What Is Jesus Doing in Heaven Right Now?

Question 3022.

Jesus is not idle in heaven, and His heavenly intercession for believers is only one part, though the most frequently mentioned part, of an active present ministry that Scripture describes in surprising detail. He ascended, but He did not retire.

Let me set out the main things the Bible tells us He is presently doing at the Father’s right hand.

It is easy, without meaning to, to picture heaven as a place of permanent stillness, harps and clouds and not much happening, once the drama of the resurrection and ascension has passed. Scripture pictures something far more active. Heaven, and Christ’s occupation within it, is a place of ongoing purposeful work on behalf of His people, and I think you will find that a far more encouraging picture than quiet inactivity.

The New Testament writers, several of whom had personally watched Jesus ascend, were clearly not left wondering whether He had simply gone away. They wrote with real confidence about a living, active, present Saviour, and that confidence is precisely what I want you to carry away from what is Jesus doing in heaven, not vague sentiment but grounded, specific assurance.

His heavenly intercession for believers

Hebrews says he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25). Paul makes the same point in Romans, asking who is to condemn, and answering that Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us (Romans 8:34). His heavenly intercession is not a plea offered reluctantly on our behalf. It is the ongoing application, moment by moment, of a finished sacrifice to the specific needs of specific believers, including you, right now.

He is preparing a place for His people

Jesus told His disciples the night before His death, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14:2-3). Whatever exactly this preparation involves, it tells us that heaven is not a static waiting room but a place actively being readied by the very Person believers will one day join there.

He receives the worship and prayers of His people

Revelation pulls back the curtain on heavenly worship and shows the Lamb, standing as though it had been slain, at the very centre of the throne, receiving worship directly alongside the Father: worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing (Revelation 5:12). This is not a picture of Jesus quietly waiting on the sidelines. He is the active recipient of the praise of every creature in heaven and on earth, and He personally receives the prayers His people offer in His name (John 14:13-14), presenting them to the Father as our great and living mediator.

He is preparing for the final judgement

Jesus told His disciples that the Father has given all judgement to the Son (John 5:22), and Paul preached in Athens that God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed (Acts 17:31). Part of what Jesus is presently doing in heaven is holding that appointed authority in readiness, the coming Judge before whom every person will eventually stand, believer and unbeliever alike, though believers stand there already clothed in His own righteousness rather than facing condemnation (Romans 8:1).

He is building and governing His church

Jesus said I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). That building continues now, from heaven, as He gives gifts to His people (Ephesians 4:8-11), governs the affairs of local congregations, and works through the Spirit to grow His church across every nation. He is head over all things to the church, which is his body (Ephesians 1:22-23), an active, working headship rather than a purely honorary title.

This means every faithful gospel sermon preached this coming Sunday, every believer quietly discipled, every act of local church discipline exercised in love, is happening under His direct, present headship, not simply according to a set of principles He left behind. What is Jesus doing in heaven includes, in a very real sense, His personal involvement in your own local congregation, however ordinary that congregation might feel from the inside on a wet Sunday morning.

He is exercising authority over history

Daniel foresaw one like a son of man given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him (Daniel 7:13-14), and the New Testament identifies Jesus as this figure. Paul says God put all things under his feet (Ephesians 1:22). This does not mean every event on earth presently reflects His revealed will; a great deal of human history remains marked by rebellion against Him. But it does mean nothing occurs outside His ultimate authority, and history is moving toward the goal He has set for it.

I find that distinction genuinely comforting when the news is difficult to watch. What is Jesus doing in heaven while wars rage and injustice seems to prosper? He is not wringing His hands helplessly on the sidelines. He is reigning over a history whose final chapter He has already written, permitting genuine human freedom and genuine human rebellion within limits He alone sets, and steering the whole unfolding story toward the day when every wrong will finally be put right.

He shares in disciplining and refining His people

Revelation pictures the risen Christ walking among the lampstands, His churches, observing, commending and correcting them directly (Revelation 2-3). His heavenly intercession is not a distant, abstract benevolence. It is combined with an intimate, present knowledge of exactly what each congregation and each believer needs, and He addresses it accordingly, sometimes through comfort and sometimes through correction.

He waits for the appointed time of His return

Hebrews describes Him as waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet (Hebrews 10:13). This waiting is not passive idleness but confident expectation, since Paul says He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:25). The activity of heaven and the certainty of the return belong together (Where Is Jesus Now?).

It is worth being clear about what actually fuels His heavenly intercession, because misunderstanding this leaves many believers anxious rather than comforted. Jesus does not intercede for you because you have earned a fresh hearing that day through good behaviour. He intercedes on the settled ground of His own finished sacrifice, presenting His own shed blood, not your performance, as the basis of His appeal (Hebrews 9:24). John reassures anxious believers of exactly this: if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1). His heavenly intercession is not contingent on your good day or bad day. It rests entirely on who He is and what He has already accomplished.

His heavenly intercession, His governing headship, His preparation of a place, His future role as judge, all of it forms a single, coherent picture of a Saviour still fully engaged with His people and His world. What is Jesus doing in heaven has a rich, specific answer, not a vague one, and every part of that answer is good news for anyone who belongs to Him.

So, now what?

If you have ever pictured heaven as a place where Jesus simply waits, doing very little until the appointed hour, replace that picture with the one Scripture actually gives. He is working, interceding, preparing, governing and refining, all on behalf of people He loves. His heavenly intercession alone is worth returning to whenever prayer feels difficult or distant, because it reminds you the work does not depend on your own eloquence.

That includes His heavenly intercession for you specifically, right now, in whatever you are facing today. You are not forgotten and you are not managing alone. The one making intercession for you at the Father’s right hand knows your situation completely and is actively engaged on your behalf. Rest in that this week, rather than carrying burdens you were never meant to carry by yourself.

Carry that verse with you through the coming week. Whatever meeting, diagnosis, conversation or quiet worry awaits you, He is already interceding, already aware, already at work on your behalf. You are never carrying anything He has not already noticed and already begun addressing before the Father on your behalf.

I would encourage you to pray tonight with exactly that confidence, rather than approaching prayer as though you must first persuade a distracted or reluctant God to pay attention to you. He is already listening, because His heavenly intercession is already underway on your behalf, before you even finish the sentence.

“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

Hebrews 7:25, ESV