Resisting God’s Will: Acts 5, Jonah, and the Empty Tomb

The post uses the account in Acts 5, where Apostles arrested for preaching are freed by an angel and then brought before the council. When the leaders threaten them, the wise council member Gamaliel advises letting them go, warning that a human work will fail while a work of God cannot be overthrown. The author treats this as sound counsel, noting that even prison could not hold the Apostles once God meant for them to keep preaching.

The author then turns the question to readers: have you ever found yourself resisting God? Most people will never try to stop God’s work outright, the post suggests, but we may sometimes fail to support God’s will in our own lives. The author describes two general outcomes. Most often, God allows us to go our own way, and we may face the consequences of wrong choices or miss the role He had planned for us. Still, His work goes forward, and someone else receives the blessing. In other cases, God may steer a person toward the right path or place obstacles in the way, as with Jonah, who fled from going to Nineveh until a storm and a large fish brought him back to his task.

From this, the post offers practical counsel. When facing a major decision and meeting barriers, readers should not assume the obstacles come only from the enemy. Instead, they should pray and ask God whether He is redirecting them, and reconsider the situation until they are confident they are within His will. The author closes the discussion by drawing on the account of the Pharisees after Jesus’s burial. They sealed the tomb and posted guards, believing they had prevailed, but the post notes that they would learn what happens when one tries to fight against God.

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