Many years ago, I served as an Army chaplain assigned to an engineer battalion in Vietnam. At one point, our equipment began to disappear. Measures were taken to stop the thefts, but they continued. It was ominous. There was a feeling of an unseen evil force over which we had no control. Our commander faced the prospect of being relieved of his command, and I was on my way to comfort him when I realized I needed to do something else first. I went to my office and shut the door.

That day I began sustained periods of communing with God. I wanted to feel the presence of good that could not be invaded by evil. After the second or third day, it all came together in my mind. Several pieces of information, none of which had previously seemed connected to our problem, took on new meaning. I knew what was happening, who was involved, and where the situation was headed. The equipment was being sold for money to start a drug ring. I focused my praying on this new insight, and then shared my intuition with the commander. He acted on it, and the thefts stopped.

I’ve found that most people who pray have experienced some form of spiritual intuition that, when acted on, proved to be protective. It may have diverted an accident; or perhaps it roused an individual to stop and pray for a family member—and to find out later that there was something menacing that the family member had been saved from. Often, these intuitions come as a feeling that something undefined is imminent, and then through praying we experience God’s care. How important, especially in chaotic times, to cultivate this once-in-a-while occurrence into something more consistent in the service of God for the protection of humanity.