Rees Howells: How Prayers Played a Role in Ending Hitler’s Reign of Death
Intercessors Take Responsibility
The true nature of intercession is sacrifice. Rees Howells would point out there’s a big difference between “prayer warriors” and “intercessors.” Prayer warriors may pray with great intensity yet walk away before the job is done. Intercessors take responsibility to see things through, regardless of how long it takes.
Like Daniel, we too are called to spiritually participate in the hidden arena of conflict. Paul said we enter into the wrestling match, yet we fight with spiritual weapons (2 Cor. 10:3-5). The battle is the Lord’s, but He calls us to partner with Him in the process. The praying church is the only thing that can affect that unseen dimension.
Paul wrote to his spiritual son Timothy and encouraged him to fight a good fight of faith while holding on to prophetic promises (1 Tim. 1:18). He then immediately exhorted the church to pray their dangerous prayers and extend them over national matters.
“Therefore I exhort first of all that you make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone, for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Tim. 2:1-2, MEV).
The church must ask the sober questions: “How much ground has the enemy stolen? How much have we given up by neglecting the ministry of prevailing intercession?” We all need to have a vision for God’s purposes that is bigger than our own personal destinies and lives.
Rees Howells and the company of believers with him accepted an invitation from the Lord to contend for His dreams to be realized in the earth. In their hearts and minds, the evangelization of the world changed from being merely words on a page into a divine mandate. They grabbed on to a heavenly dream, and then they gave themselves wholly to seeing it come to pass in the earth.
O to fight for our Father’s dreams!
Contending for Air Supremacy
As news of Hitler’s advance came over the radio and in the newspapers each day, Rees and his company of intercessors would press into prayer for God’s purposes to prevail.
Royal Air Force pilots were outnumbered four to one at the beginning of the Battle of Britain. On all accounts, it should have been a losing battle. However, when the Nazi advance was mysteriously turned away right when all hope seemed lost, Winston Churchill famously said of the small group of pilots who had maintained air supremacy: “Never has so much been owed by so many to so few.”
Those words ought to inspire us today—those who are contending in prayer for spiritual air supremacy, standing in the victory of the cross of Christ like Rees Howells and his company.
How thankful we are that God had this company of hidden intercessors, whose lives were on the altar day after day as they stood in the gap for the deliverance of Britain (Grubb, 283).
Passing the Torch
After Rees died in February 1950, his son Samuel Rees Howells stepped into his father’s shoes, and he humbly carried the same vision and convictions for the next 54 years. Two new biographies chronicle how Samuel continued in the same principles of intercession of his father and engaged in prayer that shaped world events.
“In the past, Rees Howells had shouldered the greatest part of the burden, but now Samuel challenged all the young and seasoned intercessors by saying, ‘Each one of us must carry equal responsibility for the Holy Ghost, for the Vision, for Every Creature.'” –Richard Maton in Samuel Rees Howells: A Life of Intercession
Once again, I am provoked by the hidden lives of faith and obedience revealed on the pages of these books. The dreams of the Father remain for our generation to take up. Who will step into this legacy of intercession in the 21st century? Are there any in this generation willing to give their lives fully to the task?
“The vision Rees Howells received added great emphasis on individuals, for their responsibility in world evangelization, which meant a full surrender and consecration, coupled with power for service. ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to Every Creature,’ became the motto of the Bible College of Wales.
“However, for decades they found themselves interceding against principalities and powers that were challenging God’s plan to reach every creature through many great wars and conflicts. These intercessions were costly and draining. As the decades drew on, Samuel had to lead the College forward into the future, with the knowledge that the intercession to reach every creature would now stay with them for the rest of their lives.” –Richard Maton, biographer
Picking Up the Divine Mandate
Every now and then your spirit gets arrested by a line in a book. The story of some historical person or event leaves a mark on you in some deep, unseen way. As it ruminates in your spirit, it creates a conviction—a hunger—to experience those same realities. You begin to think, If God did it before, maybe He will do it again in my own life.
Samuel Howells left this earth in 2004, after carrying his father’s vision for more than five decades. This generation needs to pick up the unfinished business of Rees and Samuel Howells. Only with us can their promises be fulfilled (Heb. 11:39-40).
A new generation of intercessors must lay aside our own dreams and desires in favor of contending for God’s purposes in the earth. As the nations of the earth are reeling from conflict and groping in darkness, God wants to raise up a people of faith and prayer who know how to contend for victory and the advancement of His kingdom.
The Howells Project
I want to invite you to explore in-depth this life of faith and prayer, revealing how to impact the world around us. For four weeks in late spring, we will look to the biblical principles of Rees and Samuel Howells to help guide this immersive experience—which will take place in Washington, D.C., and also at the Bible College of Wales founded by Rees Howells.
Dutch Sheets calls this small campus in Wales where we will be staying “one of the deepest wells” to draw from on the planet. This is sure to be an experience unlike any other, as we worship, pray and receive from our Father in the very place where intercessors once contended to end world wars. Then we’ll take what we’ve gained back to our own capital city. Heaven knows America needs prepared intercessors right now.
“You won’t emulate Rees Howells unless you’ve done it in the small things. You won’t learn it by theory. You may know all the theory of the life of faith, but you won’t walk it unless you’ve been tried.
“Don’t try and get weak deliverances. Don’t try and influence people, but influence God. The experiences that you will derive from those processes will never cease. The value will stand you in good stead in the future.” –Samuel Howells
A full-time missionary, Matt Lockett serves as Executive Director of Justice House of Prayer DC and Bound4LIFE International. Matt’s passion is to help father a young, consecrated generation of believers. He travels and teaches on the subjects of prayer, fasting and governmental intercession. He and his wife Kim live in the Washington, D.C., area with their four children. Formerly he had a career in advertising and marketing; these days, he really wishes he had paid more attention in government class.
Reprinted with permission from Justice House of Prayer DC.
