The Great Provision and the Great Permission

During His ministry, Christ’s disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. And this He did by giving them the Disciples Prayer:

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

But then as Christ’s earthly ministry came to an end and His crucifixion was in view, He granted His disciples, and those who were to come after them, an extraordinary privilege in prayer unto the Father. And He gave this privilege with a supreme provision to secure it.

John 15:13-15
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
(KJV)

John 16:23-28
23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:
27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.
(KJV)


John 14:12-17
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
(KJV)

There it is. Christ declares the coming of the Holy Spirit of God who would descend at Pentecost, and ever indwell the believers both then and going forward. And with that solid unbreakable provision came a new privilege in praying unto the Father: They were now allowed to invoke the name of the Son when speaking to the Father. In effect, the Disciple’s Prayer was now changed to The Christian’s Prayer:

My Father who is in heaven,
in the name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
by Thy Holy Spirit within me,
Hallowed be thy name.

So this is now the email name of God (so to speak), that we should ever hallow and use if our concrete prayers are ever to reach their intended hearer.