Pray

There is clear evidence that the Christian faith has been seriously muddled up in our days. The confusion is so much that one who has some basic knowledge of the Scriptures cannot but ask if today’s Christians still read the Bible. I have heard Christians who profess to be born again and filled with the Holy Spirit praying to Jesus in the name of Jesus. It has therefore become necessary to examine the Scriptures and find out whom we, Christians, are expected to direct our prayers.  

What Jesus Christ Taught 

Our Lord Jesus Christ clearly taught the early believers as to whom they should address their prayers. 

In His sermon on the mount He taught His disciples to “pray to your Father” (Matt. 6:6, emphases added throughout). In verse 8, He said, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (NIV).  Then in verses 9 to 13, He gave them a model which has become christened as “the Lord’s prayer.” In verse 9, He taught them to direct their prayers to “our Father in heaven.” See also Luke 11 1-4. The Father is God, the one whom He called “My father and your Father, My God and your God” (John 20:17).  

Jesus Christ gave His followers the key to having their prayers answered. He taught that whatever those who believe in Him ask God, the Father, in His name, God will give it to them (John 15:16; 16:23-27). This is very important. Believers pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ. 

Christ’s Example   

Not only did Jesus teach that we should pray to God, He Himself prayed to God, the Father of all beings (Eph. 4:6). A few of the instances in which He prayed are:  

1. At Gethsemane, He prayed to God, saying, “My Father” (Matt. 26:39). He went to pray a second time that night and said, “My Father, if this [cup of death] cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” (v. 42).   
2. In His last moment on the cross, Jesus prayed with a loud voice saying, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).  
3. In the course of His ministry, He raised Lazarus from death. At the tomb where Lazarus was laid, He prayed to God and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me…” (John 11:41,42).   

In the Gospels, there are 25 records of Jesus Christ praying to the Father, Lord of the heavens and the earth. Our Lord has therefore not only taught whom we should pray, He has left for us practical examples in prayer, that we may follow in His steps (John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21). 

To Whom Did Early Christmas Pray?    

Having seen the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ on prayer, it is necessary to examine some examples as to whom the early believers directed their prayers.  

1. Not long after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven the Jewish religious leaders started persecuting His disciples. God healed a lame man through the hands of Peter and John and this good act got them into trouble. The Jewish rulers threatened them and warned them never to preach again in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:18). After they were released, they told the other disciples what had happened. They gathered together and prayed. To whom did they pray?  “They lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord…”  (Acts 4:24, ESV). Twice in their prayer, they told God that the persecutors were in fact persecuting, not themselves but, “your holy servant Jesus” (vv. 27,30). There is no doubt that they directed their prayers to God.  
2. Paul the Apostle wrote to the Colossian believers that he and his companions always prayed and gave thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ on their behalf (Col. 1:3). He also wrote to them in Colossians 3:17 that “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him” (NIV).  We know that thanksgiving is a vital part of prayer.  
3. To the Philippians, Paul wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil. 4:6, NIV).   
4. He also wrote to the Ephesians that they should “give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20, NLT) In the same epistle to the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “I kneel in prayer to the Father. All beings in heaven and on earth receive their life from him” (Eph. 3:14-15, CEV).  

Also, in the same epistle, he wrote, “that is why since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks to God for you. I always remember you in my prayers, asking the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you will know him better” (Eph. 1:15-17, NCV).  

These Bible passages leave us with no doubt that Christians should pray to God, the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

The Son of God, Jesus Christ was sent by God into the world to reconcile the sinful world to God. He is the way to God, and He is the mediator between men and God. The salvation of God is given and obtainable through Him. It is therefore not surprising that we pray to God in his name. The term “in His name” simply means we direct our prayers to God through Him. He said, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you (John 15:16; 16:23). This is a fundamental spiritual key to having our prayers answered by God. We cannot afford to neglect or alter this divine formula. 

To all my fellow Christians who pray to Jesus, we have seen that such a practice is inconsistent with biblical truth. We do not honour the Lord Jesus Christ by praying to Him. We are rather disobedient to His teachings when we do so. We demonstrate our love for Him when we do what He has taught and commanded (John 14:15).  

As Christians who have come to know the truth, we recognize the fact that the false doctrines of Trinity and Modalism have contributed so much to the distortion of biblical truth in Christendom. And until any Christian is helped to see the falseness of these two doctrines, such a person will not be liberated from the confusion they created in the minds and lives of those they have held hostage. These two doctrines are satanic seeds of confusion. But God is not the author of confusion but of peace (1 Cor. 14:33).  

Jesus Christ has said that whatever He taught were according to what God Himself had instructed Him to teach (John 7:16; 12:48-50). To teach anything different from what Christ has taught amounts to a rejection of the truth. Apostles Paul and Peter said that anyone who teaches anything different from what Christ had taught is proud but knows nothing (1 Tim. 6:3; 2 Peter 3:16). 

Added to this is the fact that many professing Christians have become apathetic to the correct biblical teaching which is due mainly to the evil works of their false teachers. Over a long period of time, false teachers feed their unsuspecting followers with powerful doses of their false doctrines through clever manipulations. Some of the teachers of falsehood had ignorantly believed in the false doctrines they teach. They teach them with sincerity of heart believing the doctrines to be biblical and true. But it is not enough for Christian teachers to be sincere; they must be diligent diggers for the whole truth. This is the only way of avoiding belief in falsehood and teaching them to others.   

Today, there are millions of Christians in the denominations who are fast falling away from the true faith without their knowing it. May God set free the multitude of people who have been held hostage by false teachers through their deadly and damnable doctrines. Amen.  

For us who know the truth, there is only one God and the one God is the Father (1 Cor. 8:6). He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 20:17; Eph. 1:17; Rev. 3:12). All prayers are made to this one God. By His side is His only begotten Son, Jesus, whom He made Lord [or Ruler] and Christ [anointed Deliverer]. God is the only Being who is greater than His Son (John 14:28; 1 Cor. 15:27,28). The Father is the only one who is above all beings and is called the Almighty, the Most High [God] and God of gods. He is Supreme over everyone, including our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 11:3). This one God is not the surmised Trinitarian “one God” who is a conglomerate of three gods – the Father plus the Son plus the Holy Spirit.  The one God is not a Trinity. He is a singular Being called “the Father” because He is the one who gives life to all beings in heaven and on earth, including our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:6; 3:14, 15).

For Christians who have not been fooled, the teaching seen in the New Testament is that all who believe in the Son of God should pray to God in the name, or on the authority, of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. If anyone argues against this truth, he or she is contending against God Himself.  

The biblical evidence as to whom we should pray is clear and convincing. If anyone does otherwise, it means that either the person has not read the New Testament or is deliberately failing or refusing to obey the truth.  Such a person may not have his or her prayers answered.

I cannot but end this article by expressing my utter bewilderment at so-called Christians who never get convinced by the weight of biblical evidence and go on to say that the name of the one God is Jesus Christ. Have they not read John 20:17 where our Lord said God is His God and Father?  Have they not read Rev. 3:12 where, from heaven after His glorification, our Lord laid a superlative emphasis on the fact that the Father is His God? How do they interpret Eph. 1:17 where Apostle Paul called the Father the God of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have they not read Apostle Peter’s witness that the Father is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3)? Have they not read John’s own witness that the Father is His [Christ’s] God and Father (John 20:17, Rev. 1:6)? How logical is it to say that Jesus Christ is the name of the God who is “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ”?  (Please see a similar line of argument between Jesus Christ and the Pharisees in Matthew 22: 41-46). Let the Modalists answer the questions I have asked in this paragraph.  

All the apostles testified to the fact that God is the God and Father of all beings, including our Lord Jesus Christ. They gave their testimonies to this truth because they heard it from the mouth of Jesus Christ Himself.  

But after the death of all the first apostles of Christ, and true to the prophetic parable of the Lord Himself, Satan entered the field of God and sowed “tares” of false doctrines in the field where Jesus Christ and His apostles had sown the true doctrine of God.   Today, we see men professing to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, yet they cannot discern between falsehood and truth, however glaring the differences may be. We see “Christians” openly contradict the sound word of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see highly respected “men of God” teach contradictory doctrines like Trinity and Modalism and no one dares ask them a question. Today, we see many who profess to be “men of God” but their worldliness and profanity stinks to the heavens.   Of a truth, the mystery of iniquity which has been at work since the time of the apostles is amazing. But I thank God that His mighty power is also at work in the lives of those who are faithful and diligent seekers after the truth.