One thing that did not make it into Sunday’s message was the
subject of which member(s) of the Trinity it is appropriate to pray to? The Lord’s Prayer begins with the
words, “Our Father in heaven…” Are
we to pray only to God the Father or is it also okay to pray to God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit?
Not long ago, I heard a respected Bible teacher say that the
dominant New Testament pattern is to pray to the Father in the name of the Son
in the power of the Spirit. This
made sense as I did a quick mental review of New Testament theology. In John 16:23, Jesus indicated that
after His departure, the disciples would pray to the Father “in my name.” Eph 5:20 also shows this pattern,
exhorting us to give thanks “to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” If we were to look at all
the prayers in the New Testament, we would find that it is usually the case
that prayer is addressed to the Father.
However, looking at all the prayers in the New Testament
might give us a skewed view of this because the majority of the prayers in the
New Testament were prayed by Jesus, who obviously would not pray to
Himself. A close look shows that
there is evidence that it is appropriate to pray to the Son. It is to Jesus that Stephen prayed in
Acts 7:59, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Paul addresses a prayer to God the Son in 1 Cor 16:22,
writing, “Our Lord, come!” In the
message on Sunday, I mentioned the prayer of the apostle John at the end of
Revelation, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
This would indicate that it is acceptable to pray to either
the Father or the Son. But what
about the Holy Spirit? Well, we do
not find any prayers in Scripture addressed to the Holy Spirit, but we also do
not find any passage forbidding such prayers. The Holy Spirit is a person, and He relates to us in a
personal way as our “Helper”. In
John 14:16, Jesus tells the disciples, “And
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you
forever.” He goes on to note
that His disciples “know” the Spirit and that the Spirit would teach them all
things (John 14:17, 26). Paul
teaches that the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children
of God (Rom 8:16). Because the
Spirit relates to us in such personal ways, it would seem strange for it to be
improper for us to talk to Him.
So there is explicit material in the New Testament
supporting communicating directly with the Son and no material forbidding
speaking directly to the Holy Spirit.
For me personally, I would feel free to pray directly to either
one. That being said, because the
predominant pattern in the New Testament is to address prayer to the Father, I
think praying to the Father should be the main emphasis in our prayer
life.
Posted by Greg Birdwell
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