“This is a miracle.”
Dr. Joshua Fowler and his family escaped with mere seconds before a tornado ripped through their Valley View Texas, home Saturday, crediting divine intervention for their remarkable survival.
Fowler, a revivalist and preacher through his Awake The World ministry, emotionally recounted to CBN News the shocking events that could have killed the family — but miraculously didn’t.
“I was in the living room and I had one of my spiritual sons visiting from Orlando,” Fowler said. “My wife was in bed, my kids were in bed sleeping.”
Despite previously enduring frequent storms without any hesitation, Fowler suddenly felt “prompted [by] the Holy Spirit” to go and get his wife, Lisa.
“I felt prompted to go tell my wife, ‘Get out of bed,’” he said, noting he also went to get his 18-month-old and 3-year-old out of their bedrooms. “I went and grabbed them, and we ran up under the smallest place in our house, which is … under the stairs, there’s a restroom, a little, teeny restroom. We got in there.”
That’s when he called his 17-year-old son, Benjamin, and tried to get him to join them. But within seconds, it became clear that a serious calamity was upon them.
“As I was closing the door, it went, ‘Wham,’” and this … tornado’s [trying] to suck up our whole house,” Fowler said. “We could feel the heat under our feet, and air, and moisture, and like being sucked up, and the whole house was just shaking.”
Unbeknownst to Fowler and Lisa at the time, a wall had come down, forcing Benjamin and the man visiting the home that night to take refuge in the pantry. Meanwhile, Fowler, Lisa, and their two younger children huddled in the bathroom as the intense winds and chaos raged just outside the door.
With horror closing in, the family turned to intense prayer.
“We just began to pray … like blood-curdling, screaming, crying out from the top of our lungs — ‘God, please, please help us, God!’” Fowler said, noting the family suddenly felt the Holy Spirit and became emboldened to keep invoking the Lord. “We just begin to command the storm. We said, ‘We command you to leave this land right now, in Jesus’ name!”
He continued, “It felt like eternity. I know it was only minutes, but, somehow, in the middle of commanding it to stop, it stopped.”
Lisa told CBN she believes God protected their family in those moments, crediting prayer for saving their lives.
“We kind of went from a moment of just, like, bleeding out, praying, ‘God help us,’ and then it shifted where we felt like, ‘We need to take control of the atmosphere, and, you know, use the authority that God has given us to speak to the storm.”
Lisa said the invocations went from fearful in nature to fervent, with the family declaring to the storm, “You’ve got to leave.”
Fowler, who survived a plane crash as a child and knows a thing or two about diabolical and scary scenarios, said this tornado situation was truly the most harrowing he’s faced.
“It was scary,” he said. “I’ve never in my life felt such terror.
The family was stunned to see extensive damage to the home once the storm stopped and they were able to leave the bathroom.
They’ve been told the home, which lost its roof and is in ruins, is potentially a total loss.
“We’re just trusting God that we’re going to be able to build again and that God’s going to get the glory,” Fowler said. “And he’s a God of restoration.”
And that’s when the revivalist turned his own pain into what he hopes will be a purpose for others going through difficult times. Despite Fowler’s loss, he wants to inspire others to seek God’s face in the storm.
“If you’ve been through something tragic like this, or even if you feel spiritually like you’re broken … I’m just declaring and decreeing over you today that God’s going to heal and he’s going to restore,” he said. “And I believe one day I’ll be able to come back … and I’ll be able to tell you how God has restored what’s been broken here.”
Lisa said, for her part, she’s focused on staying strong for her family. Her 3-year-old, traumatized by what unfolded, continues to discuss it.
“I’ve really been focusing on just trying to keep the peace, and keep my faith strong, and keep my family as strong as possible,” she said. “We’re just so thankful that we’re all alive, and we came out of this without a stretch.”
