Instinct and Intuition (Trusting Our Gut)
He leads me …
Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind? (Job 38:36 NLT)
“Who gives intuition and instinct? or “Who has put wisdom in the inward parts and given understanding to the mind?” (Job 38:36 footnotes TLB)
The two versions of Job 38:36 above are taken from God’s response to Job after Job and his three colleagues had been discussing why God had allowed Job to be taken from a wealthy person with status to someone with nothing and covered with boils. While God did not address Job’s concerns He did ask Job 70 rhetorical questions that showed that His capabilities were so much higher that Job’s that Job would not be able to understand how God was able to do everything that He did. Essentially God was telling Job that as the Creator of the world and everything on it, He was not answerable to anyone. He does what He sees as appropriate.
When we read through the questions that God asks Job, it quickly becomes obvious that in each case there is only one answer to the ‘Who does …’ questions – ‘God does.’ This then establishes that both instinct and intuition are given to us by God.
People talk about getting a gut feeling or learning to trust our gut. It is that sudden flash of insight from deep within. This insight may show as a troubling feeling of uneasiness about a situation, or a feeling cautious about someone we have just met. We cannot explain what has happened logically, but we know something is not right. These feelings refer to our instinct and intuition. While it is common to get the two confused, they are actually different.
Instinct
Instinct is an inborn, natural reaction. It just happens without even thinking about it. It is not something that we have learned, but it is an instant natural response. It is not a thought because our response is automatic, without even thinking about it.[1]
The best way to understand instinct is to look to the animal world. Take for example the turtle. The mother lays her eggs by burying them in some beach sand, and then she goes back to sea. Sometime later the young turtles hatch, dig their way to the surface and then go out to sea. How do they know what to do? Their mother is not there. What is to stop them from going up the beach and into the grass and tussock where predators can get them? It is their instinct.[2]
Instinct occurs in our body too. Our breathing, heartbeat, digestion, blood circulation….So many things are going inside our body without any assistance from us. All essential functions of our body naturally know what to do.[3]
A good example of instinct is when people are automatically afraid of a spider even though they have never been threatened or bitten by one. Another one is when we trip and our hands automatically go out to protect our face.
Intuition
Intuition is being able to understand or know something without conscious analysing it. We just know instantly what to do. It comes to us as an insight or a thought in the same way that we get an idea. With intuition we make a decision without any time to consider any facts.[4]
People like police, front line medics, and firefighters often have to make split second decisions because the situation that they are in requires an instant answer.
A fire department commander and his team had been called to a fire in the kitchen of a house. They hosed down the flames with water, but the flames kept burning. The team pulled back to the lounge, and then suddenly the lieutenant thought something was wrong. He ordered his men to get out immediately, and just as they got out, the floor where they had been standing collapsed.
It turned out that the fire had started in the basement of the house, and not in the kitchen as they first thought.
It seemed that the lieutenant had instantly processed this information, realised the danger and at that same moment ordered his team to get out of the house as fast as they could. Had he paused to consider the options, they would have been caught by the fire.[5]
One of the verses quoted at the beginning of this blog was, “Who has put wisdom in the inward parts and given understanding to the mind?” (Job 38:36 footnotes TLB)
We find something similar about wisdom in our inward parts in Psalm 51:6 where the psalmist says, “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” (NKJV)
In the Hebrew “keh-rev” (קרב), indicates that our inward parts are where our spiritual attributes are found. In ancient times it was believed that the inward parts were where the mind, feelings and affections which make up our soul are situated. Theologians agree, saying that the soul is made up of the mind, the will and the emotions.
In the last 100 years the human gut (aka the inward parts) is being regularly referred to by medical experts as our second brain. This is because the gut communicates between the heart and the brain using the nervous system, hormones, and the immune system.[6]
Ongoing research has shown that this second brain in our gut can function separately from the first brain in our head by producing thoughts, emotions and feelings. Added to this, theologians tell us that our spirit has three more attributes functioning – our conscience, our relationship with God and our intuition which provides direct knowledge from God.[7] The Holy Spirit uses these qualities in leading us to Christ, and when we become a Christian, the Holy Spirit progressively develops them as we mature spiritually.
As we consider these points we see that even our gut feeling can remind us of God’s amazing creativity.
Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John
[1] Difference Between Instinct and Intuition, Admin, DifferenceBetween.com;
[2] Ready-Made Instincts, Rick Barry, Answers Magazine, Answers in Genesis;
https://answersingenesis.org/evidence-for-creation/ready-made-instincts/
[3] Instinct, Intellect and Intuition, Binod Singh, Live Life King Size;
https://www.livelifekingsize.net/instinct-intellect-intuition/
[4] Difference Between Instinct and Intuition, Admin, DifferenceBetween.com
[5] Malcom Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (London, UK: Penguin Press, 2006) pp. 107, 122–124
[6] Is that Gut Feeling a Message from God? Ray Hermann, OutlawBibleStudent.org
https://outlawbiblestudent.org/is-that-gut-feeling-a-message-from-god/
[7] Dealing with Our Inward Parts for the Growth in Life, Witness Lee, Living Stream Ministry
https://www.ministrysamples.org/excerpts/THE-SOUL-HAVING-THREE-PARTS.HTML