Praying to Initiate God’s Move by Having the Upper Room Consecration Today

“I desire therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and reasoning” (1 Tim. 2:8)

In the church life the leading ones, the more mature ones, need to take the lead to pray, and we all as the “all men” in 1 Tim. 2:8 need to pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and reasoning.

The sufficient and necessary condition to be met for God’s desire to be accomplished is prayer. When we pray, we are one with the Lord to intervene in other’s affairs before God and send “bombs” in the enemy’s territory to destroy his strategy, his tactics, and his deceiving of others.

Through prayer and intercession, we interfere with Satan – he is operating to frustrate the saints from growing in life and enjoying the Lord by causing them to be anxious, distracted, upset, or down.

When we pray in twos and threes, when we have the upper room consecration to pray for our brothers and sisters, we bind the enemy, release the saints, and God has a way to move.

We need to not only have the “seashore consecration” at our salvation but a further consecration, the upper room consecration, where we put all on the altar and we give ourselves to the Lord to pray one with Him the prayer He needs to end this age and bring in the kingdom!

Lord, for the sake of Your return and for Your final move in this age, cause us to be those who have the upper room consecration. Lord, make all the saints in all the local churches be those who offer You the prayer You need to come in and end this age, bringing in the kingdom age!

Men Pray in Every Place Lifting Up Holy Hands

Our hands symbolize our doing – we need to have a sanctified living, a living that belongs to God and is saturated with God, so that we may lift up holy hands to God when we pray!

Our holy life strengthens and upholds our prayer life – if our living is not in our spirit, not according to God, we cannot lift up holy hands when we pray.

For us to have a holy living, we need to get rid of wrath and reasoning – our emotion needs to be balanced, and our mind needs to be calmed down. We need to cool down our emotion and calm down our mind, and our will needs to be exercised that we may pray.

When we pray we shouldn’t be in our emotion or in our mind, but in our spirit and with our exercised will to pray one with God! We need to pray in every place, lifting up to God holy hands (strengthened and backed up by our holy living), without any wrath and reasoning!

All our Work Should Be Initiated by Prayer

In the book of Acts we see that all the works that the apostles did were initiated by prayer.

The book of Acts shows that the apostles never initiated any work without prayer; whenever they wanted to do something, they stopped themselves by their prayer, giving God a way to come into them, to fill them up, and to saturate their entire being.

Before the Lord’s death, the disciples had no interest in praying for spiritual things – rather, they would fall asleep when the Lord prayed, or they would contend which one is the greatest (Luke 22:40, 24, 45-46).

But after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, they were regenerated through the Lord’s breathing into them the Holy Spirit (John 20:22), and their spiritual condition was radically changed. They now had the burden to continue steadfastly with one accord in prayer for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to send the Spirit (Acts 1:14).

The apostles never initiated any work without prayer – whenever they wanted to do something, they prayed. They stopped themselves through prayer, and they gave God a way to come into them, to fill them up, saturate their entire being, and then do something through them!

Here are some of the works they did as recorded in Acts, all of which were initiated through prayer:

• The Pentecost was initiated by much and thorough prayer in the upper room for 10 days (see Acts 1:13-14; 2:1-4, 16-17a).
• The shaking of the earth and the empowering of the disciples for the preaching of the gospel in spite of persecution was initiated by prayer (Acts 4:24-31).
• The apostles gave themselves to prayer and ministry of the word – prayer first, and then the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4).
• The opening up of the door to the Gentiles began through the prayer of both Cornelius and Peter (Acts 10:9-16).
• When Peter was in prison, small groups of vital companions were praying in the homes all over Jerusalem, and the Lord released Peter from prison (Acts 12:4-14).
• The initiation of God’s move to the foreign lands began with five brothers praying until the Spirit sent two of them (Acts 13:1-4).
• The prison doors in Philippi were opened through the prayer of Paul and Silas while being in prison (Acts 16:23-26).
• Paul was praying in the temple when he received the commission to go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 22:17-21).

Having The Upper Room Consecration

The Lord Jesus promised He will send the Spirit to be with the disciples, and He didn’t tell them to pray for it – but the disciples got together, 120 of them, with the women and the men, and they prayed steadfastly for the Spirit to be poured out.

They had the “upper room consecration“, the further consecration needed for us to cooperate with God’s move (Acts 1:13-14; Rev. 3:18). Our God in heaven needs men on earth to cooperate with Him for the carrying out of His plan.

There are many believers on the earth, and there were many people Christ reached in His ministry on the earth – but only a handful, 120 of them, set themselves aside to pray for God’s move. Their whole being was held by the heavenly vision, and they dedicated everything in a practical way to God, at any cost.

The Lord’s move is with those who have the upper room consecration, those whose hearts have been touched and whose eyes have been opened to see God’s move and His desire.

It is a small number who see and give themselves to God for this, consecrating themselves for His move – but these ones will turn the world upside down and change the age!

God didn’t give us a plan, a mission, an organization, a budget, or an itinerary – He only wants men who initiate God’s move through prayer on their knees, prayer in one accord for the Lord’s move.

We need to “join God’s army” today by paying the price to have the upper room consecration and pray the prayer that will turn the age!

Lord, open our eyes to see Your desire to return and end this age. May we see Your heart’s desire, and may our hearts be touched. Gain the upper room consecration in us. Lord, we dedicate everything to You in a practical way! May we get together in twos and threes and pray one with You to bind and loose what You have bound and loosed in the heavens. Lord, gain the prayer in one accord for Your move. Gain the prayer that will end this age!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from brother Andrew Yu’s speaking in this message and portions in, The Heavenly Vision (ch. 6), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Prayer and the Lord’s Move, week 6 (entitled, A Praying Church in the Unique Stream of the Work of God).
• Further Reading: 1 Tim. 2:8 (footnotes 1, 2, 3, 4); Acts 1:14 (footnotes 1, 3).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # “With one accord” within an upper room / The faithful followers of Jesus met: / One was the hope of every waiting soul, / And on one object great each heart was set.
  # Lord, behold, all to Thee I yield, / Constrained this day / By compassions never failing, / Thy perfecting care.
  # God needs men who pray / … / They love not themselves; / But a willing sacrifice. / What they fear—offending God, losing His presence dear.
• Pictures source: with permission via, Inspiration Unlimited (Prayer and the Lord’s Move set).