Number 59: July 12, 2006



Instinct, is for man and animals, a natural, psychological, physical, or mental tendency which leads to action in a certain way. The will, emotions, and reason, while all single different entities, are unified in one person who is body, soul, and spirit. A man’s intellect is the whole person thinking; his will is the whole person choosing; his emotions are the whole person liking or disliking. A man’s belief and conduct are intertwined together as roots, trunk, limbs, branches, twigs, and fruit are organically connected to one tree. His thinking is done in the light of his own interests.



Conscience is nothing but habit patterns. It is a moral awareness established within us by the habit patterns we have formed due to previous learning. A person has been taught certain things. When he believes them and then acts opposite of what he has been taught, his conscience condemns him. Conscience is often understood as an inner or mental sense of what is right or wrong: the ethical and moral principles that control or inhibit the actions or thoughts of an individual: the inner faculty or principle which pronounces upon the moral quality of one’s actions or motives, approving the right and condemning the wrong.



In modern speech, conscience is often used for the whole moral or ethical nature of an individual. This may be used referring either to one’s own conduct and/or motives, or it may be used referring to the view held by an individual which is then projected to the views, actions and motives of others. It may even be used of a social conscience which is collective amongst a group or a culture.



A person may be honest and sincere yet narrow and prejudiced. A man may know a statement to be true, yet deliberately desire to disagree, or, being weak in desire, settle for less than the truth. He may desire to do what is right, but being weak of will or of renewed mind, he may fail to bring his good desires into concretion. Jesus Christ made available the cleansed, purified, and purged conscience. One can manifest this conscience by renewing his mind to the integrity and accuracy of the revealed Word of God.



Acts 10:1-48, 11:1-11:18 Peter overcame his outdated habit patterns, his conscience, and finally went to minister to the Gentiles. It may have taken some time, but God got through to Peter, and the Gentiles were led into the manifestation of the new birth.



Acts 20:16-24, 21:8-15 Paul allowed his conscience to supercede the will of God and went to Jerusalem. Neither he, nor the Church, nor the things of God were profited by his going to Jerusalem. Grace is the ruling principle in the administration we live in.



Acts 9:1-20 Ananias overcame his conscience, his old habit patterns, to minister to Paul. He went from being a man of conscience, to being a man of obedience, of faith. He obeyed. He believed. He did what God wanted done, in contrast to his way of thinking, what his conscience was telling him. Paul also had to remake his conscience, his habit patterns. He spent 3 years doing it.



Conscience is not the best guide. The expression “let your conscience be your guide,” should be replaced with an exhortation to place and keep God first, taking precedence even over conscience.