What Are Those Who Do the Will of the Father in Heaven?

By Xingwu

One may ask: In the Bible, the Lord Jesus said, “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). These words clearly tell us that only those who carry out the heavenly Father’s will can enter the heavenly kingdom. Then, how do we follow the heavenly Father’s will?

The answer is as follows:

The will of the heavenly Father is the will of God. So, to gain clarity on the above question, we must first understand what God’s will is. It includes God’s management plan—all of God’s work of saving mankind—the purpose of God’s management, and the final result of God’s management plan. After understanding this, how then should people implement the heavenly Father’s will? Revelation 14:4 says, “These are they which follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” As is clear, implementing the heavenly Father’s will means closely following God’s footsteps, that is, always following and obeying God’s latest work, and practicing according to God’s actual intentions. Only this is someone who does the heavenly Father’s will, and only such people can enter the heavenly kingdom. If people don’t closely follow God’s footsteps, then they are not obeying the heavenly Father’s will but instead are resisting God. In the Age of Law, Jehovah God used Moses to guide people on earth, and required them to observe the commandments, laws and decrees. If people strictly did so, they were following the heavenly Father’s will, and thus could attain Jehovah God’s approval and receive His mercy, care and protection. In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus did the work of redemption, and asked people to love God with all their heart, soul and mind, to love others as themselves, to be humble, patient and tolerant, to forgive others seventy times seven times, etc. Only by accepting the Lord Jesus’ work and acting in accordance with His demands were people following the heavenly Father’s will. By doing so, they could be absolved of their sins and would no longer be condemned or sentenced to death by the laws, and could enjoy God’s bountiful grace and blessings. Contrarily, if they clung to the laws instead of accepting the Lord Jesus’ redemption, not only could they not be approved by God, but would be condemned. At that time, the disciples who followed the Lord Jesus, such as Peter and Matthew, followed God’s footsteps and put into practice the Lord’s teachings. Therefore, they were the type of people who obeyed the will of God and so attained God’s praise. In contrast, the scribes, priests and Pharisees, who went far and wide to spread God’s way and served God in the temple their whole life, obstinately clung to the laws and rejected the Lord Jesus’ work. Moreover, in order to consolidate their own status among the believers, they spread rumors and lies about the Lord Jesus everywhere to deceive them, and in the end colluded with the Roman government to crucify the Lord Jesus. Therefore, no matter how much they suffered and expended themselves, they weren’t following the heavenly Father’s will, so not only were they not approved by God, but were punished because of resisting God.

Now the Lord Jesus has already returned in the flesh. He is Almighty God, Christ of the last days. He concludes the Age of Grace and initiates the Age of Kingdom, brings the truth, the way and the life to man, and does the work of judgment starting from God’s house. This fulfills the prophecies in John 16:12-13, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” In the last days, God uses the truth to judge, chastise, and cleanse man. He will thoroughly save man from Satan’s domain and bring them into the kingdom. As long as people accept Almighty God’s work of the last days and act according to God’s current demands—reading, experiencing, and practicing Almighty God’s word, they are obeying God’s will and can be gained by God. Oppositely, if people only obey the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption but don’t obey or accept God’s work of the last days, they are not following the heavenly Father’s will, and can’t attain cleansing to enter the heavenly kingdom. For instance, for the people who have accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days and pursue the truth, their corrupt disposition has achieved varying degrees of purification and change through experiencing God’s work of judgment and chastisement. As for those who keep the Lord Jesus’ work but don’t accept God’s new work, they still live in a sin-and-confess state, unable to escape from the bondage of sin. They are still the slaves of sin and thus they will never enter the heavenly kingdom, because the Lord Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the Son stays ever” (John 8:34-35). Clearly, only those who have attained purification can enter the heavenly kingdom, whereas those who don’t experience God’s judgment and chastisement to receive cleansing or change their life disposition cannot enter the heavenly kingdom. It can be seen that accepting God’s present work is very important.

Almighty God says, “My entire management plan, a plan that spans six thousand years, consists of three stages, or three ages: the Age of Law in the beginning; the Age of Grace (which is also the Age of Redemption); and the Age of Kingdom in the last days. My work in these three ages differs in content according to the nature of each age, but at each stage it accords with man’s needs—or, to be more precise, it is done according to the tricks that Satan employs in the war that I wage against it. The purpose of My work is to defeat Satan, to make manifest My wisdom and omnipotence, to expose all of Satan’s tricks, and thereby to save the entire human race, which lives under its domain” (“The True Story Behind Work in the Age of Redemption” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Since man believes in God, he must closely follow the footsteps of God, step-by-step; he should ‘follow the Lamb wherever He goes.’ Only these are the people who seek the true way, only they are the ones who know the work of the Holy Spirit. People who slavishly follow letters and doctrines are those who have been eliminated by the work of the Holy Spirit. In each period of time, God will begin new work, and in each period, there will be a new beginning among man. If man only abides by the truths that ‘Jehovah is God’ and ‘Jesus is Christ,’ which are truths that only apply to a single age, then man will never keep up with the work of the Holy Spirit, and will forever be incapable of gaining the work of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of how God works, man follows without the slightest doubt, and he follows closely. In this way, how could man be eliminated by the Holy Spirit? Regardless of what God does, as long as man is certain that it is the work of the Holy Spirit, and cooperates in the work of the Holy Spirit without any misgivings, and tries to meet the requirements of God, then how could he be punished? The work of God has never ceased, His footsteps have never halted, and prior to the completion of His work of management, He has always been busy, and never stops” (“God’s Work and Man’s Practice” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

From God’s words we can see that God has been managing mankind for 6,000 years and has done three stages of work for the salvation of mankind—the Age of Law, the Age of Grace, and the Age of Kingdom. Each of the three stages is closely linked to the next stage, each is built upon the foundation of the last, and each is higher and deeper than the last and is done according to the needs of corrupt mankind. So, in the Age of Grace, if people only clung to the work of Jehovah God in the Age of Law and rejected the work of the Lord Jesus, they could not be forgiven of their sins or be approved by the Lord Jesus. Nowadays, if people only keep the Lord Jesus’ work and don’t accept Almighty God’s work in the last days, their sinful nature cannot be purified and thus they will never be qualified to enter the heavenly kingdom. Just as Almighty God says, “A sinner such as you, who has just been redeemed, and has not been changed, or been perfected by God, can you be after God’s heart? For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as a sinner because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed? Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity. In this way you will be unqualified to share in the good blessings of God, for you have missed out a step in God’s work of managing man, which is the key step of changing and perfecting. And so you, a sinner who has just been redeemed, are incapable of directly inheriting God’s inheritance” (“Concerning Appellations and Identity” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “By means of this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt substance within his own self, and he will be able to change completely and become clean. Only in this way can man become worthy to return before the throne of God. All the work done this day is so that man can be made clean and be changed; through judgment and chastisement by the word, as well as through refinement, man can purge away his corruption and be made pure” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Obviously, if people want to achieve salvation and enter the heavenly kingdom in their faith in God, they cannot depart from God’s work of judgment, purification and salvation, and their cooperation is very crucial. When God performs a new work of saving mankind, people must first accept God’s salvation, that is, they must follow the Lamb’s footsteps, obeying and accepting God’s current work, and following God’s current way. In particular, obeying and accepting God’s work of the last days is more important. That’s because the Lord Jesus’ work was merely to pave the way for God’s judgment work of the last days, while Almighty God’s work is the key work which determines whether man can enter the heavenly kingdom. If people haven’t accepted the two previous stages of God’s work, it does not matter. As long as they accept God’s work of the last days and practice according to Almighty God’s demands, they can attain salvation and enter the heavenly kingdom. However, if people only hold on to the first two stages of God’s work but don’t accept God’s work of the last days, then they will never enter the heavenly kingdom, because they have missed out a step in God’s work of saving man and thus cannot be cleansed or perfected.