Ｄ
The final goal of dealing with the conscience is not merely to restore us to self-rule but to bring us back to God's rule and to recover us to God Himself and, thus, to live in the presence of God (5:3).
Ｅ
There is a great difference between self-rule and God's rule:
１
Self-rule means that we live by the feelings of our conscience, being responsible to our conscience (Acts 24:16).
２
God's rule means that we live by the intuition of our spirit, being responsible to the intuition, that is, being responsible to God:
ａ
Within our spirit there is a function to have a direct sense, to realize, discern, and perceive things; this is the intuition in our spirit (1 Cor. 2:11; Mark 2:8).
ｂ
When we live by our intuition and are controlled by our intuition, we are living in the presence of God and are ruled directly by Him.
Ｆ
When we are under God's rule, we live by the intuition of our spirit according to the sense of life (Rom. 8:6):
１
The divine life is the highest life, with the richest, strongest, and keenest feeling (Eph. 4:18); this feeling is the sense of life.
２
The sense of life makes us know whether we are living in the natural life or in the divine life, whether we are living in the flesh or in the spirit (Rom. 8:6).
３
The sense of life guides, governs, controls, and directs us (v. 4).
４
The kingdom of God has its reality, and this reality is the living of the divine life under the direct rule of God (Matt. 5:3, 8, 20; 6:33; 7:21).
Morning Nourishment
Acts 24:16 Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.Rom. 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.
All those who live under human rule are living before man....Whenever they are not under man's jurisdiction and observation, they do as they please. However, those who are under self-rule are not so....Being controlled by their conscience, they do not need to be ruled by others. They are restrained in all their utterances and behavior, not because of their fear of man but because of the ruling of their conscience. They are free to act only when their conscience approves. Outwardly, they appear to be still subject to the rule of man, yet practically, this rule is unnecessary, because their conscience is sufficient to rule and control them. (CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Experience of Life,” pp. 284-285)
Today's Reading
Only severe dealings with our conscience will deliver us from the fallen condition of human rule to that rule by the conscience. Then in all things we can live and act according to the feelings of our conscience.However, the final goal of dealing with the conscience is not simply to restore us to self-rule. If we remain only in the feelings of the conscience, we are still in a half-fallen situation and fall short of God's will. Therefore, dealing with the conscience is not just to cause man to return from human rule to self-rule, from the eye of man unto the conscience, but even more to cause man to pass through self-rule and attain to God's rule, to pass through the conscience and live in the presence of God....The positive objective is that we be recovered to God Himself. Therefore, the final goal of dealing with the conscience is to bring us back to God's rule.
Self-rule and God's rule differ greatly. Self-rule means that man lives by the feelings of his conscience, being responsible to his conscience; whereas God's rule means that man lives by the intuition of the spirit, being responsible to the intuition, that is, being responsible to God. We know that God through the Holy Spirit lives in our spirit. Therefore, we can say that the intuition in our spirit is the feeling of God. Hence, when we live by the intuition and are controlled by the intuition, we are living in the presence of God and ruled by Him. The conscience has only the feeling of right and wrong. It condemns all that is wrong and evil and justifies all that is right and good. But the intuition is above right and wrong, good and evil. It is above wrong and also above right; it is above evil and also above good. It condemns all that is wrong and all that is evil, but it does not necessarily approve all that is right and all that is good. It accepts only that which is of God, of the Spirit, and of life.
[For example], what God desires is that we speak His words, words that are of Him, of the Spirit, and of life. Therefore, when a brother ministers, whether he is speaking the truth or not will be attended to by the conscience. But as to what he should minister, what subject he should choose, what God has in mind for him to speak—these are not within the limit of right and wrong, good and evil. The feeling of the conscience is unable to do anything in this respect. Only through the intuition can one touch the mind of God and be led by God to speak His words. These differences between the conscience and the intuition are also the differences between self-rule and God's rule.
Many brothers and sisters are living in a condition that is a combination of the three kinds of government. The greater part of their being is under human rule; they still need to be ruled by man. Another part of their being is under self-rule, the rule of the conscience. But only a small part of their being is under God's rule so that they are controlled by God directly....There is the need to deal with the conscience more thoroughly so that we can, on the negative side, be delivered from human rule and, on the positive side, enter into God's rule to be directly under His control. (CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Experience of Life,” pp. 285-286)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Experience of Life,” ch. 6