So Mightily the Word Grew and Prevailed
Application to Strategies for Harvest
Apostle Aje Pelser
Formerly Preached at AFM Witfield; MBC Chapel; MBC Graduation 2007; Harvester Reformational Church Cape Town. 11th November– December 2007; Ike’s Church Parow 1 March 2015 24th August 2025 HRC Cape Town.

Act 19:20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
Read Acts 19 for context.

From MBC Manual “Acts”, by Dr. Roy M. Gray…
“So”, or, “in this manner”, looking back to the preceding incident, but attaching itself to the following words kata kratos, “according to power”, or “in the way of power”. The gospel message “grew” (imp, kept on growing), the nature, kind, or peculiarity of its growth (kata indicates this) being “with power”, mightily”. This first verb “grew” has to do with the “general extension of the gospel. The second to its influence on the conduct of those who embraced it (Hackett). The second word “Prevailed” means, “to be strong, or powerful”, and is also an imperfect. The order of words in this verse emphasizes the “mightily” and also “of God”. Thus: so mightily of God the word continued to grow and prevail. Note, it was the word that did the work. Let us lean more on this work, allow it to do its mighty work. Note also that the subject is “word”: the word grows and prevails “so”, in this way, as has just been shown in vv 8-19. First it came as the message of a kingdom (v 8), the “kingdom of God”. The kingship of the Messiah is the Gospel message. As people bow to the will of God in Christ Jesus, miracles will take place. At this very juncture Paul sat writing to the Corinthians, across the Aegean to the west, “The Kingdom of God is not in word, but power” (1Cor 4:20). Paul did not believe in merely preaching. He expected results. He came to Thessalonica “in much assurance” that his gospel would work. It did. So we find the word “grew and prevailed” through the mighty works of vv 11-12. But not only were there positive beneficial miracles, but also the defeat of the false by the same preaching. If our ministry is in power, it will expose and destroy the false. Our lives must be clean, to get these results. Finally, note the power manifested in vv 17-19. Our ministry must be powerful enough to shock the half-hearted, half-consecrated Christians.

The journey of the Word through the Bible to this moment in the book of Acts:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Strong’s H559′ âmar (aw-mar’)
• to say
• answer,
• appoint, avouch, bid,
• boast self, call, certify,
• challenge, charge, command
• commune, consider,
• declare, demand, X desire, determine, X expressly, X indeed, X intend, name, X plainly, promise, publish, report, require, say, speak
• (against, of), , talk, tell, term, think, use [speech], utter,

God’s Word has shaped our existence from the beginning. How we have to responded to His Word has determined the course of history.

The Patriarchs met the Word of the Lord in person as Abraham can testify:

The Forerunners Joseph and Moses, Joshua and the judges, the Prophets and Kings were tuned into the Word of the Lord for their generation.

Today we have the Word of God in written form because the “prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21

At the birth of Christ, Simeon and Anna, Zechariah and John all responded to the birth of Christ. Jesus became the Word made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus revealed that the Words he spoke were not by His own authority either:
Joh 12:48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him— the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.
Joh 12:49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.
Joh 12:50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

His disciples acknowledged that His Words contained life:
Joh 6:68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Joh 6:69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

WAYS in which the WORD GROWS
There are various mighty ways of God, in which the Word can grow in our lives today and prevail:

• Through Reading the Word
• Expositional Preaching – opening up the Word, breaking the seals
• Using clearly defined New Covenant principles of Bible Interpretation in the context of the passages, with historical understanding and present relevance.
• Applying the principle of Christ in every scripture according to the apostle’s doctrine of the New Testament. Acts 2:42.
• Testimony – allowing the Word to become flesh in our lives. John 1:14
• Publishing the Word – internet, books, letters, emails, CD’s MP3s and sermons on iPod, making posters of inspirational memory verses.
• Practise of God’s Presence
• Make seeking Christ the most pre-eminent thing in our lives
• Giving the Word prominence in our family time
• Honouring and quoting the Word in our work environment
• Drawing wisdom from God’s Word in trying situations
• Depending on the incorruptible seed of God’s Word to produce fruit in our times of peace and in times of crisis
• Training people to hear from God with an open Bible
• Acting out the Word of God for today
• Fulfilling prophecy
• Making apostolic declarations of God’s Will in our lives, families, communities
• Producing spirit and truth music to be released across multiple platforms.
• Singing songs that help us memorize and understand God’s Word
• Making movies about God’s Faith Heroes that depended on His Word
• Writing plays about God’s intervention in our lives
• Designing clothes that help us dance like David in the Word
• Giving tithes and offerings to sustain accurate preaching of the word from local pulpits
• Establishing businesses that create wealth to establish God’s Covenant of His Word from generation to generation
• Raising up Business Orbits and networks that generate wealth to establish the covenant of God across multiple generations.
• Building Churches according to the blueprint of Christ in His Word of the New Covenant
• Establishing in-church Bible Training Centres that raise up the local leaders as well as equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
• Raising up regional apostolic councils with local Bishops who will raise up the standards of New Covenant Teaching that accurately represents Jesus Christ and His designs and kingdom principles for the Church, locally and globally.
• Building Library networks that synergize present truth resources
• Establishing Christian educational Tutor centres that will bring in the community to church and possess the mountain of education.
• Building Universities that will celebrate kingdom principles and honour God.
• Building Studios that can broadcast the Word to all corners of the earth, releasing present revealed Truth of His Word to our generation

The consistency of Apostle Paul’s preaching and teaching in Ephesus created a presence of God’s Word, as people who heard went and told others, but also as God confirmed the Word with signs and wonders following.

Notes on Ephesus from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia:

Ephesus
ef´ē̇-sus (Ἔφεσος, Éphesos, “desirable”): A city of the Roman province of Asia, near the mouth of the Cayster river, 3 miles from the western coast of Asia Minor, and opposite the island of Samos. With an artificial harbor accessible to the largest ships, and rivaling the harbor at Miletus, standing at the entrance of the valley which reaches far into the interior of Asia Minor, and connected by highways with the chief cities of the province, Ephesus was the most easily accessible city in Asia, both by land and sea. Its location, therefore, favored its religious, political and commercial development, and presented a most advantageous field for the missionary labors of Paul. The city stood upon the sloping sides and at the base of two hills, Prion and Coressus, commanding a beautiful view; its climate was exceptionally fine, and the soil of the valley was unusually fertile.
Tradition says that in early times near the place where the mother goddess of the earth was born, the Amazons built a city and a temple in which they might worship.

Not only was the temple of Diana a place of worship, and a treasure-house, but it was also a museum in which the best statuary and most beautiful paintings were preserved. Among the paintings was one by the famous Apelles, a native of Ephesus, representing Alexander the Great hurling a thunderbolt. It was also a sanctuary for the criminal, a kind of city of refuge, for none might be arrested for any crime whatever when within a bowshot of its walls. There sprang up, therefore, about the temple a village in which the thieves and murderers and other criminals made their homes. Not only did the temple bring vast numbers of pilgrims to the city, as does the Kaaba at Mecca at the present time, but it employed hosts of people apart from the priests and priestesses; among them were the large number of artisans who manufactured images of the goddess Diana, or shrines to sell to the visiting strangers.

Such was Ephesus when Paul on his 2nd missionary journey in Acts (Act_18:19-21) first visited the city, and when, on his 3rd journey (Act_19:8-10; Act_20:31), he remained there for two years preaching in the synagogue (Act_19:8, Act_19:10), in the school of Tyrannus (Act_19:9) and in private houses (Act_20:20). Though Paul was probably not the first to bring Christianity to Ephesus, for Jews had long lived there (Act_2:9; Act_6:9), he was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana. As the fame of his teachings was carried by the pilgrims to their distant homes, his influence extended to every part of Asia Minor. In time the pilgrims, with decreasing faith in Diana, came in fewer numbers; the sales of the shrines of the goddess fell off; Diana of the Ephesians was no longer great; a Christian church was rounded there and flourished, and one of its first leaders was the apostle, John. Finally in 262 ad, when the temple of Diana was again burned, its influence had so far departed that it was never again rebuilt. Diana was dead. Ephesus became a Christian city, and in 341 ad a council of the Christian church was held there.