Not through Spitfires or Hurricanes…but by prayer to God!

As we remember Rees Howells, we toast the courage of Welsh Christians

Divine deliverance during World War II.

Continuing our ‘Book of Remembrance’ looking back on God’s faithfulness to Britain through the ages, this week we dwell on instances of divine intervention in our nation during times of conflict and threat.

Alongside David Longworth’s article on the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, it is also important to remember God’s intervention in World War II, not a century ago – a topic on which we often reflect on Prophecy Today, not least because it laid the groundwork for the re-establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 – the most important prophetic fulfilment of our times.

For example, both Dr Clifford Hill and David Longworth have discussed the miracles which allowed the safe rescue of British troops from Dunkirk in 1940, after the King called the nation to prayer and repentance. Thousands assembled outside packed churches to intercede for the Lord’s help, with thanksgiving and rejoicing in the aftermath also turning into intercession for deliverance in what became known as the Battle of Britain. You can read these articles here:

• The Miracle of Dunkirk (Dr Clifford Hill)
  
• Dunkirk: Divine Deliverance (David Longworth)
  

We have also been alerted recently to a leaflet featuring testimonies about God’s intervention from six of the most senior figures of the War. The Wartime Miracles leaflet is currently being circulated around UK churches by the Strengthen the Faithful team as part of a campaign “to give true Christians hope, encouragement and reassurance, which is so greatly needed in these unsettling and frightening times.”¹

Elsewhere on Prophecy Today, David Longworth has written about the lesser known Allied victory at El-Alamein (Egypt) in 1942, also preceded by a national day of prayer, which marked a turning point in the war and prevented the Nazi genocide of Jews in both Egypt and Palestine. You can read David’s article here:

• The Battles of El Alamein: Prayer and the Sovereignty of God
  

Finally, of course, these and many other points of divine intervention in the war were accompanied by faithful intercession from British Christians, especially at the Bible College in Wales, where students were led in fervent prayer by Rees Howells. This spiritual warfare has been mentioned many times on Prophecy Today, but we recommend particularly the following article by Dr Clifford Denton about how the Swansea intercessors supported the re-birthing of Israel:

• Israel Re-Born: the Fruit of Prayer
  

May God be praised as we give thanks for his marvellous action on our behalf in times past – and may we be inspired to give ourselves afresh to prayer for our otherwise helpless nation. The Lord has not finished with Britain yet!

Notes

1 Free paper copies of this leaflet can be obtained by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., stating ‘Wartime Miracles’ in the subject line.

Revisiting the Welsh Revival during a conference at the Bible College of Wales (Part II).

As I continue my report on our visit to the Bible College of Wales and the nearby birthplace of the Welsh Revival, it seemed apt that my wife and I, along with my son’s family, should visit the famous Alnwick Garden in Northumberland the following week.

For the stunning spectacle of its cascading fountains beautifully reflected the purity and power of God’s presence we had experienced on the Gower Peninsula.

It was also at Alnwick that I came across the following inscription carved into stone: “Only dead fish swim with the stream.”

The likes of Rees Howells, the college founder who played a significant role in the revival, made a huge difference to the world because they swam against the tide, as the Bible urges us to do – specifically, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world…” (see Romans 12:1-2).

The cascading fountains of Alnwick Garden in Northumberland, reflecting the purity and power of God’s presence we experienced on the Gower Peninsula the previous week. See Photo Credits.One of his big challenges as he sought God’s leading on personal intercession was when the Lord told him to go hatless in order to reflect a permanent attitude of prayer. This, in 1909, went very much against the grain; in fact, it was unheard of for men to go about without a head covering. And he confessed to having had a tremendous struggle with obeying this particular call.

Fashion enslaves people into ‘keeping up appearances’ rather than pleasing God with acts of faith and devotion. But in this and other ways, Rees learnt to become ‘dead to the world’ and all its influences and expectations; he no longer cared that some would no doubt have considered his strange behaviour as somewhat fanatical (standing up for sexual morality and the sanctity of life is now generally considered unacceptable).

Hatikvah Films, who have already produced a string of inspiring documentaries on Israel’s place in God’s purposes as well as other Christian endeavours, are planning to make a movie called Surrender on the Rees Howells story, according to staff member Stephen Briggs, who also addressed the conference.

The likes of Rees Howells made a huge difference to the world because they swam against the tide, as the Bible urges us to do.

Investments for the Future

Among other participants was former student David Dare, now 80, from Lyme Regis in Dorset, who spoke of life-changing times under the ministry of Samuel Howells, son of Rees. David and his wife Rosemary now host intercessory prayer meetings four times a week.

Further testimonies shared included that of Tara, a seven-times married young woman whose story is told in Gangster’s Girl, soon due out from Penguin Books.

Dr Harry Schmidt, a Bible college principal from Chicago, told the remarkable story of how his wife had led him to the altar twice – initially at the age of 12 when she took him to the front of the rather cramped church to give his life to Jesus. Because there was not much room, he knelt at the corner of the piano stool where he wept buckets as he wiped his tears on the dress of the pianist, who was later to become his mother-in-law!

After falling into disrepair and closing in 2009, the Swansea college site was reclaimed from developers, refurbished and then re-opened in 2015 thanks to a £5 million cash injection from Singapore pastor Yang Tuck Yoong in honour of British missionaries and the revival legacy.

The standard of singing was already high, as you would expect in Wales, but took off into heavenly realms when opera star Huw Priday took the microphone and treated us to glorious renditions of classic numbers including I’ll Walk with God.

Huw believes we are in for a period of great darkness ahead, and that we will need to stand firm in the faith to be ready to care for the many broken people who will flock to the Saviour. Having left a glittering career to commit himself full-time to Gospel ministry, he has an inspiring vision to help reach this generation through classical music.

Bucket-Loads of Blessings

The conference was not short on humour, being graced with the presence of gospel singer Bryn Yemm, a terrific entertainer who had us in fits of laughter even though not actually performing. An award-winning artist who has travelled the world, he has a special love for Israel, having led cruise ship tours from Haifa when he boldly witnessed to Jews about their Messiah.

Linda and I stayed at Nicholaston House, a beautiful Christian retreat some ten miles down the Gower Peninsula, and we had a magical view of the beach at Oxwich Bay. It was a vision of the Gower Peninsula, an area of outstanding natural beauty, that had originally acted as confirmation that I should accept the invitation to attend this conference.

We are in for a period of great darkness ahead, and that we will need to stand firm in the faith to be ready to care for the many broken people who will flock to the Saviour.

A friend with whom we had stayed in Cwmbran, South Wales, before heading for Swansea, had correctly predicted that we would experience ‘bucket-loads of blessings’ and it seemed apt that the long drought was broken by rain – later bucketing down – as we drove to the college via the M4 motorway.

Our Welsh experience finished, fittingly, with a stop to see old friends in Brecon who were missionaries to Bolivia and whose daughters are now following in their footsteps to Colombia and Rwanda. All the family are, like Abraham, still living by faith, not knowing where they are going next, but trusting in the Lord for every step of the way, which had proved to be the theme of the conference.

It seemed entirely appropriate, when we finally arrived back in Yorkshire at the end of our 250-mile journey from Swansea, to learn from TV news coverage of a new hero from Wales, Geraint Thomas, following his epic win in the Tour de France, cycling’s premier event. Will leading the world in this hugely challenging physical pursuit soon be eclipsed at a spiritual level as wells of revival are once more unblocked in Wales?

“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths” (Prov 3:6). We had been on an epic journey ourselves as we continue to discover more about the perfect way to live!

Notes

Additional material sourced from Rees Howells – Intercessor by Norman Grubb, published by Lutterworth Press.

Read Part I of this report by clicking here.

The behind-the-scenes intercession that helped change history.

The year is 1879. A boy is born, the sixth of 11 children, to a mining family in the village of Brynammon in South Wales. This was Rees Howells who, from this humble background, was to become one of those privileged people whom the Lord raised up in a personal way and to whom was given great responsibility.

It is a story that would not have been generally known but for the determination of Norman Grubb, a friend from World Evangelisation Crusade (WEC), to record it in the book Rees Howells Intercessor.

There are risks involved in making a hidden work public. Just as Gideon’s ephod became an object of idolatry in the days of the Judges, after the mighty victory of God over the Midianites, so we must not look too much to the man and not enough to God. Yet, in this year of the celebration of 70 years of Israel being reborn, perhaps the greatest sign of the times, it is good to revisit the testimony of prayer that accompanied the work of God to bring this miracle about.

Learning Humility

Rees Howells was a humble man, broken by the Lord for his own purposes. He faced simple challenges in his early days - challenges as simple as breaking convention and not wearing a cap on an outdoor walk, through to bringing tramps into his home, so that Rees could be a God-pleaser and not a man-pleaser.

Later his experiences on the mission fields and during the time of 1904 Welsh revival showed him the mighty working of God. He learned how to live by faith in all things.

As we celebrate 70 years of Israel re-born, it is good to revisit the testimony of prayer that accompanied the work of God to bring this about.

All this gradually prepared him to establish a small Bible college in Swansea in the days leading up to the Second World War, when the Lord provided all he needed despite the great financial recession of the times. It was a work of God and it would be a close walk with God through the troubled times of the coming war and thereafter.

The Bible College of Wales. See Photo Credits.The College was a training ground for young missionaries and also a base for intercessory prayer, where a small staff held regular meetings as a second war with Germany seemed to be approaching. It is not widely known that Rees Howells made a mistake of judgment at the time. He believed that God would not let the dictators wage war.

God allowed him to believe this and even speak ‘prophetically’ through a book that he published denouncing the dictators and proclaiming what turned out to be a false prophecy. I mention this so we can retain a good balance, seeing what then followed as being more of God than of man. Rees Howells must have gone through those war years even more broken and humbled, after this mistake of judgment.

The War Years

When war did break out, every campaign of the Allies was followed in prayer and victories first proclaimed through prophetic intercessory prayer were then realised in the physical victories. Norman Grubb’s book majors on those war years and the intercessory prayers that arose in a unique way throughout the war. It is worth reading again at this time.

I am glad to have had the privilege of joining the ministry of the Bible College of Wales in its later years, when Rees Howells’ son was the Director. A remnant of the intercessory team of the war years still survived, especially Dr Kingsley Priddy, who had been a right-hand man to Rees Howells and who became a father in prayer to me. I had the privilege of personal discussions to supplement what can be found in Norman Grubbs’ book.

Rees Howells was a humble man, broken by the Lord for his own purposes.

Especial and relevant insights relate to the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. Samuel Howells told me how his father once came out of his prayer room and, ashen faced, announced that God had asked him to take responsibility in prayer for the Jews in the death camps. While the war was raging, and Britain was fighting for its own survival, few people at the time understood that satan through Hitler had a central objective of destroying the Jews.

Rees Howells knew how deep this call to prayer would take him, but he said to his son, in faltering voice, that he had accepted the commission. So began the intercessory ministry that was indeed a major part of the war – the spiritual war also raging at the time.

These are hard things to understand and we know how the Holocaust (HaShoah, as it is known to Jews) has impacted the Jewish world, not just during the war years but right through to our day. This event has challenged both Jewish and Christian theology.

Interceding for Israel

The prayers continued after the Second World War was over, and as the news that the Jews might regain their homeland became known. Kingsley Priddy told me how the college was brought to prayer at the time when the United Nations were voting for the partition of Palestine. They saw, in vision, angels surrounding the UN building and they proclaimed victory in faith even before the vote was taken, which despite Britain’s abstention was passed so that Israel would once more be reborn as a nation in their own land.

It is important to mention the path of prayer to this event, which we now, both Christians and Jews, celebrate 70 years later. God calls us into partnership in prayer, not that we should exalt ourselves but that we might know, prophetically, that this was his work. It is not as a result of a political manoeuvre that Israel is back in the Land: it was an act of God.

God calls us into partnership in prayer, not that we should exalt ourselves but that we might know, prophetically, that this was his work.

For the Jews it was at tremendous cost, and we are still trying to understand this. For those who prayed it was a deeply tiring work. Samuel Howells pointed out to me that his father was a robust man but that he died relatively young - his life being foreshortened through those years of intense intercessory prayer.

Our Calling

The Jewish world should know that it was a task given to Christians to pray for the prophetic fulfilment of their return to the Land, and for Christians to know their ongoing responsibility in prayer. God is still working out his prophetic purposes, which will result finally in the return of our Jewish Messiah Yeshua HaMashiach.

God is preparing the way for the Jews’ return to him - the return to the Land being a significant but not final step in this process. He is calling for a refinement of all his people according to Paul’s metaphor of the One New Man.

The day for intercessory prayer - our prophetic partnership with God - continues today. The call is as deep as it always was and the cost is also to be weighed in obeying the call, but call there is. Let us listen and obey as did those who went before us.