God

500 – Conscience and The Renewed Mind, Part 2

Conscience is your mental awareness because of your previous learning, thinking, and experience. Because of the love of God that's in our hearts, we can now help others by sharing The Word of God with them.

Everything starts with what you're thinking. What are you thinking about now? If you line your thinking up with The Word of God, you can watch what you think, speak, and do.

2 Corinthians 4:1 & 2 “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; ² But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.”

To every man's conscience, to every man's thinking, we try to get people to what The Word says we are to think.

2 Corinthians 5:10 & 11 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. ¹¹ Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.”

We can think that way only if we have built The Word of God into our conscience.

1 Timothy 1:1 – 4 “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; ² Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. ³ As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, ⁴ Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.”

Whenever we go to God's word for answers for our lives, opportunities, we should always leave with grace, mercy, and peace working in our lives. If we ever leave The Word of God, without grace, mercy, and peace, it means that we have missed something. We have not accurately understood The Word that we read. God's word always wants us to have grace, mercy, and peace in our lives.

Timothy heard Paul teach what was written in the Church Epistles hundreds of times. He was with Paul for over 2 years in Ephesus.

1 Timothy 1:5 “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:”

1 Timothy 1:18 & 19 “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; ¹⁹ Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:”

The word prophecy means the Revelation that Timothy got during his ordination, telling him about his long suits. What is being said here is Get doing it.

You know how to put away a good conscience. By stopping renewing your mind to The Word of God. By doing the opposite of what it says in Proverbs chapter 3, Verses five and six.

Proverbs 3:5 & 6 “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

It's done in your mind; watch what you think. This is hard work, but you can do it, and it's worth it.

We can be trained by putting The Word on in our minds. So that we can stand, just like a dedicated nurse can, and soldiers. They're both trained, and we're being trained with God and His Word. We need to have strong minds on God's word to be able to help others. We can have prior thinking and experiences of doing God's Word.

1 Timothy 3:8 & 9 “Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; ⁹ Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.”

1 Timothy 4:1 & 2 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; ² Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

Ephesians 5:14 – 21 “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. ¹⁵ See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, ¹⁶ Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; ¹⁹ Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; ²⁰ Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; ²¹ Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”

This is what you can do to guard your mind: studying, speaking in The Word to each other, and edifying and helping each other.

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

This verse shows us a great key in working with our minds. We can replace a negative with three positives. And this works great for me. Let's do it.

2 Timothy 1:1 -3 “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, ² To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 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;”

A real good conscience, a real good renewed mind.

Titus 1:9 – 15 “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. ¹⁰ For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: ¹¹ Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. ¹² One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. ¹³ This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; ¹⁴ Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. 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.”</