)
23 But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin.
Romans 14:23
We must respect others’ consciences. Don’t wound or force others to go along with you or to go against their conscience. This is a really easy way to slip into thinking your way is best for all, which is pride (judging people for what they eat or do not eat, or how to observe their days and such). These are matters of Christians liberty. (This does not include blatant ignoring of the Scriptures as believers)
12 Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ.
1 Corinthians 8:12
As we rebuild the altar of our own hearts, it is an act of recalibration. God is calling us to reprogram our internal safety measures to His word – it starts with our conscience. We don’t want to neglect it and fall into default patterns of past ways, fears, or the culture around us. We want to have a reliable alarm system as God has intended to give us.
Training and recalibrating the conscience, then, looks like:
- Growth in discernment – learning to know right from wrong by the standard of Scripture.
- Learning to respond to conviction with repentance when the alarm sounds.
- Exercising humility when others do what you don’t “feel” right about, respecting boundaries when in matters of Christian liberty.
- Walking in grace by living from the cleansing that has been given to you (a clean hard drive) by grace through Christ’s blood.
When your conscience speaks, listen to it. When it needs fine-tuning, let the Holy Spirit adjust it. And when you are tempted to judge others in their Christian liberty, let humility guide you.
Is there anything else you would add?
Thanks for listening,
Starla
