Convicted

Joh_8:9  And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

The men were being convicted by their OWN CONSCIENCE.  Jesus had done this…

Joh 8:6 … But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 

Joh 8:7  So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 

Joh 8:8  And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

Jesus said to them-  HE THAT IS WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU LET HIM FIRST CAST A STONE AT HER.

And they HEARD Him, they heard His words of truth and they were CONVICTED by their own conscience. Their conscience had them feeling the weight of their own guilt. They acted on that conscience conviction and left off killing the adulterous woman.

Act_23:1  And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

Act_24:16  And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men

Paul lived in GOOD CONSCIENCE  before God.

Paul exercised himself to ALWAYS have a CONSCIENCE VOID of OFFENCE towards God and men.

When Watchman Nee talks about our conscience he is not talking about something that isn't Biblical, it's very Biblical and we need to study and pray that we learn what we need to learn. Please, Holy Spirit, bless us with understanding, guide us all through the love, the mercy, the grace of our Savior- Jesus Christ!

'If we live by what conscience teaches we have arrived at the place we should be for the present moment. It is therefore a prime factor in our daily walk after the spirit. In whatever matter we disobey the dictate of our conscience we shall be reprimanded by it. As a result we shall lose peace and shall be cut off temporarily from having fellowship with God. '  The Spiritual Man - By Watchman Nee

Lord, please help us to walk in the light revealed.

Have you ever been guilty of assuming someone knows something only to find out they don't? Have you ever tried to explain a situation to someone hoping for understanding only to realize they haven't a clue as to what you are talking about? We want people to understand along with us so we have someone that knows what we are going through. We want people to have similar experiences so we get ask them questions about how they react in the experience. When we realize others might not have the same experiences it can be a bit confusing. We generally do not like to be the lone wolf so to speak, in a situation because we can either believe there is something wrong that we are the only one, or we can believe we may have been singled out for something others have not. Neither scenario brings comfort really, or rather a full understanding from others.  We can't assume to know the situation of others. We can't KNOW their walk, their individual- very personalize walk with Christ through life. No two people ever experience something the exact same because from the get go our different personalities will cause different reactions. Two people facing the exact same problem will look at it from different points of view, their own. If by chance the people seem to look at the problem in the same way, it is all but guaranteed that down the line their thoughts will diverge into different ideas.  We are INDIVIDUALS with individual walks with Christ and my walk is not yours. I may look at your life and imagine that you aren't as close to God as I am, and instantly comprehend that I have to be much further away from God simply by having such a thought. We are NOT to judge others.  Even when we judge their actions, we are not to judge the results of their actions. I can't say that because I see someone stealing something that they aren't God's. I can say that person committed a wrong act, but how that affects their walk with God is between them and God. Truly each of us is the chief of all sinners, because we can't know another's life of sin.  We are not to judge anyone else based on our own conscience. We can try to ask if another has a similar conscience pulling, but if they don't we can't judge them. We may be either behind where they are in their ongoing walk with God, or in front, but it makes no difference because there is no behind or in front as being better or worse, but each of us walking according to our OWN learning. If we do get behind in our OWN learning, refusing to grow for whatever reason, that is something we have to seek forgiveness for. But to say another is behind would be only adding to our list of things needing forgiveness, they might be exactly where they need to be in their walk with God.

Mat 7:1  Judge not, that ye be not judged. 

Mat 7:2  For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 

Mat 7:3  And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 

Mat 7:4  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 

Mat 7:5  Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. 

'Due to varying degrees of knowledge in the conscience some are not conscious of sins regarded as very great by their fellow-believers. Hence, let us not judge one another. The Father alone knows how to handle His children. He does not expect to find the strength of “young men” in His “little children” nor the experience of “fathers” in the “young men.” But He does wait for each of his children to obey Him according to what he already knows. Were we to know for sure (which is not easy) that God has spoken to our brother on a particular matter and that our brother has failed to listen, then we can persuade him to obey. Yet we should never force our brother to follow what our conscience says to us. If the God of perfect holiness does not reject us because of our past unknown sins, how can we, on the basis of our current standard, judge our brother who only knows now what we knew last year? In fact, in helping other people we should not coerce obedience from them in small details but only advise them to follow faithfully the dictate of their own conscience. If their volition yields to God they will obey Him when the Holy Spirit sheds light on the words clearly written in the Bible. As long as his volition is yielded, a believer will follow God’s desire the moment his conscience receives light. The same is applicable to ourselves. We should not overextend ourselves to the point of exciting the strength of our soul to understand truths beyond our present capacity. If we are disposed to obey today’s voice of God, we are considered acceptable. On the other hand, we should not restrain ourselves from searching any truth which the Holy Spirit may lead us intuitively to search. Such restraint would mean lowering our standard of holiness. In a word, there is no problem for that one who is willing to walk by the spirit.'

The Spiritual Man- by Watchman Nee (Excerpt)

Children of the light.

Walking in the light.

As He is IN the light.

He that LOVES others abides in the light.

Walk while ye have the light.

Believe in the light.

Be children of light.

Put on the armor of light.

The BLOOD of CHRIST purges our conscience from DEAD WORK so we can serve the living God.

When our conscience is purged by the blood of Christ we serve the living God. If we imagine there is anything other than the blood of Christ which can cleanse our conscience, any action on our part we are sorely mistaken. We MUST rely up the blood of Christ to purge our conscience. When our conscience is convicted of sin we MUST seek forgiveness and cleansing by the blood of our Savior, He alone can help us.  We can promise all we want to never sin, and by the grace of God He will keep us from all evil, however as soon as we are convicted of any sin- past or present we must listen to our conscience and repent as led to by the Holy Spirit. We must walk in the LIGHT and the light is truth, and the truth will not abide in darkness, in lies and any lie is worthy of condemnation. When the darkness, when the lies, are exposed for what they are we must seek forgiveness.

Light is truth- living, walking, wearing armor of light is embracing the truth wholly, not running from it, not dismissing it, not covering it up, not altering it to suit our own desires. Truth. God's truth. Jesus' truth. Not the truth man-made. Our Savior is in the light and we need to be in the light with Him. All by HIS grace and mercy, His amazing love!

1Jn 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 

1Jn 2:9  He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. 

1Jn 2:10  He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 

1Jn 2:11  But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. 

Joh 12:35  Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. 

Joh 12:36  While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. 

Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 

Heb 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? 

Heb 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. 

(Excerpt)

'As the knowledge of a believer grows, his conscience too increases in its consciousness. The more his knowledge advances the more his conscience judges. One need not worry about what he does not know if he but completely follows what he already does know. “If we walk in the light”—that is, if we are walking in the light which we have already—“as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (though many are still unknown to us)” (1 John 1.7). God has unlimited light. Although our light is limited, we shall have fellowship with God and the blood of His Son shall cleanse us if we walk according to the light we have. Perhaps there are still sins today unremoved from our life, but we are not conscious of them; hence we can continue to have fellowship with God today. Let us keep in mind that, important as conscience is, it nevertheless is not our standard of holiness, because it is closely related to knowledge. Christ Himself is alone our single standard of holiness. But in the matter of fellowship with God, His one condition is whether or not we have maintained a conscience void of offense. Yet, having fully obeyed the dictates of conscience, we must not visualize ourselves as now “perfect” A good conscience merely assures us that so far as our knowledge goes we are perfect, that is, we have arrived at the immediate goal, but not the ultimate one. Such being the case, our standard of conduct rises higher to the degree our knowledge of the Scriptures and spiritual experience increase. Only when our lives become holier as our light progresses can we preserve a conscience without offense. It shall invariably accuse us if we accompany this year’s knowledge and experience with only last year’s conduct. God did not cut off His fellowship with us last year because of our sins unknown to us then; but He certainly shall sever it today if we do not forsake the sins unknown last year but now known this year. Conscience is a God-given current standard of holiness. Whoever violates that standard is assumed to have committed sin. '  The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee

If we walk in the light...

1Jn 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 

1Jn 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

1Jn 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

1Jn 1:10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us

'As the knowledge of a believer grows, his conscience too increases in its consciousness. The more his knowledge advances the more his conscience judges. One need not worry about what he does not know if he but completely follows what he already does know. “If we walk in the light”—that is, if we are walking in the light which we have already—“as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (though many are still unknown to us)” (1 John 1.7). God has unlimited light. Although our light is limited, we shall have fellowship with God and the blood of His Son shall cleanse us if we walk according to the light we have. Perhaps there are still sins today unremoved from our life, but we are not conscious of them; hence we can continue to have fellowship with God today. Let us keep in mind that, important as conscience is, it nevertheless is not our standard of holiness, because it is closely related to knowledge. Christ Himself is alone our single standard of holiness. But in the matter of fellowship with God, His one condition is whether or not we have maintained a conscience void of offense. Yet, having fully obeyed the dictates of conscience, we must not visualize ourselves as now “perfect” A good conscience merely assures us that so far as our knowledge goes we are perfect, that is, we have arrived at the immediate goal, but not the ultimate one. Such being the case, our standard of conduct rises higher to the degree our knowledge of the Scriptures and spiritual experience increase. Only when our lives become holier as our light progresses can we preserve a conscience without offense. It shall invariably accuse us if we accompany this year’s knowledge and experience with only last year’s conduct. God did not cut off His fellowship with us last year because of our sins unknown to us then; but He certainly shall sever it today if we do not forsake the sins unknown last year but now known this year. Conscience is a God-given current standard of holiness. Whoever violates that standard is assumed to have committed sin. '  The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee

By the grace of God we will study this excerpt and most importantly the Word of God, tomorrow. We need light, ever increasing light.  We need truth and we need to walk in that truth, live in that truth through the power of the Holy Spirit, by the grace and mercy of our ever loving Savior, Jesus Christ.

Satan is a great pacifier of guilt.

Heb_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.

Gen_2:9  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

'In abiding by the spirit and listening to the voice of conscience we should remember one thing, and that is, conscience is limited by knowledge. It is the organ for distinguishing good and evil, which means it gives us the knowledge of good and evil. This knowledge varies with different Christians. Some have more while others have less. The degree of knowledge may be determined by individual environment or perhaps by the instruction each has received. Thus we can neither live by the standard of others nor ask other people to live by the light we have. In a Christian’s fellowship with God an unknown sin does not hinder communion.'  The Spiritual Man - by Watchman Nee

'Conscience is limited by knowledge'  This is truth. Those who are less knowledgeable can't be accountable for the knowledge they don't possess- unless, a person deliberately refuse knowledge when it is being offered to them.  If you know right from wrong and deliberately choose wrong even when your conscience is convicting you, then it can be nothing other than sin. Satan will trap us in a web of conscience and try to convince us that there is absolutely no way out, that we're stuck fast and going to remain so. Then he'll soothe our conscience as he tries to convince us that we have nothing to feel guilty about, nothing at all. Satan is the great pacifier of a guilty conscience while the Holy Spirit is the great convicting force of sin, and Jesus the forgiver, the redeemer.

'We can neither live by the standard of others nor ask other people to live by the light we have.'  Yet we do try to live like others, and we do try to get others to live by our standards, we do it all the time.  I reveal the light I have and want you to live that light, but honestly we can never live in the knowledge of others. Too often we can take the knowledge of others and simply let it slip away as irrelevant to us and how we choose to live. Yet at the same time we do take bits and pieces of knowledge and mold it to our live. Do you do anything today that you were taught to do by another?  The answer for all of us is- yes. We learned a lot when we were children growing up and a lot of that follows us through the rest of our life. Some of what we learn we deliberately change as we grow up, other things gradually change as we merge a lot of knowledge we have with new knowledge.  Suffice it to say that no two people are exactly alike, not even twins. We learn differently, individually.  Our spiritual life grows in the same way- individually.

Truly we CAN never judge another's eternal life, never. We don't know what their conscience is answerable to, what knowledge they possess. God help us to comprehend this truth. We have knowledge of good and evil and to say there is no such thing as good and evil is to deny reality.  Satan has convinced the multitude of evil being good and good being evil and the closer it comes to our Savior's return, the more he will deceive. 

May God protect us from all evil!

All through Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR!  Amen!

Do you allow your conscience to work?

'We need to possess a conscience void of offense, not in the sense that it is better than before or that much evil has been done away but that it is without offense and confident before God. This ought to be the normal condition of our conscience.

If we prostrate ourselves before it and allow it to reprove us: if we offer ourselves entirely to the Lord and are willing to perform all His purposes: then our confidence shall increase until it is possible for us to regard our conscience as void of offense.

We dare to tell God that now we have nothing left which is concealed from Him. So far as we are concerned we know of nothing between us and Him.

In walking by the spirit we should never permit the tiniest offense to stir up our conscience. Whatever it condemns must be confessed immediately, cleansed by the precious blood and forsaken, so that no trace be left behind. Each day we should seek to have a good conscience, because no matter how short a time conscience may be offended it renders great harm to the spirit'  The Spiritual Man - by Watchman Nee

"I have lived before God in all good conscience up to this day” (Acts 23.1)

It's not a joke- our conscience. It's a very real indicator of us spiritually. If our conscience is NOT clear we are not living in the Spirit.  Allowing the Spirit to convict us is so crucial. If we know something is sinful and it doesn't make our conscience take notice then our spirit is not alive in us. Satan would love for us to be deceived and he'll stop at nothing to do just that. If Satan can get our conscience to be quiet while we sin relentlessly, then he's won us. If our conscience is NOT alive in us revealing any and all things against God's love then we are not God's.

Truly the 'tiniest offense' that isn't repented of can fester within our spirit destroying us.

Every single day we have to live for Christ and all that entails and it isn't ignoring Him and ignoring the Spirit. 

Does your conscience accuse you?

'How can we claim the promise of God with boldness if our voice within is accusing us? How can anyone, whose conscience does not bear him witness that he has lived on earth in holiness and godly sincerity, be a man of prayer who is able to ask God for unlimited rewards? What is the use of praying if our inward monitor reproves us when we lift up our hands to God?'   The Spiritual Man - by Watchman Nee

Day after day inward accusations call for what? Instant prayer, instant  acknowledgement of our need.  We can't condone our sins though you can bet that Satan will encourage us to do so. Rather than deal with a litany of our wrong doings, a list of our constant failures we begin to push the voice of accusation away, we turn the volume down.

We cannot ignore our wretchedness nor can we ignore that our Savior died to save us from the sins that would so easily destroy us.

We are in a WAR!   A very real, spiritual war.

Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 

2Co 12:7  And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 

1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 

1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 

1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 

Do you see? Paul never said that we sit back and do nothing but believe. The fight is real, so very real, only the fight is our spirit against the force of the flesh.

The battle is within us influenced by the evil spirit forces without us.  Christ is our only hope, Christ in us. And we must choose to allow Christ to live in us.

More on this tomorrow, by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, now and forever!  Amen.