Q. Is prayer to the Holy Ghost a Scriptural thought?
A. The Holy Ghost is God—a Divine person. When God, as such, without reference to the persons of the Godhead, is addressed in prayer, it includes the Spirit, with the Father, and the Son. In the New Testament prayer is spoken of, not as “to,” but “in” the Holy Ghost. (See such passages as Eph. 6:18, Jude 20, Rom. 8:26-27.)
After redemption was accomplished, and the Lord Jesus in heaven—a Man in the glory of God, the Holy Ghost was sent down from Heaven, (Acts The Holy Ghost dwells in the body of the believer individually (1 Cor. 6:19, &c.), and baptizes all believers collectively, into “one body” here on earth (1 Cor. 12:12-27), uniting them to Christ, the Head, in heaven. He is spoken of in Eph. 2:18, as the power of our access to the Father, through Jesus, “For through him (Jesus) we both (believers from Jew and Gentile) have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” As Christians we “live in the Spirit” (Gal. 5), and “walk in the Spirit” Hence, prayer should be in the Spirit also.
It is not that the Holy Ghost is not worthy of all worship and prayer—He is God. But since redemption has been accomplished, God has been pleased to take a place with us, and in us, through His Spirit, which precludes the thought of the Holy Ghost being made by us the object of our prayers. Hence we find the Apostles addressing, under His inspiration, the saints and assemblies of God; saluting them from the Father and the Son-the Spirit Himself, being the one who, dwelling and acting in the Church, sends the salutation. This is the same in principle. It is, therefore, in Christianity, unintelligent to do so. If done in ignorance, it is one thing, but to do so when we have learned the Lord’s mind, and this grand central truth of Christianity, is quite another.