Can't I just go directly to God without saints?

People presuppose, well, I can go directly to God. Okay, you can go directly to God. But is that what people did in the Old Testament? No. In the Old Testament they went to the prophets and asked their intercessions, and the prophets performed miracles. In the New Testament, people went to the apostles, and they also went to the clergymen of the church. The Book of Acts is full of the apostles working miracles, and not everyone could work miracles.

Take Acts chapter 3. Peter and John go up to the temple at the hour of prayer, and a man lame from his mother's womb asks them for alms. Peter says, silver and gold have I none, but what I do have, I give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk. He takes him by the right hand and lifts him up, and immediately the man's feet and ankle bones receive strength, and he enters the temple walking and leaping and praising God.

Why is this story significant? Because not every Christian, not every believer, was able to perform these types of miracles. God designated that certain saints were gifted with the power to perform them. Peter himself says, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man walk?

He was given this by God, in order that God would be glorified by the working of the miracles the apostles performed. The apostles really did perform the miracles, but by the power of God. When people came to them and asked for healing, it was granted to them. They did not think they could just say a prayer directly to God and these miracles would happen. They knew the apostles had been granted this power.

But whose power is it? It is all God's. That is why we glorify God for the work of his saints. We do not glorify the saints in the sense of saying the saints are now God. That is a complete misnomer. We ask the intercessions of the saints because they have been given a certain power and authority by God in order to work miracles. There is another example in Acts: a young man falls out the window during the preaching and dies, and St Paul simply throws himself on the man, says that he is not dead, and the man comes back to life.

He is emulating Christ raising Lazarus, with the power of God, and he does it in a way that almost comes across as nonchalant. I do not know a lot of people who can simply raise the dead. Something unique was happening in the ministry and power of the Apostle Paul. The average Christian was not given this ability from God to raise the dead when it was necessary.