Becoming an Intercessor: Story of Rees Howells

So let me continue sharing more about this book on Intercession that I spoke of yesterday.

When God impressed Rees to start praying, it started with his feeling burdened for the members of his own church, backsliders, those struggling in sin. God showed him that it wasn't the backsliders fault for falling back into sin, but that the members should blame themselves for these defeats, because they were not in position to pray these people through to victory! (You can't stand in the gap and fill breaches in others lives, you can't pray others through to victory until there is victory in ones own life!) All sin, all short comings, all separation from each other and Christ must be put away before victory could be obtained. Rees began to take a special burden for not only the backsliders, but for the lethargic members of his congregation, and slowly, as people began to confess and be broken before the power of the Holy Spirit, revival began to take place.

Soon he began to pray for the impossibles, for drunkards and those untouchables that seemed hopeless to the church and society. Again victories and conversions began to take place…one after another. God even began to show Him how his prayers could touch those that he could not touch personally through interaction.

The Holy spirit showed him that the meaning of prayer is to obtain ANSWERS, and of all that the Holy Spirit gives, we are to loose nothing!! However, the Holy Spirit showed him that effectual prayer must be guided praying, in other words guided by the Holy Spirit, and that we are no longer to pray for all kinds of things at our own whim and fancy, but only prayers that the Holy Spirit gives us to pray.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit showed him that he [Rees Howells] was NEVER to pray again asking God to answer a prayer through others that He [the Holy Spirit] could not answer through himself [Rees] FIRST. If money was needed and he was praying for it for a mission or project, He must put all that he had on the table in faith before He prayed that God would supply the rest. If someone needed a home to stay in....he could not pray that God would supply that home unless He was willing to take them into His own home first. If someone needed care in sickness, He could not pray that God would provide caregivers unless he was willing to be the caregiver first...and God took him to the table on these very things many times through His life. He gave up all rights to money - his motto became "First need, first claim." If someone else needed it before his own bills were due, he would give them the money and trust that God would replenish what he needed in time. (God always did!!) When he heard of people being put out of their homes because they could not pay rent, he took them into his home. When people were sick, he spent days and hours locked up in dark rooms tending for them. His reputation went out the door, but the evidence of the Holy Spirit's power and God at work in life grew. People began to see that when Rees prayed, answers came...the devil and his evil force were defeated, people were delivered, victories won!

(Wow! Talk about a challenge to our modern day Christianity and way of thinking!!!!!)

The test grew greater and greater, but Rees faith grew and grew. Finally God instructed him to claim not just spiritual victories, but physical victories. He began to pray for healings - supernatural healings! And they occurred!!


Also, while the Holy Spirit had taken the love of money away from Rees, he still worked and depended on his income for support for many years. But finally the time came when the Holy Spirit asked him to step away from his temporal support and income and just trust that God would provide. "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or lands for my sake and the gospels, but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time." was the promise that Rees clung to.

The day came when Rees reached his last pound. The Holy Spirit told him, "Cut the ropes and take hold of the promises."

Again in Rees words:

"Oh how the devil pitied me and brought such arguments to my soul. He told me that it was a blind step in the dark of presumption, and that if there was anywhere that I should need to go, I wouldn't be able to unless I had money laid aside. But the Holy Ghost showed me that if God wanted to take me anywhere, He would surely provide the means. The danger was more on the other side: for if a person has money, he can go wherever he wants WITHOUT consulting God or walking by faith. (Or even like Jonah, he can afford to pay his passage to run away from God.) The fact is, we are not truly bondservants of Christ until God has entire control of our means, and our wills are neutral in its disposal...

"So Rees took the plunge and learned the blessed truth that his extremity was indeed God's opportunity. His eyes were opened to the fact that He had a claim on God for what he could not supply himself. Just as surely as the Spirit had told him that the people of the village had a claim on his money to meet their needs, so now he saw that he had a claim on God's resources to meet His...'What joy I had in finding that I had finished with the limited resources of man and had begun on the unlimited resources of God. The promises of God replaced the money in the bank and became equal current coin to me. I no longer had to carry my treasure with me wherever I went because I knew where my treasury was, and how to reach it."

Oh Joy of joys!!! Rees shared how he could never have learned the life of trust and faith as long as he had resources to save himself, but once he no longer kept a "nest egg" for himself, but he surrendered it all to God, God poured all the fullness of blessing upon Him. Now he understood why the Rich young ruler went away sorrowful at Jesus command, and what Jesus truly meant when he said it's easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle then to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. For we cannot walk and abide in the spirit, but by FAITH!! However, having reaching the end of his resources, He discovered the fullness of God. And whatever God called him to do, He always supplied. He never lacked....wherever he went, God always sent the money to pay (often at the last minute, but God always came through)...until in the later years of his life, Rees was purchasing buildings for schools and colleges and orphans, and committing to millions...even though he himself had nothing. But God always came through!

One key thought that really impressed me throughout this book is the principle of abiding. Rees shares: "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." In other words, True Abiding means be willing for the Holy Spirit to live through me the life the Savior would have lived if He was in my place."

Isn't that powerful!?? The book goes on to share story after story of miraculous interventions....all due to prayer and intercession. Revivals, conversions, deliverances...and even amazing specific victories gained during the War against Hitler. It's almost so amazing, it's unbelievable....I could spend a great deal of time trying to share more. But all I will say for now is.....PLEASE read this book!!!!!

If we are going to be a people of true faith and have a true revival in our land, and be walking by faith, ready for Jesus to come...we must learn what it means to truly surrender and to truly pray!!!!

Before I read this book the first time (a couple years ago) I thought I was a surrendered Christian. And of course, I had accepted the Savior into my life. But after reading this book, I saw that while God has been gracious, and I have felt the effects of the Holy Spirit upon my life…I had not realized or truly been filled with the FULLNESS of the Holy Spirit. (Have ANY of us? When I look around at our church, when I look at believers that I stand beside with in ministry....I see earnestness, I see lots of hard-workers for the Kingdom...but I DO NOT see LIVES FILLED with POWER...at least not like this!! Something is missing!!!! And I think we have settled for a lower standard and a lower norm!) It is a great calling, at a great sacrifice, and even now I don't feel ready….but this is what I long for, and I've been re-challenged as I read the testimony again! My greatest desire is to truly be overtaken by the Holy Spirit!

So, PLEASE - read this book!!!! It's radical....radically inspiring!! You'll never look at prayer the same again!!!