Are gut feelings the Holy Ghost trying to tell me something?

[GeorgiaRED]

Hello everyone!

I apologize in advance if this topic is in the wrong forum. I just wasn't sure where it would fall under.

Anyway, I was wondering if whenever I have a gut feeling about something or someone, is that the Holy Ghost trying to speak to me? Or is it something else?

I ask because every time I get one of those feelings it's usually right. If I have a gut feeling that something is wrong it usually turns out that way.

I think I once heard someone mentioned that in a general conference but I'm not sure.

Can someone clarify this for me?

Thanks!

[Guest]

I believe that to be the case, and I believe that the more often I trust those feelings, the more often I get them. Sometimes I will pray to Heavenly Father to help me to know if those are feelings from the Spirit.

[Guest]

In my experience, there are times when the gut feeling is from the Spirit and there are times when the gut feeling is just from environmental conditioning. The distinction became more pronounced on the years leading to my conversion to the LDS Church.

For example, my very first time walking on LDS Temple grounds, I had this really bad gut feeling of darkness. After a few minutes of walking the grounds with my husband, a black snake ROSE out of the 3-foot tall bushes lining the temple walls. This snake was standing up, about a foot of its body straight up in the air with his eyes staring at me. Needless to say, I ran straight to the car and begged my husband to leave the place.

Was that from the Spirit? Nah, that feeling stemmed from years of conditioning when I was growing up to stay away from non-Catholic religious places. The snake was a coincidence. But, it took me years and years later before I recognized the difference.

Okay, here's a juxtaposition. I've been studying and praying about the gospel for a while. It was Good Friday. I lined up to kiss the foot of the cross like I've always done every Good Friday for as long as I can remember. This time, I got to the foot of the cross that the priest was holding up for me to kiss and I couldn't do it. Just couldn't. I was getting curious looks for holding the line up and the priest was trying to get my attention. But no, I couldn't get myself to do it. I stepped to the side, got confused as to what to do next, so, I ran across the parking lot to the LDS ward right next to the Catholic Church where my husband was watching an Easter Cantata. I sat next to him and this feeling of peace washed over me. I prayed about that incident that night and received Spiritual confirmation. The Spirit was guiding me to concentrate on the resurrection of Christ rather than His death that year.

So, as far as my experiences went, my gut feeling is not always spiritual in nature. I had to learn how to identify which is which.

Edited June 1, 2012 by anatess

[GeorgiaRED]

In my experience, there are times when the gut feeling is from the Spirit and there are times when the gut feeling is just from environmental conditioning. The distinction became more pronounced on the years leading to my conversion to the LDS Church.

For example, my very first time walking on LDS Temple grounds, I had this really bad gut feeling of darkness. After a few minutes of walking the grounds with my husband, a black snake ROSE out of the 3-foot tall bushes lining the temple walls. This snake was standing up, about a foot of its body straight up in the air with his eyes staring at me. Needless to say, I ran straight to the car and begged my husband to leave the place.

Was that from the Spirit? Nah, that feeling stemmed from years of conditioning when I was growing up to stay away from non-Catholic religious places. The snake was a coincidence. But, it took me years and years later before I recognized the difference.

Okay, here's a juxtaposition. I've been studying and praying about the gospel for a while. It was Good Friday. I lined up to kiss the foot of the cross like I've always done every Good Friday for as long as I can remember. This time, I got to the foot of the cross that the priest was holding up for me to kiss and I couldn't do it. Just couldn't. I was getting curious looks for holding the line up and the priest was trying to get my attention. But no, I couldn't get myself to do it. I stepped to the side, got confused as to what to do next, so, I ran across the parking lot to the LDS ward right next to the Catholic Church where my husband was watching an Easter Cantata. I sat next to him and this feeling of peace washed over me. I prayed about that incident that night and received Spiritual confirmation. The Spirit was guiding me to concentrate on the resurrection of Christ rather than His death that year.

So, as far as my experiences went, my gut feeling is not always spiritual in nature. I had to learn how to identify which is which.

Interesting perspective.

[Just_A_Guy]

IMHO, this is why keeping a journal can be so beneficial. As you write about the feelings that you have, the way you perceive them, and then look back on those experiences with the benefit of knowing how things turned out, it becomes easier to parse out which feelings led you right (and thus probably came from the Spirit) and which ones really didn't.

[Misshalfway]

God put a "knowing" into all of us. Maybe it's part of the divine DNA that's in all of God's children. Or maybe part of that "knowing" is the result of pre earth life lessons/experience/preparations. In any case, I think its a good thing to trust it.

As I experience what I think is similar to what you (the OP) are talking about, I don't tend to think of it as the spirit. I guess technically it is because it's the light of Christ that God gave everyone. But I tend to think that it is part of me and that messages aren't coming from an outside source like feeling the HG feels like to me.

God said he wouldn't command in all things. My guess is this gift is part of the way he compensates for the way he needs to withdraw from us sometimes. I think it means that God is trying to help us learn to trust self. The scripture.."without compulsory means" comes to mind.

[GeorgiaRED]

I appreciate everyone's reply but I think I'm heading over to the church's official site and do some research of my own on the Holy Spirit because I'm still confused.