Does It Matter Which Person of the Trinity We Pray to?

Does it matter which Person of the Trinity we pray to? Yes, I think it matters. But being wrong about doesn't mean that it's in the category of damnable sin and maybe not even in the category of sin at all.

The Holy Spirit is sent into the world, according to John 16, to glorify the Son. And he glorifies the Son by leading us to the Son and causing us to see the Son as the ground for our access to the Father. The Son came to die for our sins in order to bring us to God. So the pattern that you find almost uniformly-I say almost uniformly-throughout the New Testament is to pray to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. So we're said to pray "in the Spirit" in Ephesians 6:18. "Pray in the Spirit."

"Pray in the name of Jesus," I think means "on the basis of what Jesus has done to make our access to God possible," namely his blood and righteousness. So when I say, "In Jesus' name" at the end of a prayer, I mean "because Jesus died for me and rose again, covered my sins, and imparted and imputed righteousness to me, I have access to the Father." "Because of him"-that's what "In Jesus' name" means.

I know of no example or encouragement to pray... No, no, no. That's not true. I was going to say, "to pray to the Holy Spirit." But "Come Holy Spirit" is not an evil prayer to the Holy Spirit. "Come Holy Spirit."

But if you got into the habit of praying to the Holy Spirit all the time-"You're my Benefactor. I pray to you"-you would be out of sync with the pattern of the New Testament.

So my bottom line answer-and I've been asked this a lot-is to follow in general the pattern of the Bible, namely, pray to the Father in the name of Jesus by the power of the Spirit, that is, in reliance upon the help of the Spirit.

But, from time to time, "Maranatha! Lord Jesus, come!" is not a bad prayer. And "Holy Spirit, fall upon us and grant us a fresh baptism" is not a bad prayer.

So, in general, pray to the Father; but occasionally, to express their Personhood and your own love for them, telling the Spirit and the Son that you love them and that you would like them to come in fullness is a good thing.

Jesus prayed to the Father. Jesus never said, “worship me”. He said worship God the Father.

I follow the example Jesus set. He said to believe in him but he never said to worship him. That would be worshiping a man, even a divine man.

The prayer begins “Our Father who art in Heaven” for a reason.

RE: Jesus prayed to the Father. Jesus never said, “worship me”. He said worship God the Father.

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Jesus ACCEPTED people’s worship and never rebuked them for doing so.

Matthew 14:33 “Then those who were in the boat worshiped him Jesus, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

John 9:38 “Then the man said, ‘Lord Jesus, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”

The 10 Commandments which governed the life and worship of God’s people begin with the declaration of who God is and the commands to worship God alone and no one or nothing but Him (Exodus 20:1-17).

To worship anyone or anything other than the One True God as the incredibly sin of idolatry that is forbidden throughout the Bible.

But, Jesus freely welcomed other people to call Him God and worship Him as God without correcting or rebuking them for being in error. Therefore, Jesus acceptance of worship also proves that He is God.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” (John 1:1-4)

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14)

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