There are clear and simple steps to developing your conscience that you can easily learn. Learning these steps takes the struggle out of seeking to walk in the Father’s love.
A Father’s love developed conscience brings wonderful freedom:
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You move past remorse over your failings into love-motivated victory.
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You move past “trying” to walk in the Father’s love into understanding how it flows and realizing it happening naturally.
Let’s first look at the different levels of conscience development, then we can understand the next steps for growth.
Levels of Conscience Development
Many people fight sin. They haven’t learned to develop their conscience to where love constrains them. Scripture lets us know that our conscience can be at different levels of development.
A Sociopath
1 Tim 4:2 – speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.
On the far negative end of the scale you have the sociopath – one who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience. Their chief characteristic is a lack of empathy because they cannot feel another’s pain.
From this far end is a broad middle, where most of us have a conscience functioning at some level.
A Love Motivation
What is fascinating is the role our conscience can play in keeping us from sin and moving us toward intimacy with the Lord when functioning well at the positive end.
John Sanford describes this well:
“There is an active conscience which causes remorse after the sin. It operates by the law. It seldom if ever works powerfully enough before the event to prevent it. It reminds us that we have failed the Lord and ourselves, but seldom if ever makes us aware of our brother’s hurt. It makes us aware only that we failed to be what we set out to be. It seldom moves us to real repentance. Repentance happens when we are hurt for the sake of the Lord and others. Remorse remains self-centered and is seen in terms of our own failure to perform.”
A healthy conscience leads to real repentance which “is a result of the gift of love. If I love someone, and my spirit is awake and alert, it checks me before I do a potentially harmful deed. Love constrains me.” (P.122, Healing the Wounded Spirit, Sanford)
Steps
Most of us have areas where we are constrained by love and some areas where we still battle condemnation. Here are some steps for a Father’s love developed conscience:
1) Simply become aware of when we are battling condemnation and remorse.
2) Receive the Father’s love at the point where you’ve felt condemned.
3) Seek God for empathy, compassion, and understanding in the situation you are seeking to overcome. Let go of seeking victory through law-based striving. Seek to understand the Father’s heart toward the other person and where they are at in their journey and struggles. Seek to understand God’s heart toward you and the value you have in His eyes.
Maintenance Free Victory
When the Father’s love drives your heart through conscience and empathy, you no longer have to “try” to be loving toward others, or work to stay free by constant affirmations and casting down wrong thoughts.
You simply will walk in maintenance-free victory naturally.
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