Purging Your Conscience

Hebrews 9:14
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

There are several types of consciences that the Scriptures teach that a person can have. There is a good conscience, a pure conscience, an evil conscience, a bad conscience, a weak conscience, a defiled conscience, and a seared conscience. The conscience is the inner voice that reminds you of what you have done in the past. Your conscience is vital to your ability to serving the LORD with confidence. You cannot serve the LORD with boldness when your conscience is accusing you of things you know you have done. Your goal should be to have a good and pure conscience.

The problem with your conscience is that it doesn’t always accept God’s forgiveness. Just because God has forgiven you of what you have done doesn’t mean that your conscience won’t remind you of your past. Satan often uses your conscience against you to defeat your spirit so that he can keep you from being your best for God.

There is only one way you are going to have a good and pure conscience, and that is by purging your conscience. The best way to define purging is to explain how you clean a garment that has recently been stained. When you spill something on your shirt, you immediately wipe off the garment, and then you take it to the sink and use the water pressure to cleanse out between the fibers what has been spilt on the shirt. This is exactly what you must do if you are going to have a good and pure conscience. Let me share with you a few things you must do to purge your conscience.

First, you must confess your sin to God. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” There is no purging without confessing. A good and pure conscience cannot be attained if there is no forgiveness for what you have done. You will continue to struggle with your conscience until you come to God and ask Him to forgive you.

Second, purging is a God-act and not a human act. Psalm 51:7 says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” 1 John 1:9 says that God is the One who cleanses you. Too many people are trying to do the cleansing themselves, but they cannot cleanse themselves because that is an act of God.

Third, you purge your conscience through the reading and memorization of God’s Word. Ephesians 5:26 says, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,” God uses His Word to cleanse the conscience and actions of the believer. You can confess your sin a thousand times to God, but your conscience will never purge from that sin without spending time in God’s Word letting it wash your mind from the stains sin has left behind. Only God’s Word can pierce through the portals of the mind to cleanse it so that the believer can have a pure conscience.

Fourth, purge your mind by doing good. Romans 12:21 says, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” In spite of what your conscience tells you, you must do good to overcome the evil of which your conscience reminds you. Simply remember that the more good you do, the more your conscience is fed good which purges out the bad. God uses your right actions to help purge out the bad that your conscience wants to feed you.

Author: Allen Domelle