Acts 12:24  But the word of God spread and multiplied. (CSB)

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Luke provides a brief progress report here. The eight words in this translation say so much when considering what we are told in chapters 10-12. The Message paraphrases this verse this way:

Meanwhile, the ministry of God’s Word grew by leaps and bounds.

Think back to Acts 10. Cornelius and Peter have visions. Cornelius is told to send for Peter. In Peter’s vision, God tells him not to call unclean what he has made clean. He is also told to go with Cornelius’s messengers. 

Peter visited a man’s home he would have never entered if God had not pronounced all things clean. He spoke to a group of people he had previously steadfastly avoided. God saved and filled everyone assembled there with his Spirit. They were baptized, and Peter stayed with them for several days.

This did not make some people in Jerusalem happy. Peter made a full report of what happened, and it was an “oh wow” moment. 

When they heard this they became silent. And they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has given repentance resulting in life even to the Gentiles.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭11‬:‭18‬ ‭CSB‬‬

Barnabas was dispatched to Antioch when word reached Jerusalem that even more Gentiles in Antioch had turned to Jesus. He then went to Tarsus and invited Paul to join him. They stayed a full year, strengthening the new believers. Significantly, “The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch,” (11:26). 

The first cooperative giving effort began there when those new believers heard a famine was coming (11:27-30). 

Then things got rough. James, John’s brother, was executed by King Herod. Peter was locked up. The same fate may have awaited him, but God dramatically delivered him. However, instead of Peter’s execution, Herod died a rather gruesome death. (See 12:20-23.)

Luke tells us the results of all these goings-on: ‭‭ “But the word of God spread and multiplied,” (‭‭Acts‬ ‭12‬:‭24‬ ‭CSB‬‬).

Opposition turned into an accelerator. Persecution created multiplication. 

Ponder now your personal struggles. God may well use them as accelerators of personal and community growth. God may use them to multiply disciples who multiply disciples. 

When you look through God’s lenses at the complications of your life, what do you see differently? What do these circumstances make possible? What can only God do? 

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I will anticipate leaps and bounds growth when troubles come my way.

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