Holy Spirit or conscience

[TOP]

I have been messing up the last couple of weeks and today I have been noticing my sins being brought up in random ways. Is this my conscience bothering me or conviction by the Spirit or do they work together? Thanks, Tim

 

[DebChris]

To act against conscience is to sin against God. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin. When our conscience tells us what we have done is wrong, it is the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. There is a peace that comes when our decisions are in line with God’s will for our lives.
Be sure to separate this from being guilt ridden which is the work of the devil. It is Satan who accuses us of sin. Of course, we have a remedy called the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which we receive God’s forgiveness. “For the accuser of our brother is cast out, who day and night accused us before God.”
“Happy is the man in whom the Lord imputes no guilt.”
Hope this helps answer your question.

 

[TOP]

Thanks, but I’m noticing outwardly manifestations in my environment. Is this a possible coaxing by the Spirit or just my conscience bothering me? Does the Spirit still do this to people in mortal sin? Or is the connection completely cut? Tim

 

[DebChris]

Thanks, but I’m noticing outwardly manifestations in my environment. Is this a possible coaxing by the Spirit or just my conscience bothering me? Does the Spirit still do this to people in mortal sin? Or is the connection completely cut? Tim

If I am understanding your question, this is one of the ways the Holy Spirit speaks to me. Because God loves us, he will call us back to himself in many different ways. For instance, during the worst period of my life, no matter what I tried to do in responding to my environment I ran into a brick wall. I needed to stop trying to do everything myself and submit to God’s will in my life.
There is an old saying, “Let go and let God.” I had to learn that does not mean ignoring a problem. It means listening to my gut, as a Franciscan friar would put it. Listen both to your heart and your conscience. How are they telling you to respond (not react) to the outward manisfestations in your environment?
Another way that God speaks to me is through other people. I will give an example that does not involve divulging a sin. I had been rearended. The person who heard the crash asked me if I needed an ambulance, to go to the hospital. The police officer asked me three times. After I drove home, my daughter asked me the same question. I finally set aside my stubborn independence as I thought, “If the police officer asked me three times whether or not I needed an ambulance, maybe he saw something I didn’t.” I drove to the hospital emergency room. Although I was sent home after being examined, a week later I could not move. The injury was muscular skeletal and I have long since recovered.
To answer your question, I would say “yes,” this is one of the way God speaks to us. God wants us to reconnect with Him.

 

[TOP]

Thanks DebChris, I question the promptings because I know the relationship is ruptured by mortal sin and ask should I trust them, even though I know they are right, at this point in time. Will I be able to trust them in times of doubt of a specific sin. I’m trying to learn to discern the promptings of the Spirit. Tim

 

[DebChris]

Think about the advice a doctor might give a patient. He will guide him in ways that will contribute to his personal health. The doctor takes care of the patient while he is still sick. It is up to the patient whether or not to accept the cure.
The Holy Spirit guides us towards the steps we can take in restoring our relationship with God and with any person we may have hurt by our sins.
The Holy Spirit also guides and speaks through our confessors, endowed as they are with the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It is in the Sacrament of Reconciliation that you will receive better guidance than anything I can provide.

 

[mommyof4]

Thanks DebChris, I question the promptings because I know the relationship is ruptured by mortal sin and ask should I trust them, even though I know they are right, at this point in time. Will I be able to trust them in times of doubt of a specific sin. I’m trying to learn to discern the promptings of the Spirit. Tim

Tim, I don’t know if this helps, but sometimes I feel that the Holy Spirit bugs us MORE when we are not is a state of grace. I think he really wants us to go to confession and get with the program.

I think I understand your statement about discerning the promptings of the HS. Sometimes I have difficulty discerning the cause of my guilty feelings. I sufferer from bouts of scrupulosity, and I have a hard time determining if the HS is using my guilty feelings to lead me to repentance, or if it’s just my scrupulosity acting up.

 

[MSParrott]

I noticed that when I came back Home, all my past sins and ways I have wronged others - even though I had confessed them already - were still bugging me, and I felt compelled to make right of my wrong-doings.

One particular instance was a lie I had told to one of my closest friends (this was done years ago, but always stayed with me). I confessed it, but KNEW I had to come clean (my heart and soul, and IMO the Holy Spirit). I was SO nervous because I thought the friendship might suffer. But by the true Grace of God, I told my friend the truth and she didn’t think the lie was anything to break our friendship over. She forgave me and I am absolutely postive that the Holy Spirit was the one giving me this nudge to make things right.

This is just my opinion, but I believe that the closer we try to get to God, the more “highlighted” our sins are and He wants us to be truly sorry for them. Not only because we fear what He will think, but because it is right. (I hope that made sense).

 

[DebChris]

I
This is just my opinion, but I believe that the closer we try to get to God, the more “highlighted” our sins are and He wants us to be truly sorry for them. Not only because we fear what He will think, but because it is right. (I hope that made sense).

I remember a week when my past sins flooded my memory. The more I recognized these sins, the more I also experienced God’s forgiveness and love.
When my daughter was in high school I reflected on how the better a child behaved the tougher the discipline became. When a child has behavioral difficulties the tendency as parents is to focus on the difficult areas. Only after the child becomes more disciplined can the focus shift to minor behavorial areas for refinement. Instead of focusing on keeping children from fighting each other, more time can be spent in helping the child develop the organizational skills needed for good study habits, as an example.
We, as God’s children, move from obedience to a simple “don’t” to balancing different ways of responding to situations integrating our response in a way that is acceptable to God. The Holy Spirit uses our conscience to guide us in forming this response.

 

[TOP]

Tim, I don’t know if this helps, but sometimes I feel that the Holy Spirit bugs us MORE when we are not is a state of grace. I think he really wants us to go to confession and get with the program.

I think I understand your statement about discerning the promptings of the HS. Sometimes I have difficulty discerning the cause of my guilty feelings. I sufferer from bouts of scrupulosity, and I have a hard time determining if the HS is using my guilty feelings to lead me to repentance, or if it’s just my scrupulosity acting up.

Yes, I’m trying to learn from my mistakes. I’m in a clear cut situation and being prompted to reconcile, but in the future what if I’m not so sure. Will I recognized a need to reconcile if I’m not so sure by promptings of the Spirit. Or, in times of grace is my conscience formed to get me through states of sin by myself. In sin, I feel abandoned mostly , but this time recognize a coaxing, whether it is from my conscience or the Spirit still with me. I hope that it is still the Spirit who guides me when blinded by sin, despite even a rupture from mortal sin. I guess as long as I turn back towards God, He will nuture that. Thanks, Tim

 

[DebChris]

I do not have the prayer of Tom Merton. Basically it says, “God I do not know if I am following your will in my life. I believe, however, as long as I desire to follow your will that I am then indeed following your will.” It is prayer meant to help in those times when we question our intent, our willingness, and our ability to follow whatever it is that God asks of us. It is God telling us to relax and simply do our best as we understand it at that particular moment in time.

 

[mommyof4]

I do not have the prayer of Tom Merton. Basically it says, “God I do not know if I am following your will in my life. I believe, however, as long as I desire to follow your will that I am then indeed following your will.” It is prayer meant to help in those times when we question our intent, our willingness, and our ability to follow whatever it is that God asks of us. It is God telling us to relax and simply do our best as we understand it at that particular moment in time.

Thank you, I like this idea.

 

[Lief_Erikson]

My belief is that it’s the Holy Spirit coaxing you, Tim, perhaps partly through the conscience? I don’t have a huge amount of faith in the conscience, because some people’s consciences can become so twisted that they don’t always bother people even when they are sinning horribly. Also, conscience can cause people to do bad things, I think. For instance, this whole homosexual rights movement is IMO a case where a twisted sense of conscience is leading people to do things that are bad. If one of them were to stop supporting homosexual rights, or abortion rights, they might feel pangs of conscience for having betrayed a cause that they feel to be right.

I have immense faith, however, in the Holy Spirit’s ability to guide people to do the right thing. And that can manifest itself in the exterior environment as well as in people’s minds and consciences. It can manifest itself in multitudes of ways, and it is a wonderful blessing.

I may be wrong, of course, about the conscience. I know that many Christians disagree with me, and I don’t know if there is an official Catholic position on it or not.

As regards future cases of sin where the matter isn’t so clear cut . . . I’d first of all recommend what the others here have, which is confession and getting rid of the clear cut issue that you know you have to deal with. After that, I’d recommend Bible reading. Because the Bible is very clear on what a lot of sins are, and if you know what God says through his Word, you won’t have any doubts as to what is right and what is wrong. I’d also pray for the Holy Spirit’s illumination of the scripture, as you read it. That can be a wonderful blessing, and obviously it will provide far deeper rewards than simply allowing you to know sin when you see it.

I believe, however, that you can also trust the Lord to continue revealing any future sins to you through the Holy Spirit. The Lord said in the New Testament that he left the Spirit as a Counselor, and one of his roles is convicting people of sin. It seems clear to me that you already have an active relationship with God at this moment. Else you wouldn’t be able to hear him convicting you. The Lord will remain with you in the future even as he does in the present.

And if you ever encounter a situation in the future where your scripture reading and the Lord don’t seem quite so clear about it, and where Christian counselors also fail, ask the Holy Spirit to counsel you about it and stick with the him over the long haul until you get an answer. The Spirit’s name is Counselor.

 

[TOP]

Thanks all of you for your (name removed by moderator)ut on this. It may seem like a no brainer to some, but I struggle with trusting manifestations of any sort that come through the world unless it comes from a Priest, liturgy, homily, an SD or loved ones at times. Good intentions I trust, which is why I asked you all, but subtle things, like signs on a road, I feel a need to question the source having been misled in the past. I doubt something would mislead me to confession , but the way it is made apparent, I have to question the source, self , Lord, or other so that in times of need for discernment I have a trusted source. Lief Erikson brought up scripture as a reminder of it as a source of trust in discernment. I’ve had Proverbs illuminated in such a way before and it was my first love in scripture. My “self” is a gumbo of problems to discern, being diagnosed with ptsd and possible bi-polar, which I don’t agree with the diagnosis of that one in particuliar, but the treatment is the same regardless, so I don’t put up much contest. So again, I have to second look things that appear to be divinely inspired that they are not just my own problems coming to the surface or even the enemy taking advantage of the situation, which he has done before. This time around the Lord is really laying in on my conscience. I was just stupid, stupid, stupid in this case and He knows it and circumstance’s are such that confession is unavailible to me for some time. He wants me to consider this at length. But as a great teacher that He is, I try to look for the lesson in it, even if it is a teaching in things once learned before. I’m a terrible student. But thanks for your help in sorting this out. God Bless, Tim

 

[mommyof4]

Keeping you in prayer, Tim.

 

[Lief_Erikson]

God bless you.

 

[puzzleannie]

Thanks, but I’m noticing outwardly manifestations in my environment. Is this a possible coaxing by the Spirit or just my conscience bothering me? Does the Spirit still do this to people in mortal sin? Or is the connection completely cut? Tim

if one has been earnestly trying to combat sinful habits through prayer, penance and the sacraments and one has asked for the guidance of the Holy Spirit (which we ought to be doing daily in prayer) than yes the Holy Spirit will work in one not only in conviction of sin but in breaking the habits, and He will work through events, things and people we encounter in the natural world in the course of daily life. Whether or not we respond to these promptings of the Holy Spirit is up to us.

 

[TOP]

Thanks for advice and prayers. I was able to make confession minutes before Mass today thanks to a Priest who works above and beyond his call. Tim

 

[mommyof4]

Thanks for advice and prayers. I was able to make confession minutes before Mass today thanks to a Priest who works above and beyond his call. Tim

Yea!