How Far Does Prayer Go... And Who Else Is Listening In Heaven?

The name represented here dons the purple eternally...
... how much more the royal priesthood reigning Today on earth?

Discussion is good to have, for it is through discussion that things are made known.

It is when arguing, and attempting to prove an opinion is a fact, that ignorance persists despite evidence of fact.

Many are the controversial issues and topics regarding religion.

When it comes to the Christian religion, let me point out that religions are plenty, while the Way is One.

People believe all kinds of things, but there is only a single faith.

It is the approach to the Unity, manifested in a myriad of ways, that can draw people into unity... or disperse people persistently.

Aim at being unified despite lack of understanding and / or a lack of agreement.

Acknowledging and agreeing that Yeshua is Lord is a basis to keep the unity of peace through His Holy Spirit.

To the issue:

Why are some believers accused of praying to other people / saints?

Is it not a matter of speaking to the living in asking them to pray for you?

Let us consider what God has done, what God has said, and what God has established.

In the following context, Messiah was asked about an earthly issue and He responded with the spiritual reality... and granted an insight into this article's topic:

At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” 

Yeshua replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I Am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” 

- Mark 12: 23-27

I would say, like the angels regarding people being (again) spiritual beings, asexual, and not bound to earthly constructs, like sex or marriage and other such human natures.

The Lord is the God of the living - The God of those who inherit eternal life and, although they may experience a physical death, they continue to live:

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 

Yeshua said to her, “I Am the Resurrection and the Life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” 

- John 11: 24-26

Do those who 'die' according to the flesh somehow cease to 'exist' or cease an ability to communicate?

Let us find out:

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ 

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ 

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 

- Luke 16: 22-28

We are spirit beings experiencing a physical reality (currently).

Once we shed the covering of flesh, we will experience our Truer nature - the nature: we have been made in His likeness and His image.

We can thus understand, from the teaching about the rich man talking to Abraham, that man was not 'praying' to Abraham as one prays to God.

Rather, that man was communicating with Abraham and asking Abraham to act or do something on his behalf.

Is this any different from the teaching the believer has received regarding prayer?

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 

- James 5: 16

We are not only instructed to confess to one another, but to also pray for one another.

Notice how (even today) the faithful, still in the flesh, ask other faithful to pray for them:

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. 

- Ephesians 6: 18-20

What is the reality of the faithful after they have gone to be with the Father?

Are God's chosen simply dead and deaf somewhere?

Or are God's saints alive with Christ and able to hear, pray, and act?

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 

- Hebrews 12: 1

Looking again at Abraham's conversation with the man who recently died, Abraham was very aware of that man's life in the flesh.

This is why it says pray in the Spirit.

Realize that the Spirit connects us all.

For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in Spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. 

- Colossians 2: 5

If someone desires to contest if or when an initial resurrection occurred, let them look at what happened the moment Messiah's flesh perished while hanging on the cross. (verse 52 specifically)

We can see a glimpse into heaven when reading Revelation, but that 'glimpse' should not always be interpreted per the literal letter of any given word.

Let us look at what the Spirit is expressing through human language.

Let us see if we can together understand:

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the Right Hand of Him who sat on the throne. And when He had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. And they sang a new song, saying: 

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” 

- Revelation 5: 6-10

The prayers of the saints still on earth are heard before the Lord.

Consider how the great cloud of witnesses play a role now in heaven.

Consider the 24 elders and their role in offering the bowl of incense (which is the prayers of the faithful still in the flesh on earth).

Consider how the phrase in Christ may speak much further that initially perceived.

To be in Christ is to commune with God via His Spirit in us... and be one with Him as He is One.

Consider what is being revealed here:

I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are One—I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete Unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. 

“Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I Am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world. 

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me. I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.” 

- John 17: 22-26

We exist, and can only live after death (second death), through the Lamb.

We are alive and shall forever live because of His Spirit within us.

Christ / the Lamb is the bridge between mankind and their God.

Notice God made the believers to be a kingdom of priests to reign on earth.

Conclusion:

We ask one another (while in the flesh) to pray for us.

We confess our sins to one another (and to God both through others and directly with our Father).

We live if we are in Spirit and in union with Him.

This is why those who deny the Son consequently deny the Father, since all that is to be known about God is lived and learned through the Son, even a glimpse into heaven.

Why would anything 'change' when someone ceases being found in the flesh, but are now found in heaven regarding asking them to pray for us?

It is not to another person one 'prays to'.

The believer simply asks another saint to pray to the Lord on our behalf.

Asking a saint (whether in the flesh or in heaven) to pray for us is found as a teaching from God.

It is a matter of faith and understanding as to what God has established on earth.

The contemptuous, and the contentions that have arisen centuries after the facts that God has established, are shown to be non-issues... but a showing of ignorance and rebelliousness.

To not know or understand is not to be rebellious, but to contend and claim otherwise is.

Those who make it an issue show a lack of wisdom and a lack understanding of what God has established on earth - a kingdom of priests reigning on earth and saints in heaven playing a role over life on earth as they too reign with Christ for years upon years, age upon age.