Welsh revival revisited
Though fighting on our knees is essential, passion for the gospel must be our motive for conducting spiritual warfare
Amid great expectancy of a renewed outpouring of the Spirit in the land of revivals, my wife and I were profoundly stirred by a recent visit to Wales. We sat in the Moriah Chapel at Loughor, near Swansea, where the famous Welsh Revival broke out on October 31st 1904, and had a real taste of those momentous times as we were guided around the premises by a man whose uncle was a close friend of Evan Roberts, the human instrument used by God as the spark of that great movement affecting much of the world including Africa.
Abraham was prepared to offer Isaac as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. Close by, the Lord Jesus would later die for the sins of the world – at Calvary. These are not Moriah Chapel’s only connections with Israel. Our visit was part of a conference of the Fellowship of Full Gospel Churches (an international network of ministers dedicated to proclaiming Christ in all His fullness). The conference was hosted at the Bible College of Wales, itself mightily used in world mission, and itself a direct result of the 1904/5 revival.
As we prayed and lifted our hands in worship, we were aware of the crucial role of college founder Rees Howells who is perhaps best remembered for the intercessions he led during World War II which, in the opinion of many, did more for Allied victory than any amount of firepower. It was prevailing prayer – not Spitfires and Hurricanes – that won the war! And, in 1947, his students prayed through to victory for Israel’s recognition at the United Nations. A love for Israel was due not only to a clear understanding of the Bible, but to the fact that Howells actually came to Christ through a Jewish evangelist in America, where he had gone to seek his fortune. Maurice Reuben had paid a huge price for following Jesus, being disowned by his wealthy family and denied his part-ownership of a Pittsburgh store.1
Rees, who at 25 was the same age as Evan Roberts, returned to Wales to help with the revival, which broke out after Roberts asked if he could hold a youth meeting to which 16 youngsters turned up. Services lasted virtually through the night. Miners coming off their shift would join the queues for the chapels; as soon as one was filled they’d tramp off to find the next. Lights would be burning through the night as tens of thousands throughout the principality were convicted of sin by the presence of God and the preaching of the gospel. It is estimated that as many as 100,000 were swept into the kingdom over a four-month period. One of its effects was that the police and magistrates had little to do except help control the crowds queuing up for the gospel meetings.
News of the revival spread across the globe and inspired the subsequent beginnings of the modern-day Pentecostal movement. This was particularly the case in California, where news of what was happening in Wales galvanised the prayers of American saints and led directly to the Azusa Street, Los Angeles, revival of 1906, with a similar outpouring taking place in Sunderland, England, in 1907 led by Church of England vicar Alexander Boddy, who had earlier come to witness the work of Evan Roberts in Wales. In recalling the total surrender of those young men at Loughor, one of our group prayed “Bend us, Lord!” as she echoed the heartfelt cry of the revival’s leader for God to break their resistance to the Holy Spirit’s power. It was an awesome moment as we became aware of the great need of our nation (in the UK as a whole) for restoration and reformation.
Wartime Intercessors
Some of the issues that burdened the intercessors at Swansea in the years leading up to the war are very similar to those we face today. Anti-Semitism is once again raising its ugly head all over the planet, no longer led by Nazis but by an unholy alliance between the hard left and fanatical Islam. Are we going to let these tyrannical groups complete what Hitler failed to achieve – the destruction of the Jewish race and of civilization as we know it? But when Rees and his Bible College students fought the great battles of the war on their knees, it wasn’t just for our freedom. Their prime motivation was to clear obstacles to the preaching of the gospel, because Hitler’s regime blocked the path to fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission.
Not only was the Nazis’ atheistic ideology the very antithesis of 28 Christianity, but the upheaval of ongoing war would continue to distract people everywhere from considering their soul’s destiny. And because the Swansea college’s chief concern was for the gospel, they were also greatly burdened for the Jewish people, who were under threat of genocide. After all, the gospel is “to the Jew first…” (Romans 1.16). And if the Jews were destroyed, they could never be restored to their ancient land as the prophets had foretold, and Jesus could not return, for the Bible clearly states that the Jews must be back in the Holy Land before this happens (Zechariah 12-14). Their prayers during the Battle of Britain, for example, were informed by a very clear scriptural goal: “Every creature is to hear the gospel; Palestine is to be regained by the Jews; and the Saviour is to return.” 2
That their prayers hit the mark is borne out by the fact that, time and again, the German forces were on the point of winning crucial battles when, inexplicably, the tide suddenly turned. The only reasonable explanation was that God intervened miraculously in response to prayer. These Bible students were laying down their lives as much as those young men at the front. From the time of Dunkirk, through the rest of the war years, the entire college (about 100 strong) prayed every evening from seven o’clock to midnight, with only a brief interval for supper, in addition to an hour-long prayer meeting every morning, and very often at midday.
Praying Millennials?
I believe there are some passionate young people around today who are up for the fight in the same way. And I am reminded of Churchill’s famous speech after the Battle of Britain, in which (referring to the brave RAF fighter pilots) he said: “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”
Just as the 1939-45 battles were fought chiefly by young men, so must the spiritual warfare for our nation be fought in the main by Millennials. If we are to pray for nations, we must first have the kind of passion for individual souls that Rees possessed in bucketloads; he would fast and pray for a tramp, or drunkard, or village troublemaker until he had gained victory – however long it took. He also learned to walk by faith for every move he made, refusing to make his financial needs known, trusting God for every penny. In the case of the Bible College, he began with just two shillings and saw God send him £125,000 (the equivalent of millions in today’s money) over the next 14 years.
In 1915 Rees and his wife Elizabeth went out to Africa as missionaries – under the auspices of the South African General Mission founded by Andrew Murray – and witnessed marvellous revivals, accompanied by extraordinary healings, blazing a trail for a future student, Reinhard Bonnke, who would see millions drawn into the kingdom through his huge rallies across the continent. Even the Queen of Swaziland came to faith. Rees reported: “I told her that God had one Son, and he gave him to die for us; and we had one son, and had left him to tell the people of Africa about God. She was very much affected by hearing that my wife and I loved her people more than we loved our own son.” 3
The Bible says: “Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10.37) It’s that sort of commitment to which we are called. When, as a church and nation, we recover a passion for the gospel as the only means of mending our broken society and restoring truth and righteousness to our once great country, then I’m sure revival will follow.
Most Western Christians have only a blurred vision of what the gospel stands for, but our focus must be sharpened to the point where we are prepared to lay our lives on the altar for its truth, and for the freedom to proclaim it on our streets, in our prisons, in our churches, and in our schools and universities. With such a sharpened vision, we will also gain a fresh understanding of God’s great end-time purpose for the Jews and be better prepared for the return of our Lord to this troubled world. Come, Lord Jesus!
1 I am indebted to Rees Howells, Intercessor by Norman Grubb (published by Lutterworth Press) for much of the background to this article
2 Quoting the prayer journal entry for September 14, 1940 3 Samuel was brought up by Rees’s uncle and aunt, and later succeeded his father as Bible College director.