In order to enter into anything, there is the need of an entrance, a gate. The gate of our spirit is our conscience. Most people first believe when their conscience is touched through the hearing of the gospel. Proper gospel preaching leads people to repentance and confession, which are matters of the conscience. When we repent and confess our sins to the Lord, we touch and open our conscience. Then the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience. Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” When we believe into the Lord Jesus and repent and confess to Him, we open our conscience, and the blood purifies our conscience. Therefore, the gate to our spirit is opened and cleansed. Then the Holy Spirit enters into our spirit. This shows the importance of purifying, cleansing, and dealing with our conscience. If our conscience is open and cleansed by the blood, the Spirit will enter into our spirit.
First John 3:20 says, “If our heart blames us, it is because God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” The conscience is a part of both the spirit and the heart. Therefore, for our heart to condemn us is for our conscience to condemn us. In order to contact the Lord and abide in Him, we must deal with our conscience. If we do not deal with an offense, our conscience will condemn us, and this will frustrate our abiding in the Lord. Hence, we need to diligently deal with our conscience. In 1 Timothy 1:19 Paul wrote, “Holding faith and a good conscience,” and in Acts 24:16 he testified, “I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.”
We have seen that in order to abide in Christ, we need to take in the word and touch the Spirit. We touch the Spirit with our spirit, and the gate of our spirit is our conscience. Thus, we must take care of our conscience. If we lose our temper with our spouse, when we try to the touch the Spirit and take in the word the following morning, there will be an offense in our conscience, and our conscience will condemn us. If we do not deal with this offense, it will frustrate us from abiding in the Lord. Therefore, we need to pray, “Lord, I confess to You that I lost my temper with my dear spouse. Lord, forgive me and cleanse me.” The Lord will probably answer, “Go and confess to your spouse and ask for forgiveness.” If we would do this, our conscience will be cleared up immediately, and the gate of our spirit will be wide open. Then the anointing will move in us, and we will abide in the vine. In this way we can have fellowship with the Lord and participate in all the riches of the life-juice of the vine. As a result, we will live the vine, grow the vine, and produce the vine.
We need to come to the Bible and pray to the Lord daily to take in the word and touch the Spirit. When we do this, our conscience will be touched and will become sensitive. When our conscience is seared, it becomes dull and loses its sensitivity. Then there is no sensation within our conscience. However, if we come to the Lord, take in His word, touch His Spirit, and ask Him to cleanse us with His precious blood, our conscience will become very sensitive. Then our conscience will immediately sense any matter in which we are wrong so that we can confess it and be cleansed by the blood. In this way we can continually abide in the vine. The way to abide in the vine is to spend time in the Bible and pray to take in the word and touch the Spirit. If we do this, our conscience will surely be touched and will function to give us a sensation when we are wrong in any matter or with any person. Then we can confess our wrongdoings to deal with our conscience. At first we may feel that we are wrong in only a few matters, but if we confess these matters, we will see that there are many more matters we need to confess.
Some may feel that the way of dealing with the conscience by thorough confession is difficult, but this is the only way, and there are no shortcuts. Many of us do not properly abide in the Lord because our conscience is covered with many offenses and has become seared and dull, losing the proper sensation. However, if we would sincerely touch the word and the Spirit—taking in the word by pray-reading, touching our spirit, and asking the Lord to cleanse us—the light will shine on our conscience and cause it to become sensitive. Then we need to continue to confess our offenses and sins according to the sensation of our conscience. Such confession will lead us to confess more and more of our offenses and wrongdoings. Eventually, our conscience will be thoroughly purified, like a washed window.
A purified conscience is a highway and an open gate for us to contact the Lord and for the Lord to come into us. It will issue in much traffic between us and the Lord, which will keep us in the proper condition of abiding in Him. Such abiding will bring us the rich supply of the life-juice of the vine for our enjoyment. Then we will surely grow the vine and produce the vine. According to my experience, this is the proper way. It is by this way that we can grow and produce Christ. Moreover, in the word and in the Spirit are the rich Christ, His effective death, and His powerful resurrection in a very subjective and experiential way for our enjoyment. I hope that we would all receive this word and put it into practice, daily coming to the Lord and the Word, pray-reading to take in the word, touching the Spirit, and dealing with our conscience to experience the cleansing of the blood. This will bring us into the proper abiding. Then we will truly live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ.