Acts 12:24 “But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.”

When we preach the Gospel and teach believers to feed themselves on the Scriptures, there will be lasting fruit of the word of God spreading as people believe, know and apply. The problem is in many churches people have become accustomed to being spoon fed theology by pastors and good Bible teachers when instead they should be learning to feed themselves. After all it was prophesied that in the New Covenant we would teach ourselves as we are guided by the Holy Spirit (Jer. 31:31-36; John 6:45). As a result the word of God is not multiplying at the rate it did in Acts.

We need to commit ourselves to know the Word and not expect to be fed only by eloquent teachers of the word.

We also need to commit to preach the word to others so they may believe in Jesus.

Finally we must be faithful to disciple new Christians to teach them how to feed on the word and help them gain a vision for teaching it to others. Through this all believers will take up their God commissioned responsibility to make disciples, teaching them (Matt. 28:19-20).

This requires a time investment many are not willing to make. But if we want to be obedient to our Lord this is required. If we want to see the Gospel spread with power for the glory of God like we read about in Acts this is non-negotiable.