Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 16:4 (Winter 2012)
Article: The SBJT Forum
Author: Anonymous

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SBJT 16:4 (Winter 2012) p. 96

The SBJT Forum

SBJT: Should Christians Pray To The Holy Spirit?

Bruce A. Ware is Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Prior to this, he taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, and Bethel Theological Seminary. Dr. Ware is the author of numerous books, including, God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism (Crossway, 2000), God’s Greater Glory: The Exalted God of Scripture and the Christian Faith (Crossway, 2004), and most recently, The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ (Crossway, 2012).

Bruce Ware: Although this is a good and valid question, it is one for which we have no direct and explicit answer from the Scriptures. Here are three important factors that need to be considered.

First, the norm for prayer in the New Testament has a very clear Trinitarian framework in mind. Most prayers in the New Testament, and most instruction about prayer, encourage this pattern: Christians should pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Why? The Father is the grand architect, the wise designer, of all that occurs in creation and in redemption. One might recall, for example, that even though Jesus, the Son, is taught in the New Testament to be the creator of all that is (John 1:3; Col 1:16), he nonetheless does his creating only as the agent of the Father who creates through the Son (1 Cor 8:6; Heb 1:1-2). And in redemption, clearly the Father designed all that the Son came to do, such that the work of salvation accomplished by the Son is a work of the Father through the Son (e.g., John 6:38; 8:28-29; Matt 26:39, 42). The Father, then, is rightly the primary object of Christian prayer, since he is the one who, as designer and architect of all things, has highest authority and position over all things. The Son, for his part, accomplishes the atoning work by which alone he may bring those who believe in him to the Father (2 Cor 5:18-20; 1 Pet 3:18). The Son, then, is not primarily the object of the Christian’s prayers but rather the one through whom his prayers are brought to the Father. The Son is the one and only mediator between us and the Father, so our access to the Father is only through the Son (

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