Scripture: Acts 5:12-23
How do you know God is doing something important in and through your life? Is it when everything is going great and you just got that promotion at work? Or is it when you and your family just had the best vacation together? Could it be that God is doing something important when things happen that you would describe as being "not so good?"
In our passage today, God is working! Crowds of people are believing in Jesus (5:14). Crowds were getting healed and they were bringing many people with them to get healed (5:16). Imagine being a part of that gathering at Solomon’s Colonnade. This was the regular, normal, everyday thing that was happening! Surely, God was working!
But it wasn't long before the religious leaders put them in jail (5:17). So much for God working, right? If this movement was really a movement of God wouldn't He protect his people from the leaders? Wouldn't everything go well all the time? How can crowds of people continue to be healed and believe in Jesus when the apostles were in jail?
But sure enough, an angel shows up and lets everyone out (5:19) and tells them to go back into the temple and keep giving people the message (5:20).
So how do you know that God is working? God is working all of the time. But I think this story gives us a good indicator that if you are facing zero opposition, it probably means that the enemy is not worried about you. Everything going well all of the time does not necessarily mean that God’s in it. But when you are persecuted for doing the right thing, you know that you are truly blessed (1 Peter 2:20). When you end up in jail, or what feel like jail, because people are responding to God and getting saved, God is in it. Don’t seek after persecution, but if you are doing the right thing, expect persecution to be there.
But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. - 1 Peter 2:20