Intercession of Saints: Is it true Jesus taught us to Pray the Father only? A Discussion with danielt3475

On my Youtube channel, I have had a series of discussion on the topic of the intercession of the saints. I wanted to share the one I had with this interlocutor who goes by the name, danielt3475. His comments are in yellow.

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Me:​ @danielt3475  You have yet to specifically respond to any of my questions.

1) You had initially said, "Jesus gave us the template on how to pray in Matthew and Luke that doesn't include any man but only God. "

Answer 1: But nowhere in Matthew or Luke, assuming you are referring to the "Our Father" prayer, that Jesus gives the template to pray 'God' (the word 'God' does not appear in that prayer), but rather the template, if template it is, the prayer is directed to the "Father". (Father is the word being used). In order words, the "Our Father" prayer, it is addressed to God the Father, and not to God the Son, nor to God the Holy Spirit specifically. 

And seeing that you are correctly open to praying the Son and the Holy Spirit, while none is being taught in neither two Gospels as you suggested, this already shows that Prayers are not exclusive directed to the Father, despite the fact that "Our Father" prayer was taught, and which you regard as an exclusive template for all prayers.

2) You also said, "Secondly the bible clearly shows us who to pray too. Father Son and Holy Spirit."

Answer 2: Hence my request, where is the biblical evidence you are relying on that clearly show that we should pray to the Holy Spirit? I'd appreciate if you could quote this specific verse here, since you claim is it clearly shown. Thank you in advance for your response.

3) You said, "Where is your evidence that prayer is dedicated to anyone other than our Triune God, Father Son and Holy Spirit??? Prayer is us communicating with God and God alone. "

Answer 3: Remember I did ask for the objective definition of prayer not your subjective definition of prayer. It is best when we look at definition that we make reference to proper authority such as a dictionary in order to avoid subjectivity in our definition which will simply muddy the waters and lead to a difficult dialogue and misunderstanding. 

Let me then model this below with the following:

Prayer is usually taken to mean, to ask, to make a request, to make a petition. The Merriam Webster dictionary give us the definition of prayer in this way:

1.: to make a request in a humble manner.

2.: to address God or a god with adoration, confession, supplication, or thanksgiving.

Therefore, based on the above we can find examples in the Bile were people prayed (request made to) other people so that they in turn can pray (make request to) God. An example is st. Paul who prayed (requested) the Ephesians to pray (petition) God on his behalf:

Ephesians 6:18-19,  "Pray in the Spirit at all times with every kind of prayer and request. Likewise, be alert with your most diligent efforts and pray for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that, when I begin to speak, the right words will come to me. Then I will boldly make known the secret of the gospel"

Note therefore that there is a biblical example of a man (st. Paul) praying (making requests to) other men so that in their turn they may pray (make a request) for him on a specific need. This is why I asked for an objective definition of prayer, and not a subjective one that can not be objectively verified. 

I am afraid a lot of protestants have an incorrect, non verifiable definition of Prayer. They have constructed their own meaning of Prayer and then have imported it into the Bible. Hence this make the dialogue difficult because we use the same word but we mean different thing.

4) You said, "Then what is the point jesus dying on the cross and resurrect if we add other saints to plead to them for our sins etc? The honours is on you to provide evidence that we should pray to saints biblically???"

Answer 4: The evidence is already provided above with Ephesians 6:19 when St. Paul prayed (made a request to) the Ephesians saints. And Jesus death on the cross is not nullified because we pray for each others need and carry each others burden, either when we are physically on earth or present in heaven after our physical death. Our states may have changed but not our love for each others. We are still members of the same one body of Christ, either alive on earth or physically dead (but alive in God's presence):

1Corinthians 12:25 "so that there might be no disharmony in the body, but that its parts should have the same concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is praised, every part rejoices with it." 

We are not separated of Christ's body when we die. We are still in Christ and members of Christ body and we have concern for each other. This is the point of this video above between Sam and his interlocutor. We care for each others now, and we will continue to care for each others when we are physically dead. Love binds us, and death can't separate us from the love of God manifested for each one of us (Romans 8:38-39). And prayer is one of those way we show concern and care for each others, when we pray for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18).

Thank you and God bless you.