[what's up]

Yes, and that's why we ask the saints in heaven to edify and encourage us

No, Paul was saying the believers on earth should edify each other. You are reading more into the scripture than what is clearly meant.

You have given me more proof that Catholics do not pray only for the saints to intercede for them. They pray for the saints theselves to edify and encourage them, believing that those who have already passed on have power to do so.

This is similar to the buddhists in Singapore I encountered who pray for their dead ancestors' help in life.

[AnAmericanMother]

Matthew 22 - He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not dead. The "cloud of witnesses" and the "spirits of men made perfect" in Hebrews are not dead either.

And at the Transfiguration, Christ conversed with Moses and Elijah, long dead by earthly reckoning. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.