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A couple of weeks ago, I did some blogging about Rees Howells. Here are the links to those posts:
Rees Howells on the Holy Spirit Rees Howells on Intercession
I had been reading Doris Ruscoe’s book, The Intercession of Rees Howells
Serious intercessors can learn a lot from Rees Howells’ life. However, some of the ideas that he had I would not agree with. For instance, he felt that God at times asked him, in praying for sick people, to be willing to take their sickness upon himself. Rees Howells commented that God would never ask an intercessor to take someone else’s sin upon himself. He stated that only Jesus could do that, and that He did it as a finished work on the cross. My firm belief is that Jesus did a finished work for our forgiveness, healing, and deliverance. God would never ask an intercessor to take someone else’s demons upon himself so that the demonized person could be free. We would think that was a ridiculous idea. It is just as ridiculous to say that God would want an intercessor to take someone else’s sickness upon himself.
Rees Howells recounted an incident where he disobeyed God about fasting. He said he cried out for forgiveness for a long time, and finally heard God tell him that he was forgiven, but that God was going to punish him by making him pray for three hours with his hands raised the entire time. This smacks of penance and works-oriented atoning for our own sin.
Whenever we run across teaching that isn’t quite right, we need to leave the bad and embrace what is good, still esteeming men or women of God for who they are in Christ. Rees Howells didn’t always hear God perfectly, but he was still a phenomenal intercessor, who knew the Lord at a deeper level than many of us will ever get to.
Here are some of the concepts he taught:
“Before God will use you in intercession, it will cost you.”
Unless your death to self is real, you will not prevail to deliver others.
God told him, “The meaning of prayer is answer — and of all that I give you, see that you lose nothing.”
God showed him that the central place of his intercession was to come out of abiding in the Lord and getting his victories from that abiding position (John 15:7). Abiding means letting the Holy Spirit live through us the life Jesus would have lived if He were in our shoes.
He spent much time waiting on God to find out how to pray about a matter, before beginning. The Holy Spirit usually spoke to him through a Scripture verse, as he waited and read the Bible. An important part of this waiting was letting the Holy Spirit reveal areas that he needed to repent of, especially in his motives and attitudes.
There are degrees and stages of abiding. New positions of spiritual authority are gained as we deepen in our oneness with Jesus.
When God has spoken, and we are certain it is His voice we have been hearing, when doubtful thoughts later assault us, this is not necessarily our doubt. It is the enemy attacking. The point is not to give in and not to agree with the doubtful thoughts.
There were many other wonderful concepts that I learned as I read about Rees Howells’ life. I would encourage anyone who is committed to intercessory prayer to read both of these books, but particularly the Doris Ruscoe account.
Purchase at Amazon:
The Intercession of Rees Howells, by Doris M. Ruscoe
Rees Howells: Intercessor, by Norman Grubb
Thanks for recommending this book. FIA
Comment by Faith In Action Fellowship — March 22, 2008 @ 12:57 am |
I just want to let you know I appreciate your posts so much for they are confirmation of what the Holy Spirit taught me. I think that people like Rees Howells often mix between The Law and The Grace and there are so many ministers who mix them both yet God occasionally still manifest His power on their life/ministries. I think this is because sometimes they are being led by the Holy Spirit more than the other times. I believe the Holy Spirit never lead us to the Law but to the finished work of Jesus Christ that’s Grace. Pastor Joseph Prince of Singapore has strong revelation of the Grace that Apostle Paul teached especially in Galatian and Romans. Tanya
Comment by Tanya Nichols — July 30, 2008 @ 4:39 am |
Hello there,
I am nearly through reading Norman Grubb’s book on Rees Howells and am absolutely so affected and inspired by the book.I really feel that God is glorified and NOT Howells or man. I just wanted to mention that I read very very clearly in the book that Jesus is the only one to take sin upon himself as the ultimate Intercessor and found that to come through very clearly and I didnt see that Howells was asked to take sickness on himself…though to put himself physically with the people with consumption etc was at great risk to him..but God protected him from it….in saying that I am heavily pregnant and could have missed what you are saying or just not have heard it becasue of the clarity to me of Jesus and Jesus only taking on sin.
……But yes, the hands raised for 3 hours..I believe this was law rather than from God…which I understand having tried so hard to live up to standards of the law/legalism myself before discovering the grace of Jesus…as in the first chapter in Grubb…Howells early involvement in church was being good, law abiding…….Howells humanity was always being dealt with and yes I agree that he did not always hear perfectly from God….if he did…I probably would not take notice of the book…it wouldnt be real, we must all be discerning and test what we read and hear……So inspired….glad to find this blog:)
Comment by Robyn — January 23, 2009 @ 4:03 pm |
Isn’t it wonderful that believers like Rees Howells can continue to impact lives long after they have gone on to be with Jesus! So many people have been spurred on to greater levels of intercession by his example. His prayers live on as well — especially as we see God’s hand on Israel, and Mr. Howells and his intercessors played a huge part through prayer in the reestablishment of Israel as a nation.
I, too, was encouraged by him not being perfect in his ability to hear perfectly from the Lord. It gave me hope that God can still use me when I don’t get it completely right, too — although I strive for better accuracy day by day.
Thanks for your comment!
Comment by Lee Ann Rubsam — January 23, 2009 @ 7:21 pm |
If the finished work of Jesus included healing (assuming you mean full physical healing from all disease from salvation until death), then why do some Christians get sick? How can they catch cold or have cancer? If they aren’t healed physically completely, then are they redeemed completely? Is physical healing and redemption always related? Is the author denying that sickness can exist in a Christian? If the author cannot reconcile how Christians can be sick, then I would propose that the author believes in her faith instead of in the Jesus of the Bible. I would ask that the author examine how denying sickness is also a tenet of gnosticism.
Comment by William — February 23, 2009 @ 4:26 am |
Too many questions, and not enough understanding of what I said, or what Rees Howells said, or something! I’ll try to answer the questions the best I can:
Denying that sickness exists is Christian Science (which is not Christian at all; it is a cult). I do not subscribe to denying the existence of sickness.
In the Hebrew and Greek words for salvation, healing and deliverance are part of what salvation encompasses. I don’t have the time or space to go into it here, but there are plenty of places one can find out about such things. The early Church understood that salvation was for the spirit, soul, and body. Somewhere along the line, as the Church became weak and compromised, the full understanding of salvation was lost. That’s really too bad. We have complete faith for salvation that takes us to heaven, but we’ve lost the understanding and faith for the rest of it. Fortunately, God is bringing these truths to the forefront once again.
I have been to South America. When we prayed for people on the street corners there for healing, they got healed. Their simple faith made it easy to get them healed of anything. And I do mean anything! If they didn’t get healed, we asked into whether they had unforgiveness in their lives. Those who did not get healed in the first round usually did have unforgiveness issues. We explained to them the need to forgive, and when they repented of unforgiveness and forgave the one they were offended with, as soon as we prayed with them a second time, they got healed — visible tumors, blindness, deafness, deformed limbs, you-name-it. Why there, more than here in the U.S.? They believed and received.
There are many hindrances to healing, some of which are obvious in a person’s life, and some which are not. Unforgiveness, sin, doubt and unbelief, lack of perseverance in faith and/or prayer are all reasons some people do not get healed. No doubt there are complicated and hidden reasons sometimes that are between the person and God.
Why isn’t everyone healthy all the time? There is not a simple, pat answer to this one, either, but I can tell you that sin leaves a door wide open for sickness. And it’s not just sin that everybody sees as sin. Fear, resentment, worry, unforgiveness (again) are all sin-entrances for sickness. Being careless of how we treat our bodies weakens them and makes them open to sickness. We’ve all done these things from time to time.
Adam’s fall precipitated sickness into the world, but the Bible most certainly promises healing and health. It promises a lot of other things that Christians often don’t walk in, but it is our ignorance and lack of appropriating the promises that is the problem. Jesus died for all, but those who do not appropriate salvation from sin will still go to hell. In a similar manner, if we do not appropriate the promises of healing, we will stay sick.
Does that mean that when someone dies we should tell their loved ones they died because somebody didn’t have enough faith, or because the person had sin in his life? No, of course not. Whether the person did or not, it helps no one to say such things. And besides, we don’t know every angle of the situation. God does.
So, we should believe for healing and expect to receive. It is part of our heritage in Christ. But let’s not pick on others and analyze why they didn’t get healed, if they didn’t.
Personally, I’m getting a whole lot more healings, both for myself and for those I pray for, than I ever did before learning about the healing promises in the Bible. I’ve got a ways to go yet. I’m still learning. I think that is where most of us are probably at — still learning.
Comment by Lee Ann Rubsam — February 23, 2009 @ 5:38 am |
Dear All
I find this really exciting and encouraging. My friend David and I have been led to start a website on inspirationalchristians where we hope to share about the lives of men/women of faith like Rees Howells, etc. The comments in this blog have confirmed a number of things the Holy Spirit has counselled us about the website and we have resolved not to focus on doctrine but to present their stories as encouragement (Heb. 13 v 7) to Christians as well as non-christians with the ultimate of giving God all the glory for the lives He enabled them to live.
I have been personnally inspired by the story of Rees Hoowells as recounted by Norman Grubb… To God be the glory!
Hebrews 13 v 7
Comment by Philip Soale — May 11, 2009 @ 12:18 pm |
I would be very interested in the website you mentioned about men/women of faith like Rees Howells. Please send the site address to me when you have it up and running.
Comment by june — August 18, 2009 @ 8:18 am |