Who should I pray to - the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit?
Rev Charlie (December 2021)
This question is raised surprisingly often and it’s a very good question.
To answer it we should seek guidance from the person who had the most intimate and powerful prayer life in the whole of human history; that person is of course Jesus.
When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray he said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven…”
(Lk. 11:2) Jesus prayed to the Father and he encourages his followers to do the same. Most praying people are familiar with this approach. It is also very common to finish a prayer with, ‘In Jesus’ name, Amen’ or words to that effect. This too has biblical warrant; in John 14: 13-14, Jesus promises to do whatever we ask in his name. This way of closing a prayer reminds us that we only have access to the God the Father, through God the Son. In other words, it is by Jesus’ authority, access and relationship that we come to the Father.
So where does God the Holy Spirit fit into all this? Well, Ephesians 6: 18 says, ‘And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.’ This means that our prayers are offered in the power of the Holy Spirit, without whom we would have no inclination to pray in the first place.
We therefore have a solid foundation for praying to the Father, through Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit. This should probably be our normative pattern of prayer, however, there is no reason why we can’t offer prayers directly to Jesus or the Holy Spirit and there are sometimes very good reasons for doing so.
The Holy Spirit is a person to whom particular roles are attributed, for example, convicting the world of sin (Jn. 16: 7-8), bringing unity (Eph. 4: 3) and giving spiritual gifts to God’s children (1 Cor. 12:4). It would therefore be reasonable to pray to the Holy Spirit if, for example, there were disunity in your church or family. You might pray, ‘Holy Spirit, please bring love, peace and unity to our fractured family.’
There is also a precedent for praying to Jesus and let’s face it, it would not have made sense for Jesus to pray to himself. One of the oldest prayers of the church is Maranatha, or ‘Come Lord [Jesus]’ (1 Cor. 16: 22). When Steven was being stoned to death he cried, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7: 59) Crying out to Jesus is an instinctive reaction in times of extreme stress or anguish. Moreover, it makes sense to thank Jesus directly for loving us, even to the point of death on a cross.
In conclusion, it is perfectly acceptable to address our prayers to God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. Although distinct persons, they are all equally God. However, as a guiding principle (not a rule), it is good to have a pattern of prayer which accords with Jesus’ explicit teaching on the subject. That is to pray to God the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
