The Word Increased and Multiplied: The Vector of Life in a World of Death

By Dave Miller

When we read the book of Acts and come across Luke’s summary in Acts 12:24, “But the word of God increased and multiplied,” we are hearing far more than a progress report. Luke is describing the vector of the Word, its magnitude and direction, as it moves in the power of the Spirit toward the telos of the Father’s will: the renewal of all things (Revelation 21:5).

This is not random growth.

This is the motion of God.

This is the Word, empowered by the Spirit, moving toward the Father’s ultimate purpose.

The reality of the kingdom is both experienced by and multiplied through the apostles, who have taken on the role of proclaiming the Word of God in the power of the Spirit. Just as the Lord declares in Isaiah 55:10–11, the Word does not return void but accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent. Acts is simply the historical record of that promise unfolding in real time.

Life Colliding with Death

When the new creation reality of the kingdom, brought about by faith in the gospel and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, manifests, it is always life (Titus 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Yet that life immediately collides with the entrenched patterns of sin and death, the reality of the old creation (Romans 5:12; Romans 8:2). The unavoidable result is war.

But the war does not unfold on old-creation terms.

The battle is not fought with death responding to death, sin responding to sin, or violence answering violence. Instead, life responds to death and light confronts darkness. The kingdom advances not by the sword, but by the proclamation of the gospel in the Spirit’s power, the invitation to life in Christ, who has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).

God’s Enemy Is Death Because God Is Life

God is not neutral toward death. Death is His enemy, for God is life (John 1:4; John 11:25; 1 Corinthians 15:26). The book of Acts is the story of sons and daughters of the kingdom, born of the Spirit, being sent as citizens and ambassadors (Philippians 3:20; 2 Corinthians 5:20) into a world under the reign of death to proclaim victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:54–57).

Let There Be Light, Again

The gospel, then, is the new creation proclamation:

“Let there be light.” (Genesis 1:3)

And just as the Spirit once hovered over the waters in the beginning (Genesis 1:2), so now the Spirit hovers and moves over the chaos of the human soul, bringing light and life one person at a time through the word of the kingdom (John 3:5–8; 1 Peter 1:23–25).

This is the story of Acts.

This is the story of the Church.

This is the story still unfolding.

The Word increases.

The Word multiplies.

The Spirit empowers.

The Father directs history toward its end.

And the sons and daughters of the kingdom, walking in the Spirit, proclaiming the Word, become living participants in the vector of God’s life advancing through a world still marked by death, until the day the King returns and the war is finished.

“Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)