The Methodology Of Prayer...

"We both have access to the Father through Christ by one Spirit" (Eph. 2:18, CEV). 
"But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matt. 6:6, HCSB). 
"... 'I assure you: Anything you ask the Father in My name, He will give you'" (John 16:25, HCSB).  
"When ye pray, say, our Father" (Luke 11:2, KJV).  

In the spirit of the Reformation:  "I dissent, I disagree, I protest!"  We are not captive to church dogma and each of us has a right to interpret Scripture.  

NB:   We all should pray as if it all depends on God, but work like it depends on us!  Both Arminian and Calvinist would concur.  

Christians have the prerogative to pray in Christ's name, using His authority, to access the throne room of the Father (cf. Heb. 4:16), and boldly in the Spirit at that!  Most Christians are timid in their prayers and don't pray like sons but like servants!  Jesus told us to pray like this when praying corporately as His body:  "Our Father in heaven..."  Jesus had the audacity to claim God as His unique Father, even though Jews had considered themselves children of God, this was a bold assertion to claim.  It seemed He was making Himself equal to God, calling God His Father.

"And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba, Father!' So you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son, then an heir through God" (Gal. 4:6, HCSB).  We need to lay hold of our divine privilege as a child of God and enjoy the right to access God's dimension in the third heaven.  "The argument from silence in that the Bible doesn't forbid praying to Jesus is flimsy and flakey at best and almost anything could be proved with such dialectic.  It should be plain that we ought to pay due respects to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving Him due honor to whom honor is due as we engage the potential of the full Godhead.

The only biblical template for prayer is the Lord's prayer despite its over-familiarity, it is not meant to be a recitation nor a to make prayer look like a cakewalk.  By and large, there are no hard-and-fast rules for prayer procedure except that it be done in the divine formula of access to God, whether assumed and conscious or not.  Jesus seemed to espouse certain conditions for prayer or protocol and never deferred to the tradition of the elders.  There is no correct or set way or pattern to pray in that God does hear all believers' prayer, but the power is in the equipping of the saints in knowing to whom we are praying and availing ourselves of the rights of sons and daughters of God.  However, there exists proper etiquette with God or S.O.P. for all things are to be done in an orderly fashion per 1 Cor. 14:40.  "For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father" (Eph. 2:18, HCSB).  This means that all three persons of the Godhead or Deity are involved in our prayers! Thus, efficacious prayer avails with the concerted work of the tri-personality (the three personas of the Godhead).

Just like in creation being done cooperatively all three members of the Trinity co-equally involved; i.e., from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.  The Trinity accomplished our salvation:  the Father authored, purposed, and planned it; the Son executed, accomplishes, and fulfilled it, and the Spirit applies and makes it known all in concert!  Basically speaking, the Father originates or initiates; the Son reveals and makes manifest, and the Holy Spirit executes, fulfills, and applies.  Likewise, the whole Trinity is cooperating in our prayer life:  we pray addressed to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit!  We are exhorted to always pray "in the Spirit."  Jesus' involvement means more than attaching His name to the end with the formula "in Jesus' name" for good measure as if it's a magic formula or hokum.

Prayer can be summed up:  we pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, in the power of the Spirit.  We look to Scriptural warrant and precedent for examples to echo in prayer.  Paul showed powerful prayers to the Father.  He went to the  TOP!   In the Old Testament, and we are not living in the Old Testament, they prayed to the LORD God of Israel, for instance, but we have a more revealing person to address a prayer to now that we know Jesus.  Jesus set the example in praying to the Father and the Lord's prayer is likewise.

However, we must not forget that it is in Him that we have such access to the Father and He has given us a license to pray in His authority.  As Eph. 3:12, HCSB, says, "In Him we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him."  Just like knowing a person intimately gives us power in communication and fellowship, even giving us boldness in requests, so knowing the Father and availing our rights as a child of God gives us power in prayer, so it is like putting God in a box to see Him as only one person of the Godhead and not as a triune Being working in synergy.  Sometimes it is appropriate to address Jesus directly in prayer, but He is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory and we have the right to go to the top as it were and use His authority as a passkey to heaven's very throne room of grace.

Famous quotable lines worth noting:    "When you can't stand life, kneel!:  "Crises have kept me on my knees!"  "Pray as if everything depends on God; work as if everything depends on you!":  "Better heart without words than words without heart!"  "I have often gone to my knees, simply because there was no place else to go!"  "When it is hardest to pray, pray the hardest!"  "Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees!"

NB:  The Oneness Pentecostals or Apostolic Pentecostals deny the Trinity and have done away with the Father and have reverted to old heresy of modalism and are pejoratively referred to as the "Jesus only" movement.  This is a red flag that those who value sound doctrine are leary of.  Praying without biblical precedence opens Pandora's box and is highly problematic.  

 A word to the wise is sufficient:  tradition must bow to conviction and we do not interpret Scripture in light of experience or feeling, but experience and feeling in light of Scripture.  One of the battle cries of the Reformation was sola Scriptura or Scripture alone (as our authority); we must appeal to Holy Writ to settle all doctrinal matters and not tradition; the Catholic faith exalts tradition as equal status to the Bible, and this is one thing that distinguishes Protestants.  Tradition must be concordant with Scripture!  

One need not fear they're out of their league or that their prayers are anemic, because God sees the heart and the Spirit translates our prayers!  

NB:  Paul the apostle was always careful to give the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ his due and reverent attention in addressing the Godhead in prayer.  Indeed, the historical orthodox doctrine has been to address the Father in all prayer in Jesus' name in the power of the Spirit.  Paul exhorts us in 1 Cor. 4:6 HCSB, emphasis mine:  "...' nothing beyond what is written.'"  

NB:  People act out their faith for four reasons:  reason--it sounds logical; emotion--it feels good; culture--everyone does it; tradition--we've always done it.  But Christianity is countercultural and challenges us to throw down the gauntlet and cross the Rubicon of the truth based solely on the Word of God.  

CAVEAT:  IGNORING SCRIPTURAL PRECEDENTS FOR THE SAKE OF TRADITION OR CUSTOM IS THE GATEWAY TO HERESY AND EXALTING TRADITION ABOVE OR EQUAL TO SCRIPTURE AS ROMANISM ESPOUSES.   

Jesus Himself taught us how to pray corporately or as a church:  "Our Father who is in heaven...."   And I take His Word at face value.  God is more than a projection or throwback to our need for.a father figure but is our all in all through the Trinity.  It is true that some have rejected God on this account for they had no father figure or thought God was just a throwback to our need for one.  Our heavenly Father knows our hearts and we need to have that more than a doctrine of prayer by all means.  However, we ought to be obedient to the plain teaching of Scripture and realize this is to our advantage to see prayer the way God does.  (The principle for Bible interpretation is that we interpret the obscure in light of the plain and what may be implied in light of what is obvious--the implicit in light of the explicit.)

We all should inquire and do some soul searching as to whether we know the Father and can say that we are His children.  If we pray only to one member of the Godhead without regard to others, we are unduly discriminating and should wonder whether it's warranted or Scriptural and if we know the Father; e.g., imaging the pastor praying thus:  "O God..." Wouldn't this be sufficient to conclude he isn't familiar with the Father or even the Lord and seems estranged or alienated from a distant God--perhaps to a foreign God or unknown God?  God invites us to call Him Father even in the Old Testament:  see Jeremiah 3:19, ESV, which says,  "... And I thought you would call me, My Father...."

"Now to Him who has power to strengthen you ...  according to the command of the eternal God ... to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ--to Him be the glory forever!  Amen." (Rom. 16:25-27,  HCSB, italics and boldface mine).   

There are conditions for effective prayer:  Praying according to God's will; entering His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; abiding in Christ's Word; being thankful, confessing known sin, and having faith that He will answer!  Prayer is successful when it changes you not God, who doesn't need change and cannot change.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Praying Like A Son

"Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:6). We are to avail ourselves of the whole Trinity in our prayers, utilizing the power of the Spirit, the authority of the Son, to approach the Father.  We often accept the lordship of Christ (which is usually exercised through the body, the church), but often fail to realize our potential and privilege to step into the Father's presence and accept His Fatherhood.

When we pray we should pray as if it all depends on God and we should live as if it all depends on us.  But how many of us pray like Jesus meant us to incorporate our sonship rights and privileges to claim what is ours in Christ?  Some pray to unknown deities or generic titles, not really knowing to whom they are praying ("O God..."); this sounds like they hardly know their Savior--which member of the Godhead do they mean?  Any god would suffice in such a case and it is not specific enough to show our familiarity with the Godhead as we employ the proper formula for prayer:  to the Father, in the name of the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Why not go to the top?  The Father is the Most High and He has an open-door policy with us so that we can gain access or entree in His Son's name.

The true son of God is acquainted with the Father in prayer and utilizes the filling of the Holy Spirit to pray with power.  "Pray in the Spirit," says Jude.  Some believers are indeed servants of the Lord, but Jesus commanded us to pray to the Father (He doesn't give recommendations or suggestions).  In the church body or assembly of believers, it is only appropriate to pray as taught and any violation is disobeying God, not just some doctrine.   "...' You shall call Me, My Father.." (Jer. 3:19 NASB).  I once went to a Bible camp where Pentecostals prayed to Jesus;  I objected and insisted on praying to my Father in heaven.  It is absolutely to pray for the salvation or sinner's prayer to the Lord Jesus, though.  Remember that God is not the author of confusion, but a God of order, organization, and authority! "Let everything be done decently and in order," says Paul to the Corinthians.

 Satan knows we are children of the King and tries to confuse us and derail our victory in prayer.  We are "Children of the Heavenly Father," as the hymn goes.  Putting on Christ means to assume our sonship and pray like a son with boldness:  "Let us boldly approach the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16).  We don't have to beg God; He is more than pleased to hear our requests and petitions.  This is faith, not a presumption on our part.

Note that God hears and answers all the prayers of the saints and our prayers demonstrate our relationship and familiarity with our God.  A disputed verse that some "Jesus only" believers use is John 14:14 that says, "If you ask Me anything in My name I will do it."  The word "Me" is not in all manuscripts and is in question, and even if it is there, it is not wrong to pray to Jesus, per se, but we should also pray to our Heavenly Father as taught on the Sermon on the Mount in obedience.

Finally, we must have the attitude that we don't need a study on prayer or a course, but just need to pray!  "I don't have a theology on prayer, I just pray!"  You already know enough to be a prayer warrior and this study is only how we get started in addressing God in a biblical manner. Now, in conclusion, avail yourself of your God-given rights to pray as a son and take advantage of the opportunities it affords in everyday prayer!   Soli Deo Gloria!

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!

How Should We Address The Most High?

"...I write to you, dear children because you have known the Father"  (1 John 2:13).  Act and pray like you know Him!  We invoke the name of the Father who is on the throne ruling in heaven and can call Him Lord and God, but we have the sole privilege of also calling Him "Father."  We should never invoke the names of saints or "The Blessed Mother or Virgin Mary."  Only God hears prayer!
"To You who hear prayer, to You all men will come"  (Psalm 65:2).  The vital thing is that we know the one we are praying to and have a relationship with Him.

I have been around a lot in different so-called Christian circles and have heard many types of prayer. My earliest recollections are of going to a charismatic Bible camp and everyone praying to Jesus.  I told them that I pray to the Father like Jesus told us to.  They thought I was a kook.  I'm not saying that Jesus doesn't hear prayer, but that in the Lord's Prayer the precedent is to pray to the Father in heaven.  They can point to the example of the first martyr Stephen praying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  But I don't see any conflict of interest or contradiction at all--of course, He can receive our spirits upon our demise.   Show me one legitimate example of a prayer in the New Testament to Jesus,  We are to pray to the Father (our spirits cry out, "Abba, Father"), in the name of Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit--that's the formula.  And so we should pray to the Father, plain and simple.

Pentecostals that I have been around prayer to the so-called "Father-God" and this moniker or title is nowhere to be found in Scripture.  Of course, we assert the deity of the Father and any suggestion otherwise is heresy and damnable.  But why give God a nickname that seems to have an exclusive mindset that you are "in."  They don't seem to accept you unless you pray like them.  For this reason, I refuse to pray to the so-called "Father-God," not that I deny Him, but I don't see any precedent. Let's simply pray to the Father and there will be no reason to be critical.  Jeremiah 3:19 says, "...I thought you would call me 'Father'..."

Jehovah's Witnesses pray to Jehovah and believe sincerely that that is His real name--actually God has no name that we can comprehend and also many names, but His covenant name is "I AM WHO I AM"  or "I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE." "I AM THAT I AM."   I don't pray to Jehovah for this reason, I don't want to be in solidarity with a cult.   Jesus said to Mary, "I go to My Father, and to your Father."  He is our Father and corporate prayer should address Him so.

I know of a brother who always prays to "O God, in heaven."  I have been taken aback by figuring this out.   Naturally, there is a God in heaven, but nowhere in the Scriptures does anybody pray to this God as named.  It is simply not biblical and some are sticklers about being aligned with the Word of Truth so that no one can say anything to judge us.  The above name person sounds like he doesn't know his God very well, that he prays to such a generic title for God.  Muslims can pray to a God in heaven and claim Allah is just His name.  No legitimate religion gives the stamp of approval to such a prayer.  Why not pray to God using His covenant name.  Only Christians can pray to the Father, angels cannot address God this way!  We are part of God's family and have the "privilege" to pray using this name for God.

Now there are Old Testament prayers that don't pray to the Father:  But they didn't quite grasp God as their Father yet and the revelation wasn't made manifest until Jesus came.  They always thought of God as their Father but dared not presume to be too friendly or familiar with God.  But this is what God wants:  that we should feel comfortable and familiar with God and pray freely in the Spirit.

To conclude, you might think I'm being too picky or splitting hairs and this is not important, but the proof is in the pudding and I have found God answering my prayers since I have called upon the name of the Lord and address Him as He desires--i.e., Father--a familial and familiar formula.  Jesus is the one who laid down the law and gave us His example to emulate, as it were, not me.   It's a matter of reverence and devotion:  "Come, my children, and listen to me;  I will teach you the fear of the LORD"  (Psalm 34:11). Let's not be lax in our prayer life!    Let's err on the side of caution and obedience. Note that I am not saying that something is true because it works, but if it's true it will work.  (TM works, but is not true, for example.) [The modern test of an idea according to John Dewey is not whether it's true, but whether it works!  That's pragmatism.] Soli Deo Gloria!