In the article “Is God Listening?” by Kenneth L. Woodward, the main discussion is why God does not always answer payers. The article argues that even Christ himself did not get one of his prayers answered. Before he went up on the cross, Woodward points out that Christ did not want to die the painful death that awaited him and asked the Father to remove this event from happening. The Father did not grant his request but Christ still obeyed his Father’s will and went to be crucified on the cross. This example of Christ supposedly not getting his prayer answered leads Kenneth to say that he does not know why certain prayers get answered and others don’t. Why he ended with that prayer is a mysterious practice that he can’t really explain or figure out. If I were posed with the question of why does God not always answer prayer I would make sure that I clarify who was praying: a believer in Christ or a nonbeliever. I will argue, unlike Woodward, that God always answers the Christian’s prayers; we just need to know how to pray and what to look for.
When Christians think of prayer they usually think that we should close our eyes, fold our hands, make our requests known to God, and leave it be. This closing of the eyes and folding of the hands is looked upon as the way to physically pray and to leave yours open is seen as awkward. However, the bible says nothing of the sort; it never states how to look when you physically pray since no physical position can earn favor in God’s sight. What the bible does say about prayer is that we should be constantly doing it. It also says that whatever we pray in Christ’s name will happen. How though can we constantly be in prayer if we are to live out our normal life? And does this mean that if we constantly pray that God will always answer?
First we must know what prayer is in order to know how to do it. Prayer is talking to God while he is not physically in some type of finite presence in front of you, except when He appears in a vision or some type of form such as a theophany. For example, God strictly condemns speaking to any human person when they are not on this earth and/or anything not alive on the earth. It can be deduced that talking to things not on this earth would be considered praying. Christ, being God himself, spoke to the God the Father at all times while he was on earth, but he called it praying instead of just talking. Seeing that just talking to God is prayer, we can now move on to how to pray constantly.
To be in constant prayer we need to have our life revolve around Christ. Christ needs to be first in our life. How can we do such a thing? We need to constantly give God glory for all things, even the small things in life. By constantly giving him glory and loving Him, we will be in some type of communication with God, whether in our hearts, minds, or by the spoken word. Now we move on to how our prayers will be answered in Christ’s name. To pray in Christ’s name does not mean that a person literally says Christ’s name in the prayer, but it means that we pray for his glory. Whenever we pray we need to pray with the question in mind, “how does this bring glory to God and spread His Kingdom?”
If we want to become more like Christ, then we should want what he wants and with the same reasons. God does everything for his glory and therefore because Christians are called to be like him, we should also do everything for Him for His glory, including praying in his name. To pray in his name with any other motive would be wrong because it would be selfish and would be for our own glory. If what we ask for does not happen, then that would mean it would not be for God’s kingdom, his ultimate glory, and our good. Therefore, when praying, we must not ask ourselves why God did not answer our prayer, but how our prayers or requests can benefit the spread of God’s kingdom and bring him the greatest glory.
God’s act of not answering our request is his way of showing us that we need to reform our prayers for his glory or not make such requests at all. Therefore God is always answering our prayers. One might argue that I am implying that Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane in which he asked the Father to remove the cup from him was somehow selfish. This would be true if one was to except Woodward’s inaccurate misrepresentation of prayer. Yet prayer is simply speaking with God and not always making an actual request of God to do something. I would state that Christ was venting his agony in Gethsemane, letting God know his stress and not truly asking God to remove the cup apart from his Father’s will, since Christ says in Matthew 26:39,
“And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will’.”
Christ, being God and man, knew all things and knew that this was the only way of saving his people; it would be heretical to think otherwise. To vent to God is not wrong; neither is it wrong to have a conversation with God in which a Christian expresses what is on their mind and how they are feeling. As long as a Christian does everything, including venting their feelings, to God’s glory and fully desiring to live out his will, it is not wrong. Prayer not only changes things in the world but is also used to change us to become more like his son.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember when I learned this from Oswald Chambers, it changed how I viewed God, but as the years go on I keep seeing how selfish I can be, and how many prayers I make that do not get answered. I continue to try and make effectual prayer.
SO my question would be what about the Spirit of God and his role in prayer.
Thanks for the encouragement, and correction
Travis,
I think you have put your finger on an excellent question. What indeed, is the role of the Holy Spirit in prayer? Upon completion of reading Bruce Ware’s book on the Trinity, I began to reflect on this very issue, and I can share with you one brief thought. Ware’s contention is that we need to think of everything about Christian living through a Trinitarian lens. So, when we consider prayer, we ought to reflect on the Triune nature of God. He points out that Jesus gives us a model for prayer in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 6), and in that sermon, we are told to pray to the Father. So, we ought to pray to the Father. In other words, Christian prayer ought to be directed to the Father. But, what about the Son? Well, no one can come to the Father except through the Son (Jn. 14:6). So, the NT instructs us to pray to the Father, but in the name and authority of the Son. Jesus grants us access to the Father through his High Priestly work on our behalf. Now we come to your question, what about the Spirit’s role in all of this. Paul tells us to pray in the Spirit at all times (Eph. 6:18). The Holy Spirit empowers and energizes the prayers of the saints. Ware says, “Prayer is in the power of the Spirit, as He empowers all else that we do to the glory of Christ in our lives.” Thus, Christian prayer, as such, is prayer to the Father, in the name and by the authority of the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hey Jonathan! I didn’t know you were a contributing author!
Okay maybe i’ll read this later. Long day.
Thanks Travis for reading the post!
Ok well to my best understanding this is how the Holy Spirit works in our prayers but He is not limited to only working this way. Prayer is a very important thing to do in our life and we are commanded to do it. Left to ourselves we will never pray totally correctly because we are sinners. As finite humans we can never bring all these necessary steps for prayer together, but the Spirit does for us, but of course this is through the Son. We often pray for things that we should not or we do not pray enough for the things we should (Jam 4:3). It takes God Himself to fully fill in these weak points of our prayer. They are the Spirit’s groans and not ours, so special languages are not required of us (Rom 8:26). This means that where we fall short or forget to say things or say the wrong things, God the Holy Spirit makes sure the right message gets across to God. This of course is putting it really simply. But we should remember and listen to God the Holy Spirit, praying to Him for the right things and we should pray to Him in the name of the Son asking Him to guide our prayers to edify Christ rather than ourselves. Because of Christ we have full access to God; you can pray to either Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, but always by the Son’s authority. Metaphorically speaking, all the information the Son gets about the saints is directly from the Spirit and not directly from the saints (Rom 8:27). Technically, the reason I say “metaphorically” is because in (1Tim 2:5) Christ is described as the only mediator who intercedes for the saints. But, that is beside the point. What I’m getting at is that all of them work together in prayer, so we shouldn’t think that praying to one over the other is wrong. We should do what we feel led to do in prayer. But that is just my take and I’m sure there are others who can give a more detailed answer.
Jonathan,
You said, “But we should remember and listen to God the Holy Spirit, praying to Him for the right things and we should pray to Him in the name of the Son asking Him to guide our prayers to edify Christ rather than ourselves. Because of Christ we have full access to God; you can pray to either Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, but always by the Son’s authority”
I’m curious about some of the content of your statement here. Not that I am very dogmatic about praying only to the Father, through the Son (in his name and authority), and in the power of the Spirit. But, where are we told to pray to the Holy Spirit in Scripture or ask the Spirit for things in petitions? Did not the Lord Jesus set out a model for prayer? I have found prayer directed to the Father and the Son in the NT, but never to the Holy Spirit. Do you have any textual reasons for your answer above?
Also, why would we not pray to edify ourselves as well as glorify Christ? Perhaps, we are edified through the process of glorifying Christ in our prayers. In fact, isn’t that part and parcel of how prayer should effect the believer.
Hello! Sorry Peter I haven’t gotten back to you sooner but ok here is my answer about where do people pray to the Holy Spirit and or are we commend to pray to him. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 it says
NAU 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
Here Paul is praying to all three of the persons of the trinity to be with the people in the church. And he is deliberately saying that we must have fellowship or “communion” with God the Holy Spirit also, which means communication, “Prayer”. In Romans 15:30 Paul states:
NAU Romans 15:30 Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,
This is meaning that he is telling the people to pray to both Son and Spirit. Now in 1 Corinthians 3:13-18 he states:
2 Corinthians 3:13-18 13 and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. 14 But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. 15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; 16 but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Turing to the Lord, means turning to the Holy Spirit, praying to the Holy spirit to open their eyes. The Lord in this verse is referring to the Holy Spirit the whole time. Now in 2 Thessalonians 3:5 Paul states:
2 Thessalonians 3:5 5 May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ.
This has a Trinitarian meaning; there are 3 persons mentioned here, Love of the Father, and the Steadfastness of the Son, leaving only a Prayer to the Holy Spirit to Guide People to God the Father and Christ the Son. Now the last verse I will mention is Mathew 9:38 where Jesus says:
Matthew 9:38 38 “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
This is saying that Christ is commanding us to pray to the Spirit also, The Lord of the Harvest is The Holy Spirit. He is the one that sends out missionaries Acts 13:1-4. He is the one who appoints elders Acts 20:28. But I think there is enough biblical evidence to show that praying to the Spirit is normal and is something we should do. I hope that Answer your question. Oh also as far as edifying ourselves along with edifying Christ. I would agree but the ultimate purpose of anything I pray for would to be to ultimately edify Him and not myself. Christ helping me would be for His name’s sake and not mine; it would be as asking to be a great tool to build his Kingdom. The tool gets no glory, only the Maker which is Christ!
Jonathan,
Thank you for your response. Oh, and don’t worry about taking your time. As far as I’m concerned, the more time you take the better the response. I think that prayer is an important issue for all Christians to get clear on, so I thank you for your post. It is a great reminder to the Church that we ought to glorify Christ in our prayer life.
However…(and I don’t want you to think I’m giving you a hard time on purpose), I do think that your response raises further questions on the issue of the “taxis” or the special order in the function of the Trinity with regard to prayer. For example, I think that the texts you cited above do not necessarily state, either implicitly or explicitly, that we are to pray to or petition the Holy Spirit. Now, I grant you that some of them mention the Spirit or refer to Him on some level. Certainly, I believe that the Holy Spirit is personal, and thus, as Christians we have relationship with Him (as well as the Father and Son), but in the sense that as a person he guides, teaches, convicts of sin, etc. Also, we are able to grieve Him and lie to Him (Ananias and Sapphira). However, the question still remains, who are we taught to direct prayer to in Scripture? Jesus’ teaching on this seems clear. Are there any texts that say, “Holy Spirit, we ask you to give us wisdom” or “We thank you Holy Spirit for thus and such” or something like that? How do all the prayers recorded in Scripture look? The Bible seems to demonstrate that prayer is directed to the Father, through the Son, and in the power of the Spirit. This does not mean we can’t mention the Spirit in our prayers, in fact, a few of the passages you cited mention the Holy Spirit, but that is not prayer to the Spirit specifically. Rather, we might ask the Father to empower us through the Holy Spirit or teach us through the Spirit.
Yes, when we pray to God, we are praying to a Triune God, but we need to be aware of how the Scriptures portray Christian prayer. There is an incredible beauty to the Trinitarian taxis or order in prayer. Much like what we see in the roles of the Trinity in redemption: The Father plans salvation, the Son accomplishes it on the Cross, and the Spirit applies it in regeneration. Amazing! In a similar way, we see this kind of taxis and differing of roles in prayer: We pray to the Father, in the name and authority of the Son, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps you can unpack your exegesis a bit more on some of the verses you cited, and then I will see more clearly what you meant.
For instance, 2 Cor. 13:14 is the final verse of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Paul is giving them his final greetings as he closes the letter, and it is definitely Trinitarian in structure, but it does not give instruction on prayer. It is a greeting, and displays the three persons of our beloved Triune God, but is in no way a teaching on prayer. Even if you took it to be a farewell prayer (which it is not), it is not an instance of Paul addressing the Holy Spirit as the recipient of the prayer. The fellowship of the Spirit is the mark of a true believer; the Spirit indwells us and bears witness to our relationship with God through Christ.
I would venture to say that the other verses you’ve cited might have similar problems when it comes to proving your point.
Jonathan,
I agree with Peter and really look forward to your answer. I’m not dogmatic about not praying to the Holy Spirit, I just remember any passages that instruct us to pray to Him specifically. I see where we are to pray to the Father through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit, but not directly to Him. I would enjoy reading your exegesis on the passages mentioned before.