"Why do bad things happen to good people?" You often hear that question asked in Christian circles today. It's been answered many ways. Whole books have been written about it. Yet I've never heard anyone give what I believe to be the most accurate answer. So I'll give it to you right here.

"Why do bad things happen to good people?" You often hear that question asked in Christian circles today. It's been answered many ways. Whole books have been written about it. Yet I've never heard anyone give what I believe to be the most accurate answer. So I'll give it to you right here.

The reason bad things happen to good people, the reason the devil is so often able to get into our churches to kill, steal, and destroy is this: The Church has neglected to watch and pray.

"But wait a minute," someone might say, "we have prayer meetings in our church. We do a lot of praying!"

That may be. But how much watching do you do?

In most cases, the answer to that question would be another question, and it would sound something like this: "Well...uh...that depends. What do you mean by watching?"

Looking For The Leadings
Watching is the very first step to Spirit-led prayer. It is praying to pray. It is tuning in to God and purposely searching out the promptings of His Spirit. It is looking for His leadings so you can follow them and pray about things of which you have no natural knowledge.

Let's say, for example, that you sense a leading of the Lord to spend some time in prayer for your church one night. You might have no idea when you begin praying that a lady from your church is in danger.

But as you just worship and wait on the Lord, watching attentively for His leading, He alerts you to that danger so you can take care of it in prayer.

Over and over, He keeps bringing that lady's face to your mind. He brings Scriptures to your heart to pray over her. You might be unaware of the exact nature of the danger, but you sense an uneasiness about her in your heart.

So, in simple obedience, you just hold her before the Lord and pray in tongues until you sense a peaceful release on the inside.

Later you find out that on the very night you were praying, that precious Christian sister narrowly escaped a deadly automobile accident. That is what it means to watch and pray.

Of course, you can't do that unless the Holy Spirit helps you. But I can assure you, if you are a born-again, Holy Ghost-baptized believer and you set yourself to watch and pray—help you He will!

How? By doing exactly what Jesus said He would do in John 16:

When He, the Spirit of Truth (the truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth-the whole, full truth. For He will not speak His own message—on His own authority—but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father, He will give the message that has been given to Him] and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come—that will happen in the future.

He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.
(vv. 13-14 AMP)

One reason the Holy Spirit is so eager to help us watch is because that's what He is doing. He is constantly watching over the world, longing to move on it in power and carry out the will of God. But He cannot do that apart from the prayers of the body of Christ. So He is ever ready to help us watch and pray.

Actually, the Holy Spirit Himself is the great Watchman. But we, too, have been appointed spiritual watchers. The Bible actually calls us that. Although we have some ideas about what the job of a watchman is, the very best picture of it can be found in the Old Testament.

We see there that in the early days of Israel, they built huge walls around their cities to protect them. Watchmen were assigned to various places on the wall. Their responsibility was to watch for any significant development and cry out about what they saw.

If the city's own warriors were returning from a victorious battle, bringing with them great gain and spoil from their conquered foe, the watchmen would cry out and the city gates would be opened so they could come in.

If the watchmen saw signs of danger, they would sound an alarm as it approached. If an attacker shot a flaming arrow into the wall, the watchman's job was to pour water over it to douse the fire.

What those watchmen did on physical walls, you and I are to do on the spiritual walls where we are assigned. As we stand at our spiritual stations, we are to look into the realm of the spirit and respond to what we see.

Some of what we see will be good. We'll see, for example, the promises of God. We'll see the good things He has planned for His Church.

When we see those things, we are to do what those in Isaiah 62 did.

The Lord said of them, I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, who will never hold their peace day or night; you who [are His servants and by your prayers] put the Lord in remembrance [of His promises], keep not silence, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.
(Isa. 62: 6-7 AMP)

When you watch in the spirit and see that God wants to establish something, like a glorious church, your job as a watcher is to give Him no rest about it. Keep not silent. Put Him in remembrance of His promises. That's what He wants you to do.

At other times on your watch, the Holy Spirit may reveal fiery darts being launched against individuals, families, ministries, cities, states, governments or nations. When that happens, your job is to pour the water of the Spirit and the Word over those situations.

Your job is to yield to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and quench those darts before they ever hit their mark!

Source: Secrets To Powerful Prayer
by Lynne Hammond and Patsy Cameneti.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers