Audio Download

Conscience – A Good Conscience, Part 8

[Study Aired December 2, 2023]

A Good or Evil Conscience can be attributed to a ‘million’ scriptural applications. This study addresses only a few applicable cases the Lord provided to highlight a “good conscience”.

Repetitiously, the many nuances of an evil conscience all revert back to the Lord, creating an inescapable consciousness in Adam through the very first negative law (freely eating from every other tree being positive without encumbrances). Equally incessant, we can’t know and discuss a good conscience without seeing in light the blackness of an evil conscience by us breaching the Lord’s commandments. 

Exo 14:19  And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
Exo 14:20  And it [the light and the darkness are one and the same to us while in Egypt, Babylon and Old Jerusalem] came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. 

Gen 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Adam and Eve, upon being told not to eat of the tree, were immediately encumbered with the brand-new and titillating emotion of temptation. Upon eating the forbidden fruit and hearing the Lord calling for them, they remembered their Lord’s command, “Thou shalt not eat of it” and were stricken by the devastating spiritual disturbance of an evil conscience. The Greek philosopher Sophocles (Sof-o-kies) adds strength to that reality with this quote:

“There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us”. – Sophocles.

One of the greatest enslavements of mankind and to his irritated conscience is women’s rulership over men, particularly a husband, even if he isn’t righteous (Isa 3:12). Around and around goes the deadly loop enslaving mankind with every shade of an evil conscience, and not being able to pinpoint its troublesome origin that is female/Ashtoreth rulership classically accomplished by Solomon with 1,000 wives.

1Ki 11:5  For Solomon went after Ashtoreth [ash-to’reth – 1. the principal female deity of the Phoenicians worshipped in war and fertility a. also ‘Ishtar’ of Assyria and ‘Astarte’ by the Greeks and Romans], the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites [all directly symbolic of Babylonian Christianity and their 40,000+ denominations].

Intrinsically etched in a male’s heart without understanding, men silently loathe any female exercising righteous or unrighteous authority over masculinity, regardless of environmentally (in the home/school/sports/war) acquired emasculation. Inherently, even grade school boys subconsciously feel irritated (bitter) by that unidentified enslavement to girls’ mostly unconscious emasculating jubilance (conversely, the daughters of music and everything about a young woman is highly attractive to males and dedicated to his lust to both party’s intrigue of turbulent emotions of love and hate).

Incidentally, Sophocles muses upon another highly pertinent and no doubt unwitting equation to the Church in the Wilderness, made up of more culpable men than women since they become abdicated leaders in marriage and the Church under a different Jesus. The disquieting and inescapable truth, possibly unwittingly, yet unerringly resonates with scripture:

“The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water” – Sophocles. (Eccl 7:28; Jer 3:11-18; Hos 4:16). [end]

Our lovely women folk of the Body of Christ, inclusive of their male counterparts, are at peace with their former feminine fluidity, manipulating scriptural facts that, with deceitful kisses, hide the spirit and intent of their hearts (Pro 27:4-6). They, becoming the Bride of Christ, are continuing to practice the delight of listening to their Husband’s every word and look back with head-shaking fascination at their former conniving ways, having vainly manipulated the word of God to support their illusory righteousness. Indeed, her oaths to Jehovah while in the Wilderness were ‘inscribed on water’; her sisters remaining in Babylon still inscribe their oaths in watery baptisms and equal espousal fluidity (Isa 1:21; Zep 3:1-3).

Ecc 7:26  And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands [deceitful superficial kisses – inscribed on water]: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.

(Note: Just as a wife’s deceitful kisses ‘inscribed on water’ fall symbolically to the ground and cannot be collected since they lead nowhere, so, too, is a husband (the collective church) who only wants sensual intimacy without the fruit of deep spiritual connection ~ in part, typified by Onan in Genesis 38:9 spilling his seed upon the ground).

Temptation comes with irksome contempt for the authority oppressing our inherent feminine (church’s) autonomy. Our feminine indignity goads us to automatically question and reject a husband or any male’s authority since we, sitting as god in the Temple of God, feel indignant by disempowerment by his authority over our imagined self-will. 

Subsequently, even if the authority is understood as correct, every undertone of an evil conscience powerfully resists acknowledging a sin. Upon being humiliated for our wrongdoing, our nature is first to hide spiritually by accusing some other party, thus excusing ourselves of error (Rom 2:15). Though underwritten by Christ, it is a true adage that “the Devil made me do it”, particularly since, and ironically, we didn’t hear the still small voice of the (ironic) trumpet blast telling us otherwise and thus resisting the Serpent for Christ’s assured intervention.

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God 

A primary way we become adulterers and adulteresses is with a convicting evil conscience that refuses the still, small voice prompting us to submit to the Lord’s war on our enemy. Subsequently, by siding with the world, we immediately become an enemy of God. We cannot serve two masters (Mat 6:24).

Jas 4:5  Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 

Mat 26:40  And He came to the disciples and found them asleep. And He said to Peter [That ‘little rock’, the Body of Christ], What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?
Mat 26:41  Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

We make a mockery of our Lord’s powerful spirit when our temporary good conscience is overpowered by an evil conscience upon hearing the trumpet blast and don’t call on His name to fight our imminent war. This is when our Husband becomes a jealous God when we trust in the little whore we are with our oaths written on water and her fanciful authority over her Husband. “I will not have a [righteous] man ruling over me!” is our indignant subconscious response, and the vanity of our strength to resist the Devil evaporates. Consequently, our Lord’s highly aroused spirit to see our bright feminine response is dismally subdued, and him envious of our adulteries when he is not first enquired.

Mat 21:19  And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only [a show-pony; a beautiful woman by all accounts promising a husband’s delights], and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee [those Jews who say that they are Jews, and are not; Christian Babylon] henceforward for ever And presently the fig tree withered away.
Mat 21:20  And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!
Mat 21:21  Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree [to our enemies within], but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. 
Mat 21:22  And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

However, our Lord is incredibly gracious and intimate with our weak frame and has a way for our escape should we humble ourselves. It all results in attaining the glorious peace of a “good conscience” by delighting our Husband with our God-given beauty and fruit of seeking his kisses.

Jas 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. 
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Every man despises being instructed or corrected by a female (or junior male) of any age without her (him) first showing genuine honor and respect. Eve was the first to challenge that authority, and typically, Adam, not wishing to offend his wife and have her frustrate marital dues, meekly complied. However, any female with an authentic introductory reverencing and honoring a male before her petition, as classically typified by Esther, immediately composes him with the deepest delight to indulge her and is compelled with a righteous conscience to do his utmost to comply with that female’s request. All the righteous women in scripture knew that immutable sovereignty; it is the very power modern feminists crave yet remain blind by Eve’s curse since Eden.

1Pe 3:7  Likewise, husbands, live together according to knowledge, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel, the female, as truly being co-heirs together of the grace of life, not cutting off your prayers.

1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit [able to emphatically know your dealings are of a good conscience ~ at one in Him], which are God’s.

A woman delightedly following in her Lord’s order of headship effectively “has her cake and eats it too,” and the adage is summed up scripturally with ‘all things being hers’ (1Co 2:19). Esther, having an exceptionally good conscience and an unfeigned heart, typifies the Bride of Christ. She indelibly knew her exceptionally good conscience of honor and respect for her King which enabled her to boldly risk death by standing unannounced before him in the court to seek her Lord’s benevolence. Only a righteous person holding a countersigned good conscience is bold enough to come before the throne of God, knowing that they are appropriately dressed for presentation.

Mat 22:11  And when the king [Christ] came in to see the guests [prior to the wedding, the Elect with some remaining ‘tares’], he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 
Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness [the Lake of Fire]; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

Est 2:17  And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour [effectively ‘chosen’] in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

In the following verse, Timothy was warning against false teachers, yet it can be easily applied to many applications, inclusive of Esther’s “good conscience” for Mordecai’s intercession.

1Ti 1:5  Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned [unfeigned, undisguised, sincere. 1. To take up another’s statement {Mordecai’s, in this instance} in reference to what one has decided for oneself]. 

Of course, any husband is easily ravished by such a respectful wife (or any woman righteously) as is our Lord for His Wife who touches Him with “faith unfeigned” as seen in the above verse. Such respect dramatically amplifies her enchantment of his heart, sensually highly arousing to men and correspondingly spiritually to God and the Christs.

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. 

Est 5:2  And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre [H8275 – Dart, spear. H7626 – Rod {Tribe/tribes 138 times}, staff, branch, offshoot. 
Est 5:3  Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.

Est 2:17  And the king [Christ] loved Esther [Christ’s wife] above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the [symbolic – ] virgins [deluded Babylonian Christianity]; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. 

Vashti personifies our former selves from Mt. Sinai when we refuse to come to the Lord’s table and then humiliate him for his adoration of us before the world. If we continue our haughty self-elevation, he dumps us for a more humble and beautiful woman that the world will stand in awe.

Zec 2:7  Deliver thyself, O Zion [“come out of her {Babylon}, my people], that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. 
Zec 2:8  For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled [plundered] you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

The Elect of God who rule with him in the One-Thousand Year reign are given a type of half the kingdom in downpayment before being given in Christ the entirety of humanity in the Resurrection to Judgment. Our Lord has glorified His Bride by giving her the greatest honor in the universe to intimately know him, to touch Him, our Sceptre’s very head whose kisses are better than wine. Together as Husband and Wife, they have seeded the world to be spiritually born again. In perfect unity of mind, body and spirit, they will rule their ‘children’, the nations, with a rod of iron and ultimately judge those same nations since Adam with that “sceptre” – H7626 to bring them into the fullness of spiritual maturity through the Lake of Fire.

Zec 2:9  For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them [the nations since Adam], and they shall be a spoil to their servants [The mighty men and rulers and servants will be of one servitude without dominion above the other, for all their pomposity will be soundly ground to powder]: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.
Zec 2:10  Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion [Bride of Christ]: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. 

Since the Elect of God represents the Daughter of Ziopon, our Lord is already dwelling in her midst, she being His first fruits of the Kingdom within, the very Temple in which He dwells.

Zec 2:11  And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day [following the Lake of Fire, on the Eighth Day], and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee. 
Zec 2:12  And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.
Zec 2:13  Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.

Utterly oblivious to the Zionists of today, the Jews who say that they are spiritual Jews and are not, Christ is right this very moment in that “Jerusalem again” spiritually, in His Elect. The physical Jerusalem today is becoming a focus of intense fighting and possibly the grand finalé leading to the outward return of Christ. 

As was Esther’s good conscience to approach the King, expecting his like good conscience to delightedly receive her, authentic honor and respect for the evil rulers over us always calm their corruptness for a more favorable outcome ~ it is foolish to amplify an already unscrupulous ruler’s contempt for us by standing on our watery feminine instability as did Vashti. Harkening back to the quote, “The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water” – Sophocles (Gen 49:4 – when we go a whoring) should profoundly cause our conscience to know that we are standing before the King on heaving water, as did Peter trying with a weak conscience walking on water rather than later, in fire, to and in Jesus.

Jas 1:6  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 

Eze 28:14  Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God [Old Jerusalem now New Jerusalem above]; thou hast [Pefect Tense] walked up and down in the midst of the stones [among our brothers and sisters who are gladly overcome] of fire.

A good conscience is endorsed first by God-given wisdom to foresee a potential evil and mitigate its expected effect, as did Paul’s address of Festus, attorney of Judea. Paul would have had to speak with a good conscience of authenticity to appease through respect for Festus’s seat of authority. Paul’s life was on the line, and both Paul and Festus knew that this was not a time for any perception of sarcasm towards Festus’s distinction.

Act 26:25  But he [Paul] said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. 
Act 26:26  For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner. 

Paul is one of the Elect of God, and being of perfectly “good conscience”, he didn’t have to try not to inflect contempt for Festus’ authority in calling him “most noble Festus”; ‘[who] knoweth of these things not hidden from him’, though, and by today’s standards, could sound caustic. As such, and from a slightly earlier account before Ananias, the high priest, Paul was able to say,

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.

Paul went on to say how in “good conscience”, he held the Laws of the Jews nearly perfectly, even to the point of satisfyingly killing Christians and ALL in “good conscience”!

One of the most outstanding forms of living in “good conscience” is one’s faith in a particular creed, as was typified by Paul regarding killing Christians, believing in circumcision and the Sabbath before the glorious earthquake of spiritual understanding.

Rom 14:13  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way…

… rather, we gently correct a brother from the scriptures. If he takes some time to see the truth, so be it, as long as he doesn’t coerce his brethren to follow his deluded beliefs and thus cause them to stumble, as the Body of Christ was destined to experience on a number of occasions for their spiritual growth. Both parties are subsequently operating with a good conscience.

Rom 14:14  I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15  But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably [and expect a disquieted conscience]. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. 
Rom 14:16  Let not then your good [conscience] be evil spoken of: 
Rom 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost [from a good conscience]. 
Rom 14:18  For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men [all abiding in good conscience]. 
Rom 14:19  Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. 
Rom 14:20  For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure [when not offending Christ’s commandments]; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence [for the thing he deems an offence].
Rom 14:21  It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. 
Rom 14:22  Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth [since he is living with a good conscience]. 
Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith [since his conscience should be condemning him]: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. 

There are possibly millions of quotes since Adam referenced a “good conscience”. The Bible has only six where the two words are coupled. The first of which is Paul we saw earlier following his arrest in the Temple. Paul, having been dramatically struck down on the road to Damascus, directly spoke with and was questioned by the Lord, remained in ‘good conscience’, having devoutly killed Christians in good conscience by his commitment to the Laws of Moses. Paul had one of the most dynamic shifts in conscience ever recorded for the sake of the Elect ~ truly a tumultuous about-face all the way past believing in circumcision. Paul typifies most experiences of the Christs and their personal earth-engulfing flood that changes into the fiery word of God.

2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts [having taken into their hearts every nuance of an evil conscience to profoundly condemn them, and hence…],
2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 
2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 
2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 
2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the SAME [Caps, Grant] WORD are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

In glorious irony, of course, we know that we have been the man of perdition being given to learn by those same watery Laws how to live in good conscience in them by fire that purifies our consciences.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 
1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? 
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 
1Co 3:18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool [in good conscience], that he may be wise [in good conscience]. 
1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 
1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 
1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. 

From those verses springs the remaining five verses where the two words for the term “good conscience” are spoken in scriptures.

1Ti 1:5  Now the end of the commandment [and all that this study speaks] is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: 

1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: 
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. 

Heb 13:18  Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

1Pe 3:15  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: 
1Pe 3:16  Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 
1Pe 3:17  For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. 
1Pe 3:18  For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit; 
1Pe 3:19  in which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 
1Pe 3:20  to disobeying ones, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared (in which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water); 
1Pe 3:21  which figure now also saves us, baptism; not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ; 
1Pe 3:22  who is at the right hand of God, having gone into Heaven, where the angels [first the Elect of God giving up their perdition-ability, and then the world] and authorities and powers are being subjected to Him.

I pray that we all see the day and night of our consciences and always swiftly seek our Lord to live in His eternal conscience that only knows good.