There are too many people who have lost their conscience these days. A youth at our church lost all the money he had saved since he was a child, 20 million won, he had saved in the company through a phone scam. What should we do? It must be resolved by the Holy Spirits conscience. Today we will look into the conscience of the Holy Spirit.
1. It is the conscience that pays attention to salvation.
The commander could not understand why Paul was so hated by the Jews and wanted to know the truth. So he called the Sanhedrin Council, the highest legislative body of the Jewish people. Paul was always repentant for the murder of Stevan. Before the conversion, he was recognized for killing Stevan and worked as a member of the council. But now, Paul stood before his former colleagues of the council as a sinner. The word 'looked' means 'to fix the eyes and pay close attention.'Paul could have been ashamed of himself standing in front of the public meeting as a sinner, but he rather paid attention to people proudly because of salvation. People like Paul gain strenght to do good things because they focus on others salvation and that is the conscience of the Holy Spirit. The father of a youth who got scammed is one of the mokjas at church. He looked at his daughters salvation and gathered his children. He told them: first, indirect experience is important for the daughter since she only focuses on her business and that she should listen to others carefully. Second, think of this scam incident as a big donation to help others and to start over because he would pay off a tenth of her debt. Third, he should not have joined her daughter in gossiping about her coworker who bullied her. Who can fix the broken heart? This youth has begun to go out to mokjang and is regaining her heart.
2. It is a conscience that properly serves God.
Looking at the Jews who tried to kill him, Paul called them 'brothers'. This is the language of salvation. And he said that he served the Lord according to the conscience. Conscience carries the meaning of same thoughts and common enlightenment. Conscience enables us to discern what is wrong and right. It makes us feel uncomfortable about whatever is wrong. Paul did what looked good to Gods eyes. We cannot serve God properly with our own conscience. We cannot find any standard of good conscience in us. The standard must come from Gods Word. The conscience of the Holy Spirit lets us realize how corrupt and fallen we are and enables us to leave the standard outside of us. The Word serve means 'to do accordingly as a citizen.' Paul meant that he served as a people of God. The good conscience is about relationships. It is not about our actions but our being, our status. If one cannot make good relationships in the world as a Christian, that means he does not know about Gods good conscience. Hearing and seeing with the Lord is conscience. Because he had followed the conscience of the Holy Spirit to this point, God could be confident even before the SanhedrinIt st.
3. It strikes on our mouth, not others.
The High Priest Ananias got angry at Pauls words about fulfilling his duty to God and ordered people to strike Paul on the mouth. Ananias thought that those who were present there were good at serving the Lord. They did not care about Gods Word or His heart, but they still judged everything by the Law. When we have power and when others tell us unpleasant things, we try to strike them on the mouth. We do not want to hear from others because we are our own standards. Then Paul called a whitewashed wall, meaning a hypocrite. Then others criticized Paul for insulting Gods high priest. Then Paul quoted Exodus 22:28 and admitted that he made a mistake. To break a whitewashed wall, we have to strike on our mouth. The conscience of the Holy Spirit starts from admitting our own sin. We have to remember that we are the whitewashed wall. The conscience of the Holy Spirit admits ones mistake and turns back from there, realizing that the mistake was a violation against Gods Word.
The conscience of the Holy Spirit focuses on salvation. It makes a relationship with the Lord proper to serve him properly. It strikes on us, not others. When we see ourselves objectively, we can turn back from the corruption. I pray that all of you have time to be with the Lord to restore the relationship with the Lord. Strike yourselves, not others, with the conscience of the Holy Spirit.
