THE ENLIGTHENED CONSCIENCE

Livingstone Oluwalola
THE SPIRITS OF JUST MEN
© 2023 Livingstone Oluwalola
ISBN - 978-978-60353-6-9

Originally published in 2022 by,

Eternity Window Publications,
Jos, Nigeria.
Eternitywindowpublications@gmail.com

Revised edition published in 2023 by,

RoyalRay International,
Ibadan, Oyo State.
Royalraypublishing@gmail.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means; electronic or material, including photocopying, recording,
or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written
permission of Livingstone Oluwalola, except in cases of brief quotations in context
(and duly referenced), in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper or
broadcast.

Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from King James Version,
other Bible quotes are from: TPT – The Passion Translation, AMP – The Amplified
Bible, GNT – Good News Translation, Good News Bible, NIV – New International
Version, Easy Translation.
 DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to seekers of truth, the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness. May this book advance your journey in faith through a pure
conscience. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My profound gratitude goes to:

Olalekan Adedeji, my brother and good friend, whose fellowship

usually stir holy conversations as touching the matters of our hallowed faith.
Thank you for giving time to review this book and to write the foreword.

Ayoola, my dearest wife, you are a reliable pillar that helps me stand
perfect in God’s will. For your consistent push, encouragement, prayers and
understanding, thank you.
 CONTENT

FOREWORD 8
CHAPTER 1
MAN - IN THE BEGINNING 9
WHAT IS A LIVING SOUL? 11
THE COMPONENTS OF MAN 14
THE TRAINING - MATURATION PROCESS 22

CHAPTER 2
THE FALL AND THE PARTING OF THE VEIL 26
THE TREES 29
THE TWO TREES IN THE MIDST 30
AFTER THE FIRST BITE 36
OTHER CONSEQUENCES OF ADAM'S DISOBEDIENCE 40

CHAPTER 3
THE OPERATION OF THE CONSCIENCE 49
THE HEART AND THE CONSCIENCE 50
THE MIND AND THE CONSCIENCE 55
THE VALUE SYSTEM OF THE CONSCIENCE 58
GOD IS GREATER THAN YOUR CONSCIENCE 60

CHAPTER 4
CONSCIENCE AND FAITH 62
A PURE CONSCIENCE AND A PURE HEART 64
FAITH AND GOOD CONSCIENCE 68
CAN A CLEAR CONSCIENCE GET ONE TO HEAVEN? 71
WHY DO BELIEVERS NEED A GOOD CONSCIENCE? 73

CHAPTER 5
THE ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENCE 80
SANCTIFICATION 82
 RENEWING OF THE MIND 84
THE TESTIMONY OF THE CONSCIENCE 85
THE MATURE AND WEAK CONSCIENCE 86

CHAPTER 6
CONSCIENCE AND THE INWARD WITNESS 91
CONSCIENCE AND DISCERNMENT 93
THE INWARD SIGNS 95
YOUR CONSCIENCE AND THE HOLY GHOST 96

CHAPTER 7
CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS 99
CHRIST CENTREDNESS 100
LEARNING CHRIST 102
EVER-EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS 104
 8

FOREWORD

I believe that the subject of “The conscience” is one of man’s major area
of quest for clarity. Man seeks to know how it operates, especially God-wards.
At some points, this quest had led to inventions that produced philosophies,
leading men to more dead works.

For the interested, it then becomes imperative to take a deep dive into
the study of man and his conscience. Having gone through this resource; I
believe that you now have a God breathed work in your hand to find answers
to your long-awaited questions.

For the believer whose conscience has been enlightened by the finished
works of Christ, this book will teach you practical insights from God’s word
on how to deny the works of the flesh. It will show you how to keep your
conscience pure and filled with the realities of God in your soul, as you
constantly renew your mind. I believe that every man who will avail his
conscience to stay full of God’s word, will become a useful tool in the hand of
God.

At whatever point the precious gems of this book meets you, not only
will it help you go from a weak conscience to a strengthened conscience in
Christ; it will surely help you avoid the shipwreck of your faith. If you will
refuse to treat this book as another good read, I like to welcome you to a life
of a pure conscience.

Adedeji, David Olalekan.

February, 2022.
Lagos, Nigeria.
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CHAPTER 1

MAN - IN THE BEGINNING

In the beginning, God created man. He made Adam and Eve. They were
created as adults with the innocence of a child. They were created without a
sense of guilt or the ability to feel guilty or condemned. They were created as
living souls.

1 Corinthians 15:45

"And so, it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul;
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit."

Genesis 2:7 AMP

"Then the Lord God formed [that is, created the body of] man
from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and the man became a living being [an individual
complete in body and spirit]."

Genesis 2:7 NIV

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul."

God created man in His own image. Man was created to reflect the
essence of the Godhead, he was made to be like an extension, an offspring of
the Godhead. The Godhead by nature is Spirit: The Father is Spirit, the Holy
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Spirit is Spirit, the Word is Spirit. And they all have the same character of
mind and are one at heart.

1 John 5:7
“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”

Genesis 1:26 – 27 AMP

"Then God said, "Let Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) make man in
Our image, according to Our likeness [not physical, but a
spiritual personality and moral likeness]; and let them have
complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
the cattle, and over the entire earth, and over everything that
creeps and crawls on the earth." So, God created man in His own
image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male
and female He created them."

The man God made in the beginning was like God in his spiritual
personality and morality. This implies that, Adam was a spiritual personality
and he had in his spirit, the likeness of God's moral standard.

Adam had a spirit by which he connected with God. God formed his
body out of the dust of the earth so he can have a legal right for perpetual
habitation on the earth. But after forming the body, it had no life in itself.
Then God breathed into his nostril, the breath of life. That breath of life was
carried by the human spirit that gave life to the lifeless body. Without the
breath of life which is in the human spirit, the body will be dead.

James 2:26
 11

"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without

works is dead also."

Ecclesiastes 12:7

"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit
shall return unto God who gave it."

The human spirit is the spiritual personality that was made in God's
image, it is the power plant that sustains and strengthens the body of man.

Proverbs 18:14 AMP

“The spirit of a man sustains him in sickness, but as for a broken

spirit who can bear?”

The coming together of the human spirit and the body that God formed
brought about the soul faculty of man. In other words, the soul came about at
the entrance of the spirit into the body of man. Hence, the first man was a
living soul.

WHAT IS A LIVING SOUL?

To answer this question, we will need to explore the life of the first
Adam before the fall, before the advent of sin into the world.

A living soul is a type of a created son of God, made in the image of God
(Luke 3:38). A living soul is that man that was made by God to be raised in
Eden - the land of perfect delight. He was created as a spiritual personality,
with a kind of body that is not subject to the elements of the earth, a body that
cannot suffer sickness or death. This body had a crown and covering that was
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not made of hands, it is the covering of glory and honour. Hence, it had no
need of earthly garment.

Psalms 8:5

"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast
crowned him with glory and honour".

The word, "Crowned," is the Hebrew word, atar, which means to

“encircle” or to “surround,” as a means of protection from attack or to bestow
a crown. This is what man lost to sin that made him liable to physical death.

Romans 3:23 AMPC

"Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and
glory which God bestows and receives".

Romans 3:23

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"

The Greek word for, “Come short” is hustereo, which means, “To fail to
become a partaker,’ ‘To be in want of,’ ‘To lack.”

The living soul type of man is the one whose mind is designed to be
trained by the interaction of the human spirit and God. God made man to be
able to fully interact with him; spirit, soul, and body. Hence, each of the
tripartite nature of man is in a measure, spiritual. The soul of man can interact
with God through the spirit, the body can be brought into this fellowship too.
He was designed to learn from within, he was designed to feed his soul from
the outflow of inward fellowship with God.
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Adam, the living soul was mentally an infant while in Eden. His faculty
of knowledge apprehension, intellect, reasoning, will, and emotions had to be
trained by God. The Bible says, his spirit and body were complete at creation.

Genesis 2:7 AMP

"Then the Lord God formed [that is, created the body of] man
from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and the man became a living being [an individual
complete in body and spirit]".

However, his mind had to be developed; his conscious and

subconscious mind had to be cultivated. His memory database needed to
amass the things of God, the right kind of knowledge. This man had to mature
mentally by fellowshipping with the right knowledge, grooming his sense of
understanding, and the exercise of his will and right of choice. God was
intentional about the training of this newly created being that had lots to
learn.

After his creation, God placed him in a garden, a place he had never
been before, an atmosphere that his spirit was familiar with because of God’s
presence (its origin and source), but his soul needs to get used to. This
environment served as a place of habitation, a place of assignment, and a
classroom of learning.
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THE COMPONENTS OF MAN

The immaterial but tangible parts of man are his soul and spirit, while
the material part of man is his body. The spirit, soul and body of man are
designed to be fundamentally spiritual in essence.

1. The spirit

The spirit is for fellowship with God, spirit realm awareness and
engagement, and to interact with the realities of the Kingdom of heaven. It
consists of three faculties, they are;

• Intuition
• Fellowship/Communion/Worship
• Conscience

The spirit of man is ordained to take the lead role over the whole man,
to be the highest-ranked member component of man. The soul and the body
are to follow the leadership of the human spirit. The three faculties of the
human spirit are created to help man connect with God and the things of the
Spirit. They are to help man perceive, know, judge, and receive things from
God and the heavenly Kingdom realm. Let’s look into each of these faculties.

a) Intuition

This faculty of the human spirit helps man to perceive things beyond
the judgment of the five senses. It helps him to know things spontaneously
outside of his reasoning faculty and allows him to come into awareness of
things beyond his conscious mind and his memory. It enables man to know
 15

things supernaturally through spiritual perception. It is also the place where

man perceives and receives the the leading of the Spirit.

Mark 2:8

"And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so

reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, why reason ye
these things in your hearts?"

b) Fellowship/Communion/ Worship

This part of man is what makes him feel a void in his heart that only
God can fill, this void is designed to be a force that pulls man to his maker. It
makes man seek something beyond the natural that can give him inner joy
and fulfilment. This is a major reason for which when men seek to experience
life beyond the natural, some try drugs, witchcraft, occultism, or satanism,
but only Jesus can satisfy and fill that God-size void in every man.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMP

"He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time.

He has also planted eternity (a sense of divine purpose) in the
human heart (a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun
can satisfy, except God) – yet man cannot find out (comprehend,
grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from beginning to
the end."

This faculty of the human spirit helps man to pour out his heart in
worship to God. It permits man to interact, fellowship, commune, and share
heart-to-heart intimacy with God. It's that part of man that helps him to
 16

honour and exalt the supremacy of God as his Lord who deserves his worship.
As there is no worship without connection with God, the faculty of fellowship
aids man to achieve a deep connection with divinity, to express his emotions
to God and connect to God's emotions.

Romans 8:16

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God:"

2 Corinthians 13:14

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen."

Luke 1:46-47

"And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."

c) Conscience

The part of the human spirit that brings inward judgment to man's ways and
actions. This faculty serves as the moral judge of man, commending him of
right and accusing him of wrong. It brings condemnation and accusation to
man's perceived wrong actions. It is not independent, it usually works
alongside intuition, it bears witness to man's perception in his intuition.
However, it can be silenced through the reasoning and will of the soul.
 17

Romans 2:14-15

"For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law
unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in their
hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts
the mean while accusing or else excusing one another"

1 John 3:21 GNT

"And so, my dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us,
we have courage in God's presence."

2. The soul

The soul of man is for relationship and interaction with God and men,
for self-awareness and self-engagement. Its faculties are:

• Mind
• Will
• Emotions

a) Mind

The mind of man is a principal part of the soul that is largely responsible
for the coordination of man's mental process. It helps to keep the man in form
and it reveals the true form, state, shape, or personality of a person. It is the
intellectual faculty of the soul for reasoning, thinking, choice and decision
making, memory, and awareness. The mind is the central processing unit of
man, it is the place where a man makes a decision either to accept or reject a
 18

thing based on his thinking process. The mind usually depends on the data
(information) gotten from the five senses and the ones stored in the memory
for thought processes. Its analysis of things, perception, judgment, and
choices are made based on the witness of the natural senses, the knowledge
stored in the memory, the voice of the conscience and the logical reasoning of
the brain’s coordinated operation. The mind by design, is meant to be
spiritual through man’s fellowship with God.

Ephesians 4:23

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind”

Romans 12:2

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by

the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Romans 8:5-7

“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh;
but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be
carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

b) Will

The will of a man is where he exercises his freedom of choice. God

created him with a right to choose. The will is the faculty where man
determines his course of action and sets his heart on a thing. Without the will,
 19

man can think of making a choice and remain in the pool of indecisiveness.
The faculty of the will makes a man arrives as a decision and helps him make
a choice out of multiple options. The will is for decision making and it works
with the mind where choices and options are analysed. Will-power is one of
the traits of God in every man; the capacity to determine a thing and the
strength to push through until completion.

Joshua 24:15

“And if it seems evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this
day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house,
we will serve the LORD.”

Daniel 1:8

"But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself
with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he
drank: therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that
he might not defile himself."

1 Corinthians 14:15

"What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with
the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing
with the understanding also."

c) Emotions
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The emotional faculty of man helps him to have feelings for things and
affection for people. In the beginning, man was created to have good and
positive emotions only. This faculty allows him to express himself emotionally
in laughter, tears, dancing, shouting etc. it also helps him feel loved, joyful,
peaceful, happy, excited, sad, depressed, angry, anxious etc.

This faculty helps man to pour his affection towards God and men, and
this aids deep heart to heart connections.

Matthew 22:37-39

"Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the
first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

3. The body

The material part of man is his body, for the material realm (physical
environment), awareness and interaction. It comprises of the five senses and
all the member parts of the body.

The five senses are the sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch;
they work in connecting with the central nervous system and the brain for
their coordination. The body is perhaps the most complicated part of man due
to its deluge functional members that keep it in form and order. In the realm
of the earth, your body is your primary means of identification and it gives
you legal permission to inhabit the earth. The body is designed to align with
the spirit in the service and worship of God.
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A man's body is specially prepared to perform what is written in his

destiny scroll. Your body is designed to do what is written about you, which
is to live for righteousness and to fulfil God's purpose for your life.

Hebrews 10:5 - 7

"…… but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I
come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will,
O God."

Romans 12:1

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye

present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service."

Romans 6:13

"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of

unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as
those that are alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God."

Jeremiah 1:5

"Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou
camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained
thee a prophet unto the nations."
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THE TRAINING - MATURATION PROCESS

In the beginning, the components of man were connected and

depended on one another. The soul was dependent on the spirit, while the
human spirit had its influence on the body through the soul. They were united
as one. There was no discrepancy in the witness of the spirit, the will of the
soul, and the desires of the body. For this reason, Adam could pass the test of
naming the animals, he got the names of the animals right because his mind
aligned with his intuition and his mouth simply uttered what his spirit
perceived the identity and nature of each animal should be.

Genesis 2:19 AMP

"So, the Lord God formed out of the ground every animal of the
field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see
what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living
creature, that was its name."

This scripture says, whatsoever he called them were their names;

meaning he got their names right, he declared just what God would have
called them. That was possible because man had fellowship with God through
his spirit and his intuition was active for perceiving and receiving the things
in God's mind.

The mental capacity of man had to be developed through the usage of

his spirit and his body. His conscious mind had to learn the things of God
which include the knowledge and nature of God and righteous character. He
also had to get used to his physical environment which he accessed through
his body. His awareness of things had to be trained and broadened. So, God
 23

placed him in the garden of Eden where there were both trees of natural and
spiritual consequence. There were trees capacitated to feed the whole man;
spirit, soul, and body.

I believe that at Adam’s creation, he was like a clean slate, but through
fellowship with God, God began to write His laws upon his heart. This, God
did by instructing him on what to do and what not to do. Through fellowship
with God and obedience to His words, he began to have a more expanded
consciousness of nature and the world around him, of himself (his abilities
and capabilities), and of the things of God. Also, his memory database began
to get filled with the right kind of knowledge sourced from only what God
says. The limit of his mental capacity was the boundless words of God that he
has heard and received, which created a boundary for his life experiences.

The command to tend and cultivate the garden wasn't first for the
garden but for Adam. It is to mature Adam, to teach him to have a sense of
responsibility and purpose of existence. It is to give him something to live for
(which is the service and pleasure of God), it is also to mature him to know
things as God knows them. This is because Adam, though a son of God;
mature in his body and complete in his spirit, had to develop in his soul. He
had to be groomed, nurtured, and trained for his soul to be truly spiritual, as
he feeds on the life that proceeds from communion with God.

By way of instruction, God brought him into the consciousness of what

it means to obey and to do the works of God. Adam came into the experiential
knowledge of listening to God's voice, obeying God, work, living a natural and
supernatural life, fellowshipping with God, and having dominion over created
things.
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Furthermore, he knew how to be excited, his emotions were alive and

active. At the sight of the woman, he spontaneously broke out in an instinctive
poem, stirred by the joy that came from a knowing within. A knowledge that
was not a product of mental reasoning, but a product of intuition.

Genesis 2:23

"And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my

flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of
Man."

The pristine man had only the emotions of good and not evil. Adam and
Eve operated in the innocence of a child where there's no sense of shame,
guilt, or evil. It was recorded that the man and his wife were naked but not
ashamed. This is because the man was living from his spirit that fellowships
with God, in an atmosphere of perfect delight, where there is no darkness.
There was no ground for them to feel the negative emotion of shame.
Therefore, the awareness of their nakedness brought a depth of intimacy, with
a feeling of intense connection with one another.

Genesis 2:25

"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not
ashamed."

The conscience of Adam before the fall, bore witness to the value system
he imbibed from his fellowship with God. The judgments that proceeded from
his conscience were true and just and were in alignment with the judgment of
God. He knew things instinctively and made the right judgment. Up until the
time that Eve was tempted, they stayed away from the tree of the knowledge
 25

of good and evil that God asked them not to eat from. God gave the
instructions and it became like a written law on their hearts.

The judgment of the conscience of pristine Adam was based on intuitive

spontaneous knowledge and the knowledge of things that he had learnt from
his interactions with God. The conscience is designed to draw out judgments
from God's pull in every man's heart, both the ones he is conscious of and the
ones he is not conscious of. It is meant to be every man's moral compass that
keeps him from destruction and guides him to the way of truth. The
conscience can judge a matter of which a man is fully oblivious. It can bring
just judgment over matters of which a man knows nothing because it is
designed to primarily rely on intuition and not the memory of things learnt
from the environment.
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CHAPTER 2

THE FALL AND THE PARTING OF THE VEIL

A man will be incomplete without the right of choice. When a man loses
his right to choose, a major part of him has been lost. Adam was created
innocent and complete in the body and spirit, but he was not created holy nor
righteously perfect. No one can be called perfect without being proved and
measured against a laid down standard, and no one can be called holy who
hasn't been in a situation where he had the right to disobey or rebel, yet
choose to obey. Holiness is choosing to do the right thing in honour of God,
when you have the option of doing otherwise.

Where there is no law, there is no sin. The law was not made to make
man sin, but to reveal to man what sin is and to keep him from sin. God's
instructions are His laws which are meant to shield man from sin. His
instructions are designed to preserve man from perdition. They are a shield
system to keep man from falling for the temptations of the tempter.

A man does not transgress the law because he sinned, he sinned because
he transgressed or violated the law. The instructions of God are meant to
design for man, his boundaries of operations, outside of which he'll begin to
fellowship with death. God’s instructions help us to subdue unholy desires
and overcome the tempter’s enticements.

1 John 3:4

"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is

the transgression of the law."
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In the garden, God gave the man an instruction, a shield system. The
shield system is not merely to keep man from touching the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, but to shield man from sin because of the
tempter. It is sin that separates us from God.

Proverbs 4:5-6

"Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline

from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall
preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee."

One would have thought, since the tempter will have no ground to
tempt man if there was no instruction, why did God give the instruction? It is
because Adam had to to grow from being innocent to being holy and perfect
as God is. God will not tempt man with evil, rather, He wanted to bring man
to a place of maturity where the tempter will not be able to pull any string in
his heart causing him to do wrong. Also, God wanted to prove man's
allegiance to Him, by his choice to either obey God or disobey Him.

James 1:13

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for

God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:"

Adam had to grow in an environment where; God was present to

fellowship with him, His word was present to preserve him, the tempter was
present to entice him to sin and to bring him into the fellowship of death. He
had to mature through all of these, he had to learn obedience to God, he had
to exercise his will to stay within the boundaries that God's instruction had
designed for him.
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Genesis 2:17

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die."

God told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
in the day that he eats of it, he shall surely die. God gave him an instruction
and revealed the consequence of disobedience. What God told him was not
necessarily the consequence of eating from the tree, but the consequence of
choosing to disobey God's instruction, for this is more grievous than the
former. This implies that, what will kill Adam wasn't the fruit of the tree, but
sin. It wasn't first about the fruit, but Adam's choice to either obey or disobey.

God didn't place a curse on the table that should fall on Adam once he
disobeys, rather, God revealed to Adam the consequence of his action based
on the eternal principles that govern created things.

Romans 6:23

" For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord."

James 1:14-15

"But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own

lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

When the tempter appeared, what he attacked was the consequence

God revealed and he shifted man's gaze from the instruction to the fruit. He
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projected the "Seemingly good" result of eating the fruit, taking their gaze off
the consequence of disobedience.

The first Adam was tempted and he failed, but the last Adam was also
tempted yet He didn't fail. Hence, He [last Adam] met God's standard of
perfect righteousness and He became the author of eternal salvation for those
that obey him.

Hebrews 4:15

"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with

the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like
as we are, yet without sin"

Hebrews 5:8

“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things

which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the
author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him”

THE TREES

Genesis 2:8-9 AMP

"And the Lord God planted a garden (oasis) in the east, in Eden
(delight, land of happiness); and He put the man whom He had
formed (created) there. And [in that garden] the Lord God
caused to grow from the ground every tree that is desirable and
pleasing to the sight and good (suitable, pleasant) for food; the
tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the
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[experiential] knowledge (recognition) of [the difference

between] good and evil."

In the garden, were three tree types that can impact the whole man; his
spirit, soul, and body. There were two kinds of good trees and one forbidden
tree:

Good Trees

1. Trees that are good for food to cater for man's body

2. The tree of life amid the garden to cater for man's spirit and soul

Forbidden Tree

3. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil that can poison man's soul.

This is a similar case to what happened in the time of Joshua when God
gave them options to choose from.

Deuteronomy 30:15

"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and
evil;"

Does this sound familiar to you? Life and good - Two of the trees were
good, one for food and the other for Life. Death and Evil - The forbidden tree
was evil and produced death. (The "good-ness" of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil is also evil).

THE TWO TREES IN THE MIDST

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Genesis 2:9

“…. the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the
tree of the [experiential] knowledge (recognition) of [the
difference between] good and evil.”

Amid the garden were two trees, these trees can make one wise. Both
trees can feed the soul and upgrade its mental faculty of reasoning. One will
impact the knowledge of God and its fruit is life, the other will impact the
knowledge of good and evil and the end is death. The garden is a similitude of
man's heart, the two trees want to influence man, however, he can choose
whom he'll submit to. Feeding on the tree of life will produce a spiritual mind
and the other a carnal mind.

Romans 8:6

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded

is life and peace."

For the reason that man was meant to be trained and raised in the
garden, everything present in the garden was intentionally placed there for
the training of man. If man had overcome, he would have sustained a lasting
victory over the tempter.

The similitude of which was Jesus being led to the wilderness to be

tempted of the enemy for forty days and forty nights. Right there in the
wilderness, God was with Him, but we never read that He spoke. The tempter
was there who tempted Jesus throughout the forty days and three times after
the forty days. The angels of the Lord were there also, though silent during
the time of the temptation, but strengthened Him after the temptation. The
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activity of the tempter is warfare, that is why we need God's strength to fight
and overcome. Praise to God most High, our Lord Jesus overcame. (Luke 4:1-
13).

Also, we will see that man began his journey in a garden where there
were two trees in the midst, but the designed destination is a paradise where
there is just one tree: the tree of life. The tree of the knowledge of good and
evil was designed to be there temporarily, it was not meant to be a part of
Adam’s future. However, God kept it in the garden to prove Adam’s loyalty
and to hasten his maturity. God usually places two choices before men, to
prove their devotion to Him.

Revelation 22:1 -2

"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,

proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst
of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the
tree of life, which bare twelve manners of fruits, and yielded her
fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations."

Revelation 2:7

“He that hath an ear, let him what the Spirit saith unto the
churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat the tree of life
which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

1. THE TREE OF LIFE

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This tree can feed the human spirit, teach his soul in righteousness and
immortalize his body. This tree of life in the New Testament is Christ: the
revelation of Christ, the mystery of God. Eating its fruits will bring
enlightenment, life and immortality in the will of God. The privilege of access
to the tree is based on merit, it is given to the doers of the Word, who are
overcomers through faith in Christ Jesus.

Revelation 2:7

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches; to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of
life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

Revelation 22:14

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may

have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates
into the city."

2 Timothy 1:10

“But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour

Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel:”

Adam was denied access to the tree of life after he became corrupted by
partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He was hindered from
accessing the tree, to the end that his fallen state will not be immortalized and
irredeemable.

Genesis 3:22
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"And the LORD God said, behold, the man is become as one of us,
to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and
take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. Therefore,
the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the
ground from whence he was taken. So, he drove out the man;
and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and
a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the
tree of life."

But now in Christ Jesus, we have been found worthy to partake of the
tree of life, the cherub and flaming sword no longer bar the way for those in
Christ. Unto us, Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He is our tree of life,
our bread of life, and our river of life, He is our milk, meat, and strong meat
of the Word. We feed on Him and we grow into Him in all things as we are
being conformed to His image. The tree of life is Christ, who is the wisdom of
God to us.

Partaking of the tree of life is expected to bring us into depths of true

wisdom and accurate knowledge, perception, and awareness of things.
Everything that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil provides is
corruption, the reality of knowledge in its pure, pristine, and eternal estate
can only be found in Christ.

2. THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL

The fruit of this tree is poisonous, it has nothing good to offer, both the
knowledge of good and the evil of this tree produce death.

Matthew 7:17-19
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"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt
tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil
fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree
that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into
the fire."

A tree is known for its fruit. The fruit that this tree produced in Adam is
death, hence, it cannot be a good tree. The tree of the knowledge of good and
evil is the tree of worldly wisdom, the devil convinced them [Adam & Eve] to
eat it, giving them the assurance that they will become wise. Eve took of it,
seeing that the tree can make one wise.

Genesis 3:4-6

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also
unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them
both were opened."

But the wisdom that this tree imparts is a wisdom that is folly. This
wisdom is corrupt, evil, defiling and in the end, it delivers death.

James 3:15

"This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly,

sensual, devilish."

After eating of this tree, their eyes were opened; they came into a
perverted awareness of the reality of things. Their souls (minds) became
thoroughly infected by corruption, the shadow of death. Those who feed on
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this tree by interacting with and embracing worldly wisdom have carnal
minds that lead to death. The fruit produces a corrupt sense of self-awareness
which is self-centeredness. The wrong self-awareness is the root of the works
of the flesh. The flesh is the nature of the fallen man that runs the program
called sin.

AFTER THE FIRST BITE

Let's consider the consequences of eating from the tree.

"You shall die"

Genesis 2:15-17 AMP

"So, the Lord God took the man [He had made] and settled him
in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it. And the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, "You may freely (unconditionally)
eat [the fruit] from every tree of the garden; but [only] from the
tree of the knowledge (recognition) of good and evil you shall not
eat, otherwise, on the day that you eat from it, you shall
most certainly die because of your disobedience."

"On the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die...", God's verdict,
right? Adam ate the fruit, did he die? What exactly killed him? How did he
die?

The death Adam experienced came from two sources, his disobedience
to God and his eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Here are
a few things to note:

1. Adam sinned and died.

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Adam disobeyed God by embracing sin and he received the wages of sin
which is death. When a man serves sin, sin rewards him with death.

Romans 6:23

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Let it be known that God didn't kill Adam, sin did. God’s business is to
give life, the enemy’s business is to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10). In
every and any context, sin is a killer, hence, the Lord told him the
consequence of disobedience (Sin).

James 1:15

"Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin,
when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

The deliverance and salvation of man is the gift of eternal life which is
found in Christ. Jesus is the way, truth and life, who came that we may have
life more abundantly. God gave his only begotten Son, that those who believe
in him should have eternal life (John 10:10, 3:16). If you are born again
through faith in Jesus, you have the life that trumps sin and death.

2. It was the soul of Adam that died, not his spirit.

The death that Adam died was an experience in his soul. Adam initially was
created as a living soul but sin killed him and made him a dead soul.

Ezekiel 18:20

"The soul that sinneth, it shall die."

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Ephesians 2:1

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and

sins."

Death is the presence of sin and corruption in the soul. For this reason,
James revealed that he that leads a man out of sin, shall save his soul from
death. Solomon also revealed to us that when we keep God’s commandment,
we preserve our souls and when we despise it, we die.

James 5:20

"Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the
error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a
multitude of sins."

Proverbs 19:16
“He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul; but
he that despiseth his ways shall die.”

3. Death is carnal mindedness.

Romans 8:6

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded

is life and peace."

The eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil activated the
intellectual and mental faculty of man in a corrupt fashion. Man became
instantly carnally minded, minding the things of the flesh. They began to
perceive things from a perspective that is averse to God. Their judgment
became clouded and their discernment perverse.
 39

Before the fall, they were naked and they both knew it but the
knowledge of their nakedness made them felt intimate and not ashamed
towards each other.

Genesis 2:25

"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not
ashamed."

At the fall, their sense of judgment and perception was perverted. They began
to see things differently, from a carnal mind, from the knowledge of good and
evil. They became conscious of evil and wrong and could feel shame and
negative emotions that they never had before the fall.

Genesis 3:7-10

"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they
were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made
themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his
wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst
the trees of the garden.

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where
art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was
afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."

The opening of their eyes is the activation of the awareness of good and
evil and the introduction into the experiential knowledge of the same. The
nakedness that was a blessing, which they enjoyed with God and themselves,
became evil all of a sudden because of the awareness of evil. They sew fig
 40

leaves to cover their nakedness from each other because they were ashamed
and they hid from God because they were afraid.

Does this scenario look familiar to you? Check around you, are people
willing to be open and vulnerable with those that matter? Are people bold to
approach God at any time? Are you? If your answer to any of these questions
is a no, it's because of the effect of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that
our first parents partook of, which is also influencing you. The fruit of this
tree is the root of self-preservation, while the fruit of life, which is the
revelation of Jesus, is our antidote to the poison. Jesus said, he that will save
his life will lose it. He came to teach us how to be naked and not afraid before
God and vulnerable without shame before men. There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, those who walk not in the
flesh but in the Spirit (Romans 8:1).

OTHER CONSEQUENCES OF ADAM'S DISOBEDIENCE

1. The soul now dominates the spirit of man.

Adam's soul began to dominate his spirit after the fall. Man was
designed to live from his spirit with the soul submitting to him, but eating the
forbidden fruit made him self-conscious and his soul dominated his spirit.

This necessitates the need for God to send His word to pierce and
separate the soul and spirit, to return the threefold components of man to the
right order of ranking; firstly spirit, then, soul and body. When this happens,
man will no longer be afraid of being naked before God.

Hebrews 4:12 - 13
 41

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight:
but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of
him with whom we have to do."

1 Thessalonians 5:23

“the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

2. Their emotions became distorted.

Sin activated negative emotions in man. Eden before the fall was like
the holy city of God, the new Jerusalem, where there is no sorrow, crying,
shame, pain or death.

Revelation 21:2-4

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down
from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
 42

crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former
things are passed away.”

This speaks of perfect emotional stability. The same thing that Adam
and Eve enjoyed in Eden before the fall. Before the fall there was no capacity
for fear, shame, sorrow, or pain, but after the fall, their emotional faculty was
perverted. This is why Eve could feel pain and sorrow at conception and birth.

Genesis 3:16

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and
thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and
thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

However, in Christ, we are already in the heavenly Jerusalem, the city

of God and we can enjoy an all-time stable emotion now through faith. Also,
in Christ, the woman is delivered from the consequence of sin.

1 Timothy 2:15

"Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they

continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety."

Romans 14:17

“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but

righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

3. Man became self-centred.

Genesis 3:9-13
 43

"And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, where
art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was
afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, who
told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree,
whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the
man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave
me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the
woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."

Adam began to think of how to appear good at the expense of painting

his wife to be evil. The shifting of blame began. Adam diverted the blame of
wrongdoing to Eve instead of taking responsibility and Eve in turn, shifted
the blame to the serpent. Each tried to appear better than the other. That
there, is the root of religion. Religion teaches men to appear better than their
neighbours so they can gain acceptance before God and men.

4. Man lost his authority over the earth to the devil.

The evil of shifting blame is what transferred the sceptre of rulership of

the world to the serpent. When Adam refused to take responsibility, he
unintentionally delegated authority to Eve and when she also shifted blame
to the serpent instead of taking responsibility, she delegated the authority to
the serpent. If Adam had owned his fault and repented, perhaps the enemy
wouldn't have become the prince of this world.

Genesis 1:28
 44

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

Luke 4:5

"And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed

unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And
the devil said unto him, all this power will I give thee, and the
glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to
whomsoever I will I give it."

Through deception, he stole the throne of rulership over the earth.

Adam was created to be the god and ruler over the earth, but he lost the throne
to the devil.

Psalms 82:6

"I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most
High."

Luke 3:83

"Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which
was the son of Adam, which was the son of God."

This tells us that Adam was created as a son of God and he is a god. But
the devil came to trick Eve on the ground of identity. The enemy said to Eve,
God knows that, you shall be as gods when you eat of the fruit, this is a
deceptive lie aimed at making Eve believe a lie about her identity.
 45

Genesis 3:5

"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil."

If Eve knew that she was already a god, maybe she wouldn't have fallen
to the trick of the serpent. Adam and Eve lost the dominion of the earth to
Satan and he became the god of this world, initially, it wasn't so.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4

"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom
the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine unto them."

Man became a subject to the devil and to the elements of the earth
instead of being the god (ruler) that God made him to be. This is why the earth
can bring forth thorns and thistles for man instead of herbs and trees good
for food that it was ordained to produce.

5. The conscience became evil.

Because of the activation of the awareness of good and evil, man's value
system for judgment practically became corrupted. He could freely pass
blame without any sense of remorse or repentance. He hid from God, thinking
that was normal. His carnal mind began to influence his conscience against
God.

Hebrews 10:22
 46

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,

having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our
bodies washed with pure water."

6. Human spirit became darkened.

The death Adam died, placed a weight of darkness upon his spirit. His
spirit was no longer free to exercise its dominion over the soul and body.
Although he could still hear and perceive God, but because of the nature of
sin which is death in his soul, the atmosphere of darkness covered his spirit
and hindered it from having full fellowship with God. Before the fall, the spirit
of man was the burning candle of God that illuminates man in God's ways,
but after the fall, man became darkness. This darkness makes it difficult for
him to retain God in his consciousness.

Proverbs 20:27

"The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the
inward parts of the belly."

Ephesians 5:8

"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the

Lord: walk as children of light:"

However, through faith, every believer receives Christ; the light of life,
and He becomes the light of the human spirit, making men become light as a
result. Through Christ Jesus, fellowship with God is restored, intimacy with
God becomes delightsome and man can begin to live under the government
of God again.
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John 1:4-5

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light
shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

John 8:12

"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the
world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life."

Matthew 5:14

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be
hid."

7. The human spirit lost its full potential.

Darkness inhibits the fullness of the operation of the human spirit that
is meant to sustain Adam's biological life in the body. The man was initially
created eternal, but sin made him mortal. Consequently, he can die in the
body, whereas in the beginning, it was not so. In the beginning, God made
Adam, His son, as gods and gods don't die.

Psalms 82:6

"I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most
High."

God told Adam, “In the day you eat of this fruit you will surely die.”
When he ate the fruit, instantly his soul died, his spirit experienced darkness
 48

and death caught up with his body before the fullness of a day. If a day is 1000
years before God, that means Adam didn't live up to a day.

2 Peter 3:8

"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day."

Genesis 5:5

"And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty
years: and he died."
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CHAPTER 3

THE OPERATION OF THE CONSCIENCE

Don Stewart, the successor of A. A. Allen's organization, had this to say

about the human conscience;

"The human conscience tells us what is right and what is wrong.

The Bible says that it testifies to God's existence. Both Jews and
Gentiles have the testimony of their conscience as to the fact that
there is a God. However, by itself, the conscience is an
insufficient guide. The conscience tells us that God exists but it
does not tell us who that God is. The conscience is also a fallible
witness because it has been corrupted by sin. Once a person
comes to Jesus Christ as their Saviour, their conscience can
function as it was originally created."

(How does the human conscience reveal God –

blueletterbible.org/Comm/stewart_don/faq/god-has-spoken-
to-us/07-how-does-the-human-conscience-reveal-god.cfm).

The conscience is God's moral guide and judge that he has placed in
every man to keep him from the way of perdition and to do what is right. The
conscience is not the sole right of believers, it is a part of the makeup of every
man. From the beginning of time, people have been able to choose good and
morally upright options because of the law of God in their conscience. The
conscience is morality-oriented; it is designed to help man tilt to the Lord's
side. Men who had the law of Moses as a guide were helped to act right. The
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Law of Moses being the word of God was a light in their conscience, such that
they'll have to violate their conscience to disobey the word of the Lord.

John 8:9 TPT

"Upon hearing that, her accusers slowly left the crowd one at a
time, beginning with the oldest to the youngest, with a convicted
conscience."

Those who don't possess the law of Moses also have a law in their
conscience. This law originates from intuition, and it inspires the conscience
for godly judgments. This law is woven into their hearts and helps them
distinguish between right and wrong.

Romans 2:15 TPT

"For example, whenever people who don't possess the law as

their birthright commit sin, it still confirms that a "law" is
present in their conscience. For when they instinctively do what
the law requires, that becomes a "law" to govern them, even
though they don't have Mosaic law. It demonstrates that the
requirements of the law are woven into their hearts. They know
what is right and wrong, for their conscience validates this "law"
in their heart. Their thoughts correct them in one instance and
commend them in another."

THE HEART AND THE CONSCIENCE

Romans 2:15
 51

"Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean
while accusing or else excusing one another;"

There is a strong connection between the conscience and the heart. The
condition of a man's heart tells us the condition of his conscience per time. A
hardened heart will produce a defiled conscience. The heart of man consists
of certain faculties of the human spirit and soul. They are:

1. Faculty of fellowship – It is the abode of faith, hope, and love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the
greatest of these is charity."

Romans 10:10

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness…."

Romans 5:5

“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

2. Faculty of conscience - It excuses or accuses a man of his actions.

1 John 3:20

"For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and
knoweth all things."

1 Samuel 24:5
 52

"And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because
he had cut off Saul's skirt."

3. Faculty of reasoning – It can think and reason.

Proverbs 23:7

"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he……. "

Mark 2:6

"But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in
their hearts."

4. Faculty of emotion - It can feel.

Psalms 73:21

"Thus, my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins."

Acts 2:26

"Therefore, did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad;

moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope."

5. Faculty of will - It can make decisions.

Daniel 1:8

"But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself
with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he
drank…."
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The heart captures many of the activities happening in man's spirit and
his soul. The heart stands like a bridge between the two. When one gets saved,
God gives him a new heart and takes out the heart of stone that translates into
an evil and defiled conscience, from him.

Ezekiel 36:25-26

"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean:
from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse
you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."

Hebrews 10:22

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,

having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our
bodies washed"

The heart is the root of the conscience. The conscience projects what is
in the heart of man. The conscience is different from the heart. It's a witness
that amplifies the judgment of the heart. It bears witness to the state of the
heart. The heart sees things the way it (the heart) is and the conscience is a
witness. It reveals the content of the heart. For as a man thinks, so is he, and
the conscience reveals how and what a man thinks in his heart.

At new birth, the Lord gave man a new heart, a true heart that has been
purged from an evil conscience and consciousness. The blood of Jesus purges
the conscience from the law of sin and death, it cleanses the conscience from
the old corrupt value system and upgrades it to align with His righteousness.
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Hebrews 9:14

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

Dead works are the records and testimonies of evil, employed as the
value system from which the conscience draws judgment. If the conscience is
evil, the judgment will be evil.

For the new creation, the more his heart is enlightened by the reason of
God's word, the more his conscience is after righteousness. The conscience is
a moral compass and guide, but our righteousness (of moral works) is as filthy
rags before God. Thus, the conscience is not a perfect leader, he leads from
the heart, it is as good as the heart.

An unbeliever’s heart who does not have Christ dwelling in him by faith,
will inspire the conscience to judge things from the testimony of dead works.
While the believer who has Christ dwelling in his heart and who is
consistently yielding to Christ and growing increasingly in the knowledge of
God will have an enlightened conscience that will always bear witness to the
truth. The more our hearts are enlightened by the reason of truth, the better
the witness of our conscience becomes.

It is then not wrong to say; the conscience is the voice of the human
spirit through the heart. The conscience is not the voice of God in a man, the
inward witness is. However, the conscience is the seat of judgment in a man,
bearing witness to the proceedings of his heart.

1 Samuel 24:5
 55

"And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him,

because he had cut off Saul's skirt."

1 Corinthians 2:11

"For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of
man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God."

THE MIND AND THE CONSCIENCE

The mind is the mental faculty of reasoning, thinking, and intellect. It

is also referred to as your consciousness.

The mind has three essential parts; the conscious mind, which is the
part that we are most aware of. It is the part that focuses our attention on
things.

The unconscious mind is the part of us that sorts and arranges the
almost infinite data that our five senses relate with. The work of the
unconscious mind is usually behind the shelf, outside of our conscious
awareness. It is highly connected to the repressed memory. It is the part of
you that sorts and holds the consciousness of things in your memory that you
are not conscious of, like the name of classmates you had 15 years ago or the
things that happened to you exactly 12 years back.

The subconscious mind is where mental programs are created, the

programs that run our lives. Here, mental patterns are created, that
influences our lives and run our lives. To change the course of one's life, the
 56

focus must be placed on changing the program nodes in the subconscious

mind which was built over time. The subconscious mind also captures the
things in our memory database in connection with our brain.

The mind is the faculty where wisdom, knowledge, and understanding

abides. The mind of the fallen man operates from the awareness sustained by
the five senses. Its consciousness is centred on things that are of the earth.
This is the carnal mind, which is defiled and corrupt, it is the mind that is
filled with the wrong knowledge, false understanding, evil wisdom, and wrong
beliefs. The carnal mind bears the fruit of death.

Romans 8:6

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded

is life and peace."

The carnal mind is an enemy of the conscience, it bears the seed of sin
and the fruit of death. The natural man is the one who lives from the carnal
mind against his conscience, he is the man who consistently drags his
conscience into the mud of sin and death.

Titus 1:15

"Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are
defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and
conscience is defiled."

Titus 1:15 EASY

"If someone is clean and good inside, then everything is clean

and good for them to enjoy. But if someone is not a believer and
has a dirty mind, then nothing is clean or good for that person.
 57

Their minds have become spoiled. They no longer feel guilty

when they do anything wrong."

When the mind is defiled, the conscience is weak. A weak conscience is

the result of a mind filled with the wrong knowledge, ideas and imaginations.
The conscience is a gentle witness that calls the attention of man to the right
things. The conscience pricks one when he is wrong and commends him when
he is right. The conscience also brings man to a place of repentance.
Repentance is the right response of man to the witness of his conscience
condemning his wrong actions.

The conscience tells man what to do. And he who knows what is right
to do and do it not, to him, it is sin. To violate your conscience is a sin that
must be repented of. (James 4:17).

The mind is the realm of reasoning, it can choose what it wants to do,
either to yield to the witness of the conscience or not. The conscience doesn't
force anyone to do the right thing. It simply tells one what is right to do and
watches the person make a choice.

The spirit wants to lead man and one of its faculties for exercising its
government is the conscience. The flesh (carnal nature) wants to rule man
and one of its faculties for exercising its government is the unrenewed mind.
These two are always at loggerheads.

Galatians 5:17

"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye
cannot do the things that ye would."
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The unrenewed mind has a way of exercising a pull on the conscience

making it weak until it becomes evil, endorsing what is wrong. At this point,
a man no longer feels bad when he does anything wrong. It is not because the
conscience became inactive, it is rather because it has become corrupt, its
value system for judgment has been defiled with the wrong knowledge,
wisdom, and belief system. The antidote to this is the blood of sprinkling
which alone can purge the conscience of man from dead works.

If we have a way of always using logical reasoning to defend our wrong

actions as against the witness of the conscience, after a while, the conscience
will begin to get darkened, adopting evil as normal.

THE VALUE SYSTEM OF THE CONSCIENCE

How does the conscience judge? What sponsors the judgment of the
conscience? Can the value system of the conscience be altered?

There are two basic parts of man that influence the value system of the
conscience. They are:

1. His belief system

The belief system of a man is a product of mental programming that is

built with time. This belief system is built through learning, cultural
influences, religious inclination, knowledge, laid down traditions, parental
and environmental influence, and a consistent pattern of living. As a man
interacts with all of these things consciously, over time, his mind begins to
open up and his subconscious mind begins to absorb a belief system, building
a mental pattern of how things should be. This belief system in turn runs the
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man, it becomes his idea of truth and reality. Since the belief system is built
on the knowledge database of the mind, the conscience can be helped by the
renewing of the mind through the truth of God's word.

The more the mind is renewed the better the belief system of man, he
can believe the right things based on God's truth. The reason one will eat meat
and his conscience is defiled and the other eats and his conscience is good is
because of the belief system. Neither eating meat nor not eating meat is
unholy, but let every man act as he is convinced in his conscience. (Romans
14:3-5). The conscience is matured by studying and obeying the word of God
and renewing the mind thereby.

2. His intuition

The intuition of the human spirit is the faculty of man that helps him
discern, perceive and receive things from God. His intuition can tell him the
right things to do outside of his mental jurisdiction. His intuition is not
dependent on his belief system, it is God-inclined. The intuition of those who
are of the world is darkened but for those who are in Christ, their oneness
with the Holy Spirit has awakened their intuition unto the light of life. Hence,
through the intuition, a saint can easily know what God is saying, who to
marry, where to be based, which is the best job out of four very good options.
Since the intuition is oriented God-wards, spiritual exercises like prayers,
meditation, stillness before the Lord, fasting, will help the intuition to receive
God's things and the conscience can bear true witnesses in alignment with
God's Spirit.
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GOD IS GREATER THAN YOUR CONSCIENCE

1 John 3:19-21 GNB

"This, then, is how we will know that we belong to the truth; this
is how we will be confident in God's presence. If our conscience
condemns us, we know that God is greater than our conscience
and that he knows everything. And so, my dear friends, if our
conscience does not condemn us, we have courage in God's
presence."

The conscience does not just tell us when to do the right thing, it tells
us when we have done the wrong thing and call our attention to repentance.
Its condemnation of our actions should bring remorse and godly sorrow that
leads to repentance. (2 Corinthians 7:10).

So then, this is it, when our conscience condemns us, God is greater
than our conscience and He knows everything that we have done. We ought
to acknowledge our wrong and repent, turning away from it. If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). The condemnation that our conscience brings
shouldn't keep us away from God's presence, rather we should turn to God
who alone can sanctify and purify us.

If our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence to approach

God. But if it does, the right response is repentance towards God. Repentance
helps to make the conscience good and cleanse it from the record of sin.

There are times the conscience may condemn us for certain things that
we do not understand. For instance, a lady's conscience may condemn her for
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wearing trousers because her belief system is based on her religious

inclination, built on what her religious leaders taught. This condemnation
may hinder her from approaching God's presence, however, God doesn't see
anything wrong with what she has done because, His word says, "To the pure,
all things are pure". Our conscience may condemn us even concerning
cultural beliefs and traditions and the Bible says, "Traditions make of no
effect the word of God".

This conscience type is what the Bible calls a weak conscience. The
solution to this is the renewing of the mind with the truth of God's word. God
will not judge you wrong for what His word gives you the liberty to do, but the
traditions of men hinder you from doing. However, your conscience may
judge you wrong because it has believed the traditions of men long enough.
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CHAPTER 4

CONSCIENCE AND FAITH

1 Timothy 3:9

"Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience."

Is there a connection between our sacred faith and our conscience?

Does our faith help our conscience get better in any way? What do believers
have that the unbelievers don't have that make their conscience better
witnesses of the truth?

Jesus said, be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect

(Matthew 5:48). Blamelessness is the will of God for all his children, that we
will walk with Him blamelessly and faultlessly. One of the means that God
has put in place for us to achieve that is holding unto the mystery of the faith
in a pure conscience. A pure conscience is that which does not retain the
record or consciousness of sin. A pure conscience is that which is immersed
in the Holy Ghost, enlightened through the fellowship of truth, bearing
witness to God's voice in the inner man.

At the new birth, man receives the gift of the faith of the Son into his
heart. This faith is what gives him access to the grace of God.

Ephesians 2:8

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of

yourselves: it is the gift of God."

Romans 5:1-2
 63

"Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God

through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God."

Faith is connection to God. Faith is the access to God. Faith is the

attraction that draws God's attention. Without faith it is impossible to please
God, without faith it is impossible to come to God. Those who come to God
must believe that He is (Hebrews 11:6).

Paul admonished Timothy to hold the mystery of the faith in a pure

conscience. The mystery of faith is revealed in the person of Christ. This faith
being spoken of has different definitions in the Bible, they are;

1. The faith of the operation of God (Colossians 2:12).

2. The faith of the Son of God (Galatians 2:20).

3. The faith that is born of God which overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).

This same faith is what God has given us as a gift, this is the faith by
which we live, in other words, outside this faith, we are dead. Our lives are
sustained by it, for the just shall live by his faith. By this faith, our hearts
became an abode of Christ through His Spirit. However, there is an
atmosphere that allows this faith to prosper in us. It is the environment of a
pure conscience.

That is why at new birth, God knowing that the faith of the son cannot
prosper in a heart that is hardened and a conscience that is defiled, He did
something about it. He gave us a new heart, purged our conscience from dead
works and purified our hearts through faith (Ezekiel 36:26, Hebrews 9:4).
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A PURE CONSCIENCE AND A PURE HEART

Matthew 5:8

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Acts 15:8-9

“And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving
them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no
difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”

No man can approach God without God pulling him close. No man can
approach God via works. No matter how morally upright a man is, he cannot
come to God on the ground of morality, only on the ground of faith. Those
who come to him must believe that He exists and He rewards those who seek
Him (Hebrews 11:6).

All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. The heart of man is
deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? This is the condition of
every man that came from Adam. However, at our regeneration in Christ,
some beautiful things happened to us:

1. God gave us the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8).

2. God gave us a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26).

3. God gave us a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26).

4. God purged our conscience from dead works (Hebrews 9:14).

5. God purified our hearts by faith (Acts 15:9).

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5. God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts (Galatians 4:6).

All of these and more happened simultaneously at the instance of our

salvation experience which began by we believing in our heart and confessing
the lordship of Jesus with our mouths (Romans 10:9-10).

Through the saving grace of salvation, the new creation can have a pure
heart. The new heart God gives has the capacity for sustained purity, the kind
of heart that can see God.

What is a pure heart? It is a heart of flesh, broken, contrite, sustaining

the innocence and tenderness of a child and adorned with childlike faith. It is
the heart that is circumcised, not with hands, but by the Holy Ghost to the
praise of God. From such hearts, God will not turn away, rather He will open
up Himself and reveal Himself so that they may see Him as He is. Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Isaiah 66:1-2, Matthew 5:8).

Purity of heart is the foundation for the purity of the conscience. To hold
the faith in pure conscience is to continually exercise the heart, which is the
abode of faith, in purity. The purity of conscience is the environment that
allows faith to prosper. This means, if a man will prosper in his Christian faith
and his walk with God, he must take listening to his pure conscience seriously.
A pure conscience is one which is schooled in the faith, truth and
righteousness of our Lord Jesus. For a believer to consistently violate his
conscience through wrong actions is to be at the risk of making a shipwreck
of his faith.

1 Timothy 1:19
 66

"Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put

away concerning faith have made shipwreck"

1 Timothy 1:19 EASY

"You must continue to trust God. Always do what you know to

be right. Some people have refused to do what is right, even
when they know it. As a result, they no longer believe God's true
message."

These scriptures tell us the importance of always doing what we know

is right. We cannot continue to sin and say, grace abounds. We cannot
continue to violate our conscience and say faith will increase. As a believer,
after a while of consistent wilful disobedience, your conscience can get seared
as with hot iron, your heart can become hardened, and faith can be lost.

Salvation is instantaneous but falling away is not, it is rather the end of

someone who is enlightened in the truth, choosing to live contrary to the truth
he knows, committing to a life of wilful sin. The pure conscience tells us what
is right within the context of God's will and if we do otherwise despite
knowing what is right to do, then we have sinned. Consistent actions of sin
leads to the darkening of the conscience and it is tantamount to defying the
tenets of the faith. This is the pathway to apostasy and the result is damnation.

James 4:17

"Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to

him it is sin."

Hebrews 10:26-29 NIV

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"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the

knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a
fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will
consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of
Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three
witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone
deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God
underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the
covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit
of grace?"

If we observe the life of the apostles, one thing we will consistently

notice is that they kept on committing themselves to the witness of their
conscience. This tells us that we must take the matter of our conscience
seriously. We must do all we can to keep a conscience devoid of offense and
we must serve God with a pure conscience without guile. For God is our judge
who sees every secret thing.

2 Timothy 1:3

"I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure

conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in
my prayers night and day."

1 Peter 3:15-16

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good
conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers,
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they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good

conversation in Christ."

FAITH AND GOOD CONSCIENCE

What does it mean to live with a good or clear conscience? Can a man
live with good conscience without the Holy Spirit?

Acts 23:1

“And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and

brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this
day.”

Acts 23:1-3 MSG

“Paul surveyed the members of the council with a steady gaze,

and then said his piece: “Friends, I’ve lived with a clear
conscience before God all my life, up to this very moment.”

In the beginning, God fellowshipped with men, they were able to walk
with Him and please Him to a measure by listening to their conscience. Both
those who had the mosaic law and those that didn't have the law had a way of
doing the right thing to a measure. Those who had the law had to obey the
law, and hearken to their conscience because their conscience had been
schooled to absorb the value system of the mosaic law as the premise for
judgment. Those who didn't have the mosaic law but obeyed their conscience
and yielded to the judgement of their intuition were also able to do the right
thing to a measure.

Romans 2:14-15
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“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature
the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a
law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their
thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.”

Romans 2:12-15 AMP.

For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish
without [regard to] the Law, and all who have sinned under the
Law will be judged and condemned by the Law. For it is not
those who merely hear the Law [as it is read aloud] who are just
or righteous before God, but it is those who [actually] obey the
Law who will be justified [pronounced free of the guilt of sin and
declared acceptable to Him]. When Gentiles, who do not have
the Law [since it was given only to Jews], do instinctively the
things the Law requires [guided only by their conscience], they
are a law to themselves, though they do not have the Law. They
show that the essential requirements of the Law are written in
their hearts; and their conscience [their sense of right and
wrong, their moral choices] bearing witness and their thoughts
alternately accusing or perhaps defending them.

In every man is a nature that tilts towards moral uprightness. This

nature is an expression of the law of God written in the heart. In every man's
spirit is the law of God in a degree, this law places a demand on men to live
right and to do right. So, those who don't know the only true God can also
have the desire for uprightness, but it is their choice to either respond
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positively or negatively. A consistent negative response is what makes the

human conscience evil and seared as with hot iron.

Jesus said, no man is good except God. People who live morally upright
are those who have learned to submit to their conscience and yield to its
judgment. To them, to do evil is wrong because their conscience tells them so,
to kill, fornicate or take bribe is wrong because their conscience tells them so.

Paul said he lived with a clear conscience all his life, up until the time
that he stood before the council. What gave him such effrontery to make a
statement like that? Paul was a pharisee of pharisees. As a child, he knew the
Torah and grew to become a scholar in the law. The law became the value
system of his conscience. For this reason, he persecuted the Jews and even
had a hand in the murder of Stephen, yet his conscience didn't smite him,
because his conscience has been baptized into the law of Moses. He wasn't
doing the right thing by God's standard, but he was doing the right thing by
the standard of his conscience. So then, a clear conscience doesn't mean
absolute perfection. A man can have a clear conscience and be wrong if his
conscience imbibes a false sense of value and an inaccurate belief system.

The conscience has been God's system of helping man to live uprightly,
right from the beginning. Men like Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham could
walk with God and please Him to a certain degree because of the operation of
God in their conscience via their hearts. The conscience is a part of man that's
designed to be God-oriented, its business is to help you stand upright before
God. God has never lost touch with any man, neither with those who are born
again nor those who are not. The fact that they have a human spirit- which
has a conscience- tells us so. The conscience is one of the anchors that tie man
to the thought of the existence of God and a need to serve Him.
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Ecclesiastes 3:11-12 AMP

“He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time.

He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the
human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the
sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out
(comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan)
from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing
better for them than to rejoice and to do good as long as they
live.”

God has planted eternity in the heart of every man, a deep sense of
longing which nothing can satisfy except God. As long as a man has a heart,
he will ever have that burning desire. Many have tried to quench it with
academia, philosophy, knowledge, work, accomplishment, hard drugs,
money etc., but nothing can satisfy it, but God. Only those who have come
into oneness with God through faith in Christ Jesus can have this void filled.
It is the God-sized hole in every man. The eternity in the heart of men is the
reason there's a consistent pull in the conscience towards uprightness.

CAN A CLEAR CONSCIENCE GET ONE TO HEAVEN?

A good or clear conscience is that which is devoid of offense towards

God and man. A man can be wrong by God's perfect standard and yet have
his conscience approve him, like Paul's conscience approved of his
persecuting the church until Jesus appeared to him. Sincerity doesn't amount
to accuracy, because a man can be sincere and be sincerely wrong. That is why
our conscience is not the ultimate judge, God is and His value system is the
Scripture. One's conscience can approve an action, whereas God's word
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disapproves it. Therefore, we must consistently feed on God’s word until it

trains our conscience and fills our consciousness with the truth.

God is not bound by our conscience; hence, a man must not solely
commit himself to his conscience, but to the word of God for God is greater
than your conscience and His truth, higher.

A good conscience cannot take one to heaven. The best of good

conscience of the unsaved can only produce the, "Filthy rags" type of
righteousness, a righteousness that is unacceptable to God, devoid of faith.

Isaiah 64:6

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses

are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

No amount of adhering to the rules of the conscience can take a man to

heaven, only faith in Christ Jesus by which a man is born again.

John 3:3, 5

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God.

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be

born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God.”

Heaven doesn't open its doors for mere morally good people, but for
those who have been washed by the precious blood of the lamb, those who
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have been translated from darkness to light, those who have been given the
power to become sons of God, because they have received Jesus through faith
in His name.

No matter how good a man's character is, he is still a sinner until he

receives Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Man is not a sinner because he commits
sin, rather he commits sin because he is a sinner. Sin is first a nature before
it is an action and the only solution to the innate sin nature of man is Jesus.

Acts 4:12

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other

name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved.”

Although, Paul had a clear conscience, but he would have gone to hell
with his clear conscience if he didn't believe Jesus Christ as his Lord and
Saviour. The sin that takes people to hell is, not believing in the Lord Jesus
and receiving Him as one’s personal Saviour and Lord.

John 16:7-9

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I

go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto
you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is
come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and
of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me.”

WHY DO BELIEVERS NEED A GOOD CONSCIENCE?

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1 Timothy 1:5-7 AMP

“But the goal of our instruction is love [which springs] from a

pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some
individuals have wandered away from these things into empty
arguments and useless discussions, wanting to be teachers of the
Law [of Moses], even though they do not understand the terms
they use or the subjects about which they make [such] confident
declarations.”

Paul revealed to us that the goal of the instructions they give is Love.
The goal of the whole tenets of faith which is the doctrine of Christ, of the New
Testament established in His blood, is love. Love is the end of all things, it is
the consummation of our journey, it is the peak of our quest, the height of our
accomplishment and our very destination. This is not the love that is sissy or
sensual or carnal, engrossed in fleshy works and desires; rather, one that
springs from the bosom of the eternal one, the God kind of love described in
1 Corinthians 13.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity

vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself
unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh
no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be
prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall
cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh instructed that we love the Lord with all
our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we should love our neighbours as
ourselves. This instruction cannot be carried out by a carnal man, because he
has no ability for such existential reality. However, for the man in Christ, it
begins first as an inherited nature from God, his father, for love is a fruit of
the recreated human spirit (Galatians 5:22). Also, God has given to His
children His instructions that if adhered to, will help them grow the fruit of
love. The whole commandment is summed up in one and helps us achieve one
thing, love; love for God, love for his people and love for humanity.

Paul said, this love through a believer, springs forth from a three-
layered foundation; a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Faith
is mentioned last because it is the first coach of the foundation upon which
love can subsist. This faith is not a sheer belief, it is the gift of God, the very
faith of the Son of God. This imparted faith into the heart of the believer
grants him entrance into the Kingdom of the grace of our Lord Jesus.

By salvation through faith in Jesus, God gives man a new heart with a
purged conscience, but it takes obedience to the instructions of God's word
for a man to keep his heart pure and his conscience undefiled. Hence, the
need to keep our heart with all diligence because out of it springs forth the
issues of life (Proverbs 4:24).

This is so crucial to our daily living because disobedience corrupts the

heart, defiles the conscience, and disallows the flow of love through us, but
obedience keeps the heart pure, makes the conscience good, keeps faith alive,
and sustains the love flow. Here is one of Paul's secrets to a life of consistent
spiritual development.
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Acts 24:16

“And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience

void of offence toward God, and toward men.”

"...Herein do I exercise myself..." that sounds like God won't do it for

me. I have to do this myself. To exercise yourself to have a good conscience is
to guard your heart against offense towards God and towards men, obey God's
instructions, and consistently sanctify your conscience through the truth that
makes free. Paul does this always. His heart had to be free from the load of
offense towards God and men. To walk in love before God and men is the plan,
and a way to achieve that is keeping a good conscience. Whatever tampers
with your conscience will tamper with your flow of love towards God and men.
Hence, the need to guard your heart and keep your conscience.

At another time, Paul revealed that when we obey the law and
ordinances of the authorities placed over us, we should not just do it because
we want to avoid the penalty for disobedience but also for conscience's sake.
(Romans 13:5). Thus, for the man in Christ, there is no place for eye service
and men pleasing, all things must be done orderly with a good conscience and
as unto the Lord. The wisdom here is this, for conscience’s sake and to be
blameless before God, we should do the right thing always even when it feels
like we have justifiable reasoning to not do it. The conscience immersed in
God’s will, helps us to live straight, to please God and walk in love towards
others.

Peter bore witness to this.

1 Peter 2:19
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“For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God

endure grief, suffering wrongfully.”

1 Peter 3:15-16

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good
conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of
evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good
conversation in Christ.”

Here, Peter said, no matter what is happening around, watch out for
your conscience. Keep a good and clear conscience always, because God sees
all things, even the secret issues between you and your conscience. Peter
instructed us that even to the point of suffering wrongfully, we should endure
for conscience's sake.

Why can't we side-line the conscience and live the way we like? You
can't do that because God works in and through the conscience to get to you,
amongst other ways.

Another reason why we need to keep our conscience pure is because of

the attacks and persecution we will face from men. They will speak against us,
what we do, how we live; with false accusations, either in ignorance or envy,
but if our conscience is good and does not condemn us, then have we
confidence towards God. And if our conscience condemns us, God is greater
than our conscience.
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Paul spoke of the believer’s convictions about things, he mentioned that

some people esteem some days higher than other days, however, each person
should be fully convinced or persuaded in his heart. That is, whatever your
conscience bears witness to, whatever you feel right to do, do. Walk by the
persuasion of what you feel right about in your heart as to things that Christ
didn’t explicitly give an instruction about. It is okay to have a different
conviction from others (on issues that Scripture didn’t give a definite
instruction), however, be sure you are operating from the stand point of faith
in God and your understanding of His will.

Romans 14:5

“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth

every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind.”

Romans 14:5 (TPT)

“In the same way, one person regards a certain day as more
sacred than another, and another person regards them all alike.
There is nothing wrong with having different personal
convictions about such matters.”

Lastly, those who don’t pay attention to listening to their conscience are
at the risk of making shipwreck or ruining their faith. The mystery, virtues and
standards of the faith can only be held by a pure conscience (1 Timothy 3:9).
Despising the place of the conscience can make a man ruin his faith and that
can give the devil an advantage over the believer in Christ. Ruining your faith
implies becoming confused, frustrated and doubting the very things you were
once convinced of as touching your walk with God and your place in Christ.
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1 Timothy 1:19

“Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put

away concerning faith have made shipwreck.”

1 Timothy 1:19 (GNB)

“And keep your faith and a clear conscience. Some people have
not listened to their conscience and have made a ruin of their
faith.”
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CHAPTER 5

THE ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENCE

Hebrews 8:10-11

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their
mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every
man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.”

Hebrews 10:14-17

“For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are

sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for
after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into
their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more”

In the New Testament, the conscience of the believer has been purged,
sprinkled, and sanctified by the blood of Jesus. More so, God gave him a new
heart upon which he has committed Himself to write His laws and to put the
same in their minds. This commitment made by God is a faithful saying upon
which the believer can place his confidence. On this ground, we can boldly say
the believer in Christ Jesus is designed to have an enlightened conscience. An
enlightened conscience is a conscience that is taught by God, filled with the
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light of the knowledge of the glory of God. It is one whose belief system is
rooted in the law of the Spirit of life as revealed in the Scripture.

The writing of the laws in our hearts and the putting of same in our
mind is not an instantaneous thing, it is a result of our progressive walk with
the Lord. If it were the other way, then we all would be mature, complete, and
entire lacking nothing in our spirits, souls and minds, right from our rebirth
experience.

It is revealed in the Scripture that the shining or rising of the Lord in

our hearts takes us on a journey from evening (darkness) to morning (perfect
day light)

2 Peter 1:19

“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do

well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,
until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”

Also, the wise man said, the path of the just is a shining light that shines
more and more until the perfect day (Proverbs 4:18). This tells us that there's
a place for increase, for getting better, for upgrade and advancement in light.

The writing of the law in our hearts is God shining in our hearts as unto
a light that shines in a dark place. This happens through sanctification and
renewing of the mind by the entrance of the word into our hearts.

2 Corinthians 4:6

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,

hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
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SANCTIFICATION

Sanctification is the cleansing, upgrading and the maturing of the

conscience through the light of redemption. The sanctification of the
conscience purifies the conscience and brings it to a place of innocence and
childlikeness. It cleanses it from the record of sin and imparts the testimony
of righteousness and our identity with God upon our hearts. There are three
important things to know about our sanctification, they are.

1. We have been sanctified (An event that has happened to us).

Hebrews 10:14

“For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are

sanctified.”

This tells us that an event happened the day we received the life of God,
we became sanctified unto God. The offering of Jesus' life has made
sanctification available to all, to be received through faith in the offering of
His life for the sin of men. Through faith in Christ Jesus, we have received
this essential blessing that distinguishes us from the world and we have been
sanctified. This sanctification is the setting us apart unto God, and the
sprinkling of our conscience by the blood and purging it from dead works that
we may serve the living God.

Hebrews 10:22

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,

having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our
bodies washed with pure water.”
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Hebrews 9:14

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

2. Christ is our Sanctification (A person that we host).

1 Corinthians 1:30

“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us

wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption:”

Our sanctification is not just something that happened in the past, it is

also a person whose Spirit we have received into our hearts. The scripture
above implies that our union with Christ is doing something to us. It is
releasing an essential supply of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
the full import of our redemption. The man in Christ is consistently
experiencing inward sanctification by the operation of the Spirit in his heart
because to be in Christ means to be in the fountain of sanctification
(cleansing, purging, purification).

3. The truth Sanctifies

John 17:17

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

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Every time the truth comes to us, it doesn't leave us the same way. It
stirs us into higher levels of sanctification and it helps our mind to adopt a
new knowledge base and belief system, influencing our conscience in the light
of the truth.

RENEWING OF THE MIND

Romans 12:2

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by

the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

The transformation that comes through the renewing of the mind also
impacts the conscience. It is with the conscience that we can judge and prove
the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. The renewing of the mind helps
the reasoning faculty by setting the right boundaries and pathways for
thoughts through the knowledge of the truth. As a man thinks in his heart so,
is he. Hence, we are made to be better people with better judgment and
perception of things as we imbibe new thought patterns rooted in the truth of
redemption.

The renewing of the mind entails; unlearning, learning, and relearning.

It involves the wiping of wrong knowledge rooted in the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, and the writing of God's law upon the mind as He has
promised. This happens at the revelation of truth that we receive through the
reading and hearing of God’s word, divine encounters and supernatural
experiences. When the truth is revealed, received, believed and obeyed, the
stronghold of wrong knowledge in the mind is pulled down.
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THE TESTIMONY OF THE CONSCIENCE

2 Corinthians 1:12

“For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that

in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but
by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world,
and more abundantly to you-ward.”

The testimony of the conscience is true to the extent that the conscience
is immersed in the Holy Ghost and fed with the knowledge of the truth. The
spiritual man judges all things, the judgment of the spiritual man shouldn't
be all cerebral, rather spiritual, placing issues side by side with the truth.
Looking into things through the eyes of the truth. Believers in Christ should
have confidence in the testimony of their conscience if it is loaded with the
word of God and immersed in the Holy Ghost. The testimony of the
conscience goes beyond the instantaneous judgment of wrong thoughts and
actions before and after it is committed. It also points to God's will for our
lives. If we have not learned how to receive the ministry of our conscience to
keep us from sin, we may find it difficult to receive its ministry that leads us
in God's will.

Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom (Colossians 3:16).
We must be fully conversant with what the Bible says about every area of our
lives. The knowledge will become the value system and belief system of the
conscience from whence it fetches its judgement. When we walk in the
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witness of our conscience that is full of the truth, it brings freedom and
victory.

THE MATURE AND WEAK CONSCIENCE

The mature conscience is one that is fed with God's word in all wisdom,
rooted in the consciousness of righteousness, and the identity of the new
creation in Christ.

Colossians 3:16

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;

teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the
Lord.”

This conscience type rejoices in the will of God and the liberty of the
saints in the Spirit. Wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. A man
with a mature conscience is grounded and established in the revelation of
God's will through the Word and the Spirit. A conscience can be strong in an
area and be weak in another area, the area where the conscience is weak is the
area where light is deficient – the Word of God is light (Psalm 119:105).

A mature conscience helps a man to enjoy the fullness of redemption. It

is the conscience subdued under the government of the Spirit of God. A man
with a mature conscience knows what it means to be free yet bound. He has
the liberty to do all things, yet has the strength of discipline that constrains
and confines him in God’s perfect will. Another major character of men with
mature conscience is that they are quick to repent and they tremble at the
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Word of God, they have the innocence of a child and their heart cannot sustain
the thought of ill or evil. They are tender and easily malleable in God’s hand,
rooted in the revelation of the fatherhood of God, they submit themselves
utterly to the privilege of servanthood under the hand of God. A matured
believer is one with a mature conscience walking in love towards all men and
living in the fear of God; the beginning of his wisdom.

A weak conscience is one that is not grounded in the knowledge of God's

value system as revealed in the Holy Scripture. This conscience type is rooted
in the consciousness of sin and it is subject to the elemental things of this
world. It derives its value system for pleasing God from culture, religion,
philosophy, and traditions of men. It is easily offended because it is weak. It
accuses itself of inconsequential things like eating meat, or days of the week
to worship God, or what cloth to wear to fellowship, wearing of earrings or
braided hair, wearing of trousers etc.

Paul revealed to us in his epistle to the Corinthians, the difference

between the weak and maturing conscience using meat offered to idol as a
case study.

1 Corinthians 8:4-13

“As concerning therefore, the eating of those things that are

offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in
the world, and that there is none other God but one.

For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or

in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many),
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But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things,
and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all
things, and we by him.

Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with
conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto
an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are

we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.

But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a
stumbling block to them that are weak.

For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the
idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be
emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols;

And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for
whom Christ died?

But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak
conscience, ye sin against Christ.

Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh

while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.”

The knowledge of God and His word matures the conscience but
ignorance of the same makes the conscience weak. Those who are of a
matured conscience are not bound to the elemental things, but to the Word
of God which has given them liberty by the Holy Spirit. And those who are of
weak conscience think pleasing God is difficult and burdensome, being
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conscious of sin in the flesh lest it overpowers them. Whereas, looking to

Christ, our very identity, is the way to victory over sin.

We have been delivered from elemental things. But those who are weak
in the faith or their conscience will suffer a lot of guilt and condemnation for
every and anything. They will also wrongly judge those who are walking in the
liberty of Christ, for not subjecting themselves as they did to the elemental
things.

Colossians 2:16-17

“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in

respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of
Christ.”

Romans 14:1-3, 5

“Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful
disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things:
another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth
despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not
judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth

every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind.”

Those who have mature conscience should help those who are weak in
their conscience and not use their liberty as a source of offense for those
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whose consciences are weak. God frowns at such. Christ died for both those
with weak and maturing consciences, for we all are the Lord's heritage.
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CHAPTER 6

CONSCIENCE AND THE INWARD WITNESS

The voice of an enlightened conscience can be trusted as a witness from

God that can lead us in the Holy Ghost. The recreated human spirit with its
faculty of intuition, conscience, and fellowship, can receive the things from
the Spirit of God and communicate them in a relatable way to the mind. Christ
dwells in our hearts by faith. He has His habitation in us by the precious Holy
Spirit. We are one spirit with Him because we have been baptized into Him
through His precious Holy Spirit. We are joined with Him in one Spirit. It is
for this reason, that we can be led by the Spirit. For as many as are led by the
Spirit are the sons of God. One of the ways we are led by the Holy Spirit is
through the witness He bears with our spirit which we perceive in our
intuition and know in our heart through the conscience.

Romans 8:16

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God:”

The day we got saved, we didn't probably hear the voice as of a trumpet,
thundering, "Now you are saved, walk in your salvation." Rather, we just
knew in our innermost being that we were saved, we felt anew, we felt like a
different person from within. We had the strong conviction in our hearts that
we are now sons and daughters of God. I do ask people how they knew they
were saved after confessing the lordship of Jesus; their response usually is, "I
just knew."
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That right there is exactly how the inward witness works. The inward
witness is the witness of the Spirit placed upon our hearts that we capture as
perception in our intuition and know in our conscience. And this right here,
is the primary way through which God will lead us in our daily lives.
Therefore, if we do not learn to pay attention to the witness in our conscience,
we will miss out greatly on what God is saying to us.

Corinthians 6:17

“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”

The believer in Christ Jesus is one with Him and should enjoy oneness
of Spirit, nature and mind with the Lord. Because of our oneness with the
Lord, we can think His thoughts, we can hear His voice, He can speak through
us, He can live through us; for we are in Him, He is in us and we are one. Just
as when Jesus said, “I and my Father are one,” He said that with respect to
His nature, actions, thoughts, words and works. (John 10:30).

A child of God has the Spirit of God indwelling Him. The Spirit speaks
to him, moves him, impresses His thoughts upon his hearts, and leads him.
As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God (Romans 6:14),
and a primary way by which we receive this leading, is the voice of the Lord
in our conscience.

Joseph Sturgeon once said, "The voice of the Lord in your conscience is
higher than any vision or prophecy." Hence, the need to learn to subject every
supernatural revelation, manifestation, vision, voice or encounter to the truth
of the Scripture and the voice of God in the conscience - inward witness. Our
enlightened conscience is a reliable guide to discerning the will of the Lord.
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CONSCIENCE AND DISCERNMENT

1 Corinthians 2:15

“But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is

judged of no man.”

Our discernment gets heightened as we exercise it through usage.

Spiritual discernment is premised on the activity of the Holy Spirit in our
hearts. The yes, no, wait, go, do it, don't, it is of me, it is not of me, that we
perceive in our hearts is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in us. For it
is God that is at work in us both to will and to do His good pleasures. The
working of the willingness of God in our spirits results in the leading to do a
thing or not, in our conscience.

Philippians 2:13

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his

good pleasure.”

The conscience is the voice of our human spirit; when a man is born of
God, he has a recreated human spirit which is in union with the Holy Spirit –
they are one. The conscience of the new man can be trusted as a reliable
witness in the will of God, because it is inclined to bearing witness to the
proceedings from the Holy Ghost as received in the human spirit.

The enlightened conscience is that which is prospering in the light of

the knowledge of God's word and can discern the movements of the Spirit. By
the witness of our enlightened conscience, we can know if what we are doing
will please the Lord or not. We can also know the direction God is taking us
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as touching; who to marry, where to be based, what business to do, who to

partner with, what to invest in, from the witness of our conscience.

Your conscience can bear witness to something that your mind agrees
or disagrees with. The carnal mind is sensual, it minds the things of the flesh,
but the spiritual mind, minds the things of the Spirit and aligns with the true
witness from the conscience.

We must know how to differentiate between the voice of reasoning and

the testimony of our conscience. God did not design us to reason our way
through life. He designed us to live by the Spirit, and to do so, we must learn
to discern the operations, movement, leading, and the voice of His Spirit in
our conscience.

Spiritual maturity involves accurate spiritual discernment. The way to

come into the accuracy of discernment is to be filled with the word of God and
to prayerfully wait on God and listen to His voice in our hearts.

Hebrews 5:14

“But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even
those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern
both good and evil.”

Many have fallen into the traps of the enemy because they didn't pay
attention to the witness of the Spirit in their hearts. Many have been duped
because they rejected the testimony of their conscience to pay attention to the
voice of covetousness in their mind. Many have fallen victims of wrong
marriages because they counted as nothing all the warnings God gave them,
and their lack of peace throughout the whole process.
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THE INWARD SIGNS

In learning discernment, we must know how to read the inward signs.

The inward signs are the operations of the Spirit that are not communicated
via words. These inward signs are pointers to what God is saying or doing or
calling our attention to. These inward signs some time come as feeling of a
weight on the heart, a sense of burden, a sense of ill-feeling, lack of peace, a
feeling of awkwardness or discomfort towards a thing. These signs mentioned
usually come as pointers to call our attention to a need to pray, to pay
attention to what God is showing us, to stop on our track or wait.

Supernatural inward peace that surpasses understanding is another

inward sign. This is not pseudo peace that one has when everything looks
calm on the natural, this peace prospers even in the storm. The feeling of joy,
calmness, zero pressure, are signs of God's leading or go ahead in a particular
direction.

Isaiah 55:12

“For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace:”

Philippians 4:7

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall

keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

When seeking answers from God, take good time to pray and study what
the Scripture says about the subject. Then pay attention to the thoughts in
your heart, perceptions, and how you feel on the inside, the answer you are
looking for will be there, somewhere on the inside.
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Another operation of the inward witness is what Paul referred to as “Being

bound in the spirit.”

Acts 20:22

“And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not

knowing the things that shall befall me there:”

Acts 20:22 AMP

“And now, compelled by the Spirit and obligated by my

convictions, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will
happen to me there,”

Here is an operation of the Holy Spirit in Paul's spirit with witness

borne by his conscience, this is not just awareness, it is a knowing, a
conviction that places a demand on him. He felt a compulsion under God to
go to Jerusalem and to this, his conscience testified.

YOUR CONSCIENCE AND THE HOLY GHOST

Can the witness of your conscience negate the witness of the Holy
Ghost? How do you know if it is your conscience or the Holy Spirit that is
talking to you?

Romans 9:1

“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing

me witness in the Holy Ghost.”

The enlightened conscience is not just the one that is loaded with God's
word, it is also immersed in the Holy Ghost, as a man gives himself to prayers,
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meditation on God's word, waiting on Him, and seeking His face. The believer
who prays in tongue a lot will always have experiential contact with the Spirit
of God, and every time this happens, his conscience is helped and upgraded
to discern the Holy Spirit and His voice, better.

Proverbs 20:27

“The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the
inward parts of the belly.”

The human spirit is God's candle in him, but sin extinguished the light
on the candle of every man in Adam. This doesn't mean that man’s spirit is no
longer active, but that his spirit has lost touch with God who is light. Jesus is
the light of the world; He is the true light that lightens up every man that
comes to the world. Anyone who believes in Christ will have his spirit lit by
the light of life making him a new creation. The conscience of the new creation
bears witness through the radiance of the light from the candle, that is why it
is called the enlightened conscience. (John 1:4 - 9).

The enlightened and maturing conscience will always bear witness to

the will of God, if it is not so, the apostles won't commit themselves to their
conscience so much. In the scripture above, Paul mentioned that his
conscience bears him witness in the Holy Ghost. This means, his conscience
bears him witness in the will of God. They [the apostles] believe so much in
the witness of their conscience and they don't hide it. They revealed that God
expects us all to do the same. God expects that we value the testimony of our
enlightened conscience because it bears witness to the revelation of His will.

2 Corinthians 1:12
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“For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in

simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by
the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and
more abundantly to you-ward.”

Here, Paul unrepentantly said, he rejoices in the testimony of his

conscience about him. This is because, he believes that the testimony of his
conscience is the testimony of God.

Peter the apostle, also showed us that, although the testimony of his
conscience is a separate reality from the voice of the Holy Spirit, they still bear
witness to the same thing.

Acts 5:32

“And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy
Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.”

Peter meant that there were two witnesses, he was speaking from the
conviction in his heart (a place of assurance in his conscience that he is saying
the truth), and the Holy Ghost was also bearing witness in the hearts of the
people.

Can the Holy Spirit talk to you separate from your conscience? Yes,
when He speaks to you in your ears with an audible voice. But if it is an inward
conversation, He certainly will speak to your human spirit, you will perceive
it with your intuition and know it in your conscience.
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CHAPTER 7

CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS

Galatians 3:27

“For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put
on Christ.”

Romans 13:14

“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for
the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

David said, I have set the Lord always before me, because He is at my
right hand I shall not be moved. (Psalms 16:8). We must learn the art of
setting the Lord before us, always! We must sustain the art of consistently
gazing upon the Lord, beholding Him as the primary object of our affection
and meditation at all times.

As many of us that have been baptized into Christ by His spirit, have
put on Christ, but then, we need to put on the consciousness that we are in
Christ. We need to wear this consciousness like our uniform for earthly
existence, it must become our identity.

Set your affection on things above where Christ is seated at the right
hand of God (Colossians 3:3). Daily meditation and communion of Christ
through the Holy Spirit brings us to a place of active engagement with the
mind of Christ. Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you which is also in
Christ Jesus,” and the way to do this is by sustaining the thought of Christ and
His glorious Kingdom in our hearts. As we spend time thinking about Him,
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He begins to think through us. This is what communion of the Holy Spirit is
about. It is the opening up before the Lord, the pouring out of our hearts and
souls, the sharing of our lives with Him in intimate friendship.

CHRIST CENTREDNESS

Are you familiar with the word, "Christocentric?" It means, Christ-

centeredness. This has to do with putting Christ at the centre of our lives and
making Him the metric of judgment for all things. This will be impossible
without fellowshipping with His Word and His Spirit. The new creation in
Christ has been designed to live in a certain way, our makeup is framed and
configured to prosper by feeding on Christ, learning of Christ, and looking to
Christ. The strength of our prosperity in life is premised upon what we feed
on and look to.

Hebrews 12:2

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”.

Looking unto Jesus means, as you live your daily life, He is your
ultimate and absolute quest. You depend on Him in and for all things, what
He has to say, what He will have you do and what He thinks of you. Living
this way will help every saint know and remain in God's will.

Jesus lived a God-centred life on the earth and He revealed to us that

this was the secret to His successful ministry.

John 5:19-20
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“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth
the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth
the Son likewise.

For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that
himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these,
that ye may marvel.”

The sort of results Jesus had in ministry was phenomenal and has not
been paralleled in the history of humanity by any man. Here lies His secret;
looking to the Father. To see what the Father was doing, He had to maintain
a consistent gaze on the Father. His ministry and ministering were from an
unending ‘visions’ of God, He simply duplicated what He saw the Father
doing, and for this reason, He had hundred percent result.

We can only be Christ-centred to the extent to which we know Him in

person, by the revelation of the Spirit and the study of the Scripture. The Old
Testament scriptures revealed Christ to us using types and forms that the
people could relate with. It also revealed Christ to us through prophecy, his
birth, journey, assignment, death, burial and resurrection were captured in
Old Testaments prophetic scriptures. The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John) revealed His birth, childhood, growth, days of manifestation,
ministry, way of life, and teachings about the Kingdom and the Father. The
Epistles show the implication of His life, death, resurrection and ascension to
us individually and as a cooperate body. All these are written for our
admonition, and we are obliged to read and study that we may know whom
and what we have received, who we are now, what is ours now and how to
appropriate them.
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LEARNING CHRIST

Ephesians 4:20-21

“But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard

him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus”

Here, Paul was talking about the things that the Ephesians have heard
of the revelations of Christ through His servants and the indwelling Holy
Spirit. We should give ourselves to learning Christ, as a lifetime commitment.
We will not know how to walk in His ways and please Him if we will not learn
Him, we learn Him by learning of Him.

The best personality that can teach us of Christ is His Spirit because no one
knows Him as His Spirit does, and His Spirit has been sent to teach us and to
lead us into all Truth. The Truth is and is in Christ, to learn of Christ is to be
established in the Truth. Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, that He shall take
of what belongs to Him (Christ) and show us.

1 Corinthians 2:11

“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of
man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man,
but the Spirit of God.” -

John 16:15

“All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore, said I, that
he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”
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All things that of Him is captured in the Word. Hence, the Holy Spirit
will take of the Word and shew us. He will show us the way through the
Scripture. For all scripture is given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and it
is profitable for reproof, correction, doctrine and instructions in
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect and furnished for every
good work (2. Timothy 3:16).

Jesus also brought to our notice, another way we learn of Him;

Matthew 11:29

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Taking the yoke of the Lord is submitting under His mighty hand. It is
bearing His burden and walking side by side with Him, this practically means,
following Him in active service and participating in His Kingdom agenda.
This posture is one of the ways we learn His meekness and lowly heartedness.

Ephesians 5:1

“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.”

Lastly, we learn Christ in the fellowship of the saints and by observing

men who have been treading this hallowed path before us. Paul boldly
projected himself to the Corinthians that they should follow him as he follows
Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:1

“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”

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It is easier for people to learn from us who they can see, than from those
they cannot see. That is the essence of accurate discipleship; the sheep knows
and hears the shepherd's voice while the lamb follows the sheep. The lambs
are tended and nurtured until they grow into sheep that hear the voice of the
Lord (John 10:4).

God may also project one or two persons to you that He wants you to
learn of Him from. Just as the Scripture says through Paul, follow men
through whom faith and patience obtained the promise. (Hebrews 6: 12)

EVER-EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS

The conscience and the consciousness of man are highly connected. The
consciousness of the believer has an active impact on his conscience.
Whatever he is consistently conscious of, will form a conviction and belief
system that becomes a part of the value system of his conscience. The man
that is always conscious of not committing sin and not displeasing God will
always find himself in the valley of mistakes, error, acts of sin, and the pool of
guilt and condemnation. You build an atmosphere for the manifestation of
whatever you are conscious of. A man who is conscious of his identity in Christ
as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus will through his consciousness,
build an atmosphere of righteousness and holiness around himself, helping
him please God better.

A weak conscience is sin conscious but a maturing conscience is

righteousness conscious. The difference between the two is the accurate
knowledge of the identity of the saints in Christ Jesus.
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We are born again and have eternal life. We have been called into a life
of eternal fellowship with God from everlasting to everlasting. Our destiny is
to ever fellowship with divinity in His infinite varied expression that we may
be conformed to His image in all things.

We will spend the whole of our lives both on the earth and after this
world unpacking the precious gift of eternal life. Eternal life is the life of God,
given as a gift to humanity that they may share in His nature and come into
the image of His Son Jesus Christ, who became the firstborn amidst many
brethren. This life is the highest quality of life in existence, it is the same
quality of life as our Father.

1 John 5:11

“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.”

John 17:3 TPT

“Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true
God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ, as the Son whom
you have sent.”

Romans 8:29

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be

conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren.”

Eternal life is unpacked by knowledge, it becomes real and tangible to

us as we come into the experiential knowledge of God and Jesus Christ. Jesus
can be known in time to a degree, but the spiritual man is not bound by time.
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Hence, Jesus grants spiritual encounters to His saints that they may know
Him by experience in a spirit-to-spirit kind of contact that imparts the soul
with the light of transformation and the mind with the light of accurate
knowledge.

Encounters with God, spiritual revelations, and supernatural

experiences are core for every believer. They are major ways we come into the
experiential knowledge of God and renewal of the mind.

God wants to be known, Jesus wants to reveal Himself, but they are
more than what a book can capture. They have given us the Bible to serve as
a doorway for us to step into the other side of the veil where we can have face
to face, heart to heart intimate fellowship with our Father. For the believers
in Christ Jesus, no veil separates us from having face-to-face fellowship with
God. We however must know how to open the door of our heart that Jesus
may gain entrance and come in and dine with us. (Revelation 3:20).

Every true and edifying Holy Ghost-inspired encounter we have

expands our consciousness of spiritual things, enlightens our conscience with
the light of true knowledge of God, renews our mind, and makes our
discernment of good and evil sharper.

It will take us eternity to know God, hence, God has set eternity in our
heart so that only Him can satisfy us. The eternity set in our hearts is the God-
size-hole that we are to fill with the experiential knowledge of God, because,
the accurate knowledge of God comes through experiencing Him and His
Christ. The more of Him we know by experience, the more expanded our
consciousness becomes. We are designed to have a consciousness that
captures the expanse of eternity. For this reason, God placed eternity in our
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heart, however, the only mechanism that correctly feeds and activates our
consciousness in this manner is eternal life. The result of this will be an
increasingly enlightened conscience that is full of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has
planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot
see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
 PUBLISHER’S NOTE

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OTHER BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOADS ARE:

• The Enlightened Conscience.
• The Christocentric Prophet.
• Let All Prophesy.
• Angels - Scriptural Exploration 0n the Ministry of Angels.
• Deliverance from Demonic Affliction.
• The Transgenerational plan of God (Mantles - Vol. 1).
• Spheres of Influence (Mantles - Vol. 2).
• Mandates and Measures (Mantles - Vol. 3).
• The School of the Spirit.
• The Spirits of Just Men.
• The Anointing of the Scribe.
• Demystifying Dreams.
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• Lessons from the Prayer Life of Jesus.

Mini e-books include:

• Victory Through Faith.
• The Mystery of Rest.
• The Power of Retreating.
• Creating the Future.
• Living by Prophecy.
• Tongues and Creativity.
• The Beauty of Ordinations.
• Purpose Discovery.
• Revisiting Spiritual Experiences.
• Intercession.
• Christians in the Market place.
• Dreams and Visions.
• Understanding Times and Seasons.

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