- The California wild fires are raging on,

forcing thousands of peopleto evacuate their homes.

Here to talk with usabout how we can pray for

and support those literallyin the line of fire

is California resident, Pastor Shawn Bolz.

Shawn, thank you so muchfor being with us today.

- Oh I'm so glad to behere and I'm so praying

for Northern California right now.

- Thank you.

So I just first wanna ask you,since you live in California,

can you just talk toour audience who maybe

have never experienced a wild fire about

what these people aredealing with right now.

- Yeah, we're no strangers to wild fires,

even Southern California.

It's kind of a regularoccurrence over the last 10 years

where all of a sudden, itcan be a piece of glass

and this wild area of dryground that ignites a fire

and it just takes over.

It all of a sudden just burns so fast

that you can barely runfrom it in certain areas

and that's why some ofthe firemen were overtaken

by the fire, who were fighting it.

Because the wind can move it so fast

and it just burns up acres.

I think it's at, I couldbe wrong, 120,000 acres.

That's three times the size ofRedding, the city right now.

It's that big but itmoved West out of the city

and it's moving towardssome small towns again.

So it's very dangerous.

- Yeah, and I know you'reclose with Bill Johnson

from Bethel Church in Redding.

What have you heard fromhim about what his church

is going through andwhat some of the people

in his congregation have experienced?

- Well, I think they'reup to 1200 structures lost

in the whole fire and Ithink about eight or 900

of those are in Redding.

So when I talk to Pastor Bill and many

of the staff members there,there's just a sense of grief,

'cause the air is still sotoxic and people have just

been released to go backhome on Saturday and Sunday.

Some people are going backhome yesterday and today,

and so you have people like

our publishers who live up there,

they're pregnant and theycan't go back to the city

'cause it's too toxicfor her to even breathe.

- [Abigail] Yeah.

- And three doors down from their house,

the whole house burned down.

They just finished a home renovation

and their neighborhood's on fire.

The new house that Bill and Beni Johnson,

Pastor Bill bought, theyjust purchased a house.

Their old house was in the fire line.

Their new house is in the fire line.

Luckily theirs was spared,

but there was some many intheir very neighborhoods

that were completely burned down,

that were total losses.

They're just saying thatthey're there to help.

Seeing the beauty of Christianity,

which has been the first response again,

churches all around the region.

Before State relief has gotten there,

the church is present, even on corners.

They're setting up distributioncenters on their own.

People are just dropping off donations.

The Christians are doing anamazing response right now.

I'm so proud of them.

- Yeah, and I know that you have

an amazing prophetic voice in ministry.

What has God been speaking to you

about these catastrophic wild fires?

- You know, I was hesitantto release it because

there's been so manywild fires, like I said,

over the last 10 years and there's

a lot of natural disaster.

But I felt so impressed and compelled.

I felt like the Holy Spiritsaid pray Romans 8:28

over these fires and overthese people, which is,

and we know that in all things,

God works for the goodof those who love him,

who have been calledaccording to his purpose.

I felt like I was contrastingit to the 1906 earthquake

that happened in San Francisco,

which was much broader and actually

caused much more destruction.

It created a sense of the skyis falling and there's doom.

That's what the Northern California fires

are making people feel in that region,

which is much smaller, but it's still,

a people, a group that's being impacted

in the hundred of thousands of people.

They feel like there's no hope.

They feel like their worldhas just burned away.

- [Abigail] Yeah.

- That there favorite places are gone,

that their health is atrisk now in the city.

I felt like the Lord was showing me,

in that time of those earthquakes,

the church was called the first response

by secular newspapers.

The LA Times reported it,the San Francisco Times,

that the church was themost present for relief

and that they were trying toeliminate fear in society.

There's one group thatwas saying, this is God.

God's gonna use this tobring conviction of sin.

There's another group that was saying,

God's gonna use this toshow his love in great ways.

And both groups did a great work.

One was more Pentecostal, Charismatic,

one was more Evangelical.

But they were both consideredand reported over and over

and over as the firstresponders and the people

who gave the most helpin the entire situation,

that they helped recover it so

it wasn't 100 year recovery process,

but that there was people whowere sacrificially giving.

I felt like, right after that,we see Azusa Street Revival

which Parham, WilliamParham was part of that,

Charles Parham, (mumbles)

anyway, was part of that andhe helped during the time

of the San Franciscoearthquakes and right after,

for the next two years.

He said we have to go in with an urgency

to bring salvation and they actually went

around door-to-door and he brought relief

and also brought themessage of the kingdom.

That movement is responsibletoday for over 770 million

Pentecostal and Charismatic believers.

At that same time, shortlyafter Biola emerged,

Biola University now andthe Biola Church Group

and they're responsible forthe modern Evangelicalism

that we have today.

And they both emerged inthat time of great turmoil

where God began to use thiscrisis as this beautiful picture

of how to spread his verynature and respond in his nature

to what man was going throughbecause it was so painful.

- Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Well, how have you seenGod move or have you heard

any stories of how God is movingin this tragedy right now?

- Well, it's amazing because, of course,

believers are prayingfrom all over the world

and I believe thatRedding is specifically,

Shasta County and Whiskeytown and cities,

they're destined for movingglory in this next season,

just like we saw in 1906.

There's a move that changedeverything and we believe

that Redding has beencalled by many leaders,

whether it's Rodney Howard-Browneor whether it's Benny Hinn

as an innovation city,a city of innovation,

a city where God's gonna do something new

and bring reformation forthe entire church at large

from this little small people group

and they just received a majorhit and we know that God's

gonna use it for the goodof putting them on the map

in a good way as well.

- [Abigail] Yes.

- I've heard individual stories of people

who were saved miraculously,who heard from the Lord,

you have to leave now and when they left,

their house burned down.

That was one of thesaddest ones is a family

who left right in time andthey weren't being evacuated,

no one told them there'san evacuation at that time.

The fire looked like itwas a lot further away

and God spoke to them toget out of their house.

They were able to getout and they weren't able

to salvage anything but they were able

to salvage their life which

is the most important thing, their family.

I've heard of many otherstories of people hearing God

of places to go and whereto be, even newscasters,

of just places to go to help bring safety.

You can hear better versionsof the story, I'm sure.

- Yeah.- On news online,

but there's so much profound interaction

from God, where he's sayingI'm gonna spare people

and help people.

There's such a limited loss of life,

which is part of themiraculous feature of this fire

is that it went into a wholecity and burned down hundred

of houses and very few people have died,

which is just miraculous in itself.

- Yeah, and I'm surethere's gonna be a lot

of talk of God and just Christianity

in Redding and that surrounding area,

but for those of us whoaren't in that area,

I just wanna ask you, howdo you think we should

be talking to our non-Christianfriends about this

and just other naturaldisasters that we're seeing?

- Well, I think thetemptation is to believe

that God's bringing thesetypes of symbolic acts

so that people canreturn to God and repent.

I do think that that happens sometimes

when something scary happens to us,

it makes us evaluate life differently.

But all the judgment thatGod already poured out,

other than the end time judgment

has already been poured out on Jesus.

We don't need anotherdisaster to get us there.

Jesus didn't have to pay the price again

for us to get awakened, so to speak.

I think when we look at peopleand tell 'em God actually,

as Christians, God works allthese things for our good,

and here's my story ofhow he's worked hardship

in my life and suffering in my life,

because we experience suffering too.

And that's a better message tosay God is actually good God

who takes these things and works them.

He causes the enemies ofyour life to serve you.

He causes justice where there'sno justice in the natural.

He'll cause justice to form because

that's the kind of God he is.

When people get that kind of message,

it's the kindness of God thatleads people to repentance.

And when people get themessage that in the midst

of suffering that God's kindness visits

and where there's no restitutionfrom a natural source,

that God still can bring a restitution,

he can still bring a right from wrong.

and we're seeing this in racism,

we're seeing this in civil rights,

we're seeing this with immigration,

that Christians who are beginning to pray

and Christians who are sharingthis with their friends,

they're seeing a differentresult than people who aren't

because we have a promisein the Bible that God

will cause everythingthat's evil towards us,

will not prosper and he'llcause it to serve us.

And so when you have thatmessage and when people start

to hear the actual physicalstories of how that's happened,

not the theoretic storiesbut the physical stories

of how that's happened, itchanges people's perception

of this God who has to judge us first

and then he comes rescuingus after he judges us,

which is such a sadistic picture of God,

versus a God who we reap what we sow.

Things happen in our regionsand there's global climate,

stuff that's happening,

there's all kinds ofstuff that's happening,

and we're reaping someof what we've sown badly

and then God causes us not to reap as much

because he's a good God and works

all these things for our good.

We're the only people with that promise.

So as we connect intimatelyto Jesus through the cross,

we have a promise that'sdifferent than any other human

on the Earth, but we can bringthat promise to them as well.

- My final question for you ishow can Christians nationwide

be praying for and supporting this area

and the people who have just been affected

by this awful tragedy?

- Well, one of the good thingsabout Bethel and Redding

is that they actuallysupport about 10% or serve

about 10% of their city,so out of 100,000 people,

about nine or 10,000 people go there.

And they've made acommitment to their city,

and they have a long history

of serving their citywithout self interest.

So they've made a commitment to the city

that every single housethat's burned down,

they're gonna make a financial response to

and they the infrastructurethat if you give a donation,

it's tax deductible and it all,

100% goes to what you're giving it for.

There's no middle mancost because the church

covers administrationcosts and everything else.

So if you give to them,

they're gonna give it directly

to where it's needed the most.

They couldn't be a first responder

in the sense of their churchbeing a distribution center,

because they were rightby the fires and they only

have one drive up and one drive out.

And so, but now, theirdistribution center,

where they're feeding peopleall day long, every day.

They have supplies and stuff,if you give a donation,

and also if you prayfor the Stirring Church

and the Baptist Church,all these churches,

or there's Simpson Universitythat are all being responders,

if you'll pray that Godwill strengthen them,

give them energy and make adonation to American Red Cross

or a church like Bethel.

I mean, Bethel, I would give directly to.

If you have heard of them at all,

they're just doing incredible work.

Your money will be likesoldiers in the arms

and the hands of these guys.

It will work really well toward the people

who are victims of this fire.

- Yeah, definitely.

Shawn Bolz, thank you somuch for being with us.

It was great to hear yourinsight and perspective on this.

- Thanks for invitingme and I'm so praying

with all of you at CBN.

- Yes.- For the Carr fires to end.

- Yes, Amen.