Intercession of Saints: No Need for other saints prayers? - A Discussion with Shamelessly Red

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

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 ​ @ShamelesslyRed  Sorry for the inconvenience of the disappearing comments, I hope it gets fixed soon. Having said that, I still haven't seen the response to my comments nor where in Deuteronomy 18 a prohibition on the intercession of saints is found. Hopefully, your comments gets through one day to provide the missing evidence.

1) You said, "Ask yourself if you have a personal relationship with Christ. And if you do, why do you feel the need to pray to saints that have died. ... I hope you will understand that if the King is your father, you don't need to ask his servants no longer on earth to petition Him." Answer 1: There is 2 questions here, firstly , it is about having a personal relationship with Christ. Since you have not define what you meant by the expression 'a personal relationship with Christ' , I will therefore take the liberty to assume until further notice that what is meant is to have frequent charismatic or mystical encounter with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. From this perspective, the answer is yes. I do. Secondly, you wonder why would any one who has such relationship with Christ feel the need to pray to saints that have died. The answer is simple, because: A) I am *NOT* the only one who has relationship with the Lord Jesus and some saints (believers on earth or in God's presence due to physical death) have a deeper relationship with the Lord than I have in certain respects. For this reason, we have a legitimate reason to ask those who are deeper in that relationship with God than us to support us in prayer. To illustrate this with two biblical episodes, Example 1: remember the passion narrative where st. Peter, who had a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, and yet for one specific moment he prayed (asked) st. John to ask a pertinent question to Jesus on his behalf although they both had immediate access to Jesus: "But there was one of His disciples leaning upon Jesus' bosom, the one whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore signaled to him to ask whom it might be of whom He spoke. And lying on Jesus' breast, he said to him, Lord, who is it? " - John 13:23-25 Example 2: remember that Job friends were in direct contact with God and yet they were directed to ask for Job intercession for the forgiveness of their sins instead of doing it themselves despite the fact that they were matter of fact directly conversing with the Lord Himself: "After these words had been spoken by the LORD to Job, the LORD spoke to Eliphaz from Teman ... So take seven bulls and seven rams and bring them to my servant Job. And bring a whole burnt offering for yourselves and my servant Job will pray for you. ... So Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuah, and Zophar from Naamath did precisely as the LORD had spoken to them, because the LORD showed favor to Job." - Job 42:7-9  B) As member of the same body of Christ, we support and carry each others burden. And this is exemplified by St. Paul who prayed (requested) the Ephesians to pray for him, and not only for him but to also pray for other saints: "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" - Ephesians 6:18-19 Note: Clearly, asking (praying) other to pray for us to God is not a betrayal of the existence of our relationship with God, but is a proof that we are one body and we support and care for each others either when we are in this body or out of this body. Our membership to the body of Christ is not rescinded at our physical death, for we remain in the true vine (one body of Christ) as branches (members of that holy body): "that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together." - 1Corinthians 12:25-26  2) You said: "They're not omni-present. Only the Holy spirit searches the hearts of believers." Answer 2: The saints do not have to be omni-present to fulfill their tasks as intercessors or prayer partners. This was the whole point of this very video. I would invite you to listen to it once again attentively. 3) You said: " And ask yourself what old testament saint God ever allowed prayer to after they passed on. None of them were prayed to. There's a strict warning against this practice." Answer 3: I do not know which one in the Old Testament God allowed for such privilege, maybe to Abraham in the parable of the bad rich and Lazarus, but in any case this is irrelevant to our discussion of the intercession of the saints nowadays since in the new covenant inaugurated by Christ, believers in Christ who have passed on are regarded as alive, "Jesus said to her, I am the Resurrection and the Life! He who believes in Me, though he die, yet he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" - John 11:25-26 Moreover, there is no text whatsoever that suggest that the command to pray for each others (Ephesians 6:18) should be discontinued at the physical death, especially given that we still live and never die in the Lord's presence as per the Lord Jesus statement. I see zero biblical evidence that there is a warning against the practice of the intercession of saints, let alone a supposedly STRICT warning for that matter. I know that protestant prohibit that but Protestantism prohibition has no authority on a Christian. Only God has authority on a Christian through the Holy Scriptures, Apostolic Traditions (2 Thessalonians 2:15; 3:6) and the Church authoritative teachings (Matthews 18:17-18)

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UPDATE:

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. 

Thank you and God Bless you.