I finished Intercessor over the long Christmas weekend. I’m still not sure how I feel about it as a whole.

Initially its extremely challenging. I couldn’t put it down. Then I stumbled onto some really bad doctrine. If you don’t know that you know that the Lord is a healer; the same yesterday, today, and forever; who shows no favoritism; and once and forever healed everyone … read Christ the Healer by F.F. Bosworth before you get into Intercessor.

That bit in the middle that got into Rees’ theories on divine healing was a little hard to get through, but it was worth doing. The way he governed his finances (and the finances of a new university) on faith is more than an inspiration, and to read the stories of how the prayer coming out of a few dozen young adults given to intercession guided the course of a World War is amazing.

I’ll be honest: when I heard about Rees Howells (“the man God used to pray His will in the midst of a war!”) it sounded a little sensational, and I was pretty sure it was exaggerated. I thought, “Maybe some cool stuff happened, but the man did not alter the course of WWII. No way.” I was pretty sure that a couple of strange coincidences were over-romanticized and made to seem highly spiritual, but my objective view on the story would surely shine some light on the truth. I was wrong, though. Rees met the heart of God for the war and prayed it out.

It’s encouraging. Everyone, at some point, probably has a quiet moment wherein we think, “How much is this doing, really?” We think we know that our prayers move heaven, but they really, really do. Really.