On Dec. 28, 2020, China’s despotic communist regime sentenced a young woman, Zhang Zhan, 37, to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in the communist regime.

Zhan, a former lawyer, was working as a citizen journalist when she went to Wuhan, China in February 2020 to report on the COVID-19 pandemic that had broken out in the city. She shared videos showing empty streets and packed hospitals to reveal the full extent of the crisis that was taking place.

In some of her videos, she criticized the communist regime’s attempts to silence whistleblowers and as well its harsh lock down that included welding the doors of people’s home shut and sealing their windows with metal bars so they couldn’t escape.

In one of her last videos Zhan reported “The government’s way of managing this city has just been intimidation and threats. This is truly the tragedy of this country.”

Shortly after this, Zhan was arrested.

Many believe the severity of Zhan’s sentence reveals the regimes desire to stamp out any dissenting voices exposing the truth about the incompetence and cover-up of the pandemic by the communist leaders.

But there is more to this story. Zhan is also a Christian, and she believed it was God’s will for her to expose what was really happening in Wuhan as a warning to the world.

In an interview with the Christian Post, Zhang’s friend, Li Dawei, said:

“I warned her about going to Wuhan when everyone else was trying to leave. She is a staunch Christian and said it was God’s will — she had to do this and tell everyone the truth.”

Zhan was fully aware about how dangerous it was going to Wuhan. Not only was this the pandemic’s epicentre, she also understood the potential risks when it came to exposing the communist cover-up.

But Zhan did it, because she believed it was God’s will. She believed the Holy Spirit was leading her to do this, despite the obvious danger.

In one of the more interesting incidents recorded in the Book of Acts, a prophet named Agabus travelled from Judea to Caeserea to deliver a prophetic word to the Apostle Paul who was soon heading to Jerusalem.

Taking the Apostle’s belt, Agabus tied his own hands and feet, and delivered a prophetic warning to Paul:

“The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’” (Acts 21:11 NIV)

Agabus had a reputation for accurate prophecies having earlier warned the early church of a coming famine (Acts 11:28).

After hearing this prophetic warning, people pleaded with the Apostle not to go to Jerusalem, but Paul refused to listen. His friends resigned themselves to the inevitable with these words, “The Lord’s will be done.”

Despite the warning, the Apostle still believed it was God’s will for him to go to Jerusalem, a fact he had mentioned several times earlier:

²¹ Now after these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” (Acts 19:21 ESV)

In this verse, the Greek word for resolved, etheto, not only has a predictive tense but Paul adds that he received this ‘predictive resolve’ by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Apostle believed it was God’s will for him to go to Jerusalem and ultimately Rome.

Agabus’ prophecy did not contradict this, all the prophet did was warn Paul of what awaited him if he chose to go.

Sometimes doing God’s will can be a dangerous thing.

READ: China: Christian who saw her work as ‘God’s will’ sentenced to 4 years in prison for Wuhan reporting AND China jails citizen-journalist for four years over Wuhan virus reporting