What my thread is about is different than as you have posted. I am not councelled to pray for Brenda to be raised from the dead in vain. Rather, because I am councelled that she needs to be raised from the dead, the will of the Lord is known. And so I have prayed and should continue... and do so - believing.
I am very sorry for your loss....my husband died several years ago and it is hard to lose your mate...about a month after he died he came to me in a dream and said it was time for him to go and he wanted to say goodbye and let me know I would be alright....then I woke up and I could literally smell his scent and I had tears running down my face.
I am not convinced that when the body dies the spirit/soul stays in the body. Through testimonies of numerous others who have died and come back they seem to have the same testimony of being in the presence of God or Jesus or to have followed the light. Many testify that they saw an angel at their bedside as they were dying....
Billy Graham made this statement....Billy Graham: When a Believer Dies an ‘Angel Will Escort Them to Heaven’
The Rev. Billy Graham recently answered a reader’s question of whether angels escort believers to heaven after they die.
“When we die, does an angel accompany us into heaven? I’ve heard this all my life, but is it really true? How do we know?” the reader asked in the Answers section of the famous evangelist’s website.
“Yes, the Bible indicates that when a believer dies, the angels will escort them safely into heaven,” Graham began in his response, according to Charisma News.
Graham then provided an example from the Bible of an angel escorting a believer to heaven after death:
“In one of His parables, for example, Jesus told about two very different men. One was a rich man, who lived only for himself and ignored both God and others. The other was a poor beggar who had nothing as far as this world’s goods were concerned, but had faith in God and His promises. When the rich man died, he received what he deserved: a life of misery, separated from God forever. But when the poor man died, the angels accompanied him safely into God’s presence. (You can read this parable in Luke 16:19-31).”
Graham ended by reminding the reader as he always does in his responses to readers’ questions that salvation comes only through Jesus.
“Never forget, however, that Christ alone is our Savior, and He alone is the one in whom we are to place our faith and trust. We should be grateful for God’s angels, but we are not to worship them or make them (instead of Christ) the center of our faith. Is Christ the center of your faith? Make sure of your commitment to Him. Then put your confidence in God’s promise: “For He will give His angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways” (Ps. 91:11).”
This from a Baptist preacher...David Jeremiah.....FIRST-PERSON: Your heavenly escorts
For every Christian, the time is coming when we will move into our heavenly homes, assisted by the Lord's real estate agents -- called angels. After carefully studying this subject in the Bible, I've come to believe that angels take believers home to heaven when we die and help us move into our new houses. And the Lord Himself pays their commissions!
This is tremendously comforting, and it takes much of the intimidation out of the move. The primary Scripture teaching on this comes from the lips of Christ Himself. In describing the beggar Lazarus in Luke 16, Jesus said, "So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom," referring to heaven. Notice that Lazarus wasn't merely escorted to heaven. The angels carried him there.
Death is our most universal and dreaded experience, and even Christians can be apprehensive. But in the Bible, death is never defined as the cessation of life, but as separation. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death is being separated from God. Eternal death is being separated from heaven. For the Christian, the separation of soul and body is temporary; and at the resurrection, our eternal souls will be reunited with our glorified bodies.