DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRAYING "THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD" AND PRAYING "IN THE NAME OF JESUS".

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Some Christians pray, and at the end of the prayer, they say, “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Does the bible teach us to pray like that? Is there a difference between praying "through" Jesus and praying in the Name of Jesus.

Well, there’s a difference between praying through Jesus, and praying in the Name of Jesus. 

Praying through Jesus Christ is to make Him a medium or intermediary to the Father. The Christian has arrived in God’s presence, and therefore, doesn’t need a medium. Only the sinner needs a medium; so he calls on Jesus that he might be saved. When he’s saved through Jesus Christ, he’s brought by the power of God into God’s presence, and no longer needs a medium. Jesus Himself said in John 16:26-27 (KJV), “At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” Notice that He said He would not be an intermediary and that the Father Himself loves you and doesn’t need anybody to pray to Him for you. There’re those who say, “When we pray to the Father, Jesus intercedes and begs the Father in our behalf”; no, He doesn’t. 

Praying in the Name of Jesus means you’re standing in the place of Jesus; you’ve become His voice. He’s given you the legal right to use His Name. You’ve got the right of attorney to function in His place, the same way a delegated member of a president’s cabinet can represent him at a state function. In other words, even though you’re the one asking the Father for something, Jesus is actually the one doing it, for you’re asking in His Name. He’s delegated His authority to you, the same authority He has on earth to request anything of the Father and have it granted. Read what Jesus said in John 16:23-26 (NKJV), "And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you.

All through the Scriptures, there’s no place where the Christian is asked to pray through Jesus. What the Bible teaches is that we pray in the Name of Jesus, for that’s the right way to pray.

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