Biblical Background
Biblical Background for this Visi0n
Why do we want to hold onto Rees Howells’ inheritance; its Land?
Some people are saying to me, “If Rees Howells’ inheritance is important, why do you insist on the BCW grounds. Can you not restore his inheritance and resume the vision somewhere else?” Maybe we could, but Rees Howells and many other people have already laid their lives in intercession and faith work on that site. In other words, they have laid a deep foundation of intercession and faith there. For me personally the most important thing was not the inheritance, nor the ground itself, but God’s word. Between the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, God put in my heart to go to the BCW ground to stand on it every Sunday. That was just the beginning of my exploratory journey of obedience in faith. Now I understand how important the land is in terms of spiritual heritage and history. This is what God has revealed to me about the importance of the land.
Land is God’s inheritance: Moriah in Jerusalem (Genesis 22)
Moriah in Jerusalem was an ordinary mountain but somehow God chose it for his eternal purpose. Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac at Moriah although he was living in Beersheba at that time. Through Abraham’s obedience Moriah became a holy mountain; i.e. Abraham laid a faith foundation there.
However, some time later the Jebusites came to live in Jerusalem. Until David, no-one was able to dislodge the Jebusites from Jerusalem. Joshua could not, nor could the tribes of Judah and Benjamin during the time of the Judges (Joshua 15:63, Judges 1:8, 21). King Saul also failed to move them (2 Samuel 5:6-7). They lived there firmly and confidently although David conquered the rest of the land of Canaan. Finally David did conquer Jerusalem and he built his palace in Zion but he did not take Moriah. Even when David had established his kingdom in Jerusalem, the Jebusite, Arauna (or Ornan, meaning “strong”) still occupied Moriah and used it as a threshing-floor.
The enemy is so subtle. They never moved but firmly stayed and occupied the place where Abraham had been willing to sacrifice his son, and did sacrifice the lamb. Abraham laid a faith foundation on which the temple of God would be built. But the Jebusites had trampled the ground and made it a threshing-floor. In fact the Jebusites trampled Abraham’s altar, so many people, including David, may not have known the history of that place. (Interestingly, the name ‘Jebusites’ comes from the Hebrew ‘ye-boos (יבוּס)’ whose root is ‘boos (בּוּס)’ meaning to trample.)
Yet God was using the enemy’s strategy and power to prepare the ground as a solid foundation for his temple to be built, even though the enemy had occupied and covered the foundation of faith and obedience for a long time.
David made a big mistake in counting the number of his fighting men. But God allowed Satan to inspire David to do it so that the ground on which Abraham had laid the foundation of faith and obedience 1000 years before would be revealed. The angel of God ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. So David went up in obedience to the word (2 Samuel 24:1-7, 1 Chronicles 21:18-19). He purchased the threshing floor and the land was used as the site of the first Temple, which Solomon built, on mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1). God turned David’s mistake into revealing and fulfilling his eternal purpose.
I think Alan Scotland’s team may well have heard God saying to move and sell the BCW ground, just as David was incited by God to count his fighting men (2 Samuel 24:1). It was God’s plan to reveal and fulfil his eternal purpose for that land, on which Rees Howells laid the foundation. Like Araunah’s threshing floor it was covered for a few years but now is the time to reclaim the land, restore the vision and resume the work - for his Kingdom’s sake.
Not a monument but a movement! (Deuteronomy 34)
God buried Moses in Moab after he died, but no-one knew where his grave was. (34:6) Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hand on him. (34:9) Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. (34:7)
If God had not taken Moses, he would have entered Canaan with Joshua and Joshua would not have had the opportunity to be a leader. If the people had known where Moses was buried, they would have built a big monument and might have stayed and been stuck there. Because Moses had died and no one knew his burial place, Joshua, who had Moses’ spirit of wisdom through the laying of hands by Moses, was able to make a movement toward the promised land.
We want to appreciate the foundation of faith, intercession and mission which Rees Howells laid, and create forward movement for the Kingdom of God. We do not want to make any monument of Rees Howells but a movement of God in this generation and the next.
How can it be?
I sensed I needed to write all this down and to place it alongside the alternative proposal (Global Horizons Trust’s proposal: selling it), before God, just as in Numbers 17 Aaron’s name was written on his staff and it was placed with the staffs of the other tribal leaders before God, to show which was the one God had chosen. If God is in this, it will not only sprout but also bud, blossom, and produce the almonds.
Aaron’s staff (Numbers 16-17)
After Kora, Dathan and Abiram’s rebellion and their death, the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. The plague had already started among the people. When Aaron stood between the living and the dead with his censer, the plague stopped. Then God told Moses to get twelve staffs, one from each of the leaders of the ancestral tribes. One of them was Aaron’s who was interceding between the living and the dead and his staff not only sprouted, but budded, blossomed and produced almonds overnight.
Time is not the issue to God: The length of time from sprouting to ripe fruit normally takes a few months. But Aaron’s staff not only sprouted but budded, blossomed and produced ripe almonds just overnight. Time is in God’s hand because he created time in eternity. I think when God intervenes in this matter, it may happen just overnight.
Its identity is revealed: Did Aaron know what kind of tree his staff was made from? He might have known or he might not. But when it produced its fruits, they knew what the tree was. The identity of BCW may have been lost and it looks dead. I believe that the Lord will reveal and restore its identity of faith, intercession and mission.
Losing possession but gaining position: Aaron lost his staff because the Lord said to Moses to put it back in front of the Testimony. But he did not need to prove his authority now with his staff because the Lord authorised him. I think whoever wants to commit to this, we need to be ready to lose something in order to gain something.
It is impossible for the dead staff to live again: If the tree had been cut off a few days before, it might possibly have been able to live again. The staff began to die when it was cut off from the tree. Also the bark might have been peeled off in order to make a smooth staff. In a tree, the nutrition passes along channels buried in its bark, while the water travels within the trunk itself. Aaron had probably used that staff for forty years. The life was completely dried up. It is impossible for the staff to get life again. But God did it overnight. Even though the nutrition channels were gone, he does not need them to revive the life and bear the fruit.
Reviving Identity & Resuming its work: The almond fruits were not green but already ripe. In the Hebrew language, the word for almond tree is derived from watching (see below). Now is the time to reap as Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then the harvest comes?’ Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white to harvest already.” (John 4:34-35) I believe that the Lord is watching over BCW to reveal its true identity and resume its work of intercession, (watching over the nations) and mission in faith and by faith in order to stand between the living and the dead (Jeremiah 1:11-12). (שׁקד shâqad ; to be alert, that is, sleepless; hence to be on the lookout, hasten, remain, wake, watch (for).)
BCW & Wales
Rees Howells founded BCW in Wales, which was not a coincidence but God’s appointment. God showed him the place in Swansea, as he showed Moriah to Abraham.
Wales had many Revivals (or Awakenings), which impacted not only Wales but also so many nations around world. Particularly the 1904 Revival impacted over a dozens countries and Rees Howells himself was influenced by this Revival.
BCW was a great spiritual pillar or a hub in Wales for the world whether people realised it or not. The intercession of BCW turned world history around during the Second World War and overturned the UN’s first vote result on the birth of the nation of Israel in 1948.
Prayer and intercession never die. BCW intercessors’ prayers and intercessions are waiting to be answered for the world.
BCW & Israel & The Nations
Israel: God never changes his eternal plan and purpose even though human beings have made mistakes and fought against God from the Garden of Eden up to now. God has chosen Israel as a priest nation to serve and show God’s grace and mercy to rest of the nations. Jesus came to Israel as a Jew and he is coming back to Jerusalem. Our enemy has been trying to trample down Israel through out history as the Jebusites did. And he managed successfully to trample down Israel for almost 2000 years but God has restored. That shows God is faithful to his covenant with Israel and his eternal purpose.
Rees Howells understood the importance of Israel in God’s eternal purposes as a priest nation. So he prayed for Jews even before the nation was formed because he knew God was going to restore the nation according to the Prophets. We need to perceive the position and purpose of Israel not through the political lens but the Biblical.
For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, lest you should be wise within yourselves; that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the nations has comes in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is My covenant with them, when I have taken away their sins." (Romans 11:25-27)
I believe continuous prayer for Israel is fundamental to what God wants to do on the BCW site.
The Nations: Rees Howells and his wife were missionaries in South Africa between 1915 – 1920. They knew God’s longing was to see his beautiful brides so they went to Africa. But God wanted them to start a school to make disciples like them when they come back from Africa in 1920. And they obeyed and discipled many Welsh young people as well as many other nationalities.
God cannot work out his eternal purposes through us if we do not act in faith and by faith. (By this I do not mean living without a job or with no income to rely on, I mean depending entirely on God and counting everything as His, regardless of our circumstances.) We can make an earthly effort but not a heavenly effect if we do not learn how to live by faith. Rees Howells and his staff taught faith living not only in a class room but also in their daily life. If we really want to win the world, we need to learn how to live by faith.
This is not a Project, it is about People
Aaron’s staff was not special but Aaron, the owner of the staff, was because he was chosen by God, although he was ordinary before God had called him. Abraham was ordinary but he became a father of nations. Rees Howells was an ordinary man but God used him in an extraordinary way because he committed himself to God totally in humility, purity and was committed to unity in the love of God.
Restoring the inheritance of Rees Howells, reclaiming the land of BCW and resuming the work of intercession and mission needs people who are not proud but humble; not with mixed motivation but pure hearts, and not coming to build up their own organisation or ministry, but to advance the Kingdom of God with God’s unfailing and unconditional love.
Preparation for the Last Days
7 years abundance and 7 years famine: I think seven years abundance like Joseph’s is coming, or has already begun, and after that seven years severe famine is going to come. We need to build people and places which will provide the truth of God and the faith of God. Already the truth of God is opposed and persecuted by governments which used to have a basis of Christian principles. There are increasing restrictions on preaching the Gospel publicly in the UK. Some people have already lost their jobs and been sued because of sharing Gospel truths at work.
Famine of the truth of God: The flood of information has begun. This flood is getting bigger and faster. Because of that it is very difficult for us to find fresh and living water in the mist of this flood of information. This is not a thirst of food nor water but the truth of God.
Behold, the days come, says the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land; not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. In that day the beautiful virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst. (Amos 8:11-13)