We need to Pray in Every Place Lifting Holy Hands without Wrath and Reasoning

As believers in Christ, we need to have a prayer life for the church life, and we need to pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or reasoning; our prayer needs to be backed up by our living without arguing, reasoning, contention, and anger. Amen!

Instead of talking so much, we should pray more. Instead of working so much, we should pray more.

We may be quite zealous for the Lord in the church life, being eager to help with this and with that, being involved in the services of the church, and doing many things; we may be like Martha today.

But do we also function as Mary did, sitting at the Lord’s feet, praying to fellowship with Him, and absorbing His words?

We all have to admit that we lack in prayer.

We may have had a good time of prayer, and we may have kept a good prayer life for a while, but things happen, responsibilities and activities come in, and the first thing to go is our prayer time with the Lord.

May the Lord shine on us and show us that in order for us to have a proper church life in the Lord’s recovery, we need to have a prayer life.

We need not only to pray but even more, to have a prayer life. Prayer is not just an activity; prayer is actually our ministry and our work.

May we learn from the Lord Jesus who often withdrew from the crowds and from the disciples to just pray.

To pray is simply to open to the Lord and allow Him to speak to us.

We need to learn to open to the Lord again and again, in all situations and circumstances.

Our Savior God desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth; however, we need to cooperate with His heart’s desire and pray for all men to be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth.

The Bible is our prayer book; if we do not know what to pray, we can simply come to the Lord in His word and pray His word back to Him.

He wants to do in us and in the church what He says in His word, but He is waiting for our cooperation in prayer.

Both brothers and sisters, both young and old saints, everyone needs to have a prayer life.

Unfortunately, many times we would rather talk about things and situations, expressing our interest in knowing more and even spreading rumours to others, instead of praying.

Many times we have so much to say but we do not pray much.

May the Lord save us from speaking more than we pray.

May He save us from merely doing things outwardly for Him or in the church without much prayer.

May we have a proper prayer life for the church life so that the church may be healthy and the Lord would gain in us what He is after.

Having a Prayer Life with Petitions, Intercessions, and Thanksgivings for and in the Proper Church Life

In 1 Tim. 2:1 Paul encourages us to pray, and he mentions petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving.

For us to have a proper church life, we need to have a prayer life.

Prayer is general, having worship and fellowship as its essence; when we pray, we come to the Lord to worship Him and fellowship with Him.

We need to pray at every time and in every place, even watch unto prayer in all perseverance.

Petitions are special and are for particular needs; there may be some particular needs of those around us, the saints, and the church, and we petition the Lord concerning these needs.

Intercessions are approaching God in a personal and confiding manner, interfering and intervening before God in other’s affairs for their benefit.

To intercede is to be before God concerning someone’s situation and condition, interfering before God for this one to advance with the Lord, be freed from sin, and be delivered from the enemy’s usurpation.

Abraham made intercession for Lot, interfering and intervening on his behalf before God so that God would save him.

Paul said that the situation of the churches, the care for the churches, was pressing upon him; he was interceding for them and ministering to them.

We need to intercede for the saints and for the churches.

Also, we must offer thanksgiving; we should not only ask from God and intervene before Him for others, but thank Him.

If the situation in the church life is good, we need to thank the Lord, for it is because of Him and not because of the church or a particular person. We need to offer the Lord many thanks for all things.

There are many kinds of prayer and many ways of praying; we need to develop, build up, and maintain a prayer life so that we may have a proper church life.

Sometimes the Lord may even limit our outward activity so that we may spend more time with Him in prayer.

We cannot have a proper church life without having a proper prayer life.

We all need to learn the lesson to pray. And we need to pray for others to also pray; we need to pray, and all the saints need to pray.

What a transformation will take place in the church life if we turn all our talking into praying!

What a sweet, pleasant, and rich church life we will have if instead of just chatting or gossiping, we just pray!

Prayer is our ministry and also our living; furthermore, prayer is our work.

We work before the Lord and with the Lord much more through prayer than through doing things outwardly.

We may think that going to visit the saints and to preach the gospel is our work for the Lord, but the Lord considers our prayer, our hidden prayer with Him and our corporate prayer with the saints, as our real work.

The Lord can accomplish much more when we pray than when we work or do things for Him.

We may have a burden for the gospel, and we may burn in our hearts for those around us to be saved; before going and speaking to them, we first need to pray.

We need to pray on behalf of all men because God our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).

For Him to do this, we need to pray. Our prayer is required for the carrying out of God’s desire.

May we be those who are burdened to pray, pray, and have a prayer life.

May we turn our talking into praying so that we may have a proper church life.

Lord Jesus, we want to have a prayer life so that we may have a proper church life. May all our talking turn to praying. May we realize that prayer is more important than doing things outwardly for the Lord. Oh Lord, may we see that our real work, even the best work for the Lord, is that we pray! May we pray on behalf of all men, for God desires all men to be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth. May we be those who come to the Lord again and again, opening to Him about all things so that we may pray to fellowship with the Lord and worship Him. Amen, Lord, may we be those who petition God concerning specific things, specific needs that we see. Make us those who intercede for others, intervening before God on their behalf so that they may advance with the Lord. Amen, Lord Jesus, thank You for all things! Thank You for speaking to us and for infusing us with a burden to pray! Thank You, dear Lord Jesus!

Being those who Pray in Every Place, Lifting up Holy Hands, without Wrath and Reasoning

In 1 Tim. 1:8 Paul said that he desires that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and reasoning.

Amen, pray in every place! Amen, lifting up holy hands!

When we pray in every place, we should lift up holy hands.

What do holy hands signify? Does this mean that we need to physically lift up our hands when we pray?

Hands signify our doing; to lift up holy hands is to have a holy living.

Our living needs to be holy, sanctified, belonging to God. Having a holy life strengthens our prayer life (Heb. 12:14; Rom. 6:22; Heb. 12:10).

When we live a life in oneness with the Lord, opening to Him and allowing Him to sanctify us by saturating us with His holy element, we will have a holy living which strengthens our prayer life.

When we pray in the meetings, we will not perform or deliberately say things; we will spontaneously pray and lift up holy hands.

We need to have a holy living, a living that is pious (1 Pet. 1:14-16).

If we just live in the world, if we commit sin, and we live a common life, a worldly life, we cannot pray and lift up holy hands.

If our hands are not holy, if our living is not holy and for God, we have no supporting strength to pray, no holy hands to lift up in prayer.

In the church life and in our family life we should not be watchful over others to be critical of them; when we criticize others and point out their faults, our prayer life is killed.

We may try to open our mouth, but our prayer is without power if we criticize others.

Our prayer is without power and has no fruit. But we need to pray a fruitful prayer, an effective prayer.

If we live a holy life and have a holy life, our prayer will be effective.

May we all lift up holy hands and pray one with the Lord, having a holy living to strengthen our prayer.

Our prayer needs to be without wrath or reasoning, for wrath and reasoning kill our prayer.

Wrath is in our emotion, being the anger that rises up in us and many times explodes, and reasoning is in our mind, being the disputatious reasoning in our mind.

When we are angry, when we allow our anger to take over us in our exchange of words with our spouse, our prayer life is hindered, and we cannot lift up holy hands in prayer.

Our emotions and our mind must be regulated to be in a normal condition, under the control of the Spirit in our spirit.

Sometimes it is easy for us to be stirred up in our emotion and become angry, and other times we are just stirred up in our mind and have a disputatious reasoning.

We all are guilty of this sin.

We all have wrath and reasoning, and our reasoning is disputatious, it just wants to argue. Oh, Lord Jesus.

May we learn to close our eyes and lift up our hands so that we may be able to pray in every place, having a proper prayer life for the church life.

Others may do this or say that, but we need to simply close our eyes and turn to our spirit, lifting up holy hands to pray one with the Lord.

Someone may offend us or some things may upset us, but we need to turn to the Lord, contact Him, and lift up holy hands in prayer.

Our prayer life needs to be maintained and uplifted.

We need to even fight for our prayer life, for the enemy is very much against it.

Many times our prayer life is affected by our mood.

We may just not be in the mood to pray, for many things happen to affect our mood.

Anger destroys our prayer life, and so do disputatious reasonings.

If we lose our temper with our spouse, we may not be able to pray properly for a few days. Oh, Lord.

For us to have a proper prayer life, we need to learn not to be moody or angry with others.

Rather, we need to exercise our spirit and keep our wild emotions and wandering mind under the control of the Spirit in our spirit.

Our mind, our will, and our emotions need to be regulated by the Spirit in our spirit so that the Spirit would control and govern our inward being.

We shouldn’t just do things according to our free will, based on our emotions, and being led by our wandering mind.

Wild persons like this cannot pray.

May we come to the Lord again and again and allow Him to rule and reign in us, even to regulate our inner being, so that our mind may be renewed, our will may be subdued, and our emotions may be kept in check and balanced, for us to have a proper prayer life for the church life.

Lord Jesus, we want to be those who pray in every place, lifting up holy hands to God! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You to pray and to have a prayer life for the church life! We want to live a holy life so that we may have holy hands to strengthen our prayer life. We open to You, dear Lord. We give You our emotion with its outbursts of anger, loving so many other things, and being so cold toward You. Adjust us in our emotions and keep our emotions in check by the Spirit in our spirit. We give You our mind, Lord; we give You the tendency to have disputatious reasonings that affect our prayer life. Renew our mind and infuse Yourself into our mind to make it the mind of Christ. Oh Lord, save us from living and serving according to our mood! Save us from being moody or angry with others. We want to take the grace of the Lord with our spirit, exercise our spirit, and exercise strict control over our emotions so that we may live a holy life to lift holy hands in prayer to God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Timothy, pp. 28-35 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living and Serving According to God’s Economy Concerning the Church (2023 fall ITERO), week 4, entitled, A Proper Prayer Life for a Proper Church Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Learning to Pray Inquiring Prayers for God’s Work, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – 2 Timothy 2 – the whole chapter, Recovery Version Bible.
  – The essential practice of intimate prayer in fellowship with the Lord, a portion via, Local Church meetings.
  – What Does it Mean to Fan into Flame the Gift of God? More via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Living in Spirit to See New Jerusalem, article via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The prayer of life, a portion from, Lessons on Prayer, Chapter 14, by Witness Lee.
  – Three Aspects of Oneness in John 17 (1): Oneness In the Father’s Name By the Eternal Life, via, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Each time, Lord, when reading in Thy holy Word, / I pray that Thy glory may shine on each line, / That clearly I’ll see what a Savior I have / And how great salvation that Thou hast made mine. / When helpless I come, Lord, to kneel at Thy throne, / I pray Thee to hear me and grant me Thy grace; / If thru my shortcomings Thou hear not my prayer, / Withdraw not Thy presence, O hide not Thy face. (Hymns #389 stanza 3)
  – Pray to labor with the Lord; / Self-ambition and self-will / We must ever cast away, / All His purpose to fulfill. / Pray to labor with the Lord; / Let the Lord initiate / All the plan and all the work; / Then thru us He’ll operate. (Hymns #786 stanzas 3-4)
  – Freedom from pride and all sinful follies, / Freedom from love and glitter of gold; / Freedom from evil temper and anger, / Glorious freedom, rapture untold. / Freedom from fear with all of its torments, / Freedom from care with all of its pain; / Freedom in Christ my blessed Redeemer, / He who has rent my fetters in twain. (Hymns #310 stanzas 3-4)