In the ‘80s I had a cool Saab Turbo 900. Well, I paid for it like it was a cool car, but actually it was a lemon and it taught me a compelling lesson about the cost of vanity. But here’s the cool part, the headlights were hard-wired to stay on whenever you drove. For some reason I liked that. Years later, when all my vanity could afford was a Ford Taurus, I still wanted to drive with my lights on, but I didn’t want to go to all that dreadful work of turning them on and off at the appropriate time. I left the lights on and when I parked the car, it was smart enough to turn my lights off after a couple minutes, but the alarm still sounded to warn me that they were on. A problem easily solved – I just ignored the alarm. More on that after a word from our Sponsor:
And He [Holy Spirit], when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…. when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. (John 16:8, 13)
In the hours before His crucifixion, Jesus told His followers that when He left this world, His Father would send a Helper, a Comforter, the Holy Spirit to continue helping us learn to follow Jesus. I believe that our conscience is the sense by which we perceive the guidance and conviction of the Holy Spirit. Remember the motto of Pinocchio’s friend Jiminy Cricket, “Always let your conscience be your guide.” Reading scripture and asking the Holy Spirit to teach you how to apply it is one of the best ways I know to teach your conscience where to guide you.
Oh, about that car. You see, the problem is, once you start disregarding *an* alarm, you are actually disregarding *all* alarms… like the alarm that is desperately trying to tell you that you’ve ALSO left the key in the ignition. And there you are, standing beside a perfectly locked car, with the lights off. Not cool.
Followers of Jesus listen intently to hear the guidance and conviction – the alarms – of the Holy Spirit.
Clark H Smith
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