House Fire Leaves Husband’s Life on the Line

“It was like ‘okay Lord I have no idea what’s going on.’ And I just prayed in the spirit because I didn’t know what I was praying for or what I was praying about so I just prayed in the spirit.” Cristy Gilmer says she woke in the middle of the night with a dreadful sense that someone needed prayer. As she prayed, over a thousand miles away, her daughter Amanda Reece and her husband Jason laid asleep suffocating in a house fire.

Amanda remembers, “I was dreaming that I was just in a dark room, it was very black and it was hot and I couldn't breathe, and I woke up And there was a texture in the air. And I still couldn't breathe, and I was still really hot, and I said, ‘Jay, something is not right.’ And it took him all but two seconds to realize what was going on. He said, ‘There's a fire.’”

Jason and Amanda frantically tried to escape. But windows wouldn’t open under the intense heat and vacuum of the fire. Amanda says, “When we opened the bedroom door is when the – I noticed there was a glow. And we come around the corner and it's like you hit a brick wall and my body wouldn’t even take another step forward. It was impossible to breathe. I had thought that we had both turned around and I ran in the opposite direction of the kitchen.

Jason ran through the heat and broke through the front door. Air rushed in and fed the flames. Amanda says, “The air in the room starts to swirl around. The heat intensifies. When I didn't see him, my initial reaction was ‘He's probably dead, but I can’t get out of here without him.’”

Outside, Jason realized Amanda hadn’t made it through and went back into the hottest part of the fire where he found her searching for him. They were now able to open a window and escape. They drove to a neighbor’s house, and then rushed to the hospital. Both were severely burned but Jason had the worst of it. Doctors told Amanda devastating news. She remembers, “There's a high probability that he's going to succumb to these injuries in the next 24 hours. My only response was out loud ‘In Jesus' name; he's going to live. He will not die.’”
 
Jason had third degree burns over 93 percent of his body. Doctors did everything in their power to keep him alive. He was intubated and placed in a coma. He had a blood infection, lung damage and faced potential blindness - if he survived. Amanda says she put her hope in the lord. “You are the God of all flesh, you made him. I trust you with him. This is so much bigger than me. This is so much bigger than him. I surrender him to you."

Amanda says she was filled with peace from that moment on. That night, her mom Cristy arrived at the hospital and joined Amanda in prayers of faith for Jason’s life and healing. Cristy says, “We never wavered and we never faltered it was like there’s a purpose lord. I knew that he would live and he wouldn’t die. Because He woke me up. He woke me up to start praying.”
Days went by and Jason clung to life as Amanda, Cristy and their church family went boldly to God with a list of specific needs. “It's-it's not even 24 hours to 24 hours, it's minute-by-minute with him, Amanda recalls, “If your husband survives these injuries, you're looking at upwards of two years in this burn unit, with, you know, hundreds of surgeries, He might lose his nose, he might lose his ears, Do you understand?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, We’d turn on the worship music, we'd start praying in the spirit, we'd start speaking life over his body. By this point it's not coming to him with weeping eyes and a heavy heart anymore, now it's like ‘Okay, Lord, You're going to show up. We're giving you permission again. We're giving you permission to move.’ with confidence and with authority we came before him, and we said, you know, ‘Life and life more abundantly. Nothing missing, nothing broken.’”

Two weeks after the fire, Jason woke from his coma. He experienced healing at an unprecedented rate. His blood infection was healed and every skin graft was successful.  Amanda says, “And we would tell them, ‘In Jesus' name, we're going to have this. In Jesus' name we're going to have this.’ And the next day they'd be like, ‘Something worked. Whatever you were doing worked.’”

Cristy says, “Doctors would uncover him before surgery and they would be in awe like they couldn’t believe what they were looking at because skin grew where there was no skin.”

“That's only Jesus. That's only him.” Says Amanda.

As prayers of faith continued, Jason remembers feeling hopeful he would fully recover and resume a normal life. He says, “I think what I’ve learned through this with other people stepping in and saying ‘expect good things, expect wholeness He’s Life and he wants that for you.’ my-my outlook of, you know, whether this turns out good for me in the end or whether it turns out bad was replaced with-with hope. When you've – you've used all your resources and-and there's no more, why not count on the Lord. Why-why not call on him. Why not give him a shot? The scripture says ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good. And the man who finds him as a refuge is blessed.’”

“I'm so grateful be alive with my husband. I'm so grateful that nothing is nothing is missing, nothing is broken.” Says Amanda.

Two months to the day - after the fire Jason walked out of the burn unit, thankful God was with him in their time of deepest need. He says, “I don't think it's an anomaly. I don't think it's a freak. I-I think it's a miracle, yeah.  I really enjoyed where I was at in life and all the things I got to do, and-and the Lord was faithful to restore all of those things, you know? And 90% of my skin was replaced. I regained my vision. I didn't lose any of my limbs. Sensitivity back all over my body. Yeah, 100%. I have the scars now, but even they're fading.”

Amanda says, “Once you see God in such an intimate way, there's no denying him anymore. It really does fill you with a confidence. I can truthfully stand before you and say that I know that there is nothing that I will face, that he will not take care of. when God says that ‘I am the God of all flesh, nothing is impossible for me,’ he means it.”