It's possible I'm oversimplifying on that last point, but every time I've asked someone I know who does believe in intercession to explain it, that is more or less what I get. It's absolutely possible that I'm missing something, especially since that's not the background I come from and I'm just not as immersed in that view of things, but going off of how I've always had it explained to me and going off of my own priors, I just feel there is a significant leap from the capacity for those to have died with a saving faith being able to pray for those of us still living to those same saints being able to sway God's decisions on a request