Loosing a battle for ultimate victory
Acts 5:38-39 And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; 39 but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it–lest you even be found to fight against God.”
Peter and the apostles were spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sin that he had provided on the cross. The early Christian church was growing, and the leaders in the Jewish church were taking notice. The apostles were being thrown into prison and brought before the council. God was moving in a mighty way and was freeing them from prison miraculously. Although they apostles may have been temporarily chained, God’s Word was never deterred. The leaders of the Jewish church began to move cautiously, for they feared the power of the people. Gamaliel was a respected leader on the Jewish Sanhedrin counsel and spoke these words in Acts above, which led to the release of the apostles. 40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Gamaliel was simply saying that if these men were doing this on their own, they would ultimately fail on their own. But he was also saying with what they had seen; they may be under God’s direction, and they will never be stopped. There is no work of men that can stop an act of God. You may feel God stirring in your heart; prodding you to do something. You may feel as though you can’t do it; but in reality you are fighting against God. This I personally know, and still battle myself; following God’s Will for my life. When Christ came down miraculously to Paul in a blinding light, He asked Paul why he was trying to stop the will of God; the one who he was persecuting. Acts 9:5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” A goad was a tillage tool; also known as something pointed. Easton’s dictionary, “against the goad, was proverbial for unavailing resistance to superior power.”
There are so many ways to read what you see and feel God doing in your life. There is only one way to discern what that is. You must live a life in constant pursuit of God and the things of God in prayer and His Word. This pursuit will lead you to understand, and hopefully submit to God. Once you begin to understand, if you deny what you now understand, you are fighting God. There are many stories in the Bible of people who have struggled with God; in fact most of the people who God did great work with battled in some way with Him. This in some way humbled them, and prepared them for God’s work through them. If God is for it; no man shall prevail or win his own war against it…..not even you
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