Episode Transcript
It is all too often said that there are no miracles performed these days. Well, I'd like to challenge this idea with my story of down to the Wire. Welcome to miracles in the 21st century.
I'm Uriah St Juste. It was in 2020 and this was the peak of the COVID lockdown here in New South Wales in Australia. And I was living in a rental property at the time.
And I get a notice from the real estate agent saying that your house that you live in has been sold and you have 21 days, three weeks to find a new place to live. Now let me just give you an idea of what the situation was like. This was a time when many people were fleeing the cities, they were fleeing Sydney and moving up the New South Wales coast, and it was impossible to find any rental property at the time.
And I was literally told by a real estate agent that within an hour of posting a new rental property, she would get 600 applications within an hour. And that's how difficult it was to get a new place, a new rental. And I had 21 days.
And the countdown began and time went on. I'm putting in applications, I'm praying about this in my normal prayer time. And time is going on.
One week passes and two week passes and nothing is happening. I view several properties. There are 60, 70 people who show up for a viewing and you don't even get an answer from the real estate agent.
At that time it was chaotic. It was impossible to find a place. And it came down to less than one week before I had to find a new place.
I had rang the real estate agent, explained to them the situation. I said, can I have a little bit more time? They said, no, absolutely not. The new owners want to move in immediately.
You have to get out. And I'm thinking I could possibly become homeless and have to live in my car like many other people have had to at that time. And so I decided, you know what, this is some time for some really intense prayer.
And I want to share with you a verse From Matthew chapter 17, where a man came to Jesus rather to his disciples, for them to heal his son, and they couldn't do it. And this is what Jesus said to him. When he asked Jesus why couldn't the disciples do it? And he says in Matthew 17:20.
So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, for assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible. To you. Now, I thought I'd been doing that.
I'd been praying in my regular prayer time, praying about this. As the time goes down, the countdown is on, it's coming close, I'm praying and nothing is happening. So I said, one day, one Sabbath.
I said, no, this needs intense prayer. So I reserved that particular Sabbath for a time of fasting and praying intensely for nothing else. I'm not praying for anybody else.
I'm not praying for God to bless me about this and that. I'm praying for this one thing intensely for that whole day, and I'm fasting about this situation. And that was on Saturday.
Monday morning, I sent in one application. It was around 8 o'clock in the morning. I submitted my final documents for this application.
And, like, literally, without giving too much information, I'm literally sitting on the toilet and have my phone in my hand and my phone starts to ring. Now, normally I don't answer my phone in the toilet because I think that's a bit weird. And it's a number I don't recognise.
I'm very sceptical about answering from numbers because you get all kinds of prank calls. But I got inspired to just answer this call and I answered and it was the real estate agent. And she said, I just got your application.
And this was like, less than five minutes after I've submitted, she's ringing to say that I got your application. And then she asked the question. She said, why do you need a place? Like, what's happening? What's going on? I told her, well, the rental that I'm living in now was put on the market and it was sold and I was given 21 days and I have less than a week.
Now it's coming down to the wire and I really need a place. And do you know what she said to me? She said to me, if you want the place, it's yours right there. Less than five minutes after receiving my application, she approved it.
She didn't check any references, she didn't check any of my other documents. She just said, if you want it, come and have a look at it. If you want it, it's yours.
It was approved right there in less than a week to go. And I was just gobsmacked and I want to share with you the other verse following the one I read before. That's Matthew 17:21.
So Jesus says in verse 20 that if you pray, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you will be able to move mountains and nothing will be impossible. But then in verse 20, 1, he starts off with the word however. That's stepping things up, he says.
However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. And I just want to let you know that there are some situations that you're in that will require intense prayer along with fasting. Not that regular prayer does not work, but when the battle is intense, when it's an intense spiritual and demonic battle, you need to put some extra effort into your prayer and add to it.
Fasting. And don't give up. Because sometimes, just like in my situation, God likes to take things just down to the wire, and at the last minute, he comes through because he wants to draw it out, to test our faith, to see how confident we are in him or if we will give up in desperation.
So whatever you might be going through, one last verse I want to share with you. It's one of the shortest verses in the bible, found in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5 and verse 17. It's only three words.
It says, pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing, Pray without stopping. Don't ever stop praying.
Whatever you're going through, time might be going down. It might be coming down to the crunch, coming down to the wire. It might seem like this is not working and your life will be destroyed.
But don't worry. Trust in Jesus. Commit your situation to prayer and fasting, and God will see you through.
Even though it comes down to the last minute, down to the wire. God bless you and hope to see you again sometime where we can share amazing stories of God's miracles.
