4 Selections
It’s an awesome query, and the theological guideline is that we are able to pray to anybody who’s God. So that you’ve obtained three selections. You’ve type of obtained 4 selections, not as a result of there are 4 individuals who’re God however as a result of you possibly can pray to God with out specifying an individual of the Trinity, with out having a Trinitarian thought in your head. And it’s not that the letter goes unanswered when it reaches heaven.
There isn’t any clear biblical examples of prayer to the Holy Spirit. However, you possibly can pray to anybody who’s God, particularly in case you are praying in such a means that you’re praying across the Trinity—to the Father, thanking him for sending the Son; or to the Son, thanking him for saving you.
On this addition to the Brief Research in Systematic Theology collection, Fred Sanders teaches readers easy methods to maintain a correct understanding of each the individual and energy of the Holy Spirit, exploring his position in each the Outdated and New Testaments.
In that context particularly, it would happen to you to finish the circle, or the triangle, and direct some prayers to the Holy Spirit as a result of it’s theologically respectable to wish to the Spirit. There aren’t any biblical examples of it, however I don’t take that to be a binding command to not pray to the Spirit.
I’ll say that in the long run, you need your prayer life to tackle roughly the proportions of Scripture. And if that’s the case, then general, if somebody had been watching and marking down and grading your prayer life, over the long run, you’d wish to be largely praying to God the Father, praying generally to Jesus the Son, and sometimes to the Holy Spirit—particularly within the context the place the religious journey your thoughts is on is across the fullness of the Trinitarian revelation.
Fred Sanders is the creator of The Holy Spirit: An Introduction.
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