Intuition, Instinct, and God’s Spirit
- By Stacie Ray
- Published 08/16/2009
Stacie Ray
I was born in Brenham, TX to two wonderful parents. They taught me the importance of family and loving despite the condition of the moment. One night, my dad sat down and told me the ugly truths of being disenfranchised, oppressed, rejected, disillusioned, gagged, and even terrorized. His story was about a Black person living in America, but as I grew, I found that Black people are not the only ones with this story; they are simply the poster child. I spent most of my junior high and high school years convincing teachers I did not belong in slow classes. The California Achievement Test and TAAS measured my I.Q and academic abilities and I was seen as a slow learner. However, I was accepted into Sam Houston State University. Even though I was making A’s and B’s in my college preparation and honors courses, my guidance counselor did not think I would be successful at a university. At Sam Houston, I finally had my first taste of freedom. My parents were strict and did not allow me to hang out with friends, go to parties or experience the madness of having a boyfriend, and suddenly I was the master of my own fate. Unfortunately, I spent more time finding myself than my classes. Even though my lack of concentration and study is regrettable, it was during this time I fell in love with sociology. While my classmates were studying its theories, I was seeing it unfold before me. I was in my own collegiate wonderland of sociological preparation and tutelage. The more I learned about people, the more I learned about myself. I studied my Bible more, questioning its teachings for assurance. For four years I practiced the game of life on the safe grounds of Sam Houston State University. After graduation, I got a job at Foley’s Department Store. The decision to go back to school was easy. I started Texas Southern University in the fall of 2001. I embraced the work and research with more seriousness than I had as an undergrad. I excelled in the qualitative analysis of sociology because it is the things we cannot measure that sometimes mean the most. The study was broken into three disciplines: general, urban, and clinical sociology. I fastened myself to clinical sociology because the basic principal is that everyone is not mentally challenged due to chemicals being excreted in the brain. The inability to deal with certain situations is not always some psychosis. Social interaction plays a major role in the perceptions people have about themselves, which affects response. Today I work for the Office of the Texas Attorney General
I was listening to the radio coming home from church when I heard some people talking about some short films that will be playing at a local theater. One of the short films described was about relationships. They spoke of one in which a man naturally felt compelled to roam free. He loved the woman he was with, but did not like being tied down to one woman. The thought of waking up in the same bed and living in the same house just didn’t appeal to him. The thought was that man, like animals, should roam free coming back to the female only to procreate. I could only assume there are no commitment, intimacy, and very little communication in the relationship, but hoped the film would turn out to be some sort of satire.
Thinking deeper into the situation I realized that is exactly the world we live in now. Many of our families are torn and broken for reasons only we as individuals can address. Honestly, we have become a culture of instant gratification and invisible patients. We approach relationships in the same way we approach microwavable popcorn, we want “what we want” in minutes. With selfish thoughts like these in mind, anyone could easily see why a person would compare themselves to an animal. Still, there are a couple of problems with comparing yourself to an animal.
One, if some was to actually treat a man like he was an animal there would be some serious problem. I could only image the rage a man would feel if you made him sleep outside on the grass or gave him his dinner in a bowl on the floor. Personally, I don’t know any African American men that would want to be treated like the animal “some” wish to be free to be. They have been down that fatal road before during slavery. Second, was man not given dominion over the animal? Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth’”. If man was to think and behave like animals, how could he have rule over them? It would be like placing one two year old in charge of another. God gave us rule because we were made in his image, which gives us the ability to receive something an animal cannot, his spirit.
Animals use instinct to survive, but man has the ability to elevate himself from intuition to the spirit. What is the difference? According to Webster's, instinct is behavior that is meditated by reaction below the conscious level and intuition is the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference. Unlike instinct and intuition, the spirit is of God and is therefore everything you need to live life.
Most of us are going through our daily lives just trying to survive, like animals. We must see ourselves as more than a species trying to survive from day to day. The Spirit of God and enrich your life and the very foundation, giving you everything you need to live life to the fullest. It can counsel you during stressful times, supply strength when you feel that you are at your weakest, and fill you with wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Isaiah 11:2 tells us “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, and he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear, but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth.”
Finally, the Spirit gives us love. Women, and men, are searching for someone to love who will love them in return. We look for the perfect love in imperfect people and find ourselves in empty or sometimes abusive relationships. We give ourselves to complete strangers to ease the sting of loneliness just to find we are more alone than ever. People carry around these garbage bags full of festering issues and box office dramas counting on instinct and intuition for guidance. Growing closer to God and allowing him to take control of your life will give you access to his perfect love. Unlike the love, cloaked lust we are use to, the love from the father is nurturing, gentle and supportive. Galatians 5:2 tells us, “ The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law.
None of us, man or woman, should have to live with the lack of love, strength, counsel, or peace. Mostly lives should not be compared to any sort of animal. There is someone out there that can love and guide you beyond the animalistic instinct and primitive intuition most people use to make decision about their daily lives. It is a power that is truly freeing for all involved. I hope that everyone gives God a chance to show you what true love and commitment is.
