Acts 9:31
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
The church had peace and was being built up. The time to build is during times of peace.
"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war."
Peace is the time to prepare for future battle. You build walls during down time, not while enduring bullets.
The church walked in:
1) the fear of the Lord and
2) the comfort of the Holy spirit
And by faithfully, aggressively doing these two things during this time of peace...
the church was multiplied.
Multiplication is the the buzzword in ministry these days whether its applied to building ministries, planting churches, or making disciples. Whatever it is, we want it multiplied. And rightfully so. Multiplication beats addition every day. Exponential growth overcomes additional growth in due time and then blows it away over the long run.
The lesson here is that multiplication can be achieved for multiplication's sake. If you grow a church without the fear of the Lord or without the comfort of the Holy Spirit, you may still grow something, even to impressive numbers, but what you will have multiplied will be more like cancer growing than fruit reproducing. Sickness seeks to multiply as much as soundness does.
So do not seek multiplication without qualification, but rather grow in the fear of God and the comfort of His Spirit and you will see fruitfulness abound for His sake and our good.
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