Rita and Our Fears

In the hours before Rita struck, Perry warned of a catastrophe and asked the nation, "Say a prayer for Texas."

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/349675p-298277c.html

It now appears that the College of Intercessors convened again, and that Texas was indeed spared.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5302263,00.html

SABINE PASS, Texas -- As Texans watched Hurricane Rita _ at one point a terrifying Category 5 storm _ spinning in the Gulf, they didn't see a best-case scenario. The storm was on track to slam Galveston and drench flood-prone Houston.

If it moved north, the Golden Triangle of the petroleum industry would get a direct hit.

But the storm weakened slightly and made landfall in a tiny, evacuated shrimping village surrounded by marsh and a wildlife refuge, perhaps the best place to avoid deaths and economic damage.

"Even though the people right here in Beaumont and Port Arthur and this part of Orange County really got whacked, the rest of the state missed a bullet," Gov. Rick Perry said.

It strikes me now that God may have allowed the worst that happened during Katrina so that He could spare the many more who where in danger of Rita. Without Katrina, I think it was possible many more would have perished during Rita then did. It is with prophetic wisdom that William Cowper wrote:

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/g/m/gmovesmw.htm

And William Cowper knew where of he spoke. Cowper’s life was blighted by depression, but by that means, also infused with poetry and genius.

When I mention the “College of Intercessors,” I am, of course, joking. But only a little.

Yes, there are websites dedicated to intercession, and there are persons who have the ministry of intercession. But by the expression “college of intercessors,” I mean all those who, at a given point in time, are moved to pray for a specific event and a specific group of people concerned with that event. Anyone, anywhere, at anytime may matriculate. But the Dean chooses who He will assemble and when. The governor of Texas asked the nation to pray for his state. And the Dean almighty assembled His college, person by person, as He willed. And Texas, on that day, and at that time, was spared the worst.

What put me in mind of using that expression was an actual college of intercessors that existed during World War II.

Some time before W.W.II, Rees Howells, the famous Welsh intercessor, founded the Bible College of Wales. From its founding, the faculty and students of the college were very deeply involved in intercession. Eventually, much of this intercession became about world evangelism, and then became strategic.

Every Creature must hear; therefore, the doors must be kept open. Their prayers became strategic. They must face and fight the enemy wherever he was opposing freedom to evangelize. God was preparing an instrument - a company to fight world battles on their knees.

http://www.byfaith.co.uk/paulreeshowells.htm

And so there were many battles of W.W.II in which this College of Intercessors became an invisible participant.

For more on this obscure band of prayer warriors, see Norman Grubb’s Rees Howells:Intercessor.