Running Head: THE BIGGEST NEED OF OUR CHURCH 1

The Biggest Need of our Church

Courtney Goodrich
Gods Bible School















THE BIGGEST NEED OF OUR CHURCH 2



Abstract
What does our church need most right now? The answers to this question may be as varied as the
individuals who give them, so how do we decide which answer is correct? No progress will be
made in our church if every individual is running after what they see as the churchs biggest
need. Now, dont get me wrongeach person has certain talents given to them by God, and so
their interests may lie in a different direction than mine. Thus they will see needs and solutions
that I do not see. However, when we step back and look at the bigger picture, what one thing
could we as a church unite around that would make a positive difference in our church services,
our attendance, our everyday lives and the way we serve God? When we look back at history we
see that it was great revivals which impacted the lives of the church attendees and sinners. These
mighty revivals were always preceded by prayer and so I propose to you that the greatest need of
our church right now is prayer!











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The Biggest Need of Our Church
The Need
I have been raised my whole life in a holiness church and have probably attended over
forty revival meetings, more than twenty camp meetings, and regular weekly services totaling
more than 4,000 services during my life. During these services and particularly the revivals and
camp meetings, I have witnessed numerous backsliders and other people who were raised around
the church become saved and sanctified. While these things have been tremendous, as I reached
my teens and early twenties, something has still bothered me. I have read and heard the stories
of the great revivals in the past and how multitudes of people would fall under conviction and be
saved. However, in my twenty years of living in a pastors home I can remember fewer than five
non-church people getting saved, sanctified, and spiritually established. Why is this the case
when Gods Word says that, And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye
shall receive.
1
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any
thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
2

So can God not work as He used to or are we as Christians missing something that would
bring revival? From looking at Gods Word we know the first option is the reason we do not see
God working as He used to so let us examine our part of revival. The standard preparation for
revival is for the pastor or head of the congregation to start announcing that revival is coming up
soon and that the church should begin to pray for revival and the evangelist. The congregation

1
Matthew 21:22 King James Version
2
Matthew 18:19 King James Version
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may unite together in prayer at regular services, and in a short prayer meeting before each of the
revival services, and mention revival in their personal prayer times, but revival comes and goes
and not much happens. Personally, at times I have begun to feel that true revival is just a thing of
the past. As sad as this seems, I have been a witness to the holiness movement, and even our
particular local church, experiencing the unfulfilling cycle of: pray a little more than normal,
have revival services, see a few spiritual renewals, then end the week and return to normal. This
is something that has bothered me as a young person in the church. Is there some magical
formula that God requires in order for us to have a true revival, or will it simply not happen
anymore? Are we required to just pray and pray, but even then would we see any results in the
lost getting saved? William Harney says, No revival ever has come to any community or
church; no soul has ever been saved or sanctified; nobody has ever been healed, but that some
soul had real, vital soul travail for that blessing. The church that does not have soul travail cannot
have sin-killing, soul-saving revivals.
3
The reason there are not greater revivals and more souls
saved is, the saints do not pray things through.
4
It is easy to work for God, help with Bible
Club, sing specials, etcbut do I know what it means to have soul travail for revival? As Bro.
Harney put it, It takes more grace to wait than it does to work.
5
One can be too busy about
his Masters work and neglect these quiet, silent times, and become lean, grow peevish, fretful,
cross.
6
It has become clear to me that I need to find out more about Gods recipe for revival
and seeing lost souls get saved, so that our church can experience a real revival that will rock the
community around us.


3
Praying Clear Through pg 50
4
Praying Clear Through pg 116
5
Praying Clear Through pg 19
6
Praying Clear Through pg 32
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Gods Plan
So what does God say are conditions for souls to be saved and real revival to break out? I
would like to lay out five basic criteria in this paper for seeing our prayers answered. These five
basic criteria are all found in Gods Word and are able to be practiced by each and every
Christian who truly desires to be used of God to reach lost souls.
Prayer and Fasting
God does bring fasting to our attention several times in His Word. For instance, in one
case, Jesus disciples had attempted to cast out a demon, but were unable to do so. Jesus
explained to them that their lack of power was connected to a lack of prayer and fasting.
Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
7
No doubt we are powerless to pray
seekers through or maybe even get sinners to the altar because we have not met Gods criteria of
fasting. This spiritual sacrifice can be accomplished in several ways. For those who are unable to
abstain from food entirely for physical reasons, there are other items to fast from, such as a
favorite pastime, a dessert, a soda, or even extra things like dressing that make a salad enjoyable.
God will reward our fasting as He promises in His Word. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint
thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which
is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
8
So this first
criterion offers a reward and bestows Gods power to get prayers answered.
Obedience
The second crucial part to seeing God answer prayer is obedience. We cannot come to
God with disobedience in our life and expect Him to bless and answer our prayers. In our
everyday life, we would not expect favors from our boss if we had not been a dutiful employee.

7
Matthew 17:21 King James Version
8
Matthew 6:17-18 King James Version
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God hears and answers his obedient servants, so when we go to Him in prayer, we should
examine ourselves to make sure that we are walking in obedience to Him.
Faith
If we are to see answers to prayer, we must have faith that God hears and answers us.
Gods Word tells us that Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray,
believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
9
We must have faith in God and believe
that He hears our prayers. Without this faith that God hears us, we have no motivation for
praying. When we realize though that God is listening to our every word and that He longs to
fulfill our hearts desire, it gives meaning to our prayers! If you want to live a different prayer
life, bow each time before you pray in silence to worship God. Wait there until some right sense
of His nearness and readiness to answer comes to you. You will begin to pray with the words,
My God will hear me!
10

Eyes on God
Another crucial element that really goes right along with faith is that of having our eyes
fixed on God. If we start looking at the circumstances around us, we will begin to sink just as
Peter sank when he took his eyes off Jesus and put them on the billowing waves. Circumstances
and emotions are very tricky things and are definitely not to be trusted. If we look at
circumstances most likely one of two things will happen. We will either begin to despair that
what we are praying for will ever come to pass, or we may see things are looking favorable,
causing us to forget to rely on the Holy Spirit and thus to ease up in our praying. Either of these
is very dangerous, and so we must keep our eyes in faith upon God and trust Him to answer our
prayer.

9
Mark 11:24
10
Andrew Murray, The Ministry of Intercession (Springdale. PA: Whitaker House, 1982,) 119
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Intercessory Prayer
The previous four steps are all very important components to ensure that our intercessory
prayer will be heard and answered, but what is intercessory prayer? Dick Eastman says that
Intercession is basically love praying.
11
Intercession is not prayer for ourselves, but is when
we focus on the needs of those around us and petition God for those needs repeatedly. We keep
our petitions ongoing until we know we are heard and that we are getting an answer. Mr.
Eastman also quotes Reece Howells three aspects of prayer. First we must identify with others
as Jesus identified with us in our pain. Secondly, Howells listed agony as the next law of the
intercessor.If we are to be an intercessor, we must be fully like the Master.
12
As Eastman put
it, we must agonize for souls. The third principle is that of authority. Rees Howells claimed
that when he gained a place of intercession for a need, and believed it Gods will, he always had
a victory.
13
Intercession may at first seem impossible to us, but God never asks His children to
do something that they are unable to do. Everyone is capable of being an intercessor by Gods
grace. We may not always get things done right the first time, which means that we will likely
not get prevailing prayer right the first time. God, however, is patient, and He is pleased as long
as we keep on trying.
14

Rejecting the Lies of Satan
There are several deceptions Satan lays before the interceding Christian. Satan knows
that we are strongest when we are on our knees, and thus He will try to keep us from this
however he can. One of his tactics is to keep us so busy with legitimate things that we fail to put
prayer and Bible reading at the top of our priority list. Satan has tried this tactic on me numerous

11
Dick Eastman, No Easy Road (Grand Rapids. MI: Baker Book House, 1971,) 65
12
Dick Eastman, No Easy Road (Grand Rapids. MI: Baker Book House, 1971,) 70
13
Dick Eastman, No Easy Road (Grand Rapids. MI: Baker Book House, 1971,) 70
14
William J. Harney, Praying Clear Through (Nicholasville. KY: Schmul Publishing Company, 2011,) 48-49
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times. He likes to make intercessory prayer look so impossible by whispering that interceding
will take so much time that the average person is just not able to do it. Satan also likes to push
doubts into our minds concerning the possibilities of our prayers even being answered. When we
think of how many revivals have come and gone without any deep moving of God, we can easily
take this bait of Satans and feel like our prayers are impossibilities. This is exactly where Satan
wants us because if he can convince us that most likely our prayers are too big to be answered,
then he will stop us from even trying for answers.


The Bible and History
Though Satan tries to hoodwink us into believing his lies, we can look back at history and
see that God has worked mightily in the past. The results may not come as easily as we would
like, but they will come if we prevail in prayer like the old saints did. They did not serve a
different God than we serve today! They served the same prayer-answering God that you and I
serve today.
A good woman who was tied to her bed by a malady, prayed three years, once every day, for one
hour, for a great revival to break out in her home church, in her home town. Sunday after Sunday she
would ask her sister, who was taking care of her, when she came from church, whether anything had
happened. Had anything new taken place? God kept burdening her. The spirit of prayer kept leading
her out. She became more anxious. She would weep and cry, but every Sunday when her sister came
in from church, she told her that the same old, dry folks prayed those long, dry prayers, and the choir
sang so but few in the audience could understand anything they said, and the preacher discussed
science, and there was nothing being done. The devil teased this honest heart. He said, You prayed
and cried and fasted for three years, and there isnt a single sign of a revival. But one Sunday
morning the sister came in and went right to the bed of her sick sister, saying, A new preacher
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preached this morning, and I tell you he was a warm member. He woke things up. That night the
sister came home about 10:30, and said the altar was crowded, and there were between two hundred
and fifty and five hundred souls blessedly saved in that meeting.
15

Here we see an historical example of how one lady kept on interceding despite the whispers of
the enemy. God heard her and He wants to do the same for us today!
Proposal
What definite steps can we as individuals and a church body do to see the problem of
prayerlessness and the lack of spiritual victories fixed? Mr. Harney says, If we ever do anything
worth while for Jesus, we must make way for much secret prayer, we must tear ourselves away
from the duties of home and loved ones, and get alone with Jesus daily.
16
During this next year,
I propose that we covenant together as a body of believers to fast every Wednesday and spend
extra time in prayer specifically for the Bible Club contacts. This fasting may be a meal or
something else, but we will specifically pray for spiritual victories with the children and parents.
The second definite step we can take as individuals is to ask God to place a burden upon us
individually for a particular Bible Club family and a real old-fashioned revival. Hand in hand
with this second step comes the third step, where I would like each church family to adopt a
Bible Club family to pray for daily by name as well as make contact with them once a month by
taking them baked goods, or taking the children somewhere special, or anything else just to show
Gods love in action . I believe that if we will fulfill Gods requirements for revival and follow
these three steps that He will give us revival!



15
William J. Harney, Praying Clear Through (Nicholasville. KY: Schmul Publishing Company, 2011,) 14-15
16
William J. Harney, Praying Clear Through (Nicholasville. KY: Schmul Publishing Company, 2011,) 97
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Closing
In closing I would like to share another story with you. Mr. Harney was at a cold,
lukewarm church where he said that most of the members were dead, and seemingly all that was
needed was a funeral. There was a small crowd, preaching was hard, and praying was even
harder. In his words, there was ice in the pew, frost in the choir, and zero weather everywhere.
It seemed there was no hope of having any revival. The second week of the revival came and
everything was as bad as ever. Rev. Harney had never seen things freeze tighter. Some of the
best people became so discouraged that they advised pulling stake, and it seemed from the
human viewpoint, that a revival was far, far away. About this time God sent a Mordecai into the
camp; he was a clerk in a drygoods store. He told Bro. Harney, I have to work hard all day,
cant get here only of a night, and have but little time to pray through the day. I will do this, Ill
meet you here in the church at 3 A.M. and we will pray until 6, and keep this up until we see the
cloud the size of a mans hand. God says where two or three pray, in His name, He will be with
them. Now let us agree, and pray until He breaks up this stubborn indifference. Bro. Harney
said, I will go into this convenant with you with this understanding, if you get to the church
first, ring the bell until I get there, and if I beat you there, I will be pulling on the rope when you
reach the church. At 2:30 Br. Harney awoke, hurriedly got around and had reached the high-
school building when Brother V_______ began ringing the church bell. In a few minutes lights
were in every home, and men running through the yards, dressing, and screaming, Fire! fire!
Fire! Bro. Harney yelled, Yes, at the church. Soon that big church had 320 souls in it. God
saw that they meant business, that they were determined, and that their hearts were breaking
under the tremendous, crushing burden; He saw that two had agreed, and answered before they
had time to pray. Bro. Harney took a text and preached in the power and demonstration of the
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Holy Spirit, and conviction deep and pungent fell on that crowd. By the end of the meeting over
three hundred were saved, and scores joined the church.
Let us ask ourselves Have I ever blocked the way of a sweeping revival in my
community or church by a prayerless life? Have I ever defeated God in saving some of my loved
ones by neglecting prayer? Have I wondered why the fire hasnt fallen, awful conviction seized
the sinners, and men crowded the altar?
17
Let us be certain that our hands and skirts are free
from the blood of men; let us be certain that no one stumbles over our prayerless life, into Hell.
18













17
William J. Harney, Praying Clear Through (Nicholasville. KY: Schmul Publishing Company, 2011,) 102

18
William J. Harney, Praying Clear Through (Nicholasville. KY: Schmul Publishing Company, 2011,) 116

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References
Eastman, D. (1971). No Easy Road. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
Harney, W. J. (2011). Praying Clear Through. Nicholasville: Schmul Publishing Co.
Murray, A. (1982). The Ministry of Intercession. Springdale: Whitaker House.
The Bible. (1909). Korea: OXford University Press, Inc.