Why God Used Rees Howells — E.A. Johnston

Rees Howells and the Welsh Revival

Rhys Howes was a product of the Welsh Revival. He had witnessed it firsthand and it changed his entire life. Actually, it was the Spirit of God as the flame from that revival that so altered this man, Rhys Howes.

A Consecrated Life Displaying God's Strength

God used this consecrated life of Rhys Howes to show himself strong. There is a verse of scripture which I think typifies this man, and it's found in 2 Chronicles 16 9. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

And the last sentence of that verse, friends, typifies this man, Rhys Howes. He was a man empty of self, crucified to the world, and unimpressed with the opinion of man and so consecrated to God that God could do as this verse from 2 Chronicles states and show himself strong.

This man had the power of God all over him, friends. I believe there are several reasons why God used Rhys Howes, and I want to list and then elaborate upon them as we proceed. And, oh friends, how we can sit at the feet of this giant of faith and learn much from him for our day.

As we study men of faith, I want us to examine how God used this holy vessel of a man to work wonders for his glory. Oh, the powerful revivals that came from this man's prayer life and his preaching ministry.

Rhys Howells's Early Life and Conversion

Let me now list the reasons why I believe God so used this Welshman by the name of Rhys Howes. He was born in a mining village in South Wales, and he lived in a little cottage with his parents and his 10 siblings.

He quit school at the age of 12 to go to work in a tin mill. And during the early part of his young adult life, he was wont to say, I believed in the Savior, but one thing I knew, I wasn't born of him.

This all changed when Rhys caught the deadly typhoid fever, and all hope seemed to be gone until he prayed, give me one more chance Lord, and I will give my life to you. Well, God heard that prayer and healed him.

Rhys said at this time, I knew I owed my all to God who had delivered me. He also knew though his physical body was healed, his inner man was not. He said, I found that I had only a historical Christ and not a personal Savior who could take me to the other side.

And in speaking of his salvation experience, he remarked, it wasn't a point of doctrine I saw. No, it was Calvary. It wasn't given a mental ascent. No, the veil was taken back. My eyes were open and I saw him.

The love of the Savior was revealed to me. Now friends, I want to look at what I feel was the turning point in Rhys Howe's life. And this was the Welsh revival of 1904. It was the experience of this great revival, which so altered the rest of his life for God and eternity.

The Welsh Revival and Its Transforming Power

Let me read you his words concerning this mighty move of God's grace. In a short while, the whole of the country was in a flame. Every church was stirred to its depths. Strong men were in tears of penitence and women moved with new fervor.

People were overpowered by the spirit as on the day of Pentecost and were counted as drunken men. In the services, they were praying, singing, and testifying. It was a church revival, a divine power manifested through the church.

The keynote was, bend the church and save the world. Now that we have a little background on this man, Rhys Howe, I wish to list what I feel are the main reasons why he was so mightily used of God. Number one, he was a man of prayer.

A Life Devoted to Intercessory Prayer

In fact, the biography on his life by Norman Grubb is entitled Rhys Howe's Intercessor, and I highly recommend it to you friends. If you haven't read that book, go out and get it. It's worth its weight in gold.

Anyway, this man lived on his knees. I believe that India had her pray and hide, and America had her fiery EM bounds, but Wales had her Rhys Howes. Oh dear friends, what God can do with the person who has faith in God to answer desperate prayer.

This man was known at times to spend eight hours a day in prayer when he maintained a full-time job in the mines. Often it was his habit after he worked all day in the mine to give God the hours of 6 p .m. to 9 p .m. each evening on his knees in prayer.

It was common for him to take out a piece of paper and write in his own hand with a witness by his side that he was entering into a vow with God to pray for a certain individual until that person was converted, and he would pray through until that person was brought to Christ even if it took years.

So this first aspect of why God used Rhys Howes was obvious. He was a man of prayer. Secondly, he was a consecrated vessel for God to use. There was a period in his life where he entered a crisis in his walk with God.

Consecration and the Work of the Holy Spirit

He recognized his need for empowerment from on high, and he sought the blessing of the Holy Spirit. He spoke of it in these terms, I saw that only the Holy Ghost in me could live like the Savior. It took five days to make the decision, days which were spent alone with God.

Like Isaiah, I saw the holiness of God, and seeing him, I saw my own corrupt nature. It wasn't sins that I saw, but nature touched by the fall. I was corrupt to the core. I knew I had to be cleansed. I saw there was as much difference between the Holy Ghost and myself as between light and darkness.

Nothing is more real to me than the process I went through for that whole week. The Holy Spirit went on dealing with me, exposing the root of my nature. It wasn't sin he was dealing with, it was self, that thing which came from the fall.

He was not going to take any superficial surrender. He put his finger on each part of my self-life, and I had to decide in cold blood. He could never take a thing away until I gave my consent. Then the moment I gave it, some purging took place, and I could never touch that thing again.

It was not saying I was purged and the thing still having a hold on me. No, it was a breaking, and the Holy Ghost taking control. Day by day, the dealing went on. He was coming in as God, and I had lived as a man, and what is permissible to an ordinary man, he told me, will not be permissible to you.

So we see, friends, that this man, Reese Howes, went through a crisis and was baptized with the Holy Ghost for service, but he had at first be made a willing vessel fit for the Master's use. It was a full consecration to his God.

Faith and the Bible College of Wales

The third reason I believe God used Reese Howes was that he was a man of faith. He believed the Word of God, and he believed the God of the Word. He lived by faith. What God did through this man of faith was extraordinary.

He was an ordinary man whom God did extraordinary things through in a quite supernatural way. The Bible College of Wales that Reese Howes started was built entirely on faith. He believed God would give him the land, God would give him the buildings, God would give him the staff and the money, and even eventually the students.

It was a faith-based project from the very get-go. There's a story about how Reese Howes would first visit a property and then would ask God for it in prayer, and he didn't even have two dollars in his pocket at the time.

Every property he prayed for in faith, he received from God an answer to his mighty faith. And there's an amusing story about a large estate which Reese Howes had become interested in for additional property for the Bible College of Wales.

When the tenant, a Major Pratt, learned that Reese Howes had begun to pray about acquiring that property, this man said jokingly to his club, if Reese Howes has begun looking over my wall and praying, I had better get out before something happens to me.

And this man did just that. He got out. But the aspect of Reese Howes' life, which I want to focus our attention on now, friends, and for the remainder of our time before we go to prayer, is the fourth reason why I believe God used Reese Howes in such a remarkable way.

A Man Who Lived for Revival

And that was because he was a man of revival. He had witnessed such an invasion from heaven during the Welsh Revival that it forever changed him. He saw nothing but eternity from that point on, and he lived to see revival come in his own life and ministry.

God answered that desire while Reese was a missionary to Africa. And I want to say this very carefully, and please, friends, listen carefully to me when I say this. Reese Howes was a man who got serious with his God, and God got serious with him.

And you, dear friend, depending on your desire to get serious with God can change everything in your own life as well. God looks at our level of desperation in prayer, and our faith in prayer, and our utter surrender to him in prayer, and he answers according to our desire, desperation, and dependency upon him to work wonders through us.

I believe God doesn't move in revival today in our churches because we do not believe he can. We lack faith in him. Revival is a sovereign work of grace. A man can't produce it, but we can bend the ear of God with our desperate and pitiful prayers.

We can turn his face to our nation as we beg him for revival. He's on the lookout for a young man. He's on the lookout for a young girl at this hour to believe him for sin and revival. He's on the lookout for the aged saint on bended knee who lays upon that altar of sacrifice long enough in faith and prayer until God descends and with a holy delight consumes that sacrifice in revival power.

Revival Through Missionary Preaching in Africa

God used Reese Howes as an instrument of revival in remarkable ways. I want to relate a powerful incident of a God-sent revival under the preaching of Reese Howes while he was a missionary to Africa.

Here now are his words as he describes this time of God moving in the day of his power. In Pondoland on one station, I was preaching on the crucifixion on Good Friday and the spirit brought out those words, away with him, crucify him.

It seemed as though the people saw hell opened up before them and in one mass the whole congregation rushed forward to get right with God. I was afraid they would push the pulpit over. Oh friends, to be in a meeting like that where the people are so gripped with the conviction of sin that they rushed to push the pulpit over to get to God.

Reese Howes was used of God because he was a man of revival and he saw countless revivals in Africa because he believed that the God who sent revival to Wales could send revival to Africa as well. He even shared his faith on this subject with some African believers.

He said the source of all revival is the Holy Ghost and he could do among them what he had done in Wales. And I want to finish this message friends with another revival account from Reese Howes as he relates how God broke through in the Congo in a powerful revival.

Revival in the Congo

Here now are his words. The Sunday was October 10th, my birthday, and as I preached in the morning, you could feel the spirit coming on the congregation. In the evening, down he came, I shall never forget it.

He came upon a young girl, Kufas by name, who had fasted for three days under conviction. As she prayed, she broke down crying and within five minutes the whole congregation were on their faces crying to God.

Like lightning and thunder, the power came down. I had never seen this even in the Welsh revival. Heaven had opened and there was no room to contain the blessing. I lost myself in the spirit and prayed as much as they did.

All I could say was he has come. We went on until late at night. We couldn't stop the meeting. Well friends, that was Reese Howes and how God used him. He was a simple man who lived his life in the flow of the Holy Spirit because he was entirely sold out to God and God used him like few men in his generation.

A Call to Desperate Prayer for Revival

God is on the lookout now, friend, for the person whose heart is perfect toward him so he can show himself strong in your behalf. How badly do we want to see revival? Are we willing to pay the sacrifice and experience the cost?

What cost counts and what counts costs? The cost is desperate, burdened, unfortunate. Believe in prayer. God is the same God of Reese Howes. God is the same God of the Welsh revival. Are you in agony of soul to see a move of God in our day?

Then go to the God of revival and beseech him with your desperate prayers. Let us now go to God in prayer. Let us pray.