Lord, Teach Us To Pray!

"And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3, ESV). 
"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him" (John 4:24, ESV). 

The disciples saw the prayer life of Jesus in action and besought Him to share how they could partake of this privilege of intimate communion with God the Father.  If you will study all of Scripture, nowhere does it teach us the methodology of prayer or how to do it in a godly fashion.  There had been heroes of prayer like Moses, Elijah, Daniel, David, and other prophets, but they weren't teachers of prayer.  Obedient prayer with God is done in protocol with all due respect to any believer's prayer, but God is a God of order and design and Jesus did teach on the subject to give us a precedent.  only the Lord would be qualified to teach us how to pray to the Father because God is His Father.

The Father seeks such to worship Him, those who do so in the Spirit and in truth.  We are to go directly to the Father by virtue of Christ's name and authority--going to the top as it were!  The Father, who sees in secret will reward us.  There is no example of prayer by Paul or Peter of praying to anyone but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This doesn't preclude calling on the name of the Lord for salvation or deliverance in any capacity--for He's the Savior.  But our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son (cf. 1 John 1:3).  We must not put God in a box or make Him one-dimensional by limiting the scope of our prayer and denying the Godhead or triune God.  We pray in the name of the Son, in the power of the Spirit, unto the Father (cf. Eph. 2:18).  Jesus reiterated that no one comes to the Father, except through Him.

We have the right to address the Deity the way we choose, but ignorance is no excuse and we must have faith as the missing ingredient; however, corporate and personal prayer follow the template or paradigm of the ideal prayer, as given in the Lord's prayer.  We pray with Scriptural warrant and authority so as not to offend the weaker brethren who may be inclined to judge.  Remember, 1 Cor. 8:12 says we sin against our brother when we wound his conscience and our liberty is limited by his conscience.  The point is that, just because we have a right to do our own thing, it may not be wise but counterproductive.

God is more than a throwback to our need for a father figure, He's everything we need and can meet all our needs--we are never bankrupt when we have Him as an asset!  We all need to embrace God as our heavenly Father and become intimate with the Almighty as a matter of becoming a child of God.

CAVEAT:  WE ARE TO BEWARE OF CHARISMATIC LEADERS THAT LEAD THE FLOCK ASTRAY AND THE FLOCK LEARNS TO TRUST THEM INSTEAD OF SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES ON THE MATTER.  This is how heresies and cults begin--with the flock forsaking the truth and thinking sound doctrine and the truth doesn't matter--only singing kumbaya and being congenial does.  Soli Deo Gloria!  

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