Shalom, shalom my friend. I want to share with you a subject that the Lord has been drawing my attention to, not only for myself, but also for the Body of Christ. But before I begin, I just want to say that the time and day that we are living in, I believe is the last, to last days that Jesus and the Apostles warned us about as they made reference to the world and especially the deceptions within the church. With this in mind, knowing that any one of us could fall into deception, we should diligently continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12). I do believe if we truly practice this, we would be less likely to be deceived.

On that note, I would like to begin with a famous line from a song that many of us grew up hearing from a beloved animated cricket, Jiminy Cricket. As he spoke to Pinocchio about becoming a real boy, he shared this memorable piece of advice from the classic song Give a Little Whistle: “Always let your conscience be your guide.” (see attached video below). He actually was appointed to be Pinocchio’s conscience and knew the importance of following it. Today, we are living in a society that does not seem to have a conscience. Unfortunately, it also seems that there are those in the church that do not follow their conscience even though it has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

The other day, I found myself reading a passage found in 1 Peter 2:19, “…because of conscience toward God one endures..” As I continued reading, I had to pause and go back to that verse. It became apparent that the Lord was highlighting this verse to me because of my recent repentance concerning my conscience. He made me aware that I was not giving heed to it, at least, not like I used to. See, when we become born again believers, our conscience that was once weak, defiled, and evil became pure as it was regenerated by the Holy Spirit through the cleansing by the Blood of the Lamb.

“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 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?” (Hebrews 9:13-14)

Therefore, because our conscience has been purged by the Blood of Yeshua, we endure meaning we are not powerless from living a life that is submitted to our regenerated conscious that is in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. This would include a suffered wrong, being still or quiet instead of retaliating. It can also be a direction not to participate in a thing, or not put something before your eyes. Anything that includes thoughts, words, and actions that needs to be submitted to God. Unfortunately, when we don’t cooperate and give heed, then the things that Paul warned Timothy about are inevitable. We are seeing those very things today; the departing from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits, doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, AND having our own conscience seared with a hot iron. (1 Timothy 4:1-2)

When we continue to ignore the voice of our conscience, we become seared, desensitized. That’s a scary thought. Titus also addresses this issue as he stated that even their minds and conscience is defiled. They profess to know God; but in works they deny him..” (1:15-16) Beloved, he is not talking about the world, but the church which means that any of us at any time can deny Him by our works, or fruit.

All of us are tempted to not listen to our conscience. Some things seem small enough to not even give thought to. Yet the Holy Spirit working through our conscience doesn’t think it’s too small of a thing. As a matter of fact, the Bible says in the Song of Solomon that its the little foxes that spoil the vine. Jesus even stated in Luke 16:10: “Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much.” So little things matter to God. Even what we put before our eyes and allow into our ears can come back to bite us if we consider it a small thing, when in reality it is not so small that it cannot defile us.

Thanks be to God that He has given us His Spirit and a pure conscience that will stop us in our tracks and say, “this is the way, walk ye in it!” (Isaiah 30:21) So see beloved, we are not alone and we sure are not helpless nor powerless! We have overcoming power inside of us. So when we endure grief, when we don’t retaliate, when we suffer wrongfully and especially suffer in our own flesh through our submission, then we are giving heed to our conscience towards God.

Beloved of God, He wants your heart! He wants you to recognize His voice. He wants you aligned with His word and His truth! He wants all of us to get back to our first love! (Revelation 2:4) The question is, will we ignore and not give heed to our conscience, warning us from the things that lead us away from God? Or take heed and turn away from those things that are endeavoring to defile us? Remember, we also have an enemy that is seeking whom he may devour and will use distractions, temptations, and those things that will lure you away from the Father. We must not be ignorant of his devices. Let us agree and commit to pray for one another and submit to our conscience that is fueled by the Holy Spirit as we are being prepared to be with Him forever!

Until next time, may the Lord bless and keep you, and may His face continuously shine upon you and give you complete shalom, through Shalom manifested, Yeshua, Jesus our Lord!

Shalom with much love,

Ellen (Brucha)