Chapter 2: The Inner Feeling

Scripture Reading:

Romans 2:15-16

Acts 24:16

2 Timothy 1:3

John 1:4, 8:18

"Entering into the way of the inner life" is the journey and an experience that every Christian must enter into. There are Christians who have been saved for decades but have not yet entered the way of the inner life. But there are those who entered the way of the inner path as soon as they are saved by grace. As a result, their spiritual lives not only continue to grow, but also reach maturity. Therefore, all Christians who do not walk in the way of the inner path are in spiritual poverty once they reach the end of their life's journey, their spiritual lives do not grow tall. It is because the glory in eternity is determined by the measure of one's spiritual life in this world. Though some people are very poor in material things, yet their faith and spiritual life may be rich and abundant. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus instructed his disciples on the mountain, he declared in a very clear and decisive tone, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."(Matthew 7:13-14) Thus, it is a MUST for every disciple of Jesus to enter and walk in the path of life.

Inner Senses are Sharp

We have already said that the moment a Christian believes in Jesus, he or she  should  learn and practice inner prayer, inner Bible study, and inner ministry. Now we are going to go further and talk about experiencing the "inner feeling".

In addition to learning to pray inwardly, read the Bible inwardly, and serve inwardly, there is another basic factor that governs the growth of our spiritual life, which is called "inner feeling". Some Christians who have been saved do not see much change in their lives, and even lose their testimonies because they have neglected to pay attention to their inner senses, resulting in numbness, dimness, and darkness in their minds. ...... On the contrary, some Christians who have believed in Jesus have experienced a great change in their inner lives, and they have continued to grow and show the character of God's life because of their inner senses. The Inner Senses are sharp. If we don't know what the inner sense means, it shows that we are still far from the path of life. Therefore, in order to help the saints to be sensitive to the inner senses, to be grounded in the truth, and to learn correctly from experience, we would like to make two major points:

 A.   Feeling of Conscience

The "conscience" represents what we feel inside. God created man in a structure that is divided into spirit, soul and body, in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 it says, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." This clearly tells us that our spirit, soul and body must be kept by the Lord until the day of His return. There is nothing in the Bible that explicitly mentions the word "conscience", but it is a reality experience-wise. In other words, we have mentioned that a person can pray inwardly because there is a part within the heart of man that engages in a spirit-led fellowship, it is the ability to communicate with God and  to call God Abba Father and to call Jesus Lord. But when it comes to the way we behave, there is another function called the function of conscience.

 1.  Conscience is the spiritual determinant of right and wrong

Just now we read Romans 2:15-16, "who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them on the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." Since the people of Israel had an external law to teach them how to conduct themselves, what about the Gentiles who did not have the law? Romans 2 tells us that God has engraved the function of the law in the heart of man, which is called the conscience. When this function of the law is manifested in our hearts, it is the "heart of right and wrong" that bears witness.

Experience-wise, an unbeliever has a conscience, but its function is weak. This is because when a person sins and turns away from God, his spirit becomes dull, withered, numb, and dim, and the function of his conscience diminishes accordingly. It is only when the Holy Spirit enters a person after he has been blessed and believes in the Lord Jesus that the spirit is revived and resurrected. Not only did the spirit begin to pray to God in heaven, but it also became sensitive to right and wrong. So the normal Christian

For example, there is a painful feeling of conviction for bearing false witness. On one occasion, a mother went through her daughter's things secretly and found that she had a lot of money. When the daughter came home from school, the mother asked her why she had so much money in her purse. The daughter lied and said that a certain classmate had entrusted it with her. Later, the mother called the classmate to inquire about the money, but in fact, the daughter was tempted to steal money from her mother because of her love for vanity, and she did not dare to admit that she had deceived her mother, which aroused her mother's suspicion, and she had to call a certain classmate (who was a Christian). The daughter called the student before her mother called and said, "Later, if my mother asks you if you have any money in my  account, you have to say yes for me". However, when the student received the phone call, she was in great pain. If she told the truth, her mother, who is a sister in Christ, would have pursued and punished the daughter, and her conscience would have been convicted if she had lied. So she prayed to the Lord and asked Him not to call her mother to ask her about this. I cite this example only to illustrate that there are two kinds of Christians, one who have a sharp sense of conscience after they have been converted to the Lord, and the other who steals money and commits crimes even after they have been converted to the Lord, thus erasing the sense of conscience. Over time, this believer's conscience becomes as dysfunctional as it was before he became an unbeliever. This shows that the human conscience does have the instinct to determine "right and wrong".

2.   Conscience executes judgment on behalf of God

"Conscience" has another function, which is to judge on behalf of God. It enables us to recognize right and wrong in our spirit, so when we disobey God or make mistakes, our conscience will condemn us and make us feel uneasy, insecure, and unsettled. On the other hand, when we act in righteousness and have done good deeds, we feel peace, comfort, and well-being inside. From this, we can clearly see that the conscience is the representative of God placed within a man to restrain and manage people, so that they will not go astray and get caught in the net.

A long time ago, the newspapers carried a story about a murderer who was arrested. In fact, he was not being chased by the police and arrested at a distance, but he went to the police station to give himself up. The police asked him why he turned himself in. He said that since the day he killed the man, he had been in great pain of conviction and fear in his heart.

This shows that God still rules and judges people through the feeling of conscience for those who have not believed in Jesus.

 3.   Conscience as an outlet for the life of the Holy Spirit

Conscience is very important and we should pay attention to it because it is the outlet of the Holy Spirit and the life of God. It is written in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” This mean that our old heart was hardened before we were converted by grace, but when we received the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit works on us to soften this hardened heart, i.e., the old heart becomes a new heart, and a new Spirit is further placed in us. Since mankind has sinned, the spirit has been asleep and darkened, and now it is awakened to become a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit dwells in this new spirit. When the Holy Spirit dwells in you and me, God through the Holy Spirit also puts eternal life in our spirit. So when a person is saved by grace. Not only does the Holy Spirit dwell in us, but we also receive eternal life.This eternal life operates in you and me through the conscience. In other words, the Holy Spirit and the life of God come to the soul through the conscience.

Speaking from experience, if there are things that our conscience reproves and convicts, and we ignore them, this will  make our conscience numb and dull, we are then blocking the way of the Holy Spirit and life. Therefore, if Christians do not pay attention to the painful feelings of conviction in their hearts, they are killing the feelings in their conscience, and as a result, their spiritual life will not grow, and there will be no spiritual future for them. Therefore, we have to submit to our inner senses, so that the life of God can move freely and gradually live out the image of Christ.

No wonder the Apostle Paul said, “I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.” (Acts 24:16) That is, God hath not condemned me, neither hath any man condemned me: neither have I acted unjustly toward God, nor toward any man. As far as experience is concerned, I have ceased to do anything that my conscience does not approve of or reproach me for. In this way, I can maintain peace of mind and a clear conscience.

 4.   Conscience is the window of the Spirit

Conscience is a part of the function of the human spirit, and it is the window of the spirit as far as the part of the spirit is concerned. In the case of this hall, there is light coming in from the outside through the windows of the hall. If we close all the surrounding windows with curtains, not only will there be no air circulation in the hall, but the light will also be blocked from coming in, and the hall will be plunged into darkness.

In the same way, whether the light of the Holy Spirit can reach the whole person through the conscience depends on whether the conscience is clean or not. As housewives know, the windows of a house are the most prone to filth, especially the kitchen windows, which are often blackened with grease, dust, and fumes. A clean conscience is like a clean window. No wonder the Apostle Paul affirmed in 2 Timothy 1:3, “I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day”. Do we pay attention to whether our conscience is clean or not when we serve God? How should we maintain a clean conscience? It must be kept free from any uneasiness or feeling of impropriety! If your conscience condemns you and condemns you repeatedly, you cannot serve God. Hebrews 9:14 tells us, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Have your dead works led you to serve the living God? We are told here that it is the blood of Christ that cleanses our conscience and makes it clean. If we want to keep our conscience free from unrest and impropriety, it must be clean and bright, so that we can serve God.

5.   Obedience to conscience

If the conscience is kept clean, then the sharper the senses of conscience will be. In other words, a Christian must always obey the feelings of conscience. If there is a deficiency, a feeling of reproach, or an inability to get through, the conscience must be followed. With this constant obedience, the conscience will be clean, and the light of the Holy Spirit will pass through our whole being, brightening our whole body, and revealing the nature of the Lord and the life of the Lord.

In Fujian Province, a brother who was the head of the authorities once testified that he had founded and operated a club which was used by some high-ranking officials as a venue for sports and entertainment, and these officials often pooled together some money to purchase club equipment. Later, due to the mobilization of the army, these high-ranking officials were transferred to other places, thus leaving behind a lot of money and club paraphernalia. This brother of the Secretary did not know where they had been transferred to. As a matter of fact, he was qualified to handle the money, but because he had just heard the gospel and had been saved by grace, his life had changed dramatically, and his conscience had regained its sharpness, he did not dare to use the money without authorization. Later on, he took the time to carefully inquire about the addresses of the transferred officials and returned them one by one.

Thank you, Lord! Some of our young people have been so blessed that when they heard the topic of "The Path of Life" in the Saturday ministry class, they immediately put it into practice, just to give you an example:

A young man was revitalized and came to love the Lord after attending a summer conference this year. He attended his first Saturday ministry training meeting, and that night I just spoke about the Christian spiritual life growth program, and one of the topics was to have a clean conscience. When he got home, he immediately searched through his things at home and found that a pen he had borrowed from a classmate had not yet been returned. Suddenly, he asked his sister (note: she was also attending the youth ministry training), “Sister, do you have a clean conscience?” The sister was dumbfounded by her brother's question because she saw how he was so won over by the Lord after his first time in the ministry training, and she felt ashamed because he listened to the Lord's word for the first time, but she didn't. Perhaps her brother thought she could not hear him and asked again, “Sister, is your conscience clean?” She couldn't help but answer frankly, “I don't think so.”

The next morning, she woke up and was ready to eat breakfast and go to school when her brother said, “Don't we need to have a clean conscience?” She realized that she had not made her bed, so she quickly made it up. Then her brother said, “Sister, my conscience reminded me last night that I borrowed a pen from a classmate and have not returned it for two weeks.” Immediately her conscience was also awakened to the fact that she borrowed a book from a classmate for two years and has not yet returned it, and her brother borrowed a pen from someone for only two weeks and was upset that it was not returned, so she was ashamed in her heart, and walked back to her room to get the book. Then she went to school and said to her classmate, “I'm sorry, I borrowed a book from you for two years before I returned it”, and the Lord reminded her through her classmates, “You also borrowed a cassette tape from me for almost a year.” On the one hand, she was ashamed, but on the other hand, she thanked the Lord for His great love that He refused to let her go, and through this topic of “The Path of Life”, He awakened the feeling of conscience in her, so that she could deal with impurity, injustice, and unholy things.

B.   Sensitive to the senses of life

The "sense of conscience" is the negative side. When we make a mistake or suffer, our conscience will condemn us and make us feel bad. The "sense of life" is the positive side, which enables us to live out the image of the Son of God or the Father.

1.  The life of God dwells in man as light

John 1:1 reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This means that in eternity there was the Word (also called The Word), who is God, and all things were created by The Word of God. God said that there should be light, and there was light, and God said that there should be heaven, and there was heaven. God created all things by the Word. And then verse 4 goes on to say, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” This means that there is life in God's word, and this life is the light in man.

From our experience, when we believe in the Lord Jesus and are saved by grace, we receive the word of the Lord in evangelism. When the word of the Lord comes in, the life of God also comes into you and me, and this life is the light of man, so when we are born again and are saved, the word of God also shines in you and me.

 2.   The light of life is the sense of life

This “light” is the light of life, which shines in a person and it can be felt, this is the so-called sense of life. In other words, when the light of life shines in a person, it creates a feeling called “the sense of life”.

In the Gospel of John 8:12, Jesus said to the people, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” Therefore, when a Christian believes in Jesus, he receives the light of life. This light is not the light of the sun, nor the light of the electric lamp, but the light of life. In other words, when you believe in the Lord Jesus, you will have eternal life, which is called the light of life. When this light of life glows in the human soul, it produces a sense or a feeling.

3.   The sense of life expresses the nature of God

We all know that in human life there is a human nature. Likewise, in God's life, there is also the nature of God. God's nature is expressed through the sense of life.

Our God is a merciful, loving, just and holy God. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we receive the life of God, and in this life there is the character of God. So how does God's loving, holy, and righteous nature come out? It is expressed through the feeling or sense of God's life. Let's say a child likes to eat sugar. When the mother goes out, the child goes into the kitchen and sees white fine salt and eats it, thinking it is sugar, and he immediately spits it out. This is the sense of life, and he spits it out because it is not to his liking. This shows that temperament is expressed in the sense of life.

A businessman testified that before he was saved, he used to go dancing almost every night. Later, after hearing the gospel and believing in Jesus, he still went to the dance hall, but a marvelous thing happened: when he got off the dance floor, his feet felt hard and stiff, and he could not help himself. In the past, when the music was playing, he would immediately go along with the music and dance wildly. Why could he not move tonight? It turned out that there was a sense of life inside that grabbed him, not only preventing him from dancing with delight, but also causing him to lose his joy inside. Afterwards, he came to me and asked, “Brother Jeng, I am sorry to ask you, I like dancing, but after I was converted to the Lord, why did I not have any joy in my heart, and why did I feel heavy in my feet when I went to the dance floor, does the Bible forbid believers to dance?” I answered him, “The Bible does not say that dancing is forbidden, but the life in you does not allow it, because the life of God in us is holy, and this sort of dancing is a way to obey the evil desires of the heart, so the holy life cannot pass through, and you do not have joy dancing, which is also known as the ‘feeling of life’. Dancing carnally is against God's holy nature.” Therefore, Christians should pay close attention to the feeling of life, and the more you obey the feeling of life, the more naturally God's nature will be expressed through the feeling of life.

 4. Life grows and matures when you obey the feeling of life

Not only that, but if we are obedient to the feelings of life, our spiritual life grows and grows to maturity. This is because obedience to the feeling of life is a factor that promotes the growth of life. On the other hand, the sense of life increases with the growth of life, and to the extent that our life grows, the sense of life also grows.

It is as if a child is born soon after, and his life demands to grow, and he must eat. So he is born and behaves according to the feeling of life or Intuition. When he is hungry, he cries for milk, and his mother feeds him milk to satisfy his life demands. When he has reached the point where he has satisfied his need for milk, his mouth closes and he stops eating, and this is obedience to the feeling of life. If you give him milk when he doesn't want to eat or when he is not asking for it, he will get full and vomit. Therefore, a wise mother knows how to obey the demands of her child's life, so that the child's life will grow. Gradually the child grows up and needs to jump, so the life inside urges him to jump, and the child jumps according to the feeling of life. If you stop him and don't allow him to jump, he will feel pain and suffering. In the same way, the life of God has multiple functions in you and me. Therefore, it is manifested in many ways. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, not only should you pay close attention to the senses of life, but you should also always obey the senses of life, so that your life can grow to be rich and mature.

5.  The more one obeys the sense of life, the more one's senses are sharpened, and the

more one enters the Inner Path of life

The life of God is felt in man, and the more one obeys this feeling of life, the more one grows in life. Such a Christian is one who walks on the path of life within. If a person's spiritual life does not grow after he has believed in the Lord, it means that he has not yet touched the path of life, or is not walking on the path of life. Only when life continues to grow can we be sure that he is walking on the path of life. However, the Christian whose life continues to grow is the one who obeys the sense of life.

On the other hand, when we obey the sense of life, the sharper this sense of life becomes. The person who has such a keen sense of life is the one who walks on the path of the inner life. On the other hand, if a Christian, after his conversion, does not obey the sense of the inner life, but ignores it, and even goes against the sense of the inner life, then the inner life is not aligned to the sense of the inner life. As a result, the feeling of the inner life becomes duller and duller and even becomes numb. This is the key to whether or not our spiritual life grows and penetrates deeper into the root of our being. Is your sense of life sharp or dull? If you have a keen sense of inner life, it means that your life is growing and maturing. On the other hand, a person with a dull inner sense of life indicates that life is not growing. This is because the path of life is the inner path, not the outer path. All spiritual beings throughout the ages, in ancient times and in modern times, have been touching the path of the inner life. If you and I have not touched the inner path of life, we have wasted our lives.

 6. Following the feelings of life result in peace and joy

Following the sense of life, which is in accordance with the divine nature, peace and joy abound as the result.

A young sister witnessed that after her Saturday morning watch, she wanted to go home to rest after joining because she had a cold and cough for the past week and had trouble sleeping every night, but just as she entered the house, her mother asked her to go to Divisoria market to buy salt and sugar. She thought to herself that the market must be muddy because of the heavy rain last night. Although she was very reluctant, she was marvelously compelled by the feeling of life within her to go. Because God's life is a life of obedience, that is the life of Jesus Christ. So when one is willing to obey, he  or she is also obeying the feeling of life. When the sister took the first step of obedience, she felt that her tiredness disappeared, and the more she left the house, the more joyful she became as she walked along the road. Later, she met another companion and realized that the church (youth meeting) needed plastic bags for bread in the afternoon. So she helped her companion to buy some. The journey was like a tidal wave of joy. The market was supposed to be dirty and noisy, but as she obeyed the feeling of life inside, she was filled with unspeakable peace and joy, and she came back to the market with unceasing joy. When you obey God's sense of life, the more you obey Him, the more you are in harmony with God's nature, and the more you fulfill the requirements of life, the more you have peace and joy. On the contrary, if you don't obey the sense of life, you violate God's nature, and the result is pain and anxiety.

One Thursday night, a young sister testified that she had just taken her semestral exams in college, and before the exams she got the test questionnaire from her classmates, and she was very happy. She was very happy because she only had to read the questions to get a good grade. But marvelously, when she got the test questionaire and was about to read it, the feeling of life in her heart demanded that she could not do it, because it was stolen by her classmates in an unrighteous way. Since God's life is a life of righteousness, when a life of righteousness encounters injustice, it reproves and condemns, causing her great spiritual pain. My sister testified that when she had to look at the test questionnaire, she was in such agony that she had to tear it up  and throw it away, and only then did she regain peace in her heart.

7. Live out the nature of God and manifest God's glory in obedience to the sense of life

The last point is that if we obey our sense of life, we can eventually live out the nature of God and manifest the glory of the Lord. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 recorded Lord Jesus' teaching on the Mount began with an empty heart, which is the inside story, followed by a clean heart, hunger and thirst for righteousness, gentleness, and compassion, which are not only the inside story, but also the experience of the inner life. When the disciples' hearts were ready,  Jesus went on to talk about someone hitting you on the right side of your face, and turning your left side of your face to be hit by him. If someone wants to take your inner garment, let him take your outer garment as well. If someone forces you to walk one mile, you walk two miles with him..... Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. These are the experiences of a superior spiritual life. It is not stealing, nor killing that is a sin, just being greedy is a sin already. It is not killing that is a sin, but hating is a sin already. The meaning is that when the Father's life grows up in you, you live out the Father's nature and manifest the Father's image.

A missionary once went to the Congo in Africa to preach the gospel. Africa is a backward and impoverished region, and although he preached the gospel there for several years, he was unable to convince the people there to believe in the Lord. One day he was talking about how Jesus loved sinners when He was on earth, and one of the sayings that the natives heard was, “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” (Mattew 5:42). So the natives of the township came and demanded everything in his house, and then they came to his house in groups and carried away all the food and furniture. When the missionary's wife returned home in the evening, she was very frightened and found that everything in the house seemed to have been looted.

A marvelous thing happened at the same time. After the natives had taken away all of the missionary's furniture and possessions, they remembered the missionary's marvelous example. So they all said with one voice, “This man is not like those merchants, he doesn't ask us for anything, but give us all they have; he must be a god, and we mustn't treat him as we please.” The next day, the natives brought back all the things they had taken, and returned them, and said with all sincerity that they would believe in the Lord Jesus with them. Soon there were thousands of repentant souls in the townships of the Congo, and the largest church in the Congo was established.

Oh! This missionary, he lived out the life of God, he obeyed the feeling of the life of God, and gave to those who asked. Because God's life is to give out, not to take in, it is God's nature to keep on giving and sacrificing. That night when everything in the missionary's home was removed by the natives, the couple had no complaints in their hearts. It was God's life through their obedience to the sense of life that they were able to concretely live out the life of the Father in heaven. It is no wonder that all the people in the township sincerely repented and turned to the Lord.

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