# Rees Howells, Intercessor ![[Assets/40a30def5fe04b797872f1fc87791e06_MD5.jpg]] ## Metadata - Author: [[Norman Grubb]] - Full Title: Rees Howells, Intercessor - Category: #books ## Highlights - City life, a superficial life, never appealed to me. It was no test to me not to go to a theater; I didn’t like such places. I was at home in the chapels and prayer meetings. Nature—the hills and valleys and running streams—appealed to me. Sunday mornings were wonderful times to me: such a hush and peace over everything. I felt I could face God every night, because I lived such a clean, pure life, and there were hundreds in Wales who lived like that. ([Location 195](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=195)) - Living an upright life like that, how could God bring him to the realization that he was born in sin and needed to be saved? Even the minister of his church thought he was “the best young man in the congregation”—an indication that the minister himself must have needed what Rees needed! His case was not unlike Paul’s: “as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Phil. 3:6); and until there is a conviction of need, there ([Location 230](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=230)) - The gracious Hound of Heaven was on his trail “with unhurrying chase, / and unperturbed pace,” with “those strong Feet that followed, followed after.”1 ([Location 247](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=247)) - “I saw it!” said Rees. “I believed in the Savior, but one thing I knew, I wasn’t born of Him. So far as having correspondence with the spiritual realm where the Savior lived, I was a dead man; I was outside the Kingdom, which all my good life and religion had never enabled me to enter. I was outside, though I was not a drunkard or a thief, because I had no correspondence with God.” ([Location 267](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=267)) - Thank God that human sympathy did not blind me to eternity, for you may live in a crowd, but you meet God and face eternity alone.” ([Location 279](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=279)) - “I found that I had only a historical Christ and not a personal Savior who could take me to the other side.” ([Location 292](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=292)) - “I had heard preaching on Calvary scores of times before and believed it,” said Rees, “but I had never seen Calvary before that night.” He ([Location 302](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=302)) - The presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the church has always been a fact recognized by true believers; so it was not so much a case of asking Him to come as acknowledging His presence, and very soon realizing His power. But often they had first to pray out the hindrances to blessing: disobedience and unforgiving hearts were two sins that were constantly dealt with. On the other hand, obedience to the promptings of the Spirit and open confession of Christ brought down the blessing. ([Location 405](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=405)) - As enthusiasm abated, there were bound to be many who had depended more on feelings and not yet learned to have their faith solidly based on the Word of God. ([Location 424](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=424)) - As Rees Howells said later, “The intercession of the Holy Spirit for the saints in this present evil world must be made through believers filled with the Holy Spirit” (see 8:26–27). ([Location 431](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=431)) - He knew exactly what he was offered: the choice between temporal and eternal gain. The Spirit summed the issue up for him: “On no account will I allow you to cherish a single thought of self, and the life I will live in you will be 100 percent ([Location 538](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=538)) - for others. ([Location 540](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=540)) - “The meaning of prayer is answer—and of all that I give you, see that you lose nothing.” He also told him that effectual praying must be guided praying, and that he was no longer to pray for all kinds of things at his own whim or fancy, but only the prayers that the Holy Spirit gave him. ([Location 594](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=594)) - It had been much easier to give one hundred pounds out of plenty than to part with this last pound and come to the end of his savings—for the first time in fifteen years. ([Location 747](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=747)) - The fact is, we can never really be bondservants until God does control our means. ([Location 752](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=752)) - what joy I had in finding that I had finished with the limited resources of man and begun on the unlimited resources of God! ([Location 759](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=759)) - The closer a person is to God, the more terrible is the least sin seen to be. ([Location 803](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=803)) - “The moment I got victory in it, it wasn’t a very big thing to do; it was merely a stepping-stone to His next call to me. It is while you still want a thing that you can’t get your mind off it. When you have risen above it, He may give it back to you; but then you are out of its grip.” ([Location 805](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=805)) - for there are three things to be seen in an intercessor which are not necessarily found in ordinary prayer: identification, agony and authority. ([Location 1207](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1207)) - The identification of the intercessor with the ones for whom he or she intercedes is perfectly seen in the Savior. ([Location 1209](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1209)) - They plead effectively because they give their life for those they plead for; they are their genuine representative; they have submerged their self-interest in their needs and sufferings; as far as possible, they have literally taken their place. ([Location 1218](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1218)) - But before He can lead a chosen vessel into such a life of intercession, He first has to deal to the bottom with all that is natural: love of money, personal ambition, natural affection for parents and loved ones, the appetites of the body, the love of life itself. ([Location 1226](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1226)) - This is the intercessor in action. When the Holy Spirit really lives His life in a chosen vessel there is no limit to the extremes to which He will take that intercessor in His passion to warn and save the lost. ([Location 1245](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1245)) - This is the law of intercession on every level of life: that only so far as we have been tested and proved willing to do a thing ourselves can we intercede for others. Christ is our Intercessor because He took the place of each one prayed for. ([Location 1400](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1400)) - the Holy Spirit can never “bind the strong man” (Mark 3:27, KJV) through us on a higher level than that in which He has first had victory in us. In a wonderful way the Lord also used Mr. ([Location 1404](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1404)) - Whatever warning of punishment He had given me, if I disobeyed, I had to pay the full penalty. A person might think it was a life of bondage and fear. It would be to the flesh, but to the new person in Christ it was a life of fullest liberty. ([Location 1449](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1449)) - Prayer warriors can pray for things to be done, without necessarily being willing for the answers to come through themselves; and they are not even bound to continue in the prayers until they are answered. But intercessors are responsible to gain their objectives, and they can never be free until they have gained them. They will go to any lengths for the prayers to be answered through themselves. But once a position of intercession has been gained, tested and proved, intercessors can claim all the blessings on that grade, whenever it is God’s will for them to do so. ([Location 1461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1461)) - Often in a test it seems that there is no God in the world.” ([Location 1540](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=1540)) - “There is nothing in the world better for strengthening one’s faith than testings!” was Mr. Howells’ comment. ([Location 2303](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01KB9WFBG&location=2303))