One of the greatest dangers a Christian can face is a dull conscience. When your conscience grows dull, your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit weakens. You begin to lose the ability to recognize when He is speaking to you. You stop noticing the inward checks that once kept you on the right path. Over time, this leads to spiritual drift—and in some cases, disaster.
God never intended for His people to live without a clear, tender conscience. The conscience is the voice of your spirit. It is one of the primary ways the Holy Spirit leads you. When you are born again, your spirit is made new, and your conscience is made alive to God. But you must keep it that way. If you ignore the voice of your conscience, it will grow dull. If you override the Holy Spirit’s promptings again and again, you will stop hearing them.
Paul wrote to Timothy about this. He spoke of people who had “their conscience seared with a hot iron.” In other words, their conscience had become so calloused that it no longer registered the promptings of the Spirit. That is a dangerous place to be. But it does not happen overnight. It happens gradually, one small compromise at a time.
You must guard against this. You must keep your conscience tender before God. When the Holy Spirit deals with you about something, obey Him quickly. Do not reason it away. Do not excuse it. Do not delay. The more responsive you are, the more sensitive you will remain. The more you ignore Him, the less you will hear.
I have seen it happen many times. A believer who once walked closely with God begins to compromise. Maybe it is a habit they refuse to deal with. Maybe it is an attitude they will not repent of. At first, the Holy Spirit convicts them strongly. But they ignore Him. Over time, the conviction fades. They think they are fine, but they are not. They have simply dulled their conscience.
Once your conscience is dull, you open the door to greater deception. You no longer hear the warnings of the Holy Spirit. You begin to make decisions that grieve Him. You move further from the will of God. The only remedy is repentance and a return to fellowship with Him.
The good news is that your conscience can be restored. If you will humble yourself before God, confess your sin, and commit to obey Him, He will cleanse you. The blood of Jesus not only forgives sin, it cleanses the conscience. The Word says, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)” When you come to Him in sincerity, He will restore your sensitivity.
Staying sensitive to the Holy Spirit is not difficult, but it does require diligence. You must spend time in prayer and in the Word. You must keep your heart right before God. Bitterness, unforgiveness, pride, and sin will dull your conscience faster than anything. If you allow these things to take root, you will not hear clearly.
You must also be quick to obey. When the Holy Spirit prompts you to do something—or not do something—respond immediately. The more you obey, the clearer His voice will become. The more you resist, the fainter it will grow.
In my own life, I have seen the importance of this again and again. There were times when I knew inwardly that I should or should not do something. It was not a loud voice. It was a quiet check in my spirit. When I obeyed, I stayed in peace and in the will of God. When I ignored it, I paid the price. The Holy Spirit is faithful to guide us, but we must keep our conscience clear to hear Him.
The world around us is full of voices that dull the conscience. The more you feed on ungodly things, the more your sensitivity will fade. That is why you must guard your heart. You must choose carefully what you allow into your mind and spirit. If you feed on the Word of God and spend time in prayer, your conscience will stay tender. If you fill your life with the world’s noise, it will grow dull.
Many Christians wonder why they no longer sense the presence of God as they once did. They wonder why the Word no longer speaks to them as it used to. Often, the reason is a dulled conscience. The remedy is simple: repent, return to the Word, and begin to obey again. The Holy Spirit will meet you there. He will restore what was lost.
This is a vital issue in these last days. We must be able to hear from God clearly. We must be led by the Holy Spirit in all we do. There is no room for a dull conscience. The dangers are too great. The stakes are too high. God needs a people who are sensitive to His voice and quick to obey.
I encourage you—examine your heart today. Is your conscience tender before God? Are you quick to respond to the Holy Spirit’s promptings? If not, do not delay. Come before Him. Let Him cleanse you. Commit afresh to obeying His voice. As you do, you will find that your sensitivity returns. His voice will become clear once more. His guidance wil
