Category Archives: Men’s prayer

Lifting up holy hands

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Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands [lit. palms] in Your name. [Psalm 63:4, NKJV]
כֵּ֣ן אֲבָרֶכְךָ֣ בְחַיָּ֑י בְּ֝שִׁמְךָ אֶשָּׂ֥א כַפָּֽי׃

Hear the voice of my supplications
When I cry to You,
When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary. [Psalm 28:2, NKJV]
שְׁמַ֤ע ק֣וֹל תַּ֭חֲנוּנַי בְּשַׁוְּעִ֣י אֵלֶ֑יךָ בְּנָשְׂאִ֥י יָ֝דַ֗י אֶל־דְּבִ֥יר קָדְשֶֽׁךָ׃

Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

Βούλομαι οὖν προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ, ἐπαίροντας ὁσίους χεῖρας χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογισμοῦ.

What happens when we lift our hands to the Lord? For myself, I find myself crying ‘Father..’, and beginning to pray. What happens if one also kneels down, as King Solomon did before all Israel in supplication:

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1 Timothy 2.8: what are we to pray for, first of all?

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I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; [1 Timothy 2:8, ESV]

Βούλομαι οὖν προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ἐπαίροντας ὁσίους χεῖρας χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογισμοῦ. [Nestle-Aland 28th ed.]

In 1 Timothy 2 verse 8, Paul instructs the men of Ephesus to pray, but he does not tell them what to pray for. The little Greek word οὖν, however, gives us the clue we need. In classical Greek, it was a particle of ‘retrospective reference’, which is to say that it recalled attention to something which has been said previously. By New Testament times, it could signify inference from what had been said previously, but it was also used to indicate continuation, or the resumption of the main theme.

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1 Timothy 2.8: the call to men to pray

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Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension. [1 Timothy 2:8, NASB]

Βούλομαι οὖν προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ἐπαίροντας ὁσίους χεῖρας χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογισμοῦ. [Nestle-Aland 28th ed.]

Paul calls the Christian men of Ephesus to prayer. The Greek word ἄνδρας used in this verse is the accusative plural of ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός, whose primary meaning according to BDAG (the leading New Testament Greek lexicon) is ‘an adult human male’, that is, ‘a man’ or ‘a husband’:

In verse 1, where Paul urged prayer to be made for all people:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, [ESV]

Παρακαλῶ οὖν πρῶτον πάντων ποιεῖσθαι δεήσεις προσευχὰς ἐντεύξεις εὐχαριστίας ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων,

the ‘people’ is standing for ἀνθρώπων, the genitive plural of ἄνθρωπος, whose primary meaning is given by BDAG as ‘a person of either sex’, that is, ‘a human being’:

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Why men’s prayer?

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First posted in 2011. Author: Mark Huckstep

Why should men pray together? Especially, why should men group together to pray (at certain set times) only with men? Shouldn’t our prayer meetings reflect our heterogeneous, mixed-gender society and Christian community?

Certainly the Jews and ancient Armenians separate men and women for times of prayer, but should we, Bible-believing Christians have meetings with only one gender represented?

The Bible instructs men to lift up holy hands in prayer – should not this be read as generic ‘people,’ ie ‘men and women’?

The benefit of praying together at certain times as men lies partially in the fact that men are put together differently to women – seeing the world through ‘masculine’ lenses – perhaps less intuitive than women, focusing instead on the structure of a problem, its relationship to other issues, and moving swiftly to proposed solutions. On the spiritual level men are more naturally warriors and can delight in spiritual warfare rather than simply enduring it.

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First things first

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Father of glory, we praise you and magnify your holy Name. We dedicate this web-site to you, Father, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and we ask you to help us to make it pleasing in your sight, full of love and wisdom and prayers of faith, anointed by your Spirit, and effective in fulfilling the purpose which you have for it. Father, forgive us our sins, strengthen us in our weakness, make us men of valour and humility and godliness. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

The purpose of this web-site is to release a men’s prayer movement, in accordance with the scripture:

Therefore I want the men in every place to pray lifting up holy hands, without wrath or dissension. [1 Timothy 2 v 8 NASV]

(The Greek word for man here is ἀνηρ meaning man specifically, not woman.)

and also with a prophetic word released by Jean Darnall in 1987 (if not before) that the first sign of the great spiritual awakening that is coming to the island of Britain will be a men’s prayer movement:

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