“Trust your gut” can be good advice if filtered through your rational mind. When we talk about intuition or gut instinct we’re not talking about just pure guess work, or supernatural revelation. Rather, there’s a specific nerve branch that runs from the intestines and heart to the brain in a way that sends signals to our mind which we interpret without going through a specific detailed thought process. In other words we don’t have to reinvent the wheel to hop in a car and go.

Intuition can be viewed as “condensed reasoning or swift cognition – a person’s ability to exploit the brain’s shortcuts.” Some people are exceptionally good at it because they’re mind has been trained to receive and respond quickly to this source of information. Others lack the disciplined training and are disastrous at making snap decisions. They haven’t learned how to interpret information received through shortcuts. The well trained demonstrate grace under pressure while the untrained, well, don’t.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of David was his demonstration of grace under pressure. From an early age through middle age and into his declining years he usually made good decisions in the most difficult circumstances. After speaking to the elders of Judah with conciliatory words that brought them to his side to return him as king there were a couple of incidents that could have been handled very badly, but weren’t because David’s instinctive response was right on target.

The first was because of the Pete Rose incident of the man who threw dust at David as he fled the city. When David was returning, Shimei came begging David’s forgiveness. David granted it and rebuked one of his soldiers who wanted to execute him. Why not kill him? After all the man had personally insulted the king before everyone. Simple, David instinctively knew better than to spoil his entrance into Jerusalem with petty retribution. “Should any man be put to death in Israel today? For do I not know that I am king over Israel today?” (2 Samuel 19:22). The second was when he met Saul’s grandson and rather than argue over why he remained behind in Jerusalem David just let it go (2 Samuel 19:29).

When it comes to spiritual matters, it’s okay to trust your gut – if, like David, you’ve trained it to follow God. If you’ve saturated your spirit in God’s word. When you hear people make comments or teach ideas that just seem off, even if you can’t immediately say why, in that case trust your gut. Stand back. Be wary and be careful, and be diligent to analyze their teaching in case your gut instinct was right. It might just save your soul.