Conscience is defined as the faculty of telling good from evil. After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they developed a conscience and got the knowledge they did not have before. When God came by later that day, they ran away from Him because of what they knew. If your heart condemns you, you run away from God as Adam and Eve did. Ever since then, people have been running from God.
Though a conscience condemns us when we do wrong, it is good because it can keep us from sinning.
My heart raged at me for years as I battled schizophrenia. When I dreamt of healing, my heart told me it was impossible; who did I think I was because so many do not get healed? I have experienced firsthand all the things that can go wrong when your conscience accuses you. I spent years in religion trying to do so much and be pleasing to God, as I had come to believe it was what was necessary.
In this post, I share what I have learned about when your heart accuses you and hinders you in life and your relationship with God. It affects your thoughts and can worsen the battle for your mind.
- What Does It Mean If Your Heart Condemns You?
When your heart condemns you, your conscience makes you feel shame, fear, and unworthy about every negative thing resulting from sin. You feel much worse when you have a mental health issue.
An accusing heart makes you lose confidence in God, and you cannot approach Him freely. These are harmful effects of the conscience in that it was never God’s intention for us to live fearfully, condemned, and with other emotional baggage that separates us from Him.
Rev 13:8 (KJV) describes Jesus as the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. So God knew we would sin and need a savior.
He made it such that eating the fruit of good and evil would cause us to die. Adam and Eve died spiritually after they ate the fruit. The conscience was good to the extent it made us see our need for a savior but harmful because it makes us guilty before God.
2. You Can Have A Deadened Conscience
But other things can happen to a conscience. It can be dulled or deadened and allow sin to flourish. This occurs when people promote their sins and agenda, even when they directly violate the word of God.
In the nation of Israel before the coming of Christ, people’s conscience was deadened and dulled by wanton sin. God gave the law to awaken sin. The Israelites or us can’t get right with God by Keeping the law. The purpose of the law was never to get us right with God, despite the misconceptions out there.
The law was meant to make you die, minister condemnation while making sin come alive, and show you your need for the mercy of God. The law was given to make the conscience come back and do its work of condemning you so that you can see your need for a savior. The law amplifies guilt and condemnation so that you will return to God.
3. The Conscience Is Not Necessary Under The New Covenant
If your conscience condemns you after you have accepted Christ, you need to purge it. The conscience has to do with condemnation and the law and is not for a righteous man. We become righteous when we accept Christ.
Under the new covenant, your conscience is not supposed to be your guide, but the Spirit should guide you. The Old Testament law could not perfect a person according to the conscience. Heb 9:9 (KJV) says so. The new covenant can perfect a person according to Heb 10:2(KJV). A conscience that can condemn is not necessary in the new covenant.
1 John 3:16 (KJV), the writer writes about true salvation. If you are a true believer, you desire to be a blessing to people. If you see a person in need and ignore it is not consistent with God’s love. You wonder if such a person has a love of God in them.1 john 3:3 (KJV) says true believers try to live for God and seek Him. A person with no desire to live for God is not truly born again. Verse 18 says love is practical.
4. 1John 3:19 (KJV) Explained
In 1 John 3:19 (KJV), the writer talks about assuring our hearts before Him. Most people think you would already know if you are right with God. Many assume they would know if they have the anointing and are pleasing to him.
When their hearts, through their conscience, accuse them, they feel guilty before God and strive to be pleasing to Him. Yet, in this verse, we should assure our hearts before God. If our hearts do not give us confidence before God, it is not a reason to lack assurance. The problem is usually an evil conscience accusing us.
For instance, when you get born again, not everyone has the conviction that they are indeed born into the kingdom of God. You cannot wait until all doubt, fear, and reservations leave before you believe you are born again. You have to convince your heart. Assure in this passage means to convince or persuade.
Do note that the word assure in this passage is translated persuade in other places in the bible. Assure in this passage also refers to peace of mind. It means having peace of mind about a situation. To assure your heart is to come to a place of peace.
5. What Do You Do If Your Heart Condemns You?
You should persuade your heart before him that you are indeed of God. The living translation talks about assuring your conscience. Your conscience does not automatically bear witness and give you confidence. It is geared towards condemning you and making you feel unworthy and unaccepted. 1 John 3:19 (KJV) says you have to convince it otherwise.
For instance, when it comes to healing, you may hear a testimony and think you want the same. So you pray for healing, but you do not feel assured. You do not have peace of mind about it. You see all your symptoms and feel very sick. You think if you were healed, all doubts would be gone. All reservations would be gone, and you would automatically know it.
But it does not work that way. You have to persuade your heart. To assure yourself, tell yourself what the word of God says. Talk to yourself about everything that the word of God says that you have and are. Look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Tell yourself you are healed. You have the anointing of the Holy one.
When you do this, you change your conscience, reassure your heart, and build your confidence in God.
6. Dream Big For God By Assuring Your Heart
When God tells you to step outside yourself and do something big for him, doubt may fill your mind. You may look at yourself and wonder how you can achieve what God wants you to do. If your heart condemns you and shows you as unworthy when you want to step out and do something big for God, you still need to reassure your heart. Remind your heart that as Jesus is right now, so are you in the world.
It could look rather scary and risky when you want to step out to where God is telling you to go. God will always ask you to do something that stretches your faith. Your heart may lack confidence. But you must reassure your heart by telling it what the word of God says you are and what you have.
You do this by convincing yourself, speaking to, and encouraging yourself in the Lord.
7. Have The Boldness To Speak About What You Believe
Be bold always to say what you believe. If you are afraid to speak your mind, that hinders God from manifesting His glory in Your life. It allows your heart to condemn you. Dream big and tell others. Speak about your vision. When you talk big, it helps you.
You can believe God for anything significant, and that includes healing. Irrespective of your feelings or what the medical report says. Praise God and get to where it does not matter what everyone else says, including the doctor. Focus on what the word of God says, then your healing will manifest itself.
When you step out in faith and try to believe God for your healing, or another big dream, your conscience will constantly condemn you and whisper all manner of negativity to you. It will say to you,
You are just lying,
You are just acting well, but you are not okay
You are not healed.
It will not cease to condemn you unless you assure it.
8. Take An Active Role When Your Heart Condemns You
You stop your heart from coming against you by persuading it otherwise and feeding it the truths in God’s word. Do not take a passive position and beg God to make you believe when you find you are in doubt and your heart rages against you.
Do not just sit back and feel like you are nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing. This comes from listening to your conscience and doing nothing about reassuring your heart. God gave you authority, and so you are not a nothing.
Do not magnify feelings above the facts of God’s word. If you do not feel God’s love, you are wrong to believe He does not love you. If you pray for something according to God’s word, consider what the scripture says. Do not be wrong, and believe your heart as it fights against you.
9. Faith Comes By Convincing Your Heart
God is a spirit. He moves in the spirit realm. You have to receive His blessings by faith. When you do not see what you believe for in the physical, it does not mean He has not moved.
Heb 11:1 (KJV) says faith believes something based on what God’s word says. When God’s word says it is a done deal, you receive it and rejoice even before you see it. If your heart does not agree, you have to convince it.
You can have faith by getting rid of your unbelief by ceasing to be carnal. You cease to glorify feelings and get into faith. So long as you over-glorify feelings, God will not reinforce that.
10. 1 John 3:19-20 (KJV) Explained
1 John 3:20 says God is greater than our hearts. You can feel many things that God is not the source of. Many Christians assume if your heart condemns you, it must be God telling you something. But this might not be true according to 1 john 3:19-20. When you feel strongly within you, it must not be God convicting you. It could be an evil conscience.
Your conscience is the one that condemns you. God is not like your conscience to condemn you. 1 john 3 Verse 20 says he knows all things. You may feel fear, guilt, shame, and unworthiness, but God never makes you think those things. He is greater than our conscience and convicts us in a positive ministry.
If you have an overactive conscience, it will accuse you constantly. Your conscience, and not God, is the one that gives you a feeling of being unworthy and unable to do things. The law amplifies sin, and the conscience can become overactive where the law is glorified.
11. If Your Heart Condemns You, Purge It With The Blood Of Jesus
To avoid such feelings of fear, guilt, and condemnation, purge your evil conscience with the blood of Jesus Christ. Assure your heart, and do not let your conscience function like a spoilt brat. Dictate your conscience, and do not let it tell you.
Quit going by your feelings. Go for what God feels and let his heart dominate you.
Even in real life, we do not always go by feelings. You do many things you do not feel like doing. Emotions will not always tell you the truth.
12. Strive To Be Perfect, But Allow Mistakes
You are not perfect in all ways. We say the wrong things. We do things that offend others. And your conscience strikes you for such things. The only answer is to take courage in the Lord and purpose to do better next time.
Quit condemning yourself and being so hard on yourself. Quit letting your conscience violate you and hurt you. God loves you, values you, and wants to use you, and do tell your heart so. God once used a donkey to talk to Balaam. It was not because the donkey was spiritual or had been studying the word. If he could use a donkey, he could use anyone.
13. No More Condemnation
Romans 8:1 -4 (KJV) tells us there is no more condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. God judged Jesus. He put our sins upon Jesus. Jesus suffered for you so that you do not have to suffer. Not just in the future in hell, but also here and now with an evil conscience. You do not have to suffer now in feeling unworthy and separated, and unusable by God.
Jesus set us free from all that. According to Romans 8 verse 4, it is as if I had never sinned. I’m justified, and my sin isn’t imputed unto me. I’m pure and whole and just with no prior record of wrong. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in me when I have Christ. I’m as holy as I can get in my Spirit.
Eph 4:24 (KJV) says to put on the new man. The new man is the born-again Spirit that is flawless because Christ dwells there. According to 1 John 4:17(KJV), my Spirit is identical to Jesus.
Assure your heart with these kinds of facts every time your heart condemns you. Constantly purge your conscience by saying it does not matter what it looks like. This is what I am. This is what I have, and this is what I can do.
14. Know That You Are Blessed And Have Confidence Before God
Jesus has already done everything. We are blessed. We already have everything. It is not because God has not given if you have not received it. Know that your conscience and feelings of unworthiness are the biggest things you are fighting.
It is okay to blame everything on the devil but what you are fighting has nothing to do with him. Conscience remains the problem because you still live under the law and have not understood the New Testament grace.
1 john3:20 (KJV) urges you to push through this condemning conscience. If you can come to a place where the conscience does not condemn, then you can have confidence before God. You can be sure your faith has great recompense of reward.
15. Enter The Secret Place And Never Leave
Tap the power of the Holy Spirit and deal with your accusing conscience since you cannot do it in your strength. Enter that secret place, that Holy place, and never leave. Dwell there; even when you mess up, you don’t leave. You stay there because you have been forgiven of all past, present, and future sins. And you assure your heart before Him.
Believe in God’s word. But you must believe with all of your heart, including your conscience. Renew your conscience. It is much better to feel good about yourself than hate yourself. I’m not talking about your canal self but your born-again self. You need to recognize what God has done and be thrilled with it.
God is pleased with you. Two cannot walk together unless they agree. As long as you are beating up on yourself, you disagree with God and cannot walk with Him and see his absolute power. You cannot see God’s power if your heart condemns you.
When you mess up, and your conscience condemns you, find strength in the grace of the Lord Jesus. Purge your conscience from dead works so that you can walk with God. Focus on whom God is, not who you are, and your mistakes.
Grow and manifest the power of God as you walk in faith and assure your heart before him, so have confidence before Him.
Follow the above steps if your heart condemns you and be able to live a blessed life for God.