The Good News for the World, Power for Service, Samuel Rees Howells
Ever since God met with Rees Howells on 26 December 1934 and placed a special responsibility upon him to see the fulfilment of the Great Commission, there was a deep desire in him to see new countries reached with the Gospel. From its earliest years, young men and women had left the Bible College of Wales and pioneered new works.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature
– Mark 16:15
Every year, Samuel Rees Howells and his leadership team had the joy of ‘sending forth labourers into the harvest fields’ (Matthew 9:38), but before students went out from the College, staff would always prepare them with special messages. Samuel prayed as he opened a meeting:
We feel that during this time it is Thy will for us to follow Thee to the utmost of our capacity. We can only do so in the Holy Spirit. If the disciples failed, we shall fail too, apart from the Holy Spirit. If Thou wilt come upon us, as Thou didst on the apostles, we shall be able to witness. May these days be days of deep dealings. Open the Word this evening. Speak to us again
– Samuel Rees Howells
The messages during these periods were designed to prepare students for life after graduation.
Samuel and other staff members would encourage students to abide in prayer, trust in the Holy Spirit’s leading and follow Christ wherever He led them.
First students need to continue in the life of faith.
Don’t let go; I believe at the end of your training you will be able to look back and say the Lord has supplied all your needs. Continue now
– Samuel Rees Howells
This life was only possible when students had given themselves unconditionally to the Holy Spirit. Samuel Rees Howells stated:
Our prayer is that you may be fully possessed of the Holy Spirit. Then He will be your Teacher. The disciples did not fully understand what the Master said, but the Holy Spirit taught them everything after He left them. Let the Holy Spirit deal with you inwardly. The Lord is not able to work unless you place yourselves in the position for Him to do so. The secret is to learn the art of prevailing – so the Lord can lead you to some of those hard fields. It all depends on prayer and intercession. Men have spent years in the secret place. It does not come cheaply or easily
– Samuel Rees Howells
Samuel Rees Howells then explained that the characters of the Bible were normal men and women like us:
Gideon was very ordinary and insignificant, but he was God’s vessel through the strength God would supply. The Midianites were innumerable and the Israelites were helpless, but Gideon was made strong by the Spirit
– Samuel Rees Howells
Many of these students over the years seemed weak and insufficient like Gideon, but this man of faith trusted in God and saved a nation. Could these young people do the same?
All the students had received theological training, but had they allowed the Holy Spirit to come into their lives and transform them? Had they applied this teaching?
Are we losing touch at this time? We need to meet the Holy Spirit. He wants to clear you out. He wants clean vessels. In prayer now, do you feel the Spirit coming on you?
– Samuel Rees Howells
We have seen everything in theory, but how much has become part of our experience?
– Samuel Rees Howells
In the life of faith and intercession, these biblical principles that the students had been taught at the Bible College must be applied one by one, in case after case. Samuel Rees Howells declared:
You will not do the spectacular unless you have done the ordinary small things. The Spirit is supposed to possess us now! Has each one of you determined not to let God go until He blesses you? There are hundreds and thousands of ministers today, but they have not touched it. It takes time to get accustomed to His presence. After you have been in His presence for some time, He draws near and then you touch Him with that touch of faith. The days ahead are important
– Samuel Rees Howells
If these students were to see any fruit on the mission field, they needed to surrender to Christ and abide in the position Christ has made available.
Samuel Rees Howells stated:
Undoubtedly the Lord has offered to each one of us a new position in Christ. Let us not miss this. We must dwell on these things outside the meetings. He lived the resurrection life. This is something revolutionary. If we have become one with Him, His life is ours! In that realm, whatever we shall ask the Father in His name it will be done. We shall only believe the things we need to believe now when we are in that relationship. He spoke of Himself as the Vine and His life was to flow through them (John 15:4-10). It is the same position with us
– Samuel Rees Howells
Every year, young students from the College were preparing to go to the ends of the earth, but missionaries like all Christians can be overcome with selfishness and doubt. Samuel Rees Howells warned:
We can spend so much time on our frets and worries, but if we have seen God, we are transformed into another world altogether. It is not lip service that God desires but life service
– Samuel Rees Howells
After all the miracles students had witnessed at the Bible College of Wales, Samuel Rees Howells warned them not to trust in themselves and go back to ordinary human ministry. He declared:
If we live limited lives again…It would be pharisaical after seeing Christ with all authority – in that place of power! This resurrection power must be released in the world and we believe we are to be some of God’s instrument
– Samuel Rees Howells
The Holy Spirit was searching for empty vessels, but not all the students wanted to pay the price to follow the Lord. Those who did surrender all paid a price. Was it worth the cost?
The Devil would have us to think that this life of abiding is bondage. It is the old life that is bondage
– Samuel Rees Howells
The Bible College meetings always began and ended in prayer. Samuel Rees Howells in humility to the Throne of God asked:
Help us to pray effectively, earnestly and constantly for these lost millions. Draw us nearer to the cross and deal with everything that is not worthy of Thee
– Samuel Rees Howells
Every student that obeyed the Lord went out in prayer and many felt the intercessory blessing.
Samuel prayed for all his former students who served the Lord 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.
Some of the intercessors, other staff members who also lived at the Bible College, kept a detailed account of former students and regularly prayed for them on the mission field. When one of these intercessors died an enormous list of names was found in her room on a long roll of worn paper. Students who graduated years before were still being prayed for. Meanwhile, the battles of intercession continued at the Bible College of Wales. Samuel Rees Howells declared:
Prayers that have been prayed for years, intercession that has been made for years, the time has come to press the battle to the gates. We thank Thee for the revelation we have had again of the risen Lord in these past days
– Samuel Rees Howells
Samuel Rees Howells invited each batch of students to live in the impossible realm, to believe for the inconceivable and to surrender all to the Lord:
Have you been transformed? Do you live for the things of this world? Can you honestly say today that you have left everything and that you are following God?
– Samuel Rees Howells
These were the deep questions that Samuel Rees Howells asked students:
There’s no compromise. There’s only one condition; it’s a full and unqualified surrender
– Samuel Rees Howells
Dr. Kingsley Priddy joined the Bible College staff in the mid-1930s and was a loyal friend to Rees Howells and Samuel Rees Howells. It was in 1950, that Samuel asked him to be the headmaster of Emmanuel Grammar School (formerly the Bible College School) for boarders and day students.
Dr. Priddy often reminded students at the Bible College that the Lord does not want us to build a work for Him, but He wants to build a work in and through us. He does not want our help in ministry, but our empty vessels for Him to live His life through. He once explained how the Holy Spirit had shown him:
There is all the difference in the world between your surrendered life in My hands and I living My life in your body
– Dr. Kingsley Priddy
Ten years later in another message to students, staff and visitors at the Bible College of Wales, Samuel Rees Howells stated:
We know that we can’t take one step further without the help and aid of God. If we didn’t recognise our need, we wouldn’t be dependent on the Holy Spirit. We’ve been called to live a life that is impossible to do of ourselves. It is only the Holy Spirit who can do it. It’s all right to say this, but it’s another to do it!
What we need is a meeting with the Holy Ghost, nothing else will do. This is not theory, its reality. Don’t withhold whatever price He will ask of you. It’s worth paying the whole price, for His possession. Not that He would merely influence you, but that He would indwell you. You look to Him and whatever He asks of you, comply with Him so that He can take absolute control of your life and your possessions. Then you won’t be going out in your own strength, but in His strength
– Samuel Rees Howells
Adapted article by Mathew and Paul Backholer and used with permission from Samuel Rees Howells, A Life of Intercession by Richard Maton and Paul Backholer, edited by Mathew Backholer.
Find out about Rees Howells’ books here.
