Could you explain 1) How a pure and peaceful conscience could be related to faith-based reliance on the Holy Spirit’s direction and timing for decision making, and 2) How a pure and peaceful conscience could also apply to one’s personal opinions and standards in regards to his/her personal relationship with Christ.
(Obviously, these personal opinions/standards should be kept in one’s personal household, being “fully convinced of his own mind”. While in a public setting, one must evaluate his own convictions which produce peace, void of potential stumbling blocks.) see Romans chapter 14, Galatians 6:4-5.
To summarize, can one’s conscience be a confirming factor for the Spirit’s active leading in our lives?
Also Reference: Hebrews 10:22, Philippians 4:7.

Pete 

 Hello Pete,

Thank you for this question regarding conscience and the Holy Spirit. The conscience is the moral monitor in man that urges one to do right and shun evil, commending right choices and condemning wrong choices.

Everyone is born with a conscience. It is important to note that conscience can be mistaught, and because of this, one’s conscience needs to be informed by truth. A sensitive conscience is a blessing, but the enemy’s temptations seek to drive people toward either an oversensitive or insensitive conscience.

How you respond to your conscience affects your faith. Going against conscience is going against what you believe is right, and if you go against what you believe is right, it “shipwrecks” your faith (1 Tim. 1:19).

So to answer your first question, a good conscience is operating in faith and puts one in a position to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. A healthy conscience is ready to obey the Spirit’s guidance. If the conscience is being ignored, one will not care how the Spirit leads. When this is the case and sin is hindering, honesty would be necessary to clear the conscience.

In answer to your second question, conscience must be informed by truth. There is the word of truth and the Spirit of truth. The Spirit subjectively leads within the boundaries of objective truth. So the Holy Spirit leads individuals to various standards within the absolutes, but the applications may vary from believer to believer. Conscience affirms what is believed as truth for both absolutes and the specific applications chosen by the Spirit for an individual. In this sense it serves as a confirming factor.

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