Levels Of Purging:(Part III)
As we understood yesterday, our opening scripture gives more insight into the first spiritual truth about a man’s conscience and that is that the conscience can be defiled. The defilement of a man’s conscience is because of the effect of sin on a man’s mind. One of the damages of sin to the conscience is guilt and condemnation. Here, the believer lacks the boldness to stand in the presence of God. Some believers in this case find it difficult to pray or even be in church gatherings because of guilt and condemnation and the devil leverages on this to get the believer totally out of God’s presence.
In some other cases, the believer may be damaged to a place of being unable to have an assurance of faith. Thus, you find such believer being unsure of his/her salvation. Whereas there are some believers that are damaged by sin to a point where they cannot exercise their faith because, they live in constant fear and doubt. All this culminates in sin consciousness and in this state, the believer cannot move beyond his sinful state because that is all he sees and thinks on. The good news is, there is hope for the believer. Hallelujah
Irrespective of the damage that has been inflicted, the Holy Spirit purges and mends the believer’s conscience. The bible tells us in 1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Isn’t this amazing? God is greater than our hearts and has provided a way out by the holy spirit. The resource for this level of purging/purification is the word of God.
The holy spirit leverages on the word of God that we must purge us from a defiled conscience to a renewed mind. This level of purging happens for a longer period, for it depends on how much we give ourselves to the word of God and to prayers by the Spirit. A child of God that lives all his life and never gives himself fully, can remain at this level, and never be fully purged in his conscience. In other words, he will never actualize all that has been made available for him in Christ Jesus.
