There are so many ways that the Lord’s work is identified as occurring in our modern era, but it’s hard to readily find this biblical identification commonly pointed to, namely the word of God spreading with noticeably, spiritual effects. It seems that the reason is largely due to not being able to control that outcome, since the word producing an effect necessitates the work of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, for the word of God to spread, as it does in Acts, it requires the power of God to transform hearts. So as the word is being minimized or reimagined in our day, there is massive discontinuity with a foundational component of the early church in the book of Acts. Therefore, if we ever use some other standard for assessing a work of God, other than God’s word converting sinners and producing a sanctifying effect in the people listening to it, then we have probably adopted some kind of unbiblical assessment. May we pray that our church would grow as God grew the early church.