To some points, we continue on between death and the resurrection (we don’t go somewhere else, heaven isn’t somewhere else ‘out there’, it exists right alongside within the dimension of earth, and ours in it, the two spheres of creation overlap, intersect and move within each other, and are meant for each other, in the end heaven with be united to earth and both will be open to each other, as they are already in Jesus’ Resurrection body, as indicated in the vision in Revelation, heavenly Jerusalem comes down to earth and unites with it), we become united to and in the Messiah, what we do the body matters because it is part of ourselves, and is united to the Lord, the body for the Lord and will be raised with Him at His appearing, with full continuity between us now and then, how we live in and through and communion and and through the body matters. But we are united with Christ, we are members of His Body, this isn’t some fiction, it’s a reality, as He lives and is the ever-living One so do we, we already participate in His immortal Life and will completely at His appearing and completion of the resurrection of the dead that began when He broke free from the tomb that first Easter.
We are already become united to His life, participates in the divine nature being remade and renewed in His Image, the image and likeness of God and our true human nature, and as He lives we live. He is the Resurrection and the Life, and because of the Resurrection and Life we are united to and participate in, we are part of Him and He of us, though we die, yet we shall live raised to full life at the His appearing when death the last enemy is destroyed, and in between though we die yet we live in Him. To say we die, and are nothing till the Resurrection is either to deny we are united to Christ and His Body or He dies, both of which isn’t the case. He is raised in the Resurrection to the immortal Life of the age to come, we participate in that Life, so know we continue with and in Him, to be with Christ which is much better though not perfect, when we fall asleep in the Lord (a euphemism perhaps before, but a truth now), and as we dream in sleep, we remain aware of and in Christ.
As for what picture it pains of God, well do you pray for the welfare of people alive, why what picture does that paint of God, is it necessary? The answer is yes, because we care called to participate in the life of God, we are called to the image and likeness of God, humanity is how He manifests is rule and nature in the world, in being fully human we show creation what God is like and bring His love, wisdom and life into it, and to each other, by helping, loving and relating to each other we both bring the life of God them and they to us, and bring them into the relational Life of the Trinity (such as the judgement of the goats and sheep, to loving the needy we engage Christ Himself and participate in His Life and they through us). And praying for each other is part of participating in that Life, of the very calling of being human, and therefore a Christian, one in who the human call is being renewed. We are in fact commanded to pray for each other, it is an act of love, and not to pray for those who have died both therefore makes no sense and when thought about is act of tragic negligence of love from many Christians.
And in relation to praying that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven, it is quite correct that it is to see and pray to see His will done more and more an earth as it is in heaven, just as Christ’s ministry, is to see peace and healing brought to all people and the world more and more, but if that is seeing how His will is being brought into the earth, and of us acting and being in co-suffering love and self-sacrificial service and self-giving love for all, than that is how things must work in relation to the heavenly dimension. And we (as do all humans) exist in both, and of course those who have died also remain in both, in humans who are a meeting point and connection between heaven and earth, the seen and unseen dimensions of creation. We are not dualistic beings, the soul and body are aspects of the whole human being, we can focus on one aspect on another in our discussion (as in a very related way people talk of of mind and brain and focus their perspective at the one aspect or another in discussions but they are part of a whole and there is no separating it in reality), we are said to fall asleep but remain aware in Christ, and with Him, but our selves, including our bodies are united to Christ, so we don’t ‘go’ elsewhere (even less as heaven isn’t far away, it exists right here overlapping and existing within the reality of the earth (as it the seen aspect of the universe) and earth within it, overlapping, meeting and intersecting. So those who have died, just like us our a place were both realities meet, exist and are united. So the asking that the Kingdom is brought and praying for others fully applies to all humanity, both those alive and those asleep.
And who needs to pay anyone, I don’t pay any priest, vicar, pastor, minister, street preacher etc and so on, to prayer for me or anyone else, I ask people (such as in the prayer thread) so why would this be any different. I pray for my brother Sean, my nephew Ben who died after a long struggle at age 1, and Deva Key (the lady who who taken as a child to be sex traffic and died of HIV when she in her forties, in the video about the traffic of female children in India in the can you sign this petition thread), that they are relieved of of any sorrow and have grasped the hope the resurrection as so (using an Orthodox pray book), along with my grandparents
‘Lord, remember Your servants Ben, Sean and Deva Key, who have departed from this life in the hope of the resurrection (I add) or have come into that hope and had despair and sorrow lifted from them. Grant them forgiveness of sins, eternal rest among Your Saints, the gift of Your Kingdom and the enjoyment of unending life (sometimes I add ‘in the age to come’) with You. Amen.’
Within the Orothodox Church there are at the service of kneeling at Vespers on the evening of Pentacost, the are prayers ‘for those held fast in hell (this might Hades, perhaps Father Kimel could give more insight), granting us great hopes that there will be sent down from you to the departed repose and comfort from the pains that hold them’, which comes from the hope that amounts to a conviction that there nothing beyond the infinite love of God, and no limit to our hope in the power of His love. And no one ‘pays’ these people or ever does (nor does it happen in Roman Catholic circles, that is just uncharitable to assert it, as well as incorrect), as all, we pray for people because of love, because of compassion, because of relationality.
There is more that could be said as this is a much larger subject, but that’s where I’ll leave it. Suffice to say, I will not cease praying for and with my brother and nephew, as my brothers in Christ as well as my family.