PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

First Timothy 1:19 says, "Holding faith and a good conscience, concerning which some, thrusting these away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith." The trend of society toward corruption is not something that was there in the beginning. It was not this way in the past. Today even the academic circles are full of lies. Teachers cheat their students, and students deceive their parents. Every place is full of lies. This is the case among the young people in particular. Even young people who are Christians tell lies both at home and in school. They think that it is very difficult not to tell lies. This is the reason why they have no progress in the faith.

If we have a feeling when we tell a lie for the first time, we should carefully deal with it and not allow it to pass away. If we tell a lie to someone and do not have peace in our conscience, we have to go to that person and deal with it immediately, saying, "I am sorry. The thing that I just said to you is a lie; it is not true." In this way our inner being will be full of light. Perhaps we will be full of light for three days. Then we may encounter another incident and tell another lie. As soon as this happens, we should deal with the feeling that we receive from our conscience right away. If we do not, then after three or four experiences like this, the feeling in our conscience gradually will be lost. Once the feeling of our conscience is lost, not only will we tell more lies, but we will also do worse things and become shipwrecked regarding the faith.

Therefore, I am afraid that many Christians' consciences are not able to withstand the test. A preacher once told me about something that he saw one time when he went to visit a pastor. When they sat down, the pastor's child came and told his father that someone was looking for him. Then the pastor told his child in front of the preacher, "Tell him that I am not home." This shows us how very easy it is to tell a lie because a lie settles everything. However, once we tell a lie, inwardly our conscience is branded, as if with a hot iron. If we do this again and again, we will have no further feeling in our conscience; our conscience will become deadened. The conscience of many people is not a living conscience but a deadened conscience because telling lies has become their habit. A Christian will not be able to genuinely pray after he has lied, neither will he be able to genuinely pray after he has lost his temper. 

Some people say that they have seen Christians who have lost their temper but were able to pray immediately afterwards. There are people like this, but God never listens to the prayers of one whose conscience is numb. If a person does not listen to the voice of his conscience, neither will God listen to that person's voice. Those who do not have any feeling in their conscience certainly do not have faith in their prayers. God does not listen to the prayer of a liar. Once a person's conscience is corrupted, leaking, or numb, he will no longer be able to understand the feeling of his conscience, and God will not listen to the prayer of this kind of person.

ALWAYS HAVING A CONSCIENCE WITHOUT OFFENSE TOWARD GOD AND MAN

In Acts 24:16 Paul said, "Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men." A conscience without offense is one that is without holes or leakage. If we confess our sins before God and deal with our sins before man, our inner being will be without sins and our conscience will be pure. We can serve God only with a pure conscience. If we want our service to touch God, we have to serve with a pure conscience. If our conscience is not pure, not only will our prayers not be answered, but they will never touch God. Some people's conscience is like a wrecked ship. Although some have forsaken their conscience, those who are saved should not overlook even a small mistake; rather, we should deal with it thoroughly. We do not need to encourage people to be enthusiastic, because enthusiasm in blindness does not profit anything. If we want to follow God in life to walk on the way ahead of us, we must follow Him and fulfill His principles. If we want to serve and touch God, we must always have the presence of God within us, and we must be full of light and have faith all the time. In this way, light, revelation, life, and power will become our constant experiences. As long as we thoroughly deal with our conscience, we will be able to walk on this path in a straight and proper way.

Witness Lee, The Pure in Heart, pp. 59-70

APPLICATION

1. What is the origin and position of our conscience?

2. Every saved one has to deal with his conscience; what are the consequences if he does not?

3. Paul speaks of exercising himself to always have a conscience without offense toward God (Acts 24:16)? Explain.