How To Address The Deity Or The Godhead

I have heard prayers to every kind of deity imaginable as a Christian, having had fellowship with many factions, sects, and denominations.    The Mormons, for instance, like to think of God just as their "Heavenly Father."  They put God in a box, and fail to see Him as Redeemer, Judge, and Counselor as well.  God is multifaceted like a diamond and we shouldn't just see God as "the man upstairs,"  the "Great Spirit in the Sky" or "the Old Man," for instance.  We don't invoke God like the Greek pagans, who said, "O mighty Zeus, judge of the right, protector of the innocent, power behind the lightning bolt, ad infinitum; we don't try to butter up God, but simply call on Him as He gave us the right to do via Jesus' instruction in the Sermon on the Mount.

Suppose one person addressed the president as President so-and-so, another as John, and another as Dad; who do you suppose had the greatest privilege and intimacy?  There is power in knowing God as Father, and we have the right to be called the children of God (John 1:12).  In prayer, how would you feel if someone prayed in the name of the "Man Upstairs?"  Wouldn't it show more respect and intimacy to use Jesus' name?  Angels don't even have this authorization to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit--which is our formula for prayer,  Let your prayers show your intimacy with the Almighty and not alienation or unfamiliarity.  We go to the top, and the Most High has an open-door policy for us.

"...I write to you dear children because you have known the Father" (1 John 2:14).
"So if you call God your Father..." (1 Pet. 1:7).

God has given us His covenant names to claim and to realize His divine nature, but He loves it when we address Him simply as "[Our] Father" (this is the most honorable appellation He has given us as His children--see 1 John 3:1).  Note:  There is no universal fatherhood of God--only believers can claim God as their  Father.  When Jesus introduced this, it was radical and revolutionary; it was a breakthrough and taking new ground or territory spiritually.  "The Spirit cries out with our spirit, Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15). Per contra popular thought, Abba doesn't mean "Daddy," though abi does.   We have this divine privilege that angels don't have a family!  We are adopted into God's family and born of the Spirit.  If we pray simply:  "O God in heaven," it sounds like we don't know our Lord very well.

Surely God is in heaven, but He is here too! "Am I only a God nearby, and not a God far away?" says Jeremiah 23:23.   He is the "YHWH Shamah" or "the LORD who is there."  Case in point:  "Surely the LORD was in this place and I knew it not."  God is the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord is upon us to pray "in the Spirit" (Jude 20). The formula, I reiterate, and that the Bible sanctions are to pray in the name of the Son, in the power of the Spirit,  to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Note that I am not saying we cannot intersperse other forms of address in our prayer, like LORD God, but the primary focus is on His Fatherhood.

We are to "boldly approach the throne of grace" as Hebrews 4:16 exhorts and have faith.  When we take ourselves too seriously and take our eyes off of Jesus it is hard to penetrate His dimension ("Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise" per Psalm 100:4).   Jesus ushers us into the very throne room of God and we have access and the right to go to the top with God's "open-door policy."  Jeremiah 3:19 says that God was disappointed that Israel didn't call Him "Father"  ("I thought you would call Me Father.") Father is a term of endearment or gesture of intimacy.

When Jesus cried out, "My God, my God," he felt distant from His God and Father. There is no greater honor (every human father is proud to have his son call him Dad and would be insulted if he were called "Mr. so-and-so," or even "Sir");  there is no greater privilege.  We should take advantage of this right and not feel estranged from God anymore.  When we pray we are to "put on the Lord Jesus" and that means to pray as a SON!

In conclusion:  It is not wrong to pray to Jesus or the Holy Spirit (though it is sinful to pray to any saint or invoke the Virgin Mary, which is Mariolatry); but there is little precedent for praying to Jesus (the text in John 14:13-14 is dubious),  or the Holy Spirit it in Scripture and we should really pray as the Lord taught us in obedience.  We are ushered into the dimension of God, His very throne room, and presence, by the virtue of Jesus' redemption on our behalf.

The scriptural formula is expressed in Eph. 2:18, NKJV:  "For through Him we both have access by one spirit to the Father."  Soli Deo Gloria!

Knowing Your God

"If man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?  If man is made for God, why is he opposed to God?" says Blaise Pascal, quoted by Billy Graham, who calls this our "dilemma." If you've ever felt that God is keeping a low profile like the psalmist in Psalm 89:46, "How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever?"  "...He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him": (Heb. 11:6).  Francis Schaeffer said that Christianity is "about the God who is there."  If you have wondered about this, read on.

Sometimes God seems MIA or missing in action; even Job replied, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him" (Job 23:3). Also in Job:  "Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night?"(Cf. Job 35:10)   We all have at sometimes wondered of the "whereabouts" of God, but James says, "Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto thee" (James 4:8).  It is our fault if we don't find Him.  Isaiah says that God conceals Himself, though He reveals Himself:  "Truly You are a God who has been hiding Yourself" (Isaiah 45:15).   God will be found by those who are not even seeking Him too, according to Isaiah 65:1 which says, "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me: I was found by those who did not seek me."  God doesn't take triflers seriously if you want to really know God.  Your testimony must be:  "I was lost, but now am found."   We do not find God in reality, He finds us!  No one can come close to God and remain unchanged!  "Seek the LORD, and live..." (Amos 5:6).

I quote Daniel 11:32 as follows:  "...but the people who know their God will display strength and take action [other translations render it:  do exploits or firmly resist him, i.e., the opposition]."  To know God is to love God and the highest calling we have is to know God:  "...but let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows Me..." (Jeremiah. 9:24).  God will authenticate Himself to you because God is no man's debtor.   When we find God--and as Pascal said, "I would not have found Him, had He not first found me,"  We must be prepared for an encounter and reckoning.  How can we know God?  First, we must seek Him with our whole heart-- "Prepare to meet thy God," says Amos 4:12.  This is always true; we never know when or how we will meet and confront our God.

Let us look at the wisdom of Job:  "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace!" (Job 22:21).  It wasn't until Job actually acknowledged God that he was truly humbled and realized his self-righteousness.  Hosea's theme is to know the Lord, even though we are backslidden:  "Let us know the LORD, let us press on to know the LORD" (Hosea 6:3).  God's main peeve against Israel was that there was "no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1).  What is true worship?  Read Hosea 6:6 which I quote:  "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."

To know God we must seek Him with our whole heart.  Jeremiah 29:13 verifies this:  "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."  Isaiah offers similar advice:  "Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6).  Hosea says "...For it is time to seek the LORD..." (Hosea 10:12).  In seeking God, He wants us to acknowledge Him and His presence.  One of God's names is YHWH Shammah, or "the LORD who is there, (Ezek. 48:35). Paul says to the Corinthians:  "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells is in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16).

Some people think that everyone is on a mad quest to find God! In reality, they are trying to get the benefits without the Benefactor!  God says that there "is none that seeks Him" (Rom. 3:11).  The search for God begins at salvation, according to R. C. Sproul, not before salvation, because God finds us, who are lost sheep.  Jonathan Edwards proclaimed seeking God as the main business of the Christian life.

The promise that He will be found is in Matthew 7:7 said by Jesus Himself:  "....seek and you shall find...."  "The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him":  (Lamentations 3:25).  Here are two promises:  "If you seek Him He will let you find Him." and "O LORD, You have not forsaken those who seek You"  (Psalm 9:10b).  A warning to the wise is sufficient:  "He did evil because he did not set his heart on seeking the LORD" (2 Chr. 12:14).  Even Hezekiah, the godliest king of Judah, sought the LORD in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 when threatened by Assyria's armies.

If you put God in a box, you will not find Him; you are restricting Him, like saying:  "I  just like to think of God as the Great Spirit in the Sky or as the Heavenly Father, or the Man Upstairs--well do you see what I mean?  We must be willing to acknowledge God for who He is and that means accepting the truth no matter where it leads--you will not ever find the truth if you are not willing to go where the facts lead and admit you could be wrong.

The highest calling we can have is to know God and the most rewarding relationship is our one with Him--if we pass this on to our children in passing the torch we have done our duty as a generation. Knowing God makes you strong in your faith and able "to do exploits" and not falter in faith.  The ultimate goal of knowing God is to be like Him or to be sanctified.  Jesus said, that He came "not to be served, but to serve" (Cf. Mark 10:45)  It is the same with us, in that we will have a servant's heart and realize that true greatness is not in how many people serve you, but in how many people you serve.

God is both transcendent and immanent (distant or removed and near):  "'Am I a God who is near,' declares the LORD, 'And not a God far off?'  'Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?' declares the LORD.  'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD." God is not bound by the time-space continuum and confined to our dimensions.

The only relationship that fully satisfies and fully rewarding is one with our Maker (we are made for Him and can only find happiness in Him); and we are like a vacuum that only God can fill, according to Blaise Pascal, and Augustine also said that our hearts have a need that only God can satisfy [paraphrased].   Paul said to the Philippians:  "... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10).   The ultimate questions are:  "How big is your God?"  The answer is that to know Him is to love Him!  The biggest challenge you can give is to live for something bigger than yourself and your concept of God affects this--don't think small, but aim high with God on your side!
Soli Deo Gloria!