What Happens When We Die?

So what do you do in Heaven? Some people think that all you do is to sit around on clouds playing harps. That would be boring for most of us, sort of like sitting in a waiting room forever with "elevator music" being piped in and never getting your turn. (That sounds more like Hell than like Heaven, don't you think?) Thank God, that is not what Heaven is like!

God has actually made Heaven to be a very nice place. First and foremost, it is nice for Him, because that is where He hangs out there for all eternity. It has a lot of things well-suited to His character in it, such as beauty and majesty and radiant joy.

One of the things that God really enjoys is receiving heartfelt worship from His creation. So, of course, there will be a lot of worship going on in Heaven. It won't be at all like many of the worship services that we have here on earth, where your attention can wander or you can get distracted or where the "worship songs" don't always work for you. It will be a heartfelt personal encounter with God, where He meets you in worship and reveals more of Himself to you--and as a result, you get more in awe of Him and worship Him even more. For most of us, worship won't be our "Heavenly job," it will be a treat that we do when we are not "working" at our assigned jobs. But some people (and angels) are actually assigned the Heavenly worship team before God's throne, and they get to worship God as their Heavenly assignment.

In fact, one time when God brought me up to a vision of Heaven, I got to worship Him in this huge mass of people and angels who were gathered before His throne. The worship went on for a long time and it was incredible. I did not want to stop, but there was a break in this corporate worship. During that break, an angel started talking to me. It is not often that I have a free-form conversation with an angel. Usually they only talk to me when God tells them to, such as giving a direction or explaining something to me or teaching me something.

He asked me, "Don't you just love worshipping Him?"

"Oh yes," I replied. "I could do this for all eternity." 'In fact,' I thought to myself, 'I will get to do this for all eternity one day!'

I had forgotten that angels can hear our thoughts as easily as if we have voiced them out loud. The angel nodded and smiled, as if my thought was a light joke.

Then he said, "Actually, I do 'do this' for all eternity. I am a worship angel and my job in Heaven is to help lead worship before God's throne."

"Oh," I said, "That must be an awesome job. I guess you are working right now?"

"Actually, no," he replied, "it is my shift off. If I was working at the moment, I would be over there, closer to the throne, with the other worship angels."

"Wait a minute, let me see if I understand you. Your job in Heaven is to lead worship before God's throne. You share this job with other angels in shifts, sort of like having work hours and off-work hours. Right now it is your off-work time and you are choosing to spend it by doing the very same thing you do at your job--worshipping Him?"

"Yes." The angel had a big smile on his face. "You might say that I love my work and can't get enough of it!"

What could I say? This is Heaven, and here the Lord gives each of His creation a job that they are perfectly suited for. I got the impression that each person in Heaven does have a job, and that they each love their job, that it is "perfect" for them.

I met one other person who told me about his Heavenly job. I can't share his real name, but let's call him James. He lived a long time ago and he had the gift of hospitality when he was on the earth. James was martyred for his faith, along with several of his brothers and sisters. He was the first in the group to die. As soon as he died, he found himself before God's throne and God was saying "Well done." Then God showered His love on James for some time, sort of like what I described in my earlier vision.

After what seemed like years of basking in God's love and acceptance, God called his attention to a scene from earth that was playing out on the platform before God's throne. It was the scene from the next believer in James' group laying down his life. (I don't know what that person's name was, but let's call him Peter.) At first, Heaven was watching the event taking place on earth. But as Peter died, he was instantly kneeling before God's throne, not far from where James was standing.

God welcomed Peter into the kingdom and expressed His pleasure to him. James assumed that his friend had his private time with God just like James did, But from his perspective, that all happened in an instant. Then God said to James, "Why don't you show your brother to his home in Heaven and help him get settled in?"

James was surprised by the command, because he had no idea of where Peter's home would be. But he simply said, "Yes, Lord," and put his hand Peter's shoulder in a loving embrace. The next thing James knew, both he and Peter were standing in Peter's quarters. James helped Peter to settle in and spent some time fellowshipping with him.

When he was done, both James and Peter suddenly found themselves back before God's throne just in time to see the next person from their group arrive in Heaven. Again God asked James to show this person to his quarters. Again, James found himself and the other man at his quarters without knowing beforehand where they were located. (It seems that when you want to move around in Heaven, you don't necessarily have to walk from one place to another. You can just determine where you want to go and suddenly you are there. As James picked up on that, he began to explain it to new arrivals as he showed them to their rooms.)

The Lord has given James has a wonderful room of his own, with lots of treasures laid up in it. But he hasn't been there yet. Right now he is so enjoying his job as a "heavenly greeter" and showing people to their "mansions" for the first time. He said that he will have lots of time to explore his own room after the believers on earth have all died and come to Heaven.

Personally, James' job does not sound all that attractive to me, but it is perfect for him. He really loves it. I am sure his job will change when the last believer has died and there is no one new arriving in Heaven and needing to be shown to their mansion. When that time comes, I suspect that his new job will be just as perfect and delightful for him as his current one is.

One time God gave me a sense of what my own job in Heaven might be like. The Lord took me into Heaven in a vision and introduced me to three people. He told me that I would be part of their team when I permanently got to Heaven. Then He did something that surprised me, He began showing them scenes from my own life, as if by way of introduction. The only problem was that He did not just show them the "good stuff," He showed them everything about me--and I do mean everything. He showed them all of my sins and all of my shortcomings and all of my fears and all of my inadequacies. I remembered thinking to myself, "Boy, that blows any chance of them liking me because now they know all about me."

I was a little embarrassed when I first began to interact with them. But to my surprise, they were warm and accepting. I did not have to put up any pretense to get them to like me, they knew exactly who I was an still they totally accepted me. It felt so wonderful and safe to be with them. I think that Heaven is like that--all truth and love. We will be fully known there, we won't have any secrets or pretenses. At the same time, we will be loved and accepted, not just by God but by everyone there.

They seemed very pleased that I would be joining their team. They told me that there is one other who will be joining us later than I do. I asked what we would be doing. They told me that "for now" we would be involved in the Heavenly side of spiritual warfare. But our task would change after the devil and his forces are forever cast into the lake of fire and there was no more need for spiritual warfare.

That job felt really right to me, because spiritual warfare is a big part of my life/walk here on earth. They also explained to me that we would be given assignments as a team and work together as a team. But there would also be "time" between assignments where we could worship or do many other things that people do in Heaven, such as worshipping, fellowshipping, watching events on earth, exploring God's character/nature more fully, etc.

It seems like a really good destiny for me and I was ready to join them right at that moment. However, they told me that my time on earth wasn't up yet, and I would be joining them later on. They looked forward to receiving me at that time. I have to confess, I am looking forward to joining up with them.

I still don't know everything that there is to do in Heaven, but I know that there is a lot to do there. It is not going to be boring by any means!

Of course, the best thing is the free and unrestricted access that we will have to God, and how He will continuously reveal more an more of Himself to us. We will be able to go to new depths of worship in Him. We will be able to truly love one another the way Jesus always intended us to, and we will have incredible times of fellowshipping with each other. We will be changed and transformed to be like Him. There won't be any more sinful nature, no shame, no sorrow, no pain, no fear, no uncertainly, no lack, no loneliness and no suffering of any type. It is going to be fun.