A Look at a Book
by Christina Duncan

BOOK REVIEW:
The Intercession of Rees Howells
by Doris M. Ruscoe

This book is a great book. It is a short book, with a foreword written by Norman Grubb and a preface from Rees Howells’ son, Samuel. It was written to fulfil a long-standing desire to present the teaching of Rees on the subject of intercession to the Christian world and to answer the frequently asked question “Can you tell me more of what Rees Howells meant by Intercession?” posed by many people, to Norman.

In my view, it does this clearly and succinctly in only 125 pages contained within 9 chapters.

Doris Ruscoe was the headmistress of the school for missionaries’ children at the Bible College in Wales, which was founded and run by Rees Howells. On behalf of the many staff and students who attended the college during the 1930’s and 1940’s Miss Ruscoe agreed to write this account of the intercession of Rees Howells during the second world war.

Miss Ruscoe begins with general reminiscences of Rees. These range from how on the first occasion she heard him speak, she knew he was a man who really knew God in a personal way and was one who trusted Him implicitly, through to how he introduced the college “…in a practical way to the principles of intercession,” and on to trusting the Holy Spirit to lead them into a total commitment to the heavenly warfare that was raging while “…Hitler sent his troops into the Rhineland.”

During the war years of 1939- 1945, Rees saw the various advances of Nazi Germany as a major threat to an earlier vision God had given him “…of reaching every creature with the Gospel in his generation;” therefore, he was led to take various intercessory stands—from challenging the dictators, to his special burden for the Jewish people and their return home to Palestine. An early public stand of faith appeared to end in failure, but Rees, knew the “…great principle of intercession”— that life comes out of death. Threfore, his public ‘death’ meant that victory was assured and there would be a resurrection, “…except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

The longest section of the book is taken from the notes from the daily meetings at the college. These are Rees’s teachings on particular scriptures and their application in daily life. He begins with the new birth, going into detail on the Life we receive when we are born again and how “…if we withhold just one acre of our life from the Holy Spirit, the devil will not find just one way of getting to it but many.” He goes on to lay down the basic principles of intercession, the most fundamental of all being that “…intercession is based on the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ in his atoning death and resurrection,” and that “…it is the Holy Spirit who leads the intercessor and demonstrates through him the victory of Christ.” He then discusses the detail of his various intercessions when he was living in his Welsh village and their outcome before finishing with a study of the great intercessors of the Bible, Moses, Daniel, Queen Esther, Ezekiel, Hosea, Isaiah and the Apostle Paul.

I have loved reading this book. As we all do, I have experienced difficulty with unbelieving loved ones who have opposed me in my walk with God and live with the pain and distress that causes. It has been a blessing and encouragement to me to be reminded that in these situations, we are fighting the principalities and powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph 6:12). When we know that we have done everything humanly possible in a situation but to no avail, we can also know that through intercession, there is a sure way to make a difference. A prayer may be answered, but an intercession must be.

There is much valuable information to be gained from this book to give us a better understanding of having an intimate relationship with God and the intercessory life. I wholeheartedly recommend it.