At the time when man was sinless, he was directly under the divine government, the government of God. After the fall, however, man came under the government of the conscience. Then, after a certain period of time, man had a further fall in that he would not take care of his conscience. At that time, after the flood, God told Noah to set up a human government; man needed to be governed by other men. To be governed by God directly is the divine government, to be governed by our conscience is self-government, and to be governed by others is human government.

Today all the worldly people are under the human government. After we are saved, however, we come under another government, but we should not quickly say that we are under God’s government. Many brothers and sisters are at least fifty percent under human government. As a Christian, a young man in school is not altogether without human government. He still needs the school authorities to govern him, but as such, he is a defeated Christian. A normal, sound, fundamental Christian should no longer need human government. After we are saved, if we are normal, we are governed by our conscience. Therefore, we must deal with our conscience. If we are not governed by our conscience, we are to some degree under the government of man. After being saved, many young people still need human government. Even many older believers still need human government. This is because they are not strong in their conscience. If they were strong in their conscience, the conscience would rule and govern them. There should be no need for others to govern them.

I have discovered that in many places the young people are afraid of me. Such ones are not strong, normal Christians. If they were normal Christians, there would be no need to be afraid of this brother. Why do we Christians still need human government? Do we not have a regenerated, renewed, and enlightened conscience? We must be governed by our conscience. We must exercise to maintain a good conscience before God. Many children, however, after being genuinely saved, do many improper things, for which they are afraid of their parents. This shows that they are not normal. They are abnormal and wrong. They are saved, but they are not under the control, the government, of the conscience. To be sure, it is difficult for such ones to fellowship with the Lord in a nice way, and it is also hard for them to pray. They simply do not have the ability to pray. They do not have the assurance, the peace, to pray because there are many problems and accusations in their conscience.

With some Christians, the accusations in their conscience are many. Because of accusation after accusation, their conscience becomes absolutely dark. Then, as far as fellowship is concerned, they are finished. It is simply not possible to have fellowship with the Lord because their conscience is offended. When the conscience is full of defilement, offense, and filthiness, it no longer functions, and when the conscience does not function, the entire spirit is out of function. Then it is impossible to have fellowship with the Lord. In order to exercise our spirit, we must exercise always to have a good conscience.

Between human government and divine government is the stepping stone of self-government through the conscience. The government of the conscience is the stepping stone to be delivered out of the human government and translated into the divine government. Therefore, we must exercise ourselves to maintain a good conscience, and the more we exercise the better. Always keep a good conscience; then we will arrive at a condition in which we are directly governed by the Holy Spirit. After exercising our conscience for a period of time, we will come under the divine government.

Why do we need a good conscience, a conscience without offense? It is because we need to be translated into the presence of the Lord to be directly under the divine government. But as long as there is some offense, some accusation in our conscience, we are separated from the Lord, and we do not know how to be governed, directed, and ruled by the Holy Spirit. It is when we care for our conscience, always maintain a pure and good conscience without offense, and always have peace, rest, boldness, and assurance of faith in our conscience, that we can be directly governed by the Holy Spirit.

If we still need our conscience to speak to us, we are wrong. A city may always have a police station, but if the police need to come into function with us, this means that we have done something wrong. We do not like to see a policeman come; that is a bad sign. We like for the police to always be jobless regarding us. That means that we are right and have nothing wrong. In the same way, as long as we need our conscience to govern us, there is a little distance between us and the Lord. If we were to have no distance from the Lord, the function of the conscience would not be necessary; the conscience would be jobless. If we are wrong in nothing and are so much in the presence of the Lord, there is nothing for the conscience to do because we are directly under the divine government. However, not only when we do something wrong but even when we only intend to do it, we need the conscience, which then comes in to check us.

If we have never dealt with our conscience, it has many offenses and accusations, and it does not work; it is out of function in a negative way. Then, as far as fellowship is concerned, we are far from God in our experience, although in fact the Lord is still with us. There is a great distance between us and the Lord, so we must deal with our conscience. If we do not deal with our conscience, we can never come back into the presence of the Lord. It is the conscience that brings us into the presence of the Lord. This is the stepping stone, the bridge, to bring us from one kind of control to be under the divine control.

Perhaps the majority of the saints have never dealt with their conscience in an adequate way. I beg you to take this word and try to deal with your conscience. Then you will see what a problem it is. When we go to the Lord to deal with our conscience, many things will come out for us to deal with. We will need to adjust and correct many matters.
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