Continue to pray as the Lord leads for the community of Parkland, Florida and for our nation.

Hope in the Lord and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are destroyed, you will see it. (Ps 37:34)

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Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey about last week’s school shooting. One thing that everyone agreed upon is that prayer is essential! It is not too late to participate. By doing so, you can view all responses. Just click the link above to get started.

The responses were thoughtful and touching. It is interesting to note that responses about gun control, or lack thereof, were across the board, representing nearly every viewpoint on the subject. Here is a brief summary of your answers.

Question # 1 What do you sense are the reasons for the epidemic of school shootings?

The most frequent responses to this question were

1)      Taking God out of schools and public life

2)      Taking prayer out of schools

3)      Our nation turning away from God

4)      The breakdown of the family

5)      Rampant violence in media

6)      Video games

7)      Evil/demonic activity

8)      Lost, low, no value of life

9)      Mental health issues

10)   Anger

11)   Lack of fathers

Some of the responses:

A combination of feeding hate, social media, access to instructions and examples, media attention, a desire to make others pay, hurt families, easy targets

Breakdown of the family; breakdown of church in society; breakdown of community; alienated, fatherless men who are acting out anger and vengeance; virtual communities that serve to reinforce antisocial behavior and sentiments; lack of background checks for purchasing assault weapons.

There are many reasons but one outstanding is the Lack of Godly leadership in our schools and nation. God has been evicted from all levels of human activity in this country. The USA is open for spiritual depravity at all levels.

Not enough shared experience of prayer, open hearted Bible study and compassionate, reasonable and firm leadership in our homes. Children are not allowed to experience failure and rejection as a natural part of life which can be tools to help them grow stronger and wiser.

The influence of the media: negative daily news promoting fear and hate coupled with diminishing influence and authority of church and family.

You could point to our gun culture, our media violence, and his white nationalist group, but those are just manifestations at large of what Satan can do when he defiles our hearts and we keep busy with the idols of our daily life, and then point fingers at everyone else for the cause of a mass shooting. . . . Now I ask myself, what can I do to help an “afflicted soul,” as we are called to do in the Bible. Bottom line: the cause is spiritual; the solution must also be spiritual, in prayer and in practice.

Large schools are a significant factor. They are dehumanizing and alienating, making these large schools sociopath factories. The average student population of schools where two or more people excluding the shooter were killed from Columbine in 1999 to the most recent shooting is over 1,500. Only one of the ten was under 900. Small schools have been found to be able to be built and operated cost effectively.

We live in a fallen world and are in a spiritual battle. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood”, but the enemies of the cross of Jesus. Ephesians 6:12 Children are targets of our enemy. Children were killed when Jesus and Moses were born. Unborn babies are killed, now as well as children of all ages, in horrific crimes. We must look to our God as so many Americans don’t believe in Him.

Our hate filled culture is to blame for this outbreak of gun violence. Whether motivated by a sense of injustice, righteous indignation, or intolerance, Americans have allowed a spiritual stronghold of loathing to take hold of us. Instead of creating an atmosphere conducive to honest dialogue of differing opinions, we have nurtured a culture in which people don’t just disagree, but they despise others whose views differ from their own. We have lost the tools for tolerance, empathy and civil disagreement. We do not teach our children coping skills for frustration and discord, so they fall back on their video game training and see how many “opponents” they can eliminate.

The author of death is Satan. He is ramping up activity in this time. And we as a people have become spiritually numb. Not enough prayer and walking our faith out.

The Devil is taking advantage of students who are weak mentally and emotionally and make the worse out of them by getting into their brains to take the life of another human being, Students want to believe in something but they do not know what, so they start trying everything that is out there even getting into witchcraft, black magic and Satanism. Environment at home is not healthy or may be dysfunctional. No moral stories or moral teaching taught in school. Playing violent video games or violent movies.

1)Breakdown of individual families (especially fatherlessness), 2) Breakdown of social ties to community (each mass shooter lacks a meaningful connection to even one healthy adult), then once this breakdown is experienced by an individual, it is mixed with 3) some specific cultural expectations felt by white males, so that when achievement is failed and there’s nowhere to turn, then these shootings result. That’s why in other nations and cultures (which may not have the same social breakdown we’ve been experiencing lately in America), that even if individuals are broken down, they may pursue suicide or other acts of depression, rather than public aggression. But the main driver is the lack of healthy families and social bonds.

This is a direct spiritual battle caused by our turning away from God, the breakdown of the family, and the subsequent loss of sense of true identity.

I am an Elementary school Nurse. I pray continually for my school, by children’s school and all schools. There are a lot of mental health problems and disciplinary issues in our schools today. There is a lot of disrespect by children to teachers and staff. Because of lack of respect by children, on top of mental health issues, trouble results. I see violence towards students by other students. It’s very disturbing. There are very few Christians in my school. I pray continually that God will intervene.

Question #2: How is the Lord showing you to pray?

The most common prayers were

1. Strong families
2. Protection
3. Love instead of death
4. Repentance
5. Revival
6. Weeping
7. Not knowing how to pray
8. Bible verses: Isaiah 54:15; Psalm 91; Psalm 37; Psalm 143; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Ephesians 6:10-18

Some of the responses were:

Pray in the opposite to our schools and culture: His love, life instead of death, wisdom for our leaders, well defended schools, salvation, healing, His glory coming in, His peace, a strong Church who knows how to love/advance the kingdom/defend the oppressed/pray in the Kingdom, father’s hearts turned to sons and sons to fathers

Comfort for all the victims; full disclosure as to whether or not shooter on psycho-trophic drugs as has been the case w/regards to many other mass shootings; that America would wake up and realize its debasement and return to Him.

Repentance for our lack of compassion, for pursuing selfish desires, goals, ambitions over relationships. Protection for our children, wisdom for teachers, administrators, parents- community for action to build relationships, reduce isolation; communities that foster compassion, care, respect. For God to reveal creative ways to us as we fast and pray against this darkness.

Adopt a school and walk around praying for the schools and the teachers, children.

I’m so grieved I can hardly pray mostly what I do is weep

For people to turn their hearts to the Father, for the Truth about LIFE to take root – all forms of life are to be honored, for people to seek truth in God’s word so they understand the devil and his schemes are real, deception must break off the minds of people; of course to plead the Blood of Jesus over schools, child He is leading me to pray for all to have a Holy and healthy fear of HIM, because we need wisdom but without a fear of HIM, no wisdom grows in us.

Pray for parents, teachers and other leaders to have the wisdom to be godly role models for children. Teach them respect for others, reverence for God and there is a price to pay for harmful behavior. Set standards and boundaries and teach that every life is precious and must be valued.

Push back the prince of the schools of America that wants to destroy and kill our young people.

To pray for the reunification of families and family values and as a teacher I will tell you that the schools are the first line of defense and our hands are tied because we are limited in what we can do for the students. I heard that many teachers saw this kid as troubled and even though he was eventually expelled – what safeguards were put in place.

That Christians will take the call to prayer seriously, and pray over the schools in their own neighborhoods. I live next to a grade school and pray protection over it almost daily. I pray for the teachers and parents and students that they would KNOW Jesus.

I am praying for the exposure of the enemy’s plans and the Lord’s answer to 1) families, teachers, and local leaders… for them to understand what WE need to do instead of waiting for Congress to “do something” because the real answers are right here, local, and immediate. Some school shootings have also probably been prevented, and some teens saved by the Lord and caring adults somewhere in America. These stories need PROMINENCE. …and for 2) to leaders in Congress and the political sphere, to ignore the noise about what interest groups are saying about fewer guns/more guns and to have the ability to HEAR God and the American people bringing real solutions so that Congress can do what they need to do at the national level to RELEASE Americans to build healthy families again.

Pray for the lost. It is the lost, the uncommitted to God that are allowing Satan to use them to bring terror and havoc into daily life in this country. The Hebrews were afraid to confront Goliath so they allowed themselves to become fearful and terrorized, they didn’t trust God would save them. David the young shepherd came to the battlefield looked at Goliath and, since he actually knew God, could not believe the Jewish army was afraid of Goliath. We know Our God. We know He is all powerful therefore we must pray with all knowledge that God is in control. Satan will not overpower us! Praise God and give Him glory for who He is!

One scripture I had forgotten about, that I stumbled upon today in a Lenten Devotional was that The Lord takes no pleasure in one’s death. So I remind The Lord of this, and pray for no more mass shootings/ deaths.

Question 3: How have you been led to act in response to the crisis of school shootings?

The most common response to this question were

1)      Prayer walks or prayer drives by local schools

2)      Pray that evil schemes would be identified before tragedy happens

3)      Using social media as a means of praying and encouraging prayer for schools.

Here are some of the specific responses:

In addition to weekly and monthly corporate prayer for our School District, we send prayer teams to each school campus and administration building, and we send prayer teams to every School Board meeting. We meet with the Superintendent to hear his heart and pray for him. We also minister to local Law Enforcement regularly and pray for them.

Show love, kindness to our youth, speaking, shaking their hand, looking in their eyes

Because I am a teacher, I am the light in a sometimes dark place. I take every opportunity to pray over classrooms & the school & students-praying silently. The presence of the Lord is there because I am there…

I work in a school yesterday I went into work brought my staff together and asked them to join me in prayer. May we begin to bring God back to school and pray for each other.

Take more time to know my HS son’s friends & their lives; through work reaching out to engage struggling students with a mentor program, fast-pray seeking guidance for action and shield against the attacks.

How I respond is in prayer and in tears for those that have been killed wounded feeling unloved.

About a month ago I read about a pastor who stayed in a room and prayed for a month before starting a revival. So I have organized my life so I can stay in a room and pray for six weeks and get guidance on God’s plans for my life. I cannot say at this point that I am led to do anything in particular about school shootings. Led means led, not react. So first comes, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

As a teacher being aware of those students who seem distant. And going out of your way to make every child feel loved

I have become much more intentional in establishing friendships (REAL friendships) with people rather than just casual relationships, especially with those that might not be particularly “attractive” as friends: the “whiners, opinionated, those who seem to always be the “victim” in whatever circumstances they find themselves. Some are homeless, some are near homelessness, and some are just seemingly friendless. Some have mental health issues, many are simply lonely and in need of having meaningful interaction with someone else. When I first started, I thought, “GOD, what do I do; what can I do?” And, He reminded me that because I carry HIS PRESENCE, all I need to “do” is to BE the vessel…I am not “trying to get them ‘saved.'” I want to come alongside them, just like JESUS would: encouraging them, LISTENING to their stories and giving them hope.

I pray often for teachers and students, and I am alert to dreams that may be warning dreams (I had a warning dream a couple years ago, and after a friend and I prayed about it, our school was actually saved from an attack by a couple gang members who had sneaked into our school.)

Get involved in my local schools

Thinking of finding ways to meet with teachers locally to pray with them. I already lead a prayer group once a week, and we pray for our schools, leaders, and teachers