In Acts 18:4-11, Paul was preaching towards the Corinthians at that time. The church started small and the members were unreceptive. He could not do much for the Lord, but at one point the church exploded and continued to grow. Verse 10 is a statement of encouragement from God, ‘for I have much people in this city.’ God wanted Paul to continue to press on and preach, as He was seeing Paul through.

Even though our world currently is full of apostasy, and we can never have a worldwide revival. Nonetheless, God still blesses certain Bible-believing Churches and allowing a local or personal revival in areas around the church.

Acts 18:4-6 “And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.”

Be Aware Of The Struggles

Paul is aware of the struggle that he went through in his process of preaching the truth in the synagogue. In verse 5, we can see that God continue to press forward but was slightly discouraged in verse. However, in verse 6, Paul’s spirit was broken a little but that did not stop him from continuing to spread the gospel.

Acts 18:7 “And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.” 

Verse again showed the challenge he faced facing Justus who is very connected to Judaism; a community that rejected the gospel of Christ.

Nonetheless, Paul’s unrelenting effort eventually allows his work in the ministry to take off and exploded.

This passage applies to us, that before we can accomplish something for the Lord, our life will or must consist of struggles.

2 Corinthians 12:9 “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

If we want God to use us mightily, we must embrace suffering and hardship in order to grow in strength and power.

Sometimes the suffering involves disappointment, or things don’t go according to our way. We need to expect the unexpected, and learn to surrender to God.

Job 23:10 “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

God makes us go through trials in life, to better us, to handle situations better. The experience will be valuable in shaping us to become better. Without the struggles in life, we will never learn and become better testimonies. Just remember that all the great strengths and experience which we have do not come with a price.

Be Aware Of The Souls

Acts 18:8 “And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.”

We see that the chief ruler of the synagogue and his whole house got saved, as well as many of the Corinthians. This was where the church started to explode, due to Paul being aware of the souls.

Matthew 9:37-38 “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest”

Jesus said the harvest is ripe out there, but God is mourning for more laborers to go into the harvest; to grab the souls.

It tells us that there are still many unsaved souls out there, God has also sent them to us. However, are we doing enough to reach out to them? Are we carrying out our duties as God’s children to fulfill our calling? These lost souls can be our fruits if we just spread the gospel to them and win them over to Christ.

One great example who is God-pleasing soul winner is William Booth, who started the salvation army in the UK, and clear evidence of his passion to win souls. Even at Booth’s funeral, the Queen attended his funeral and sat next to an ex-prostitute who was saved by Booth himself.

Be Aware Of The Savior

Acts 18:9 “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:”

God was encouraging Paul and told him to continue with his effort in preaching.

Zechariah 4:6 “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”

God has given us a command and duty, so nothing should stop us from fulfilling His command, not even the pandemic or the crisis. This passage serves as a reminder for us to act with urgency and fervency. In contrast, if we are always acting upon our flesh, and only want to serve God in our terms and comfort, then it shows that we are not setting our affection on Christ. It reveals to us that our focus is on the conspiracy, the government, and things that are worldly instead of Godly.

The greatest hindrance to exploding the ministry is when we are not yielded to God. Sin and faithlessness will stop God from blessing us, and more importantly to use us in His glory.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

This highlights the problem of Churches today, who rely on their fleshly gimmicks, programs on how to please the members, and compromise on their preaching. Instead of yielding to God, the Churches yield to worldliness, which leads to God’s anger and removal of His blessing towards the Churches.

Be Aware Of The Sum


Acts 18:10 “For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.”

We need to be aware of the numbers. In Acts 16:31-34, we notice that Paul was witnessing to the jailer, he was also paying attention to the people around the jailer. Paul was not content with only one soul, but the whole house.

We need to be like Paul, to reach out to as many souls out there as possible. It will never be too many for God because we already know that a world revival is impossible.

C.I Scofield went through a divorce and left his law firm to pastor a church of only one man and one woman, but it summed to 200 people and wrote the Scofield reference Bible.

Alberto Avales started in a garage somewhere in Mexico, he summed up 200 people.

Pastor Rick Sowell started in a house and then summed up to more than half a thousand.

These examples show us there is no such thing as saving way too many souls.

Be Aware Of The Season 

Acts 18:11 “And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”

This is the timing that God gave to Paul to do his ministry work. Timing is something we need to watch closely too.

Psalms 145:15 “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.”

Our problem is instant gratification, which is typical American consumerism. Nonetheless, we need to know that God has different seasons for us, both good and bad. Hence it is important to be patient when we are in bad seasons, then the season will come where we will be able to win souls or for the Church to explore.

Our spiritual growth in Christ is what we should consider the best explosion.

It took Jesus His sweat, His blood, and His tears to die for us; as well as living a whole life in sanctification, and at His last breath, He got one soul saved, that is the thief next to Him. Nonetheless, Jesus’s disciples were His fruits and they multiplied mightily which is considered one of the biggest explosions of all times.

This again reminds us that our most important explosion is our spiritual walk with Christ, which requires patience and persistence.