I WAS A CHRISTIAN a long time before I had an epiphany about instinctive behavior. Today, I am of the opinion that an instinct is indeed something that occurs naturally, without any conscious thought.
But rather than being an inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of any species, it is the outward expression of a response in which the species obey God.
Scientists disagree, of course, and relegate the explanation of the phenomenon of innate instincts to the category of other “Unsolved Mysteries” about life.
What do you think?
I heard the voice of God and saw him through the eyes of my heart on the day I met Jesus more than two decades ago, an experience that would seem bizarre for anyone who has not done the same. Nonetheless, it was real and continues to be real today, and when I listen to God, he offers direction for my life; always with the purpose of proving to me that he loves me and is in control of all things and circumstances.
It has been through this journey through my valley of the shadow of death that I have learned how difficult it is to actually trust this unseen spirit.
This is because instinctively, I want to trust myself when I disagree with God’s direction.
God works in mysterious ways, and knowing my struggle to trust him, I think it was he that purposed a duck to be born in my backyard to show me that he not only loves all creation, but he is intimately involved with all creation, and he wants to be intimately involved with me.
My duck was the runt of the group and born with a defective wing that caused her to be unable to fly away with her family. Due to her instinctive nature, she was also afraid of my failed attempts of getting her to a home other than my swimming pool.
As my only pet, I was thrilled a year later when she received the company of a male duck, but not so thrilled when it became obvious that she was expecting her own children. She had been confined to my yard with no information about what was coming in her future, and yet she built the most beautiful nest, complete with a fur collar in which she roosted in comfort as she awaited her baby ducks.
Of course, it was her instinctive behavior that paved the way for a successful delivery.
Or, was my duck simply obeying God?
The Lord Jesus spoke to a raging sea and commanded the water to defy the instinctive laws of nature, and instantly, it became still.
He rode on the back of an untamed colt into Jerusalem the week he went to the death he said he was purposed to experience and defy—and the colt defied its natural instinct to buck.
Evidently, all creation, with the exception of human beings, obeys the voice of God.
I believe it is God who tells his trees when to drop their leaves, and seeds when to defy their tombs and burst into new life.
I believe it is God who tells the sun to rise; the oceans to stay in their place; a duck to build a nest; and me, before I ever met Jesus, the difference between right and wrong.
And while all other species of creation operate like robots, which have predictable behavior, he made you and me with a different purpose in mind. He made us with the natural instinct to not obey God’s voice.
Otherwise, we would be robots.
And if we were forced to obey God when he speaks, we would never understand the concept, or the depth, or the transformational power, of love.
For reasons I cannot fathom, God took the risk of losing many of his beloved humans to the intoxicating power of self-reliance and independence so that those who will defy their natural instincts to disobey, and instead listen to his voice, can experience the joy, rest, and peace that comes from an intimate, love-filled relationship with His Son.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
So then we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8
Luke 4:35,Mark 4:38-40,Mark 11:1-7
As always, it is my intent and hope that my words may encourage you wherever you are in your journey.
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If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.–Jesus (Mark 4:23)
