A friend of mine asked this question about God. “When I pray, who do I pray to, God the Father, Jesus or the Holy Spirit? This is really a good question and maybe something you have wondered about as well. Let me try to explain this question first from how I approach the triune nature of our God and also from a scriptural perspective. Show More
Our Gift-giving God.
I understand that the concept of the Trinity, or three persons in one God, is a concept that is beyond my mental capacity to understand. Therefore, I accept this truth by faith. Honestly, how can I fully understand the creator of the universe, who can speak a word, and it is done? Just read the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis, and you’ll see what I am talking about.
It helps me to look at the Trinity in the following way: I am a son to my parents, a husband to my wife, and a father to my children, yet I am still one. In each of those relationships, I interact differently with my parents, wife, and children, but I am still one person. In the same way, we believe in One God. However, our God can express Himself in three persons. He is the Father, who loves us; Jesus, who saves us; and the Holy Spirit, who enables us. Each of the three persons of God interacts with humanity in three different ways. While this may be an imperfect example of the Trinity, it helps me to understand the Trinity of God, and I hope it helps you.
The scriptures tell us that there are mysteries that we must accept by faith. After all, look at Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV), “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Because God is love, I know that I can trust Him with my life and eternity. Listen to 1 John 4:16 (NKJV), “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” Love is the unifying attribute that ties all three, the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit into One.
I also want to point out that the word “love” that is used three times in the above verse is the Greek word “Agape.” Remember that all the modern Bibles we have were translated from the original New Testament manuscripts, which were written in Greek. The Greek language has several words that we translate as love, and it is important to distinguish the word “Agape” from the others. There are at least four Greek words translated as love, and they are:
- Storge – compassion and understanding associated with family love for one another—the love of a mother or Father for a child, or the love between brothers and sisters.
- Philia – brotherhood, friendship, comradery type of love.
- Eros – romantic and sexual love between husband and wife. This term is not used in the New Testament.
- Agape – an unconditional, unearned, and undeserved type of “God” love.
If you look at the first three expressions of love, they involve emotions or feelings, whereas agape involves a decision or a choice. God has decided to love you; His love is not based on how you make God feel, how good you are, or what you can do for Him. No one and nothing can change God’s mind!
God the Father is Love.
Let me repeat: When we say that God is love, we are saying that God is “Agape,” which is unconditional, which means He will never stop loving us; recall what the apostle Paul said in Romans 8:37-39 (NKJV), “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
You can count on the unconditional love of God. Further evidence of this love is found in the well-known verse of John 3:16 (NKJV), “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Therefore, Jesus is the expression of God’s love for us.
You can have confidence in God’s love for you because it is an “agape” love. It doesn’t matter what your past was; it doesn’t matter what you are going through now. God’s forgiveness, through Jesus Christ, is total and absolute, and you can stand on the truth that nothing can separate you from the love of God.
The apostle Paul was being delivered by ship to stand trial before Caesar in Rome. The ship encountered a raging storm that lasted for days, and the ship’s crew gave up all hope. It was then that Paul received a visitation from an angel of God, and the angel said that they would be saved from the storm without loss of life. I want to point out what Paul said in Acts 27:23 (NKJV), “For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve.” In the midst of the storm, Paul knew who he belonged to and who he served. That confidence and assurance Paul expressed in the middle of a crisis was the result of the relationship that was built upon understanding and embracing the agape love of God the Father!
God the Son, Jesus, is Love.
Jesus the Son is also God; however, He is God in the flesh. Jesus is the expression of the invisible Father’s love in that Jesus became the perfect sacrifice, provided for our redemption. It is quite clear that the only way to the Father is through Him; John 14:6 (NKJV), “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” The term “no one” means that there is no other way except believing that through the sacrifice of Jesus, we are forgiven and reconciled back to the Father.
Listen to what the apostle John wrote about Jesus in John 1:1-5 & 14 (NKJV), “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” 14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus always existed because He is part of the Trinity, three persons in One. Therefore, Jesus is love, the Love of the Father expressed in human form.
As the Father is a giver of gifts because He gave us Jesus, Jesus also gives gifts. By believing and confessing to Jesus, we have the greatest gift: the forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with the Father. We are saved, redeemed, sanctified, and promised eternal life with Jesus in Heaven.
Jesus also knew that we could never live a Christ-like life without help, so Jesus also gave us the Holy Spirit with authority and power to enable us to overcome sin, temptation, and all the plans of the enemy, Satan.
Jesus says in John 16:12-15 (NKJV), “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth [the Holy Spirit], has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” Can you see the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit working as One?
God the Holy Spirit is Love.
The Holy Spirit is the helper or enabler that Jesus promised that the Father would send to us. John 14:26 (NKJV), “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” The Holy Spirit will bring the Rhema word to us, which will enable us to make the right decisions of righteousness that will bring us closer to the Lord in our relationship with Him. The Spirit will strengthen us with truth, authority, and power. I believe it is impossible to fully serve the Lord without the help of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who relies on their own personal strength and wisdom alone to serve the Lord is a very weak Christian indeed.
John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” So, how do we worship in Spirit and truth? First, realize that the word worship used here is not about a worship service or music but a transformed life! Romans 12:1-2 (ESV), “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” You may ask, what does a transformed life look like? A transformed life is a life that looks like Jesus and is enabled by the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The Fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit has to do with our character. By fruit, I mean that because our nature has been changed, now that we are born-again, we are guided by the Holy Spirit. Of course, we must learn how to be led by the Spirit of God, but that is another topic. It is now the character of God living through us as we now live our lives to glorify the Lord. Look at Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV). “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.” These nine characteristics or traits of the Holy Spirit are available in us because the Holy Spirit lives in us.
Notice the first fruit; it is “love,” and the other characteristics follow that love. The love in this verse is the “agape” love we talked about earlier; it is unconditional love. Unconditional love enables us to experience joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All of humanity seek these nine qualities of life; however, it must begin with the agape love of God in our hearts. The apostle Paul makes a statement under the influence of the Holy Spirit as he explains how our faith helps us endure difficult times. He says in Romans 5:5 (NKJV), “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” In other words, we experience the love of God through the Holy Spirit! We love others with the love of God in us.
Conclusion
I haven’t forgotten the original question in this message, “When I pray, who do I pray to, God the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit? It really doesn’t make any difference because we serve only One God!
In the name of the Father.
Jesus gave us the “Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6:9, and He told us that when we pray, we should pray to our Father in heaven.
In the name of Jesus.
As Stephen the Martyr was being stoned, he cried out in Acts 7:59 (NKJV), “And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.“
When the apostle Paul pleaded with the Lord (Jesus) about the “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12:8 (NKJV), “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” The context of the word Lord in this verse is Jesus.
In the name of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the enabler or helper; when we don’t know how to pray, listen to Romans 8:26 (NKJV), “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Because God is One, there are times I pray to the Father, and then there are times I pray or talk to Jesus because I know that He makes intercession for me. Then, there are times I pray in the Spirit, especially when I am overwhelmed and don’t know how to pray with my understanding. So, whoever I pray to I am confident that the Lord hears me, and you can be too!
