Rees Howells’ & Samuel’s School of Faith, The Bible College of Wales

Ever since God had met with Rees Howells on Boxing Day (26 December) morning of 1934, and placed a special responsibility upon him to see the fulfilment of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15, there was a deep desire in him to see new countries reached with the Gospel. There were many others who entered strategic ministries throughout the world and became cogs in God’s machinery during those pioneering days under Rees Howells and the Bible College of Wales.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature

– Mark 16:15

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

– Matthew 28:19

The process of seeding the nations was renewed and encouraged again under Samuel Howells’ ministry. An essential aspect of the College training was to encourage the students to learn the life of faith, which included trusting God when resources were not available, as preparation for pioneering situations that would be encountered in the Lord’s service anywhere in the world. Under the ministry of Rees Howells, staff and students had been schooled thoroughly in this area of Christian experience.

If you fail to move God for yourself in the basic areas of living you are not going to move Him for another person, and it is doubtful if a person knows the Holy Spirit if he can’t trust God. You will certainly be building on sand

– Rees Howells

Rees Howells impressed upon everyone that you couldn’t pray for other people to give you money if you had money in your pocket. It always needed to be a full surrender first: use your own resources, then God’s unlimited supplies will become available. People soon learned how difficult it was to part with their own money! These, of course, were the initial stages towards living in constant fellowship with God, through the Holy Spirit, to such a degree that the “greater works” referred to by Jesus in John 14:12 would be demonstrated through every Spirit-filled believer.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father

– John 14:12

Rees Howells had always raised the standard of discipleship for effective ministry and pointed out that the seventy disciples empowered and sent out by Jesus (Luke 10:1) returned with glowing reports but failed to keep their instructions and lost the power. No doubt they learned their lesson and when the Holy Spirit was given after Pentecost, were able to become part of the early Church. The life of faith was such a vital area of experience for every new student at the College to learn, and Samuel was determined to encourage them during their initial steps. Soon a stream of students from all parts of the world were experiencing their first culture shock of College life as it was in that post-war era, (1945+) and finding their lives radically changed. In many countries, there are Christian leaders who passed through the School of Faith and are now exercising, or have exercised fruitful ministries. Many have been promoted to their heavenly reward.

Samuel Howells prayed for them all and made it his responsibility, in the Lord, to correspond with, and send gifts to, all those whom the Holy Spirit laid on his heart. Many former students would later testify of timely gifts received from Samuel. He was certainly always pleased when they called in to the College to say “Hello” and some to minister to the College. Knowing that the Charity Scheme of Administration had as one of its objects, ‘to maintain a Home of Rest for Christian missionaries of all denominations where both board and residence are provided for them either free or for less than the actual cost.’ Samuel would invariably assure visitors engaged in the work of the Gospel that ‘this is your home as much as it is ours,’ and went out of his way to make them feel that it really was. It was difficult for anyone during those days to rest as the staff were already at full stretch, but the former students usually ‘pitched in’ with everyone and their support was much appreciated. It was certainly Samuel’s intention that the seeding of the nations must continue as before and along the same lines as in the foundation years of the College.

The great object of the College is to prove that the work of God can be carried on by trust in God, and that faith and prayer are efficient agents. If this principle is a Scriptural one, God can make it a success in the hands of any of His servants, to whom He gives grace, to have faith and trust in Him

– Rees Howells

The Apostles acted on this principle: ‘Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.’ ‘But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4:6, 19). ‘Because that for His name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles’ (3 John 1:7).

Our desire is to give the very best tuition to young men and women, and also to encourage them to enter the School of Faith. And that all the students who graduate from the College will be able, not only to expound the Word of God, but to give practical demonstrations of it in the same literal sense in which the words, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ are so often proved in the provision of the temporal needs of the College from day-to-day 

– Rees Howells

The need for trained ministers was great even in Wales and this was the burden which made Rees Howells pray for a strong interdenominational college in Wales (1922+) that would give a full theological course, and without added expense to the denominations, faith was to provide the money for free tuition. Rees Howells had never presented the life of faith as an easy exercise and stressed that the entrance fee for the life of faith is a full and complete surrender.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me

– Galatians 2:20

If you want to know what a full surrender is, it is this. You have made a surrender the same as Elisha. Only one thing you know; God has told you to do it, and He will inspire you, and will inspire faith in you. Faith works when you are in a test by choice, not when you cannot get out of it

– Rees Howells

Financial Needs

With regard to accepting help from home, Rees Howells’ approach was:

• Never let your parents know your need
• Do not refuse family gifts unless specifically guided to do so. God will supply your personal needs but He will never deliver you while you are not abiding. He will deliver you every time you are abiding (Abiding, John 15:1-11).
• You may think you would learn the life and get it to work at once, a thousand times. No. You must start at the bottom. If you need 7s. 6d. (old English money, worth approximately 35p), get 7s. 6d, not 10 shillings (50p). Anything more is a gift and not your gained position of faith. If ever I needed £5, God would not give me £10. If you need £10 and receive £2, you only need to pray for £8

You may study many things in the Bible but be unable to live a life of faith

– Rees Howells

The Life of Faith – Money

There were then presented several laws in the life of faith:

• No needs are to be made known
• No debt
• Do not question a deliverance if you have not attempted to influence the donor and have not made the need known
• Natural deliverance before extraordinary, miraculous deliverance
• First need, first claim. You use the resources you have to pay all immediate expenses
• When essential needs and non-essential needs come at the same time – use any money for the essentials first
• You cannot claim deliverance until you have gone to your extremity and used all your own resources
• Claim on your abiding. When you are living in obedience to all God has shown you then you can ask God to fulfil His promise of John 15:7 (“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” – Jesus)
• Claim your wages from God
• Whatever God asks you to do, you can go back to Him and ask Him to pay for it
• You must have victory in private before you are tested in the open. Victory is when a particular personal sin no longer has control over your mind or life
• Do not run on the spoil. Do not use finance or materials available for corporate needs (e.g. in the office) for your own personal needs – Rees Howells

Samuel Rees Howells certainly agreed with all these statements, but it was quite another story to put into practice in an age which is not an age of faith. Fees were set at a minimum (half the actual cost or less) so that students would not be overwhelmed as they themselves entered the School of Faith, with all its lessons to be experienced and learned. George Müller established and ran a home for orphans in Bristol beginning in 1835, then much larger homes were built during the nineteenth century entirely on the principle of faith and without ever making any appeals for finance. He once commented on the many trials and difficulties that were met by the way:

In one thousand trials it is not five hundred of them that are to work for the believer’s good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and one beside

– George Müller

The seeding process remained clear in Samuel Rees Howells’ mind and on his heart right through to the end of his life, but he recognised that an essential ingredient in the training of students for God’s purpose to be fulfilled was the exercise of faith.

Used with permission from Samuel, Son and Successor of Rees Howells by Richard Maton and edited by Mathew Backholer.

Find out about Rees Howells’ books here.