Unstoppable

In 2013 James Howells’ ex-girlfriend accidentally threw out his hard drive, containing 8,000 Bitcoin (BTC). Today Howells’ lost hard drive is valued at more than $950 million. For the past 12 years Howells has explored every avenue he can think of to retrieve his lost fortune. He has sought for permission to excavate the landfill in Wales where it was dumped, only to have his request rejected by the local council. He even appealed to Donald Trump for intervention in the matter, and on July 1, 2025, Howells made a formal offer of up to $40 million to buy and excavate the Newport landfill site where he believes it is located. So far, his offer remains unacknowledged by the city council. Howells says he has no plans of stopping his quest, and I suppose I hope, for his sake, that he is successful.

The Bible presents the story of God’s personal, unstoppable love for our fallen world. In His life and in His death, Jesus proved to be unstoppable. The devil couldn’t defeat Him. The religious teachers couldn’t answer Him. The Pharisees couldn’t catch Him. At Lazarus’ tomb death couldn’t defy Him. Pilot couldn’t fault Him. The grave couldn’t hold Him. And no sooner does Jesus rise from the dead than we see Him ascending into heaven; unstoppable still. “And her Child was caught up to God and His throne”(Rev. 12:5). Truly Jesus is the child of prophecy who could not and will not be stopped.

Our God is as unstoppable today as He has ever been.

But what about His church? Is the church as unstoppable as her Lord? Read the book of Acts, and the early church was. Take, for instance, the lame man Peter and John met as he sat in the temple gate. For 40 years, from his birth (Acts 4:22), he had been unable to run or walk, and yet he was healed by Jesus. Truly there is no circumstance or situation beyond God’s power to change in our lives! Following this, Peter and John were arrested and then questioned by the Sanhedrin: “By what power or by what name have you done this?” (verse 7), to which Peter replied, filled with the Holy Spirit, “By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole”(verse 10). He tells them that the Jesus they had crucified, God had raised from the dead, and He had healed the man born lame. By these words Peter and John declared that they believed Jesus was unstoppable. And this belief gave an edge to their witness that training and religious scholarship couldn’t match (verse 13). The Bible tells us that as the Sanhedrin discussed what they should do with them, they decided to “severely threaten” them (verse 17). But their threats were powerless. As the story unfolds, we see the church gathered in earnest prayer, pleading with God to give them boldness to continue their witness for Jesus (verse 29).

The book of Acts traces the actions of our unstoppable God in and through His church to reach a lost and dying world with the gospel news that Jesus saves. Our God is as unstoppable today as He has ever been. A church empowered by the Holy Spirit is unstoppable. And unlike James Howells’ quest for his lost hard drive, we may be confident in the triumph of God’s unstoppable love for a dying world. May God help us to daily see and hear Jesus through His Word (Acts 4:20), that we too may be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be unstoppable witnesses for Him.