Lord's Prayer #3 - Who Should We Pray To...Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit?

Digging Deeper into the Lord’s Prayer:

Jesus said…. “Pray, then, in this way, Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  (Matt 6:9 NASU)

To whom should we pray, the Father, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

By His model prayer Jesus told us that “the way to pray” is to our Father. His mission on earth was to reconcile us to our Father.

2 Cor 5:19 NASU

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, So, while Jesus is always “Lord” to us, and Master and Savior, He is most satisfied when we are reconnected and relating to His Father and ours.  Here is more of what Jesus says on the subject.

John 16:25-27 NASU   

25 "These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. 26 "In that day you will ask in My name (meaning ask the Father), and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf: 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. 

For that reason, I tend to feel more comfortable praying directly to the Father in the Name of Jesus, rather than making my requests to Jesus.  I do often thank Jesus directly for His great sacrifice on my behalf. 

Be Careful Who You Correct

I wouldn’t correct anyone who might call out directly to Jesus.  If I was to do that I would have to correct Stephen the martyr for calling on Jesus in that intimate moment just before his spirit ascended to Jesus.

Acts 7:58-60 NASU

59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" 60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" Having said this, he fell asleep.

What about praying directly to the Holy Spirit? 

I have not personally found any record in the Bible where a person spoke to the Holy Spirit in prayer.  (It may be that I just haven’t found it yet.)  I know that we sing to Him and pray to Him often in our churches, but still that just might be our modern church practice rather than what is the best. 

I also know, however, that there are believers much more fruitful than I am, such as ….

     1. Pastor Cho in Korea with the largest church in the world and

     2. Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke with about 60 million conversions at his meetings

These two men of God commonly call on the Holy Spirit directly with powerful results.  For me personally, most of the time I think I’ll just stick with the example in the model prayer of praying to our Father.