Everyone Is Leading SomeoneSample

Gut Check

A leader who desires God’s best for his followers learns to listen to his gut. Gut checks are those key moments when we sense a slight or strong leading in the discernable whisper of God. Time in the tent of meeting and an awareness and obedience to the Word of God help me discern His way, but there are also times when my gut says go or no—and I have learned to listen to those promptings.

I sense a gut check every time I make a parenting decision to prove “I’m the dad and you’re the kid.” There are times when my response and my child’s infraction are not in line; times when another cookie is fine and is not a live-or-die issue.

I’ve felt gut checks when I’ve rushed to return a phone call without praying about my response, dialing all but the last digit before hanging up and yielding to the Holy Spirit’s conviction to wait and pray it through.

I felt a gut check in my soul when I realized the girl I dated in college was not the one, and I needed to let go so both of us could find the person God meant for us. 

Even in godly marriages we can feel that gut check that says, “This issue is not worth the conflict and you need to apologize.”

Oh, how much better off we’d be if we learned to listen to and heed those gut checks. How good of God to lead us this way. Wise is the leader who does not ignore his or her gut when it speaks up!

God’s Word affirms this kind of leading, too. It says we will hear a voice behind us telling us which way to go, that He guides and teaches the humble in what is right, and that if we ask where is the good way, and if we walk in it, we will find rest to our soul.

As we learn to lead by following, we hear God’s direction. Like a dog follows the whistle of its master, we follow our Lord and Master. A hunch might say to hire that person or let someone go. It may seem like a crazy idea, but believing that you are hearing your Master’s voice, you obey. This concept is not a license to spiritual attention deficit disorder, or an excuse to follow any whim.