What does Scripture say about the intercession of the saints?

¹⁶ Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months. ¹⁸ He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

¹ I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for all men, ² for kings and all who are in high places, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and reverence. ³ For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.

³⁰ Now I beg you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,

⁷ But now return the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live; but if thou restore her not, know that thou shalt die and all thine.

⁸ Now then take seven bullocks, and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and he shall offer a burnt-offering for you. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will only accept him: for but for his sake, I would have destroyed you, for ye have not spoken the truth against my servant Job.

³⁷ But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸ Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”

¹ After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. ² He was changed before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light. ³ Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him.

³⁰ Behold, two men were talking with him, who were Moses and Elijah, ³¹ who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

¹ Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, ²³ to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.

⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had. ¹⁰ They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹ A long white robe was given to each of them. They were told that they should rest yet for a while, until their fellow servants and their brothers, who would also be killed even as they were, should complete their course.

⁸ Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

³ Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. ⁴ The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand.

¹² Now therefore, when thou didst pray, and Sara thy daughter in law, I did bring the remembrance of your prayers before the Holy One: and when thou didst bury the dead, I was with thee likewise. ¹³ And when thou didst not delay to rise up, and leave thy dinner, to go and cover the dead, thy good deed was not hid from me: but I was with thee. ¹⁴ And now God hath sent me to heal thee and Sara thy daughter in law. ¹⁵ I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One.

¹² And this was his vision: That Onias, who had been high priest, a virtuous and a good man, reverend in conversation, gentle in condition, well spoken also, and exercised from a child in all points of virtue, holding up his hands prayed for the whole body of the Jews. ¹³ This done, in like manner there appeared a man with gray hairs, and exceeding glorious, who was of a wonderful and excellent majesty. ¹⁴ Then Onias answered, saying, This is a lover of the brethren, who prayeth much for the people, and for the holy city, [to wit], Jeremias the prophet of God.

¹ And the Lord said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before my face, my soul could not be toward them: dismiss this people, and let them go forth.

¹¹ And Moses prayed before the Lord God, and said, Wherefore, O Lord, art thou very angry with thy people, whom thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt with great strength, and with thy high arm? ¹² [Take heed] lest at any time the Egyptians speak, saying, With evil intent he brought them out to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from off the earth; cease from thy wrathful anger, and be merciful to the sin of thy people, ¹³ remembering Abraam and Isaac and Jacob thy servants, to whom thou hast sworn by thyself, and hast spoken to them, saying, I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of heaven for multitude, and all this land which thou spokest of to give to them, so that they shall possess it for ever. ¹⁴ And the Lord was prevailed upon to preserve his people.

⁵ For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

¹⁰ There shall not be found in thee one who purges his son or his daughter with fire, one who uses divination, who deals with omens, and augury, ¹¹ a sorcerer employing incantation, one who has in him a divining spirit, an observer of signs, questioning the dead. ¹² For every one that does these things is an abomination to the Lord thy God; for because of these abominations the Lord will destroy them from before thy face.

¹⁹ And if they should say to you, Seek those who have in them a divining spirit, and them that speak out of the earth, them that speak vain words, who speak out of their belly: shall not a nation diligently seek to their God? why do they seek to the dead concerning the living?

⁷ Then Saul said to his servants, Seek for me a woman who has in her a divining spirit, and I will go to her, and enquire of her: and his servants said to him, Behold, [there is] a woman who has in her a divining spirit at Aendor. ⁸ And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he goes, and two men with him, and they come to the woman by night; and he said to her, Divine to me, I pray thee, by the divining spirit within thee, and bring up to me him whom I shall name to thee. ⁹ And the woman said to him, Behold now, thou knowest what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who had in them divining spirits, and the wizards from the land, and why dost thou spread a snare for my life to destroy it? ¹⁰ And Saul swore to her, and said, [As] the Lord lives, no injury shall come upon thee on this account. ¹¹ And the woman said, Whom shall I bring up to thee? and he said, Bring up to me Samuel. ¹² And the woman saw Samuel, and cried out with a loud voice: and the woman said to Saul, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. ¹³ And the king said to her, Fear not; tell me whom thou hast seen. And the woman said to him, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. ¹⁴ And he said to her, What didst thou perceive? and she said to him, An upright man ascending out of the earth, and he [was] clothed with a mantle. And Saul knew that this was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the earth, and did obeisance to him. ¹⁵ And Samuel said, Why hast thou troubled me, that I should come up? And Saul said, I am greatly distressed, and the Philistines war against me, and God has departed from me, and no longer hearkens to me either by the hand of prophets or by dreams: and now I have called thee to tell me what I shall do. ¹⁶ And Samuel said, Why askest thou me, whereas the Lord has departed from thee, and taken part with thy neighbour? ¹⁷ And the Lord has done to thee, as the Lord spoke by me; and the Lord will rend thy kingdom out of thy hand, and will give it to thy neighbour David, ¹⁸ because thou didst not hearken to the voice of the Lord, and didst not execute his fierce anger upon Amalec, therefore the Lord has done this thing to thee this day. ¹⁹ And the Lord shall deliver Israel with thee into the hands of the Philistines, and to-morrow thou and thy sons with thee shall fall, and the Lord shall deliver the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.