Rees Howells (1879 – 1950)

Who Was He?

Rees Howells was born in 1879 in the small coal-mining village of Brynamman in South Wales.

He grew up in a working-class Welsh family and as a young man emigrated to the United States, where he contracted typhoid fever and, near death, made a promise to God: “If you let me live, I will give you my life.” He recovered, returned to Wales, and was swept into the Welsh Revival of 1904 – 1905 under Evan Roberts.

Following his radical conversion and a deeper consecration of himself to God, Howells entered a remarkable journey in which the Holy Spirit began to teach him what he called “true intercession” — prayer involving identification with the need, agony of soul, and the gaining of spiritual authority. He tested these principles first in local ministry and then as a missionary in South Africa, where revival accompanied his work.

In 1924, Howells founded the Bible College of Wales in Swansea, which became a centre of prayer and intercession. The college trained missionaries and sent them to the nations, living entirely by faith. During the years leading up to World War II, Howells became increasingly burdened for world events and shifted his intercession from local concerns to national and international affairs.

During World War II (1939 – 1945), Howells and his college community prayed every evening from 7 p.m. to midnight, plus additional hours in the morning. They interceded specifically for key turning points in the war — Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, North Africa, and others. Many believe their intercessions were decisive in those moments. Rees Howells died in February 1950, and his biography, Rees Howells: Intercessor by Norman Grubb, has since inspired generations of intercessors worldwide.

A Great Answer to Prayer Of all the answered prayers in Howells’ life, none is more dramatic than the evacuation of Dunkirk in May 1940. As Hitler’s armies drove the Allied forces back to the b eaches of northern France, over 300,000 British and French soldiers were trapped, with the German tanks closing in.

Invasion of Britain seemed certain.

On 21 May 1940, Howells wrote in his diary: “The situation looked extremely black for Britain.

It was an hour of near panic.” He and his college community cried out to God with agonising intercession. On 28 May, as the prayer warriors prayed together, a deep peace settled over them.

One student prayed at the end of the meeting: “I feel sure something has happened.”

On 29 May, the evacuation of Dunkirk began. Inexplicably, on 23 May, the German High Command had issued a halt order for all ground troops — an order that remains unexplained by military historians to this day. At the same time, the English Channel, normally rough, fell to an extraordinary calm, allowing small civilian boats to cross and bring the soldiers home. Over 338,000 men were rescued. Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, Commander of Fighter Command, later said: “Even during the battle one realis ed from day to day how much external support was coming in. At the end of the battle one had the sort of feeling that there had been some special Divine intervention.” Rees Howells believed it was the direct answer to prayer.

Key Scriptures Isaiah 62:6 – 7 — “You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

Ezekiel 22:30 — “I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on b ehalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”

Romans 8:26 — “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

His Words on Prayer “There are three things to be seen in an intercessor which are not necessarily found in ordinary prayer: identification, agony, and authority.”

“The intercessor must become responsible for the prayer that the Holy Spirit gives them.

They must “pray through” until the prayer is answered.”

“Before God will use you in intercession, it will cost you. The intercessors love God so much that they want to obey. They will pay the price because of their love for the Saviour.”

“Once the Holy Spirit has called an intercessor to a spiritual conflict, the intercessor must carry on to completing the task, no matter what the cost — and it will be costly.”

“Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life.”

Prayer and the Word of God “The path of the intercessor i s the way of the cross. It is also the way of fellowship with Jesus on a very deep level. It is a sacrifice of love. The intercessor has the sentence of death — death to self — in himself.”

“As the crucifixion of self proceeds, intercession begins. You ar e never forced into prayer. The intercessor needs to be willing to enter into a new place of intercession with God.”

Prayer and the Holy Spirit “The intercessor must become responsible for the prayer that the Holy Spirit gives them.”

“As their prayers gr ew more fervent, they also felt the increasing presence of the Holy Spirit among them. The Spirit was the engine of all true intercession.”

“God help us to know the Spirit and to reverence Him as the Spirit of prayer!”