A well-fed conscience discerns the voice of God

A friend of mine once shared with me that he was on his way to preach but he had not been to this church before and didn’t know how to get to it. In Puerto Rico, if you don’t know how to get to your destination, stopping and asking for directions is a must. The gentlemen who helped him at one point told him, “Turn when you see a big rock on the side of the road.” My friend encountered this intersection but there were TWO big rocks: One on his right and the other one to his left.  His prayer: “To the right or left?” And the spirit told him “Left.” I laughed so hard when my friend said, “Bro, I don’t know what kind of spirit that was but I know it wasn't the Holy Ghost because I ended up in the middle of the jungle!

Many claim that God does not speak sometimes. Others affirm that He makes it difficult for us to hear Him. However, Scripture is very clear that time after time God sent His prophets to speak to His people but His children did not listen (Jeremiah 26). Very often we unconsciously build obstacles and barriers, and the message doesn’t come through clearly. In other words, a well-fed conscience is able to discern the voice of God.

Take for example Joseph, Mary’s husband. “Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel (from Egypt). But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.”[i] The fear that Joseph feels comes from the Lord through his conscience as a warning! Joseph wants confirmation, kneels down, prays to his Father in Heaven, and the Lord confirms this warning via dream. “And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee.”[ii]

The Lord speaks through our heart,[iii] our conscience. The exercise we do, amount of rest, and kind of food we eat have a huge impact on our mind. The kind of music & movies we hear and watch also feed the brain positively or negatively. Remember, out of the abundance of the heart speaks the mouth.[iv] Prayer, Bible-reading, and fasting cleanses the soul.

Therefore, consider your ways.

Blessings!

-Pr. Sergio Ochaeta

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[i] Matthew 2:22

[ii] Ibid

[iii] “Often including the intellect as well as the affections and will; as conversely the "mind" often includes the feeling and will as well as the intellect. Rom. 1:21, "their foolish heart was darkened." Eph. 1:18, "the eyes of your understanding (the Vaticanus manuscript; but the Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus manuscripts `heart') being enlightened." Thus, the Scripture implies that the heart and the head act and react on one another; and in men's unbelief it is the will that perverts the intellectual perceptions. John 7:17, "if any man be willinq to (Greek) do, he shall know." "Willingness to obey" is the key to spiritual knowledge. See Jer. 17:9; Hos. 7:11, "Ephraim is like a silly dove without heart," i.e. moral understanding” (Fausset’s Bible Dictionary).

[iv] Luke 6:45