Your Soul's GPS

Think of your conscience like the Global Positioning System in your car. 

When you are supposed to make a turn, it prompts you when to do so. 

Your conscience routinely suggests course corrections in every area, including your thoughts, words, and deeds. 

Having your best interests at heart, your conscience makes you aware of wrong turns, and then gets you back on track. 

In fact in Romans 9:1, Paul even referred to his conscience as an instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to speak to him. 

If you can learn to accurately listen to your conscience, you'll find that it is actually a tool God uses to speak to you.

A conscience or sense of direction is not unique to humans. It is also exhibited in nature. 

One such example is the migratory instinct in birds. 

This instinct prompts them to relocate to a more favorable climate in order to survive. 

Even insects have this instinct. For example, honeybees can construct a complex hive without sophisticated communication skills. Their instincts directs them what to do. 

You and I, also, have a God given sense of right or wrong commonly known as a conscience, which prompts us toward the right way to go.

Some people are so annoyed by their conscience that they have damaged it.

Paul refers to this as a seared or burned conscience in I Timothy 4:2. 

They've attempted to unplug it or disable it, but this only endangers them because this is their safety device. 

If you have a damaged conscience, ask God to heal it, and then nurse it back to health with God's Word. 

Learn to follow its directions BEFORE a mistake is made. If AFTER you've missed your turn, quickly admit the mistake, correct it, band get back on course. 

Just like the honeybees with honey, we have to tune out the confusion and tune in our conscience. 

Then, we'll, too, prosper like the honeybees. 

Tune it in instead of tuning it out. 

It could even save your life. 

It did for me

Prayer's Key

When you mind is centered upon yourself and your needs, this is a form of idolatry, and you have become in reality your god. 

Since the true God made everything and everyone, He is the true center of the universe. 

To be thinking rationally, you should be looking at life from God’s perspective since everything originated from Him. 

Whoever or whatever is running your life is in effect ruling you and is your ruler. 

If it is you, you are in effect sitting upon the throne of your life designed only for God. 

You are sitting on God’s chair, and that really upsets Him. 

Who would sit upon a chair designed by or for God? 

Wouldn't you say that it really is arrogant to sit on God’s chair? 

God calls this pride.

The Bible say in James 4:6 

“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble”. 

In other words, when your thoughts are centered upon you, you are in effect worshiping you, and God will oppose you for it.

However, when you center your thoughts upon Him, you are putting His interests before yours, and you are humbling yourself by doing it. 

When you humble yourself under God then He can bless you. 

Notice how this model prayer that Jesus taught was designed to remove yourself from the center of your thoughts, and to put God in His proper place.

Matthew 6:9-13 (CEB) 

"Pray like this: Our Father who is in heaven, uphold the holiness of your name. 

Bring in your kingdom so that your will is done on earth as it’s done in heaven. 

Give us the bread we need for today. Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you, just as we also forgive those who have wronged us. 

And don’t lead us into temptation, but rescue us from the evil one." 

The key to answered prayer is to unlock God’s grace in heaven. 

How we do that is by centering our thoughts upon God, His interests, and perspective. 

When we do that, God showers us with favor as we get ourselves out of the way. 

If we don't reset our thoughts, we will meet resistance.

Horse or Mule?

In Psalm 16:7 (KJV), David said that God steers him like a horse with reins. 

"I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons." 

In Psalm 16:8-9A (NIV), David spoke of feeling God’s tugs to the right or left which brought a grin to his face. 

"I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices." 

In Psalm 32:8-10, God spoke through David by saying, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; 

I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. 

Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. 

Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. " 

God doesn't like to direct with pain like the bit cutting into a horse's tongue, 

but He will if He has too. 

He would much rather be gentle and kind like with a horse falling in step by a rein placed gently upon his neck.

God's Vantage Point

For us to truly understand others, we must take their vantage point and ask ourselves what do they value, and how does their vantage point influence them? 

In the same way, if we are to truly understand God, we must look at life from God's vantage point, and how does that vantage point influence Him. 

For example in Romans 8:28 (NIV) Paul says, 

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (or God's vantage point)." 

What Paul does not say is that EACH thing that happens to God's people is good, but what Paul does say is that God can pull everything together and make good out of it, but how does God define good from His vantage point?

In the next verse, in Romans 8:29 (NIV) Paul goes on to say, 

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” 

From God’s vantage point, His ultimate good is for you to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. 

In other words, good equals being like Jesus. 

Let’s continue reading in very same Chapter to hear Paul talk about some things that could happen to Christians that God can work together for good.

In Romans 8:35-37 (NIV) Paul says, 

“35Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecutionor famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 

As it is written: “For your sake (God's vantage point) we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." 

Although God doesn’t author evil as James said in James 1:16-17, God can still use it for good, which is to make us more like Jesus. 

Now, let’s take God’s vantage point again. 

What would give God the greatest satisfaction? 

For us to be faithful to Him with nothing at stake, 

or for us to be loyal to Him in the face of everything His enemy Satan can throw at us?

One last thing, Paul said in I Timothy 2:4 (NIV) “who (God's vantage point) wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 

God wants everyone to know Him. 

Light is best seen in a backdrop of darkness, 

and God’s goodness best shines through in the heat of our dark battle against Satan. 

After all, didn’t Jesus say in Matthew 5:14-16 (NASB) 

14"You are the light of the world. 

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 

16"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (God's vantage point).” 

God wants everyone to be forgiven and restored to Him through your loyalty to Him in the heat of battle. 

Therefore, God can and does work everything taken together for good for them that love God to them that are called for His purpose (God's vantage point).

How faith sees it

Science is collection of information and attempting to understand the universe through this process. 

However, our understanding of the universe is limited by our ability to collect enough data,the perspective we use to view it, and ultimately process it. 

To understand the universe, we must view it from the perspective of He who made it to truly understand it. 

As compared to science, faith is accepting what an all-knowing and all-loving God says about the universe as true, and adjusting our lives accordingly.

(NIV) Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.