Life is the most precious gift God has given us, and when there are shooting rampages that never have any rhyme or reason, they become like fear tactics of the enemy.
The root system of all shooters is the wound of fatherlessness in our nation. This coupled with mental illness and/or the choice of pure hatred equals a landing strip for Satan’s long-term strategy, which Jesus laid out in John 10:10: the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.
Last night, we saw this strategy find a foothold in Thousand Oaks. We saw evils agenda just like we saw in recently against the beautiful Jewish synagogue last month. As with so many of you, my heart is heavy with grief for the beautiful American citizens we lost to this brutality.
But I do read the second part of one of Jesus’ most beautiful statements He ever spoke in John 10:10b, “I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
This life He is prophesying in this Scripture is the remedy for shootings and for those communities who lost someone. This is a prophetic statement He made, and it was supposed to be taken as a promise of redemption and hope that Jesus will begin to send heaven to work to rebuild life’s agenda in areas marked by death.
We have so many promises in the Bible of restoration and redemption in the face of evil. But none is more powerful than Jesus Himself saying His purpose is to bring us life, and that it is a greater agenda with a greater impact than any of the death and destruction that we as a state and all of us as a nation have faced by continual shootings.
Right now, I believe we have an opportunity to pray for His supernatural promise of John 10:10 over Thousand Oaks and the other cities and communities that have been affected by the demonic agenda of hatred and death.
Whenever you as a Christian see evil’s agenda manifest, you can actually be an empowered part of God’s plan of redemption. Instead of just hearing and absorbing shock from media, you have the invitation to do listening prayer with the Holy Spirit about His agenda of life for Thousand Oaks. We can have interactive prayer and make declarations and even be part of the spiritual side of the redemption God wants to work, even if it’s just in your car on the way to work.
Thousands of people making thousands of declarations towards the agenda of heaven for a region that has been wounded are a force to be reckoned with.
Wherever evil has an agenda, it is only to distract or try and dismantle the greater agenda that God has already established. And watch for Thousand Oaks in the future, because there will be good news to follow such a season of tragedy. {eoa}
Shawn Bolz is an author, speaker, TV personality and prophet.
