Do you know what makes you human? It’s not just that we are smarter or more advanced than other creatures. It’s that we have the capacity to sense something beyond the physical world around us — a keen sense that comes from within our spirit. People often call this a “gut feeling,” but it’s much more than just a random hunch or inkling. It’s even deeper than our mind, emotion, and will. Actually, that “gut feeling” is our intuition.
From Genesis, human beings were given an inner capacity to engage with God. In the moment God breathed His very breath into us to make us a living soul (Gen. 2:7), we gained not just physical life but a unique position to enjoy and experience God as a Person through a soul equipped with a spirit able to have a conscience, fellowship with God, and an intuition to directly sense and know God. It is in this way that the human soul is full of life, full of senses, full of expression. Every day, we have the opportunity to live beyond the physical world, engaging with what truly makes us human beings as we were created to be. The word intuition, in its original sense, means “insight, direct or immediate cognition, spiritual perception,” a noun stemming from the root that means “to look at, watch over.” In other words, it’s a different kind of seeing — a seeing related to our inner eyes, not outward observations (Eph. 1:17-18). And from that inner vision, we are able to move, act out, and execute a life response according to what we see.
But while we have this sense installed in us, we often neglect to exercise it. All of the world around us pressures us to see only with physical eyes, to rely on the physical things to satisfy us. Finding satisfaction in physical things — whether money, success, material things, even physical relationships — is like a revolving wardrobe: one day you might have this preference and another day you might have another preference, but every day you’ll be looking for something new to put on. We might find temporary happiness, but we will never find a lasting satisfaction according to our own inner world.
Today, instead of only using our physical eyes, we can live according to this keen, powerful, and vital intuition. This very human sense connects us to the divine life that was breathed into us, giving us an intuitive relationship with the Lord — and with His people, who all share this sense. Without accessing this inner Person living in us, our thoughts, feelings, judgments, and discernment are limited. But our intuition makes us one with the life of the Body, powerful to live well, to sense the needs of others, to serve people. This is the true, organic living of the church in reality. In such an intuitive living, not only are we satisfied according to our own design — God, too, is satisfied.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 1/19/2025, not reviewed by the speaker.)