Rees Howells: Five Days to Say Yes

Professor Gary Maxey calls Rees Howells one of the greatest intercessors of the last century. He uses Howells to show what total surrender costs.

A miner and a mission

Rees Howells was a Welsh miner who surrendered fully to the Holy Spirit in 1906. After his marriage to Elizabeth Hannah Jones, he went to Southern Africa. The record of that work speaks of revival, conversions and healings, and a mission station at Rusitu in Gazaland.

Bible College of Wales

In 1924, he founded the Bible College of Wales, in Swansea, with very little money, relying on prayer and faith. During the Second World War, he led the College's students and staff in intercession. Reports of this prayer list Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and D-Day. Howells died in February 1950. His son Samuel then led the work.

Norman Grubb's account

Professor Maxey draws on Norman Grubb's biography, Rees Howells, Intercessor. He tells how at twenty-six, after serving God fervently for years, Howells heard God ask for a total surrender. In Howells' words, God said that if he came in, he came as God, and Howells must go out.

Howells felt as though he had received a death sentence. He wrote that he had lived in his body twenty-six years and could not easily give it up. He wept for days. It took five days of being alone with God to make the decision.

Why Professor Maxey uses him

Howells shows that surrender is not instant. It was a fight. It took time and tears. The decision cost his reputation, his comfort and his right to a trouble-free life.

For you

Is there something God has asked of you that you have been putting off? Howells took five days. You do not have to match that number. You do have to stop postponing. Give God one hour alone this week.

Drawn from the teaching of Professor Gary S. Maxey and public biographical sources. Sources: byfaith.org, "Rees Howells Short Biography."