A song sung by many Christians today has us praying, “Spirit, we love you, we worship and adore you; Glorify thy name in all the earth; Glorify thy name, Glorify thy name in all the earth.” Other hymns join in the chorus of praise – “Spirit divine, attend our prayers/ And make this house thy home.” Or “Breathe on me, Breath of God/ Fill me with life anew.” Or “Spirit of the living God/ Fall afresh on me/ Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.” Examples abound. But where in the Bible is command or example teaching that any Christian should, or that any Christians ever did, pray to, praise, or worship the Holy Spirit of God?

Today, many Christians DO worship the Holy Spirit. We are NOT taught in the Word to do so. Instead, we are taught to NOT do so. It’s JESUS who sends the Spirit, who fills with the Spirit, who, with the Father, is to be prayed to, praised, and worshipped. Is the Holy Spirit the Giver or the gift? Does the Spirit attend our prayers, and is the name of the Spirit (what IS the name of the Spirit?) to be glorified in all the earth? Is God really in fact three separate yet united persons?

John 1:1 reveals that God is more than one person. The “word” was with God, and “the word was God." Yet, although men saw Jesus in those days, John goes on to say, “No one has seen God at any time. The unique Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.” Jesus further said that those who had seen Him had seen the Father, thereby declaring His own deity.

Yet does God inhabit one earthly body and at the same time maintain His omnipresence? Jesus existed as God prior to His coming to earth in the form of a man whose name was Jesus of Nazareth. After his resurrection to NEW life, Jesus returned to His existence apart from a human body. Before, He had been the lamb of God in promise. Now He is the Lamb of God in fact. His death atoned for man’s sin. He is Lord of all. We are taught to worship Jesus. But where does the Bible say that God is three persons? And where is the Holy Spirit called God? He is referred to as “Spirit of God” and “Spirit of Christ.”

In Revelation when we tour the throne room with John, he invites our attention to the throne of God. Seated on the throne is the Father, the Almighty Jehovah God of Creation. Beside the Father is the Son, the Lamb of God whose death takes away the sin of the world. They receive worship. Where is the Spirit? John doesn't say. The Spirit’s mission seems rather to help the believers worship and enjoy serving GOD, who in Scripture is always the object of worship. In Romans 8:26, the Spirit is described as “helping us in our weakness” because “we do not know how to pray as we ought,” and so “the Spirit makes intercession for us.” Note that the Spirit is WITH US praying to God. He’s on OUR side. He also is praying to the Father. Paul does not say that we should pray to the Spirit! Abiding within us, before we speak, does the Spirit not KNOW our thought?

Songs some Christians sing address petitions to the Spirit. When Jesus spoke of the coming work of the Spirit, He said He would pray to THE FATHER and THE FATHER would SEND the helper (the Spirit) to those who were to receive that gift from God. If Jesus had only known it was the right thing to do, He could have prayed to the Spirit to come. That’s what some of US do! Well, that’s what SOME do. But why do we think we know better than Jesus did how to pray and whom we should worship?

While He was on earth, Jesus taught His disciples to pray. The prayer was to be addressed to the Father God. Jesus said that whatever petition was addressed to the Father “in His (Christ’s) name” would be heard. It would seem to be reasonable to continue praying to the Father rather than now praying to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit. We approach the Father through Jesus, not in the name of, or the person of, the Holy Spirit.

Paul suggests that “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men – the man Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 2:5). When did so many of us “Christians” decide that now there are two mediators, and that we should pray to the mediator(s) rather than to the Father through the mediator(s)? As our mediator and intercessor, Jesus is now in Heaven. We are blessed to have one like ourselves praying to God on our behalf. In Hebrews 7:25, we note that Jesus as the current High Priest, “lives to make intercession for us” to God. That’s why we pray to God through Christ (in Christ’s name, by His authority), but do not normally pray directly to Jesus Himself.

Yet we joyfully sing hymns of praise to and about Jesus. We worship Him because He is both our Savior and the Son of God. In early Christian history, the pagan Pliny recognized that followers of the Way “sang hymns to Christ as unto a god.” We can sing and pray “in the Spirit.” We are to sing “with the Spirit.” But in the Bible we are not taught to sing TO the Spirit, as if it (He) were a proper object of worship. The Spirit of God is our “Helper” or our “Comforter” or our “Anointing” or our “Intercessor” or our “Teacher,” and even “the guarantee of our inheritance.” The scriptures teach all this. But is the Spirit our Savior? Is He our God? A trinitarian God is the invention of a church council rather than the revelation of divinely-inspired Scripture.

In our Stone-Campbell heritage, we have always said that we accept whatever the Bible says about God, about Christ, and about the Holy Spirit, but we do not necessarily accept the dogmas men weave from those terms. And that is where Leroy Garrett stands, he says. When Jesus accepted equality with the Father, this is a doctrine we find in the Bible. Yet Paul, in 1 Corinthians 11:3 also points out that, “The head of Christ is God.” The ONE God we surely should address our prayers to is the Father God.

The scriptures equate the Spirit of God with the Spirit of Christ, but in no way call on men to worship the Spirit or to pray to the Spirit. A triune God is not taught in the Bible. The earliest Christian creeds speak of God the Father, and God the Son. They also speak of belief in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic (universal) Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. The theory of God being a trinity did not happen early in the life of the church of Christ. It’s God the Father, and God the Unique Son. And it’s a Spirit, and a church, and a resurrected Savior who can in turn bring followers of the Way into eternal LIFE.

The trinity is a theory. Many Christians do not accept that theory as true fact. Even those who do believe in a trinity should know better than to pray to or worship the Holy Spirit. Leroy says he avoids joining in prayers addressed to the Spirit. So do I. Perhaps you should also.