As I have said many times before, and will restate here, we are not promised immediate success. We are not called primarily to be successful, we are called to be faithful. Even the Apostle is disregarded. "Some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them." Do not equate faithfulness with success. It is easy to replace the worship of Jesus with the worship of numbers, or conversions, or missions trips taken, etc. If success is on the throne of your heart, that means Jesus is not.
But here is what is really pressing on my soul... We have an example of the Word of God spreading. We have an example of the effects of Jesus being on the lips of the Apostle Paul. We see in verse 8 that Paul starts in the synagogue, but then in verse 9 he moves to the lecture hall. Paul's aim: to proclaim Christ. Jesus is on his lips. He preaches about Him, he discusses Him, he is all about Him. And the result is the whole province of Asia hears the word of the Lord.
I know it is easy to say, 'yeah of course the apostle Paul talks about Jesus,' but we need to get past the elitist faith that says some are called to this and others simply attend church. Jesus has revealed Himself to you. Now it should be the passion of your heart to have the Word of Jesus on your lips. It should come out in conversation. It should be the overflow of your heart. We should constantly have that Word on our lips. It isn't stuck in the Synagogue (the Church), the word is loose on the streets. It should be talked about at the water cooler and at the lunch table.
If we will let that Word capture our hearts, and if we will have a ministry of the Word that affects every portion of our lives, then our whole province will hear the Word of the Lord. Isn't that a goal worth giving your life to? Speak the Word. Tell them about your great King!
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