Hello Mike,

I know many mistrust the concept of “conscience.” However, I have come to understand that this is how God speaks to us – mostly by impressions. I really think it is as simple as “yes” or “no,” indicating God’s approval or disapproval. Symbols of this in the Old Testament were the Urim and Thummim, two stones residing on the shoulder of the high priest. The difficulty comes when trying to separate our desires from God’s impressions. Thus, a person who continually suppresses the conscience, ends up with a “seared conscience” which cannot hear God.

Amo 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: (not the written word being read, but hearing God’s voice in the conscience)

Amo 8:12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

Thank you for your comments and faithfulness in the Lord,

W____

Hi W____,

Thanks for the response. You probably realize that I had Jeremiah in mind when I made that comment.

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

I agree with you on the principle of the Urim and the Thummim; God’s Spirit will always direct us to make a righteous decision if we are willing to take the time to consult Him. But we are given Jer 17:9, and this advise from John also, as a warning against our “idols of the heart.”

1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

This advise is so little heeded because so few have any clue what is meant by the word ‘spirits.’ I will comment on that in a moment, but first allow me to demonstrate how I personally have seen my own father’s “impressions… indicating God’s approval or disapproval,” lead him into financial disaster.”

Back in the early 70’s, my father was “impressed of the Lord,” to use his words, to quit his job (he was only 6 months from retirement) and go to a “blessed area” to work for a certain David Terrell. Almost one year later, I personally made a trip to Tennessee to bring Dad home, because he didn’t even have money for gasoline. Mr. Terrell had taken everything Dad could give for over a year and had given nothing in return. Had Daddy known how to “try the spirits,” he could have saved himself this humiliating experience. But he had no idea what ‘spirits’ were, so he knew nothing of how to try them. Christ tells us what He means when He inspires the use of this word by John and when he uses it Himself:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Now we have something reliable with which to “try the spirits.” If Dad had just “tried” David Terrell’s prophecies against the advice given in:

Deu 18:22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

David Terrell at that early date had made many verifiably false prophecies that had not come to pass when he had said that they would. Benny Hinn does this every day. But, just as with my father, no one is even interested in “trying the spirits to see whether they be of God.” No one seems the least bit concerned with the fact that “MANY false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Jeremiah describes the condition of God’s people from Gen 1 to Rev 22:

Jer 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

The scriptures explain how this condition is accomplished in us. It is not what most of us have been “impressed” to believe:

Eze 14:1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel [the leaders of God’s people] unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart [ had their minds already made up as to what the word of the Lord would be], and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; [ to the froward He will show Himself froward-Psa 18:26]
Eze 14:5 That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8 And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I [ am] the LORD.
Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

Be sure to read ‘Gods Strong Delusion,’ referred to by Paul in 2Th 2.

2Th 2:11 And for this cause [ they “received not a love of the Truth”- had “idols of their heart”] God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

Our “deceitful heart” and our “idols of our heart” cannot be detected by an unfounded personal Urim and Thummim such as my father experienced. “The words that I have spoken,” God’s word, is our only reliable standard against which to “try the spirits.” That is exactly why Paul tells Timothy:

2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Did this advice make God’s written word ‘dead letter’ to Timothy? I don’t think so. I believe that it is this advice that kept Timothy from “needing to be ashamed.” It is God who brings His life to the letter of His word. If He is alive in you then so is His written Word. But if you think you don’t need the written Word to be made alive within you, and you can operate and discern spirits without it, that you can “try the spirits … [ of all the] false prophets [ that] have gone out into the world,” then you have no use for Paul’s advice to Timothy.

I appreciate what you point out about a “seared conscience.” God does work with us through our hearts and consciences. But that work He does through our hearts and consciences is not apart from His word but also through, and in accord with, His Word.

Thank you for that reference in Amos. I think you are right on there.

I certainly don’t believe that you do not appreciate Paul’s advice to Timothy to “study … that [ you] need not to be ashamed.” I don’t even know you well enough to think that of you. I simply am wary of my own conscience and deceitful heart, when not being guided by “searching the word daily.” No one under God’s ‘strong delusion’ is thinking to himself, ‘Gee I sure am deceived.’ So the only thing that rescues us from this delusion is a “love of the Truth.” What is Truth? The scriptures give us two answers. Of course these are really one and the same:

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

So many zealous Christians, such as my father, think that “the leading of the Spirit” should supersede the written word. Christ, on the other hand, taught that the Truth “fulfilled [ was backed up by] the law and the prophets.” The Bereans were commended, because they “searched the scriptures to see whether these things were so.”

Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

This, I believe, is still the best way to “try the spirits…”

Your brother in Christ,

Mike