The doctorine the ICC refers to as "Praying Jesus Into Your Heart" has many names in orthodox Christianity. Among these are "Accepting Jesus Into Your Heart," "Accepting Jesus as Your Lord and Savior," and simply "Accepting Jesus." My suspicion is that the ICC refers to it by the term they use because "Ask about the false doctorine of 'Accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior.'" would be a lot less effective. The truth is, this concept is very Biblical and is often distorted by the ICC to make it sound more like a false doctorine.

Let's have a look at what the Apostle Paul says about having Jesus in one's heart, in the book of Ephesians. This is Chapter 3, verses 3:14-19, taken from the New International Version.

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

There you have it, spelled out almost unequivocally in the Bible. Christ may indeed dwell in believers' hearts, and what seems to be the necessary ingredients? All Paul mentions is prayer, faith, and the Holy Spirit. Now, it should be pretty obvious where the first two come from, and the Spirit comes from God, so the only question remaining seems to be, "What makes the Holy Spirit work in my life?"

The answer there can be found in John 7:37-39. "On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.' By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to recieve. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not been glorified." These verses say, again pretty much unequivocally, that "Whoever believes in me [Jesus]" will recieve the Spirit. All it takes is belief, not any good works, "getting discipled," or baptism.

Further evidence that peope do not recieve the Holy Spirit at the time they are baptized with water can be found in Acts 10:44-48. The Holy Spirit comes on "all who heard the message." Peter then says the people who have recieved the Holy Spirit are to be baptized. Believes can receive the Holy Spirit, and hence the presence of Christ in their heart, before becoming baptized, and the Bible is explicitly clear on both these matters.

What are the implications of praying Jesus into your heart? Well, for one, it isn't that this doctorine gives you an excuse to sin as much as you want to! Romans 6:1-4, and many other passages in the Bible, make this clear that this is not the meaning of freedom in Christ. I haven't seen any mainstream churches who taught that accepting Christ meant unlimited freedom to sin. Instead, good works and a desire to avoid sin are a consequence of faith and salvation. If Jesus is truly dwelling in your heart, He would guide you in the kind of life God wants you to live.

However, the doctorine of praying Jesus into your heart is closely related to the teachings of saved by grace, so I will discuss that at length too. There are many cases where Jesus lists believing in him as the only requirement for salvation, such as John 5:24 - "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death into life." There are many other references to how believing in Christ and accepts him has eternal life. John 1:12-13, 3:16-18, and 17:3 all come to mind, but there are many others.

Perhaps the most direct reference to the link between having Jesus in your heart and being saved comes from Romans 9:9-11. "You, however, are controlled not by he sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you."

It is impossible to be saved by works, as no matter how good our works are they can never compare to God's righteousness. Romans 3:19-26 demonstrates clearly that no one can become righteous enough to become justified under the law. Galatians 2:21 is equally clear that works can never give us salvation: "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained throught the law, Christ died for nothing!"

The teaching of "Praying Jesus into your heart" is not the false doctorine that the ICC implies it is. It is a teaching which is fully justified by the Bible but callously dismissed by the leaders of the ICC.