Question: How do unbelievers hear from God?

Question: If unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit, how do they get answers from God? Are they not separated from God, as Romans says? How do they go to the throne of grace with their petitions? Please explain, because I had always learned that the only prayer an unsaved person could make was one related to salvation, yet in 1 Kings:8:39Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
See All..., God is talking to Israel and to pagans as well.

Response: Unbelievers have no access to God to have their “petitions” fulfilled by Him. Furthermore, rarely would they turn to Him (in whom they don’t believe) unless they were in a life or death situation in which only a miracle would help them. As you point out, the only prayer the unsaved can make is a prayer of repentance. Man is separated from God by his sin. It is not surprising that some pray to Mary, the “saints,” or other deities. Even the religious counselors of King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged, “...There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh” (Dan:2:10-11 [10] The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king's matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. [11] And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.
See All...).

On the other hand, God does intervene in the life of an unbeliever for His own sovereign purpose, to draw someone whom He knows will repent and come to Him, and in answer to the intercessory prayers of believers praying specifically for the salvation of unbelievers. In Scripture we see examples of individuals such as Hagar, weeping over her inability to protect the life of her son, Ishmael (Gen:21:14-19 [14] And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. [15] And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. [16] And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. [17] And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. [18] Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. [19] And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
See All...), though previously God had already heard and responded to her “affliction” (Gen:16:11And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction.
See All...). God had not only protected him (Gen:21:19-21 [19] And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. [20] And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. [21] And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
See All...), but God blessed Ishmael exceedingly (Gen:16:10-12 [10] And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. [11] And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. [12] And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
See All...).

The people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah with the hope that Nineveh might be spared (Jon 3:5-10). God, in his mercy, did not destroy the city of Nineveh as He had threatened. The people of Nineveh may not have approached God as the Scriptures demanded, but they did know what repentance was.

In 1 Kings:8:38-39 [38] What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: [39] Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
See All... we read, “What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men)....”

Solomon is interceding for Israel and acknowledges the necessity of “knowing the affliction of his own heart....” Consequently, we see examples such as Cornelius the Roman centurion who met the Lord in Acts:10:4And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
See All...: “And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.”

In 1 Peter:3:12For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
See All..., Peter writes, “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”

Again, the testimony in Scripture is clear, as in Psalm:34:17-18 [17] The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. [18] The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
See All...: “The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

The mercy of God is such that in Psalm:51:17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
See All..., we also see, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”