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[youdontknowwhothisis]

Why do we have to say "in jesus name" when we pray?

[jimwalton]

Acts 3.6; 16.18 – There is spiritual power in the name of Jesus.
Acts 3.16 – It is faith in the name of Jesus that brought about the healing
Acts 8.12 – It is the name of Jesus that is the way we express our relationship with him, our belief in him, and our recognition of what he does in the world
Eph. 5.20 – We are to pray in the name of Jesus as a recognition of his hand in matters pertaining to us

We pray in the name of Jesus so that it’s clear that
He is the one we are talking to
He is the one we are acknowledging has the power
He is the one our faith and trust are in
He is the one by whose hand our prayer will be answered

[gmw803]

If I may, Jim:

I once made a comment, "If you are the only person between the puck and the net, then you are a goalie." And I wrote a few articles about flexibility in our roles as Christians. And I made a handful of dollars off those articles.

And i was wrong.

There are times when God would just as soon let the puck go into His own net.

Why do we have to pray in Jesus' name? You may as well ask why anyone in the church can collect the offering, yet it requires an ordained Deacon to pass out 1/4-ounce glasses of grape juice.

We don't like to think of God as ceremony in an age where liberty in Christ is so popular. But even the two church ordinances, baptism and communion, are pure ceremony. Nothing physical happens.

And Uzzah was treated with a wild awakening, I mean hypnosis, in 2 Samuel 6 when he thought it important to balance the ark despite the accident of birth that he was not born from Levi.

And God Himself is the same. God, though the same substance as Jesus, is a distinct person from Jesus. And as distinct persons, they have distinct roles. The Holy Spirit did not die on the cross. And God the Son, even as He was dying for the sins of the world, did not ask God the Father to fill in for Him with regard to maintaining the atomic structure of things and the gravity structure of the universe.

Our prayers are to God the Father. Prayers to the Son, and prayers to the Spirit are misdirected. It is not the Son's job to receive prayers. It is the Son's job to hear the prayers, and to translate them to the will of the Father as He passes them on to the Father. And the Holy Spirit has a role as well. His job is to convict us of the truth of God's will so that the Son can pass them along untranslated - well, the purpose is really so that we as the pray-er might know we are praying in God's will.

I'm not suggesting that God has a checklist and that any prayer that does not meet code is rejected. You do not need a seminary education just to pray. And then there are instances of urgency. When Peter prayed "Save me Lord." he was rapidly being drawn to the bottom of the lake according to the law of gravity. But neglecting to pray in the Spirit, to the Father, through (or in the name of) the Son is asking the members of the Godhead to ignore their own persons.

[jimwalton]

I certainly agree with you that we are to pray to the Father. Jesus, obviously, always did. And I'm not aware of any text where someone in the NT prays to Jesus, or where we are taught to pray to Jesus.

And (I might as well as for the sporting fun of it), nowhere are we commanded either by teaching or led by example to worship the Spirit. We are to worship the Father, and we are to worship the Son, but nowhere do we have directive or example to worship the Spirit. One would think, by virtue of the trinity, that the Spirit deserves worship as well, and that may be so, but Scripture doesn't ask us to do that or show it to us being done.

We are to pray to the Father, and worship the Father and the Son.

If someone knows different, feel free to jump into the conversation.