Transcription
There are two words that are often used wrongly, but these two words are actually completely different, and the words are intuition and instincts. Your intuition has to do with your thoughts, your feelings, and your thoughts. Your instincts have more to do with your action, spontaneous action without thinking.
Now, if you, by the time you listen to some of the insights today, it will become clear to you that between these two, the one that is far more important is your intuition, because that is the one that is spiritual. Your instinct has more to do with your natural reaction. In the field of deception, manipulations, people make mistakes easily because they react based on their instinct. When you hear certain things, you will naturally react in a particular way, but your intuition will often give you a completely different signal. At a time when almost everybody is going in a particular direction, your intuition is restraining you from doing what most people are doing. What most people are rejecting, your intuition is leading you to accept and go for that one.
Someone made a big mistake, a very big mistake, and that was a band called Potiphar. His wife became very attracted to Joseph. She waited for an opportunity to be alone with him, having already started making a lot of passes at him, which he ignored. So one day, she took action to the next level. Joseph rejected this move, and then Potiphar's wife did something very, very wicked, which happens every day. She started lying against Joseph. First, to the other people in the house that this is what happened, and then when her husband returned, she lied again to the husband against Joseph.
Now, Potiphar acted on his instinct. The moment you hear that someone attempted to rape your wife, instantly you become very angry, and then your instinct will push you to do something, say certain things out of your emotional feelings, based on what you have heard, sometimes based on what you have seen. You will make a lot of costly mistakes in life if all the time you easily act, decide, choose, and react based on what you see, based on what you hear. And going further, as believers, you will miss God. You will miss God if every time you keep on acting on your instincts. You will miss God.
God is a God of justice. He has laid down rules, but God also can decide to show mercy. So there could be sometimes when even a guilty person, God would not want a guilty person to be punished. And sometimes what you think is normal, it's a normal action, is a manifestation of extreme spiritual manipulation. There are spells that the evil ones can cast on somebody, and the person begins to go into gambling, begins to go into drugs, begins to go into some evil vices. The enemy wants to destroy that person.
Now, if you, perhaps as a father, as a mother, as a friend, you are not discerning enough, you may just easily come to judgment over that person's unacceptable actions and want to just react the normal way. But there will be exceptions once in a while, if only you will listen to the promptings of your spirit.
So today, we take the second and concluding part of how God helps people to avoid major mistakes and wrong decisions. We are in a generation of sophisticated packaging. Sophisticated packaging. We are in a generation where pretense, deception has been taken to incredible heights. We're in a generation where even with technology, you need to check again and again before you believe what you see, what you hear. Your voice can now successfully, with technology, be used to generate things you have never said, and your face will be used to achieve that fake video, that fake audio.
So our text, once again, is taken from Genesis chapter 39, verse 6 to 20. In verse 19, he said, "Joseph's master listened to what his wife said, and he became very angry." This is natural. Even Jesus was angry. Even Jesus was. And this is natural. But this is the 20 is where we all need to become more sensitive, more mature, more discerning, more discerning. From today, the person that you think has nothing, maybe the person that God is saying is his choice for you. If you don't follow your intuition, there's no way you will ever pick that person.
So Potiphar put Joseph into the prison. What did he act on? His instinct. If any man that loves his wife suddenly hears that something like this has happened, how would a man react? Exactly how Potiphar reacted. That's your instinct. What if it is not true? The only thing that can save that man, if it is not true, is if he listens to his intuition. If you follow your instinct, you will follow the natural order to what you have heard, to what you have seen. And sometimes, sometimes it's just sometimes, your instinct will be correct. Most of the time, your instinct will be correct. Most of the time.
There are times where something happens and everybody should quickly run, run out of that place. But there are times where you would be falling for a deliberate act that was just meant to make people wrong, even though nothing serious had happened. So Potiphar put Joseph in the prison where the things enemies were heard, and that is where Joseph remained. That is where Joseph remained. Even if out of the spur of the moment, you sometimes take certain actions, don't stay on that action, on that decision forever. Have a rethink. Look into it all over again. Think well. Investigate further.
Joseph may have been in jail for a few days, and then the master, at a point, she also sat down and reflected that this, this young man, this young man has never displayed any tendency to show that he could do this kind of thing. And then, if you are also very sensitive, you will observe in most cases that his own wife, Potiphar's wife, you will observe that she will be behaving somehow that is contradictory to someone that went through the trauma of almost being raped, but not by a stranger, but someone trusted in the house. Because she's supposed to also be in a state of shock. She's supposed to be in a state of shock for some time. But in most cases, she could pretend when presenting the story to Potiphar, but she would not be conscious of some other things she would do later in the day. By the following day, a woman that truly went through what she claimed she went through would not act in certain ways. That same day, in the evening, the following day, she will not act in certain ways. Why is this? What is she just? She's so happy, she's laughing. Ah, is this this woman that someone almost raped? By the time you notice some things, you will know that these things, this woman said, may not be true. May not be true. And then by the time you reflect on the track record of Joseph, on the track record of Joseph.
So even if out of, you know, the spur of the moment, he put him in jail, he should not have allowed him to remain in jail. We can all make errors, but let your error be temporary. Don't let it be permanent. Don't let it be permanent. Nobody's above errors, but don't let your error be permanent.
When God wants to help you, God can give you that signal directly, or he will give someone that has your interest at heart that signal. And that could be your biological parents or your pastor. So there's a way that your pastor will not have peace about that person, about that move you want to have, you want to make with that person. There's a way your parent, your guardian will not have peace about that person, even though everything looks okay. Everything looks okay, but somehow the person just has reservations, just has reservation.
So your intuition is a strong feeling. It comes in the form of a strong feeling that something is either true or false, although you cannot explain why or back it up with evidence. It's a feeling that makes you believe that something is true or false, even though it is not based on facts, it's not based on reason. And so because people will ask you, "So why? Why do you not want this thing to go ahead? Give your reasons." The only thing you can say is that, "For now, my spirit doesn't just agree. My spirit doesn't agree." And I can tell you this, that with time, with time, you will learn to respect the voice of your intuition, with time.
And can I tell you this? Someone is slyly going to do something terrible to you, but today, today as at today, the person is not planning to do so. But God can see ahead. God can see ahead that this person is going to betray you badly. This person is going to stab you in the back. It's going to do something really bad to you, even though the person has, at today, is not thinking of it. So even the person will be surprised that, you know, you are having reservations about him or about her.
So when your spirit is restraining you from certain people, it is not about what they are planning as at today. Sometimes it's about what this person is going to do in the future. It's like marriage. It's like marriage. Marriage is supposed to be for life. So the person that God already knows is going to damage you later in life, later in that marriage, not now, he will restrain you, if only you will listen. If only you will listen. If you look at today, as at today, the person is sincerely in love with you, but God knows that in the days ahead, something is going to happen.
In Nehemiah chapter 6, verse 12, King James version, he said, "And lo, I perceived that God had not sent him, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me, for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him." As a pastor, I can tell you that this happens every, every, every. Even every Sunday, people mount the pulpit and lie to their congregation that the spirit of God is telling them to tell the people to do certain things that the Holy Ghost never said. The person is not in error. He's lying. There's a difference between error and lying. In error is that the person may think he is hearing from God, but it's not the spirit of God actually speaking. Lying means you know what you are saying is a lie. The Holy Spirit never said so, but for a motive, for a given reason, you have decided to tell them this to achieve a particular goal.
The expressions below, for instance, are examples of intuition. When you say, "Something doesn't smell right," "Something told me," "Something in me is telling me," that's your intuition speaking. Most of the time, your intuition is a natural ability that makes it possible to know something without any proof or evidence, but you know. Just like seasoned, experienced detectives, a lot of times they walk with their intuition. People will commit crime, and then some of them who are smart will arrange that crime in a way that it will point to someone else. It will be so perfectly staged that it will point to another person that everybody will now suspect must have been the one that did that thing. And some people have gone to jail. Many have gone to jail because circumstances were showing that they must have been the suspect, the culprit in that case. It takes your intuition to avoid such mistakes. It is the ability to understand something without conscious reasoning. It's not as if most of the time you, it, it just happens once, instantly. Your intuition gives you signal. Most of the time, instantly. Instantly, not because you took so much time to now think and reflect, instantly it will give you a sign.
Another word that shows you what intuition is about is a word called premonition. Premonition is a feeling that something, especially something unpleasant, is going to happen. A feeling or belief that something is going to happen when there is no definite reason to believe it. Now listen to this. There was this person, Keren Hagar, in 2006, that came up with a book, "Decoding Your Destiny," and he defined premonition in a very, very precise way. He said that a premonition is an early warning of future events and is dominated by physical sensations. Positively, it is an inexplicable feeling of excitement that something good is about to happen, or that something good is what is being presented right now. Negatively, it is an inexplicable feeling of unease that something bad is about to happen.
In Acts chapter 27, verse 10, Acts 27:10, New American Standard Bible, it says, "Saying to them, 'Men, this is Paul.'" Apostle Paul speaking, "I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss." I perceive it, not only of the cargo and the sheep, but also of our lives. Now listen to what he was saying here was contradictory to what the expert, the expert, the sailors, the captains on that ship, the ex, the professionals, even with their experience, what their experience, their expertise, their skills was telling them was contradictory to the intuition of Apostle Paul. He warned them. He warned them, but they ignored him, and exactly what he said followed.
If we look back in life, we will see instances like this where somebody advised us based on strong intuition, not bias, not out of any secret or selfish schemings, but we ignored them. So your intuition is that sense in you that offers guidance, a feeling that guides a person to act a certain way without fully understanding why.
In Exodus 2:2, at a time when there was an instruction that all baby boys that had been born must be killed instantly, the mother and father of Baby Moses, in Exodus 2:2, the message, he said, "A man from the family of Levi married a woman. The woman became pregnant and had a son. She saw there was something special about him. There was something special about him, and hid him. She hid him for three months." In Hebrews 11:23, Living Bible, it says, "Moses' parents had faith too. When they saw that God had given them an unusual child, they trusted that God will save him from the death decree the king commanded, and they hid him for three months and were not afraid."
In 2 Kings 4:9, King James version, Elisha's maidservant, he said, "And she said unto her husband, 'Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God.'" Now, the second thing that we must take note of as we study on intuition is what is called instinct, because most of the time, and I am one of those who had, you know, consistently mixed up the two, consistently mixed up the two, but they are completely different.
Proverbs 30:27, Proverbs 30:27, God's Word translation, it says, "Locusts have no king, yet all of them divide into swarms by instinct." Locusts have no king, yet all of them divide into swarms by instinct. Instinct refers to an inbound tendency. It is a natural ability. It is a human instinct. It is your natural action without outside interference, like feelings or thoughts. Your natural action, unlike intuition that is a thought. Instinct is most of the time an action. It is an act most of the time, an action. Instinct is not something that we have learned, but it's a natural response. It's a natural way of responding. For instance, jumping away from a fast-moving ball is instinct. As the ball is coming with force, two things will come through your mind. It's either to stand and quickly hold it or block it with your hands, or you dodge it, you move away from it. That's your instinct. That's your instinct.
There is a loud noise that looks like an explosion, and then suddenly there is smoke all over. Your instinct will prompt you to run out. But if you listen to your intuition, your intuition may tell you no. So your instinct has to do with your natural response to things you hear, sounds you hear, things you see. And we all do not have the same natural instincts to everything. There are some people when something happens, they won't react, they won't respond in the particular way that most people will respond, even though they would also respond.
So Potiphar took a very wrong decision because he acted on his instincts. He acted on his instinct. He acted on his instinct. So instinct is our natural reaction. I'm talking about now about the difference between instinct and intuition. The two words, they look similar, but they are different. They are actually different. Instinct is our natural reaction. It occurs without even thinking. Intuition is not a reaction. It is an insight or a thought. It is an insight or a thought. Instinct is a natural reaction, not a thought. You respond automatically to a situation without even having time to think. When intuition comes to play, we do not analyze the situation. We also do not weigh the pros and cons. We just know. We just know. In instinct, the individual responds automatically to facts and to situations. With instincts, you lead. But with your intuition, you are led. We are supposed to be led by the spirit of God. With instincts, you are the one leading, but with intuition, you are being led by the spirit in you.
So please, you must learn to be sensitive to your intuition at all times, especially before taking major decisions. When there is no liberty in your spirit, it could be that the Holy Spirit is placing a check on your decision, a check on your choice, a check on your action, a check on your reaction. Perhaps there is something, something is wrong, or the timing is wrong. The timing is wrong. Once you are troubled in your spirit, or there is a feeling of uneasiness or lack of peace, you must be cautious. You must be patient. Investigate further and think carefully about everything. May we not fall for the deceptions of life in the name of Jesus.