«　WEEK 4　DAY 5　»

　　Acts 24:16 Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.

　　Matt. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

　　Our conscience is not so pure. Perhaps at this very moment some accusation which we have not confessed to the Lord is still upon our conscience. These accusations are the dirt that needs to be dug away. We do not sense much liberty within because of the accusations in our conscience. What are the accusations? You must ask yourself; only you know. You know what is within you that is wrong with others. When you are not right with others, the accusations persist. When you refuse to do what the Lord demands, this becomes an accusation in your conscience. Then you wonder why you are bound and without freedom. It is simply because there is a demand of the Lord which you will not answer, and it has become an immediate accusation in your conscience. Your conscience is not pure from accusations and without offenses. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 3,”The Economy of God,” p. 228)

　　If we would experience a free, inward flow of the Spirit, our conscience must first be dealt with and purified. The dirt can only be dug away by going to the Lord several times each day. I would suggest that during this week we go to the Lord again and again, even while we are walking along the street. We have to go to the Lord in our spirit and be dug in His presence. By the help of the Holy Spirit we must dig away all the dirt.

　　After dealing with the accusations in our conscience, we must also dig away the many things condemned by the Lord in our heart. Not many brothers and sisters have a pure heart in seeking only the Lord Himself. On one hand, many are seeking the Lord and His way, but on the other, they are still seeking too many things other than the Lord Himself The heart then becomes complicated and is not free and pure. We must go to the Lord once again to dig away all the things other than Christ in our heart.

　　You may ask,”What things need to be dug away?” Perhaps one of the first things is your concern about the future and the guidance of the Lord. You should not be bothered by this; the future is not in your hands but in the Lord's. In fact, you should not have any future—the Lord Himself is our only future. We do not know how”sticky” our heart is. Many years ago flypaper was used to catch flies, and how sticky it was! Whatever touched it stuck to it. Our heart is just like the flypaper—so sticky. Whatever touches the heart sticks to it. These things must all be cut off. It seems that we are all seeking the Lord. Many of us are living only for the Lord and have given up our homes and our jobs. Day by day we are seeking the Lord's guidance, but we do not know how many things complicate our heart. Can we forget these things? To dig away the dirt from the conscience is easy, but to dig away the dirt from the heart is not so easy. In so many things we are kind to ourselves; we do not like to dig our heart severely. It is easy to dig away the accusations from our conscience, but it is not so easy to dig away the things that we love from our heart. We are stuck to the things we hold dearly. This is why the Scriptures tell us that we need a good conscience and a pure heart.”Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).

　　There is no doubt that we love the Lord and are seeking Him, but our loving and seeking the Lord is with a complicated heart. The aim and the goal of our heart are not so pure. We do not know how many goals are within our heart. What about our family? Our job? Our degree? What about this year and next year? There are so many things still in our heart. I tell you, brothers and sisters, all this dirt is frustrating the flow of living water within us and must be dug away. Since the day that we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He has come into us as the springing well of living water. But the problem today is that there is too much dirt in our conscience and in our heart. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 3,”The Economy of God,” pp. 228-229)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1964, vol. 3,”The Economy of God,” chs. 8-9