A friend’s husband recently died and she has asked the following questions. When a spirit leaves the body to be with Christ does it have some sort of body till the resurrection – i.e. is it aware and experiences feelings etc. Also, is the spirit aware of things on earth till the resurrection, and able see or contact the living? Can you help?
Apparently the spirits of deceased believers are visible to one another, although not to humans. For example in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), the rich man, Lazarus and Abraham were all visible to each other and could communicate and experience feelings (Lazarus was comforted while the rich man was in agony), although all were deceased.
As far as I can tell, the Bible does not describe the extent of a departed spirit’s awareness of things on earth. But it does say that God does not permit contact between the living and the dead (Deut. 18:10-11).