Luke 15:10 says that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” So, obviously, the angels know what’s going on here on earth.
Luke 20:35-36 teaches us that those that are “[resurrected] from the dead” (aka those that reach Heaven) “are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.” This indicates that the angels and heavenly saints are generally equal. So, it seems that Luke 15:10 would also apply to the heavenly saints.
As for your examples...
James says to call on elders to pray because we need all the prayers that we can get, especially when we are sick and in danger of “death” (I put “death” in parentheses because our souls are eternal; it’s an important point in this context, and I want to be careful on this thread).
Jesus taught us the Our Father because it’s a great standard prayer and because it contains some good basic theology about our relationship with God.
At the time of St. Stephen’s death, he probably wasn’t very sure of who was in Heaven and who wasn’t; additionally, he was quite desperate and didn’t have much time to seek anyone else’s help.
Jesus prayed to the Father because that’s the only one He could really pray to — how unbecoming it would be for God-incarnate to request the intercessions of a lower being.
that’s about as weak of a reply as i’ve ever seen on FR.
you have a lot of what ifs and it seems in your thought process.
it sounds to me like you’re bringing in Catholic tradition, which a lot of not based on Scripture, to justify your points.
you did not address the main flaw in your post regarding who is and isn’t a saint. if Catholics believe that only certain ones are saints because the church says so, then that’s not Biblical. That’s man.
The Bible defines a saint as a believer in Christ...whether they be on this planet or in Heaven. Do you agree with this definition?