Does the Whole Trinity Hear Our Prayers?

Do We Have to Pray to the Whole Trinity or Just Jesus?

Q : Since Jesus, is the God whom human's have visibly seen and Jesus himself is also the completeness of God. Is it enough to worship and pray to Jesus alone??? Or should we consider whole of Trinity in our worship?

A : This is a question that many Christian genuinely have. Even though Jesus was present on earth as fully human and fully God, He did not use the privilege of the Godhead inorder to serve humanity as God's bondslave (Phil 2:5-8). To the world that sees and decides about the value of someone, he was a simple and a humble human being (John 1:11; 10:33; 9:16; 8:57; 7:46; 6:42; 5:18). Yet He was seen in the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form by the Apostles and the first century people. The Apostle Peter testifies of this experience in his epistles and also apostle Paul mentions some five hundred believers seeing Jesus in the resurrected bodily form after His resurrection along with all the apostles and by himself finally (Matt 17:1-9; 2 Peter 1:16-19; 1 Cor 15:5-8). We do not see Him physically now but we believe the prophetic Scriptures given by God through apostles, and as a result we are blessed to believe without seeing Jesus as He himself said it to apostle Thomas (John 20:29; Eph 3:5-6).

Philip the apostle who after being with Jesus and seeing the supernatural miracles that Jesus performed for nearly three and half years, [the moment] when Jesus said, "7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves." (John 14:7-11). From the preceding Scriptures we understand that the moment we pray to Jesus, we are also praying to our Father God in heaven as Jesus is in the Father interpenetratively. This is the reason Jesus said, "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (John 14:13). In this preceding verses we see Jesus telling that if we ask to Jesus in His name, He will do it for the glory of the Father God. In the sixteenth chapter of the same book of John Jesus said, "23 “And in that day [i.e. after Jesus' resurrection] you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full." (John 16:23-24). In this preceding verse, we see that the Father God answers a believer without fail when he or she comes to Him in Jesus name. Comparing these two verses we can see that the response to both the prayer to the Father or to Jesus in the name of Jesus brings a perfect answer to our petitions. The common chord we see is the name of Jesus.

From the above exegesis we can easily conclude that the name of Jesus is something given to all humans to pray to both the Father and the Son (Acts 4:12). Once we pray by faith in the name of Jesus, our prayer goes to God through Jesus who is our Mediator (1 Tim 2:5-6). In this way, all our prayers are heard both by Jesus and also our Father in heaven.

The next question that may come to our mind is, then what about the Holy Spirit? Actually the Holy Spirit was given to all believers individually and personally as Jesus has prayed to the Father to send Him in to the heart of all believers, once Jesus left the earth (John 14:16-18). Jesus left the earth to our advantage so that He could speak to all believers on earth at the same time through the Holy Spirit, which otherwise could not be done if Jesus was physically present on the earth (John 16:7, 13-15). In other words, the Holy Spirit acts as the mouth piece for Jesus on earth now. All believers have the ability now to hear the voice of Jesus as well as the Father's voice as they are one, in their spirit-man (John 10:27-30; 14:23).

But what about the Holy Spirit hearing our prayer? Can we pray to the Holy Spirit? We do not pray to the Holy Spirit, but we do have communion with Him as He is with us in His Presence (2 Cor 13:14). Communion means having intimacy and fellowship with the Holy Spirit as did the apostles in the first century (Acts 11:12; 15:28). We come to know the Holy Spirit intimately as we seek Jesus day after day. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and is equally God as the Father and the Son (Matt 28:19). But the Holy Spirit hears the instruction of Jesus and will fullfill it to glorify Jesus only (John 16:14). At the same time as a friend of us, the Holy Spirit empowers us to pray exactly according to the will of God (Rom 8:26-27). So the Holy Spirit not only hears our prayers when we pray to Jesus, but produces it according to the will of God for us individually and corporately. In others words, the Holy Spirit produces the prayer in us that which the Father, the Son Jesus and He Himself will answer. So we do not pray to the Holy Spirit but we pray through Him as He is present with us. The Holy Spirit will empower a person to pray and will hear the prayer which is done by faith, when it is done only in the name of Jesus. So we can come to the conclusion that the prayer of faith in the name of Jesus, irrespective of whether it is addressed individually by name of the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit, all the Trinity hears it all the time. As the Bible says, sometimes the Holy Spirit by unction starts to address the name of the Father and also the Son through us (Rom 8:15; Acts 4:29-31). These are Spirit led and Spirit filled prayers that all of us should learn to pray as we grow spiritually day by day (Eph 6:18).

ThANks and mUCh BleSSIngs....

Trinity and Humanity, Can it be Compared?

Can Human Spirit, Soul and Body Be Compared to Trinity Living in Jesus Physical Body?

Q: Human beings are composed of "Mind, Body & Soul". Since humans are created in the image of God, can we compare the Trinity as... "Father = Mind, Son = Body & Holy Spirit = Soul".....? So that the verse...."The fullness of Godhead dwells in Lord Jesus" is rightly justified??

A : Greetings! It is not wrong to compare the Trinity with the physical body because we too are triune being in the image of our God (Gen 1:26). The image of God in which we are created is a dominion-image, which means to rule like God rules in heaven (Psa 115:16). Human beings are triune in our make up, but all in one person. We are not three person in one body. The Trinity which means three person in oneness or one God three in person is something unique which is hard to fathom to our human limited understanding. We can compare the triune make up of the spirit, soul and body of humans to the Triune essence of God's oneness (1 Thess 5:23). But that doesn't mean we can say that they are all one person in three form. That is a heresy many have been deceived with and try to prove. But the reality is, The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are three in person but one in essence of their character and nature.

The verse you used is a verse from the book of Colossians which says, " 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." (Col 2:9-10). This preceding verse speaks that Jesus is God fully who dwelt in a human body and therefore we who have believed in Him have become God's legal children through Him. He is the head of all principality and power that corrupts all humans with sin and separates us from God, therefore we need no additional improvement to please God and become his children or to inherit the power of God since we are in Him spiritually already. All we need to do is believe and live by the power of God the life of heaven on earth. Therefore this does not necessarily indicate that all the three person dwelt in the body of Jesus, instead Jesus who is God has dwelt in human flesh as a perfect human and have exercised and availed the power of heaven through obedience to God's command (Acts 10:38; Heb 5:8). As Jesus has already shown the dominion-image of God through a human body, we who are in Jesus can also display the dominion-image of God to the whole world as we are made the child of God and have been placed by God in Jesus' righteousness to live and do the works of God on planet earth (John 1:12; 2 Cor 5:17-18, 21).

So the answer to your question, "The fullness of Godhead dwells in Lord Jesus" is rightly justified?? The answer is yes and no. Yes if you consider the phrase "The fullness of Godhead" as the person and personality of God and no if you consider spirit mind as Father, soul as the Holy Spirit and the physical body of Jesus as the Son of God literally.

Thanks and Blessings....

Is It Ok To Marry A Unbeliever?

If I Love A Non-Christian Girl, Is It Sin?

Q: Praise the lord brother! Happy new year. I want to share one thing with you. The thing is that, I am in love with a girl who likes Christianity but not a christian. She loves me very much. I need her in my life. Is it a sin that I did. Please pray for me and also give suggestion. ThanQ bro..

A : Praise the Lord! Thank you and wish you the same. It is good to be in love after marriage rather than before it. This is why the Bible says wisely, "Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases [the Lord and yourself with in the marriage Covenant]" (Sos 2:7). In other words the emotion and physical intimacy of love is reserved to be shared within the boundary of marriage only. When we are young, rather than loving a boy or girl and going in hunt for a bride or bridegroom through dating and doing the daunting task of finding the right parnter, it is better to be devoted to the Lord and be in whole hearted love towards the Lord (1 Cor 7:34). We should serve the Lord fully in our young days without distration (1 Cor 7:35). When a young person finds hard to control their sexual desire and starts to burn with passion, it is better to marry and not give place to the devil's schemes of fornication or adultery (1 Cor 7:9; 6:9-10; Gal 5:19-21). God will keep us faithful to Himself and our future wife or husband if we commit our lives completely to the Lord and ask Him to keep us from falling in to any kind of physical temptation that would break our virgin chastity to our coming husaband or wife (Prov 16:3; Psa 37:5). The world thinks that it is normal for any young boy or girl to have sexual relationship before marriage and looks on the godly people who stay as virgins with chastity to the coming bride or groom with much mockery. But God has not changed and he is in the buisness of blessing all those people who stay faithful and obedient to His godly Biblical ways.

There are three levels of the will of God in the area of marriage for a believer. One is good, the other is acceptable and the third and the final level is the perfect will of God (Rom 12:2). The good level of the will of God is the first and the basic level for a Christian, where the godly boundary of the general will of God is obeyed in the lives of the people of God. For example, Paul confirms the basic will of God for a believer's marriage saying, "14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?" (2 Cor 6:14-15). In other words, a believer can only choose to marry a believer as he or she wishes (1 Cor 7:39). If a believer is within this level, God will be pleased to a certain level and will also bless a believer's marriage to that certain basic level.

Again if a believer chooses to stand on the basic level and wants to still go further in to the next level of the will of God which is the acceptable level of the will of God (Rom 12:2), then one has to believe that God will bring the right person by His own choice. If a person persists to pursue the will of God, then God will be pleased further to bless that person to the next level. God will be pleased to see that this person has waited to do His acceptable will. But some people while waiting, choose to end their waiting period by finishing their waiting process on their own. They will decide the bride or bridegroom based on their own decision to filter the prospect by their beauty, financial status, family background, profession, etc... It is not wrong to stay at this level, but God desires all believer's to go still further in to the perfect will of God.

If a believer trusts in the Lord's goodness and waits further until the perfect timing of the perfect level of the will of God, then God Himself will choose the exact person whom He has in His heart and will bless that person abundantly for a lifetime who has waited till the perfect timing of the perfect will of God (Isa 30:18; 49:23; Psa 30:5)! This is the way Adam waited and had perfect fellowship with God until God Himself chose to bring Eve to Adam (Gen 2:22). Such families built by obedience to the perfect will of God will not only be blessed by God abundantly, but will become a blessing to all the families of the nations (Gen 12:2-3).

The only exception to this unequal yoking with the unbeliever is when a husband or a wife who had been a unbeliever, then gets converted and born again to become a believer in Christ Jesus. In such case Paul guarantees that "the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband" and Vice-versa through a supernatural covering by God, eventually the children born to them become clean and holy in the eyes of God through this supernatural covering (1 Cor 7:14). A unbelieving husband or wife in this case if they are willing to carry on within the covenant of marriage inspite of seeing the faith of their believing spouse, the beliving husband or wife is instructed to live with them and not divorce them (1 Cor 7:12-13). But seeing the believer's faith in Jesus, if the unbelieving wife or husband want to depart because of it, the believer is instructed to let them go peacefully (1 Cor 7:15). No one knows that the same unbelieving wife or husband can be saved by the believing husband or wife if the unequal yoking continues unwillingly and peacelessly for the rest of their lives (1 Cor 7:16). But taking this rule to the extreme and saying that we can marry a unbeliever and expect them to change as time goes by, is a risky path that may lead to self-deception and chaos in a believer's life, and it will have no blessing of God in it.

I have seen those belivers in the same situation like yours who have broken the basic first level of the good will of God and have gone on to yoke themselves with the unbelieving spouse because of love and family situations. But to say to you the truth, hardly very few people whom I can count have really made their spouses to believe in the Lord. All the rest of the many people who went this way have got pulled in to the mud of chaotic lifestyle of miserable proportions, where they themselves have ruined their own blessed life that God had given to live a blessed life for the glory of God. Whatever is not of faith is sin (Rom 14:23). In other words, all the actions and decisions we take without considering first to please God, love God and obey Him is a sin (Heb 11:6; John 14:15; 15:10). In that way breaking the first level of the good will of God is a sin indeed.

IVP New Testament Commentaries says, "When Augustine returned to his hometown after his conversion in Milan, his former girlfriend called to him: "Augustine, Augustine, it is I!" He turned to her and said: "Yes, but it is not I.""¹ His "I" was crucified with Christ and it is no longer Augustine who lived, but Christ lived in him completely because of absolutely surrendering his life for His purpose. When Christ controls us completely, we will lose ourself in the love of Christ. Where there is death to sin and self, radical change of attitude toward life and service to God will follow our faith. If we do not die to sin and self, there can be no true transformation. And eventually we might start to conform ourselves to the thinking of the world, and will fail to be transformed in to the image of Jesus whom we are called to emulate (Rom 12:2; 8:29; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 Cor 11:1).

My prayer for you is that you might be empowered to do the good and acceptable level of the will of God now. And please do not just become lethargic once you reach that second level of the acceptable will of God, but from there go on to fullfill the perfect level of the will of God, so that you might be fully pleasing the Lord completely and bring glory to Jesus day after day in your life.

You can by the grace of God, can overcome through faith this fleshly situation, which again needs a deep commitment and total surrender to the Lord (1 John 5:4). Once you make that surrender, a recommitment each day to fulfill His purpose and the destiny He has for you [i.e. which is designed individually in a customized way] will make you live in the perfect will of God for the Glory of God!. When you discipline yourself to live in the perfect will of God, you will be living a fully God-pleasing life which carries a great reward for eternity ahead!

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Footnote:

[1] Acessed on (1/28/12, 12:35 PM), "2 Corinthians 5 - IVP New Testament Commentaries", http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/2Cor/Christs-Love-Compels-Service

Much BLesSIngS....

Prayer Changes Things

One Painful Problem!

Q : Praise the Lord Sir...! I want to share one of the painful problem in my sister's life. She married a pastor, his name is James. We are three siblings, myself is younger, having one brother who is elder for us. Before marriage my sister went for prayers and she was very much interested in worshipping God, so she liked to continue her life with the same pastor as her life partner and married him. But now she is very much worried with her life...He is very much abusing her, saying bad words, asking dowry etc... I can't Imagine how people can do such a bad thing by using God's Name...Please sir pray for my Sister, also for her husband's mind to get changed by your valuable prayers...Thank you...!

A : Greetings to you in Jesus name! So sad to hear about what has happened to your Sister. Yes it happens everywhere in Christendom. People are imperfect, and to see a person apart from the calling anointing brings out who they are to reality. Unless a person has allowed himself to be emptied by God on the inside, their self will show its true face when situations that are unfavorable to them comes before them. So only Jesus told every one of us to lift up our own cross of denying our self and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). It is true that your Brother in law is not as good as he seemed, but the Lord will touch Him deeply in the coming days and He will never be the same. Don't try to change peoples mind, but pray to the Lord and He will do it in His time and way. Yes I will be praying for your family and for your Sister's family specially. Just fretting and fuming about what has happened will do no good, but placing your burdens to God will give you peace and will make God to intervene in to the situations that are bad. As the great Apostle Paul who by experience and inspiration says, "6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus", let us by experience make this truth a part of our life and live an abundant blessed life of inspiration and comfort to all around us. Peaceful people give peace to others but peaceless people break other people in to pieces. So let us build others with the help of God and edify one another for the GLORY OF GOD! Prayer changes everything! Much Blessings....