By Chuck Smith: These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time is coming, when I will no longer speak unto you in proverbs, but I will show you plainly of the Father. And that day you will ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God ( John 16:25-27 ). And so our prayer is to the Father. We have direct access to the Father. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we might make our needs known before God. In the name of Jesus, I can approach the Father, and yet, I really fear and tremble for those who think that they have direct access to the Father apart from Jesus Christ. They have lost the consciousness of the holiness of God. The Jewish people today say, "We do not need Jesus. We can go directly to the Father." They forget that their fathers did not go directly to the Father, but they came through much sacrifices through the priests. And the priests went to the Father for them. Jesus said, "I"m not going to say that I"m going to ask the Father for you. You can go directly to the Father." If I can go directly to the Father, then surely I don"t need to go to Mary to ask Jesus to go to the Father for me. Or any of the other saints. And prayers to Mary and the saints are church dogma and tradition without scriptural foundation. There"s no value in praying to Mary. In fact, I would be a little hesitant to do so, lest Jesus said, "Who is my mother?" For when Mary was outside and could not make her way to Jesus because of the crowd, she sent a message in and said, "Tell my son I"m out here...his mother is out here with his brothers." And Jesus, when they brought the message, "Your mother"s outside, she wants you," He said, "Who is my mother? Who is my brother?" Now, if I was going to Mary in heaven and said, "Dear Mary, intercede for me," and Jesus would say, "Who is my mother?" I would be in trouble. I don"t have to go through Mary. I can come directly to the Father through and in the name of Jesus. #John16 #ServingJesusChrist #AskInMyName













