Have you ever exercised faith and your request was not granted? It could be that you have need of patience in order to obtain the promise (Hebrews 10:36). However, it could also be that lack of good conscience on your part deprived you of your desired answered prayers. This post emphasizes the need of a good conscience if your faith is to deliver in prayers.

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck - I Timothy 1:18-19 (NKJV, emphasis mine).

If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear - Psalms 66:18 (NKJV).

Faith works with good conscience. Many Christians' faith do not work because they don't have good conscience. When you reject pure conscience, your faith will suffer shipwreck. The psalmist says that God will not hear him if he habours iniquity in his heart. This is so also for all believers. The Father will not hear you if you have un-confessed sin in your heart. Your heart must be void of offence for your faith to work.

What is good conscience?

Conscience is a moral sense of right or wrong that acts as a guide to the way a person behaves. It is that small still voice that tries to get you to walk in line with the Lord's word, that cautions you when you are going wrong or about to do the wrong thing. Clear conscience then means a conscience void of offence towards God and men (Acts 24:16). The Amplified version of 1 Peter 3:21 calls it an inward cleanness and peace.

A good conscience bears you witness in the Holy Spirit (Romans 9:1). It makes you to seek to conduct yourself morally well with personal integrity and in an honourable way. It is actually commendable if for the sake of maintaining a pure conscience you suffer wrongly (1 Peter 2:19). You are to possess a clear conscience so that when people accuse you wrongly they will be put to shame at the end.

Faith and good conscience

You need to war with prophecies in faith with a good conscience. Conscience void of offence towards God and man gives you boldness to come before the Lord to make your request known to Him. The enemy will have nothing to accuse you of before the Almighty. You will be assured that God will answer your prayers since there is no un-confessed sin in you. Clear conscience provokes God's intervention in your life when people come against you wrongfully, your faith that God will fight for you will work.

Examples of men whose faith worked with good conscience

Daniel

Daniel was a man whose faith worked because he had a pure conscience. When some men rose against him for walking uprightly, he wasn't perturbed at all. He knew that he had not offended God or any man, so he continued to pray to God who alone could save him from his enemies, even when he knew he would be killed for doing so. He refused to offend God, and the Lord fought for him. The lions didn't devour Daniel but devoured his enemies immediately they got into the lions' den (Daniel 6:1-24).

Samuel

Samuel was serving as a prophet of God and leader of the Israelites. But one day, the Israelites decided they wanted a king like other nations. God told Samuel that they didn't reject him Samuel but Him the Lord. So, the day Samuel presented their king to them, he asked if he had offended any of them and they said that he didn't offend any of them.  Then Samuel prayed to God to send thunder and rain to show to the Israelites that they did wickedly by rejecting God and asking for a king. God heard him and did exactly what he asked for (1 Samuel 12:3-5, 16-19).

In conclusion, it's not enough to build up your faith in God, it is equally important that you maintain a good conscience all the time so that when you war in prayers your faith will not be shipwrecked.

 

Ngozi Nwoke is a teacher, speaker, counselor and author of "Peace Money Can't Buy" and "The Man Jesus: What You Need to Know About Christ". She has a passion to teach people how to enjoy peace, God's love, and Christian living for a more fulfilling life. Want a more fulfilling life?