Howells Struggled to Relinquish His BODY for God's Use
LIKE MANY young people reared as a churchgoer, Rees Howells thought he was a Christian. He assented to the doctrines; he prayed; he lived an outwardly clean life. Then, in his early twenties, ambition took him to America. A cousin confronted his with his need to be born again. Howells protested, “I’m as good as you are,” but inwardly he was troubled. Suddenly he approached death during a serious illness and realized he had no part in Christ. He promised that if God gave him another chance he would become a true Christian. However, he struggled to be born again until he heard the testimony of a converted Jew who had given up family and home for Christ.
Two years later, in the Welsh Revival, the Holy Spirit challenged him to a new level of living.
I am God and I am come to ask you to give your body to Me that I may work through it. ... But if I come in, I come as God, and you must go out (see Col. 3:2,3). I shall not mix Myself with your self.
Rees wept and struggled with this call for days before finally surrendering.
I had received a sentence of death, as really as a prisoner in the dock. I had lived in my body for twenty-six years; and could I easily give it up?
In the end he yielded, but had to ask the Lord to “pull him through.” He had to be pulled through many other spiritual challenges, too, because he found that his old self did not die easily or all at once. Several times the Lord demanded from him all his money. Other times, he had to give up meals, clothes, nights, home life, reputation, work, ordinary propriety (such as wearing a hat), and even his son.
With his new trust in the indwelling Spirit, he became an intercessor—a person who enters directly into the experience of other people so that he might pray effectively for them. As a result he saw many conversions and healings, led revivals, and built ministries.
In practice it meant pain and raw trust. When he and his wife, Elizabeth Hannah Jones, went to Africa, they had to leave their infant son with a relative. In exchange, God promised them 50,000 souls. As they left England, they had no money for train tickets. Well-wishers came to bid the couple farewell but the Lord forbade Howells to say a word about their need. The Lord asked him, “if you had the money what would you do?” Howells replied that he would get in the ticket line—and to show his trust, he did; Satan told him what a fool he’d look when he got to the window without the means to pay. Howells replied that like Moses in front of the Red Sea, he’d be gloriously vindicated. With only two people ahead of him in line, one of the men who had come to see the Howells off stepped out of the crowd and said “I'm sorry, I have to leave to open my shop.” He thrust a gift of 30 shillings into Howell’s hand and hurried away. What a lesson in trust it had been.
The work in Africa prospered from the start. As God had promised, revival did indeed break out with thousands saved.
After his years in Africa, Howells visited the United States where he was impressed by Moody Bible Institute. God instructed him to build a college on the pattern of the Moody school. Again and again, for this and for other projects, God provided the means without Howells making public appeals. On this day 9 June 1924 (Whit Monday) the Bible College of Wales opened. From this base and from additional properties that God provided, the Howells engaged in world evangelization, war efforts, orphanage work, Jewish relief, and intercessory prayer. All the ministry needs were funded by God during years when funds for ministries were scarce.
Clearly Howells was a man filled with the Holy Spirit. Yet in the interest of truth, we must note that, on a few occasions, prophecies he uttered as if from God proved in error. Prominent among these were two mistaken predictions regarding World War II. For more on the spiritual experiences of Rees Howells and his teachings, see Norman Grubb’s Rees Howells: Intercessor and Doris M. Ruscoe’s The Intercession of Rees Howells.
Other Events on this Day
- Patrick Hamilton Was the First Star of the Scottish Reformation
- JOSÉ DE ANCHIETA BECAME THE “APOSTLE OF BRAZIL”