Praying to Jesus ??

ViaCrucis

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"Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.' But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And when he had said this, he fell asleep." - Acts 7:54-60

Praying to Christ our God is always appropriate.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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Are you in doubt that praying to Jesus is not biblical?

It is written:

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
(Romans 10:13).

“The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”
(1 Corinthians 15:47).

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” (1 John 2:1).

Context:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).
 
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Carl Emerson

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"Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.' But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And when he had said this, he fell asleep." - Acts 7:54-60

Praying to Christ our God is always appropriate.

-CryptoLutheran

Nice reply thanks, there is one other instance I can think of...
 
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Carl Emerson

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Are you in doubt that praying to Jesus is not biblical?

It is written:

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
(Romans 10:13).

“The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”
(1 Corinthians 15:47).

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” (1 John 2:1).

Context:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

I am aware of strong views both ways...

Examples of prayers to Jesus rather than to the Father in Jesus name are very few.
 
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Daniel9v9

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Jesus Christ is YHWH in flesh, so of course we should be praying to Jesus. It's not just one or two verses - The whole Bible says so. :)
 
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Bobber

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I think we get tripped up not understanding there are certain principles of things involved here. In a different thread I was talking about how I was practising the presence of God.....that is talking to the Lord as many moments of the day as I could remember to do it. I still seek to do so and guess what....I find that God responds. Just imagine if we will allow the truth of Christ is in us, that God is not just with us but is in us.....if we really believed that we would practise talking to him. As I mentioned WOW....I've found an equal sense of being able to say God answered me back.

In regard to should we pray to Jesus.....well what do we mean in context praying to Jesus.....I find I can talk to him and pour out my heart but when I'm in the process of doing so I always move into the mode of saying, "So Father God in the Name of Jesus I ask" That's an official request of something. Do you have to do that? Let's change that from do we have to do it to seeing Jesus said to do it then I'll just seek to honour him and his request.

And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Jn 16:23

Didn't Jesus say when it comes to the prayer of petition and supplication to do so? If not then what is the above? But keep in mind all prayers are not official petitions or supplications of anything. Many times its just sharing to the Lord what's on our heart. So why DID Jesus say what he said above? We can't just say it's not important! What I think should be understood about the prayer of petition is that we're to understand something about Jesus being our High Priest.

In the Spirit realm he goes before the Father and the Father is the one who puts his stamp of approval on a request. We ask in Jesus Name for that's the authority that gives us the right to have our prayer answered. When we ask in Jesus name God honours that name that he gave to the Son. God the Father sees us IN CHRIST. In ourselves we have no standing with God the Father but IN CHRIST we have everything. Don't get me wrong the Father God delights to answer our prayers but there is legal procedure apparently in the
spirit realm. If it wasn't true then Jesus wouldn't have mentioned it but he did, again John 16:23.

So will God answer prayers that don't mention in the Name of Jesus? YES. But God wants us to grow in our covenant understanding of how things work in the Spirit. Instead of resisting him on this why not just do what he said. Again it doesn't mean you can't talk to the Lord. I still do and he responds. But when things become with me an official petition I'll swing into, "I ask Father God in Jesus Name"

And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Jn 16:23
 
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I've always wondered about this because if we pray as directed "in Jesus' name" we wouldn't be praying to him. Thus I always pray to God in Jesus' name. Does that make sense to others?
 
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Carl Emerson

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I've always wondered about this because if we pray as directed "in Jesus' name" we wouldn't be praying to him. Thus I always pray to God in Jesus' name. Does that make sense to others?

Well... have a look at Acts 4:24ff there is a detailed example of how they prayed.

The only other example I can think of (apart from the prayer of Stephen) that breaks this pattern of praying to the Father is Rev 22:20.

"Come Lord Jesus"
 
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I am aware of strong views both ways...

Examples of prayers to Jesus rather than to the Father in Jesus name are very few.

It's not a strong view. It's what the Bible says. It's a certain aspect of how we first get saved and to become born again spiritually. Jesus is the mediator between God the Father and man (1 Timothy 2:5).

“For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” (1 Timothy 2:5).

To not understand this is to not understand the basics of how we are initially saved. Jesus teaching us to pray to the Father is an example model prayer, and not a starter prayer of how to get saved. We see Jesus forgiving sins before the cross, and Jesus becomes our heavenly high priest after He tells Mary not to touch Him, and He ascends to the Father and enters the Heavenly temple by His blood.

“Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not;
for I am not yet ascended to my Father
but go to my brethren, and say unto them,
I ascend unto my Father,...” (John 20:17).

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,” (Hebrews 10:19).

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Jesus is the only way to get saved.

He is our Heavenly high priest and mediator to be forgiven of sins.

“So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.” (Hebrews 5:5).

In the Old Testament, if the Israelite sinned, they would offer an animal sacrifice and go to the priest to be reconciled. Jesus is now our only mediator or Heavenly high priest to be forgiven. Jesus is our Passover Lamb, and High Priest. Jesus is the sacrifice of redemption who died for our sins, and He is the ONLY one who can ultimately forgive us our sins because He is our mediator or our go between the Father. We are able to do a model prayer of praying to the Father only because of Jesus being our mediator. I see the Lord's prayer as a model prayer of guiding our lives spiritually and maturing. But when it comes to forgiveness, we obviously go directly to Jesus because He is the One who obviously directly forgives sin. We see it all over the gospels of Jesus forgiving sin. So if that is the case, then we should go to Jesus.

Jesus saith unto him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. ” (John 14:6).
 
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mlepfitjw

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Who can quote from scripture any occurrence of praying to Jesus after the resurrection?

No one because their is not any. ( I could be proven wrong, and I am wrong sometimes) I just assume there is none.

Paul was always clear in almost every introduction he had written to express that may the Glory of the Father, and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Jesus Christ even teaches us how to pray, Father in heaven hallowed be thy name, and forgive us our sins, thank you for our daily bread of eating (I suppose food is good), and to forgive others, and help us not fall into temptation.

Which we pray in the spirit to God, and Jesus is the mediator between us and God, so sometimes we end in Jesus name, so what we pray for may be so.

Therefore, we pray to God our Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ name because that is the way it is. HOWEVER, people have the freedom to believing however they choose to believe, because it's loving to let others believe how they desire to do things when they are on their own level of knowledge.

It's better to love, than to fight and cause commotion.
 
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Many today are unable to see with spiritual eyes that the Sinner's Prayer in praying to Jesus (for the forgiveness of sins) is actually biblical and essential.
Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28).

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” (1 John 2:1).

Who is our advocate according to this verse?

It's Jesus Christ.

The context just mentioned how we are to confess of our sins to be forgiven of our sins (See: 1 John 1:9).
 
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We do have to understand that the Father and Jesus are one, although they are also yet distinct persons in the Godhead, as well. The roles and functions in the persons of the Godhead are different. We do not pray to the Holy Ghost, but we can ask God to send His Holy Spirit to give us understanding on His Word. People here really need to ask this kind of thing when studying Scripture.
 
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So what about the part of the model prayer to the Father that says, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” in Matthew 6:12?

I see this as trespasses or minor faults we do that the Father would normally forgive us for doing as long as we meet the condition of forgiving others (Matthew 6:15). This would not be things like murder, hate, adultery, theft, and or major sins against God. We obviously would go directly to Jesus and seek forgiveness with Him upon being convicted by the Spirit of such sins so as to confess them to Jesus. Debts would not be how you just pushed someone down a flight of steps, cussed somebody out with vile language, or robbing a bank, or having lustful sexual thoughts. Christians do not live that way. They are changed. Debts are minor faults of character that we are not aware of as being a problem. A believer will know instantly when they do the really bad stuff. They will then go to their advocate Jesus Christ who is the only mediator between God the Father and man.

Psalms 19:12 is asking God to be cleansed of hidden or secret faults. This would be like what we see in the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6:12. They are minor transgressions or faults of character we are asking forgiveness for that we are simply not aware of. This would not be the really bad stuff that the Spirit would obviously instantly convict you of being wrong so as to confess such sins to Jesus directly.
 
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Carl, maybe you forgot what Jesus said: "no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" and "if you have seen Me you have seen the Father" (meditate on John 14). The Lord Jesus is God manifest in the flesh for sure; and He is part of the Holy Trinity. If one doubts that they are doubting the essence of the biblical trinity and making the Lord Jesus just a teacher among many teachers ---not a good thing to think.
 
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Carl Emerson

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Carl, maybe you forgot what Jesus said: "no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" and "if you have seen Me you have seen the Father" (meditate on John 14). The Lord Jesus is God manifest in the flesh for sure; and He is part of the Holy Trinity. If one doubts that they are doubting the essence of the biblical trinity and making the Lord Jesus just a teacher among many teachers ---not a good thing to think.

Strange that posters are assuming my position when I have simply put the case that there are strong beliefs both ways - which this thread confirms.

I thought it might be fruitful to work the issue through as it is polarising the body.

I have presented two examples of praying to Jesus as promised, there may be more. These are Rev 22:20 and Acts 7:59.

So lets talk about it and see if we get some resolve...
 
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mlepfitjw

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Strange that posters are assuming my position when I have simply put the case that there are strong beliefs both ways - which this thread confirms.

I thought it might be fruitful to work the issue through as it is polarising the body.

I have presented two examples of praying to Jesus as promised, there may be more. These are Rev 22:20 and Acts 7:59.

So lets talk about it and see if we get some resolve...

Haha, that would mean simply loving others in their own decided choice in how they may believe.

There is no way in the world to resolve, or change ones mind on someone who is in their set belief, as far as where they place their faith. Other than to love them, regardless.

Does a person place their faith in doctrine, or in just the Lord Jesus Christ alone by dying and being rose again?

Of course when you read the Gospels when you can come to the conclusion alone, that God with us, was God with-in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The whole trinity topic is something that many people can be dogmatic and have it their own way because they have dedicated much time in affirming their set and predicated belief system.

In my opinion though God himself wouldn't care if you believed in a doctrine, He would desire us to believe on His Son and place faith on the one He raised again from the dead.
 
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fwGod

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Praying to Jesus conversationally as Acts and Rev did is not the same as praying to the Father in Jesus name. The scriptures that have believers addressing Jesus is confirmation that Jesus did not say that the believers could never address him, which I think has been the idea formulated when Jesus said "In that day you shall ask Me nothing." Which would be thought to mean 'Don't talk to Me anymore but talk to the Father in My name.'

That's my speculation on the issue anyway.
 
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I still can't get past the fact that if we are talking to Jesus in prayer we would not follow with "in Jesus name".

John 15:16
Verse Concepts

You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.


John 16:23-24

In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.



Colossians 3:17
Verse Concepts

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
 
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Strange that posters are assuming my position when I have simply put the case that there are strong beliefs both ways - which this thread confirms.

I thought it might be fruitful to work the issue through as it is polarising the body.

I have presented two examples of praying to Jesus as promised, there may be more. These are Rev 22:20 and Acts 7:59.

So lets talk about it and see if we get some resolve...
I didn't assume, this is you.:oldthumbsup::oldthumbsup:
 
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