“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Luke 15:7.
The Australian bushfires have wrecked the lives of human beings and animals there but one small business owner David Jeffery has rededicated his life to God after a bold escape from the deadly fires.
When a massive fire threatened to engulf the Australian town of Mallacoota, Jeffrey and other residents took refuge at the beach to escape the massive fires. He said they were prepared to jump into the sea to save their lives from the fires. “We were bracing for the worst. It should have been daylight but it was black like midnight and we could hear the fire roaring,” Jeffery said.
Jeffery, who owns the Wave Oasis B&B in Mallacoota, said that God answered his prayers and saved their lives. “We could hear the roar. It sounded like a thousand freight trains coming at us. Then a huge gust, like someone had opened the door of a furnace, pushed us. It went black as black. The smoke was so thick it was hard to breathe,” Jeffery said.
Jeffery said he was an atheist before converting to Christianity 25 years ago. He knowingly mentions his former atheism in the hope that others who don’t believe God will re-think before dismissing his story as “ridiculous.”
He said that as the flames engulfed them, he and two other Christian believers began to pray that God would save them. “We were going to die,” Jeffery said. “If the Lord hadn’t answered this next prayer, we would have had 30 seconds.”
He said he prayed to God, saying, ‘Lord if you don’t push this [fire] back now, we need [wind] from the east.’” He said, “As soon as I said that, it started blowing from the east a little bit. Then I got louder and [the wind] got stronger. Then I got louder again and it got stronger again.”
He said, he was praying with greater boldness and was not one bit bothered about what others around him felt. “I felt it change. I noticed that the bolder I got, the stronger [the wind got]. I was yelling, ‘In Jesus’ name, thank you Lord for rescuing these souls. Push it back Lord, rescue us!’”
There was no change in the wind according to the weather forecast, but God, who created the wind, made it obey. “What God did was push [the fire] back from the east, which was impossible but he did it. He did that for five minutes, which broke [the fire front] enough to stop it from getting to where we were,” he said.
As the flames shifted and the smoke cleared, Jeffery and his fellow residents were able to see the fire wall move toward people’s homes, they were those who had chosen to stay and defend their properties. Jeffery began to pray, “Then I heard God say to me, ‘pray’. I started off with a pathetic little prayer,” he said. “Then within me, this faith rose up and said ‘who are you praying to?’ And I thought, ‘Yes! You’re the God of the Bible. Nothing’s impossible with you! You’ve got angels Lord, put them at the corners of the property.”
God came through the second time and saved the people of Mallacoota. “This was so impossible, but somehow God turned off the flames, like flicking off a switch. All the fuel was still there — the houses were still there, the grass was there.”
All who were present there acknowledged the fact that only God, the creator of the world had stopped the fires from advancing and killing them.
Jeffery is using his business as a refuge for police and emergency responders who need a meal and a place to sleep and is using his new social media platform to proclaim the name of Jesus. He says he wants people to know, “there is a God and he does love them, that the only safe place is behind that cross.”
We don’t need to wait to experience a chilling situation like this to know that God is in control of the situation, we can make the decision right now to receive Christ as our personal savior and be born again.
