book reviews

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.