Conscience is the faculty inside us which attaches itself to the highest ideal we know. Either this ideal is God, or it’s something else. If we are in the habit of steadily facing God, our conscience will always guide us toward his perfect law and indicate what we should do.
The question is, Will I obey what my conscience shows me? It is difficult—too difficult—for human nature to keep God’s commands. But God didn’t give his commands to our human nature; he gave them to the life of Jesus inside us. When I lean on the life of Christ within, following God’s commands becomes divinely easy. I should be living in perfect sympathy with Christ. If I am, my mind will be renewed in every circumstance, and I will be able to discern at once what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2 KJV).
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30). God educates us down to the scruple. Is my ear able to hear the tiniest whisper of the Spirit? The Spirit doesn’t come with a voice like thunder, but with a voice so gentle it is easy to ignore. The one thing that keeps the conscience sensitive to him is the continual habit of being open to God on the inside.
If I sense myself beginning to debate with the Spirit, I must stop immediately. There is no debate possible when conscience speaks. If I allow anything, however small, to obscure my inner communion with God, I do so at my own risk. I must drop the thing, whatever it is, and keep my inner vision clear.
