Collaboration & Unity as Secrets to Breakthrough- Mark 2: 3-4

The speaker discusses the importance of collaboration and unity in achieving success and overcoming obstacles. He gives examples from biblical stories and real-life situations to highlight the power of working together towards a common goal. Collaboration not only helps in solving problems and achieving greater results, but it also reduces individual burdens and allows for the sharing of resources and risks. However, the speaker also warns that not all collaborations are godly and emphasizes the need to be discerning in choosing the right people to collaborate with. Ultimately, the speaker encourages listeners to seek collaborations and unity that align with God's will, as He will frustrate the plans of those who collaborate for evil. ======== Hello and welcome to Start Right With Jesus. My name is Ovio Ayola and my prayer today is that God Almighty will bless you mightily and send you friends who will stick closer than brothers and be helpers of destiny in Jesus' name. Today we just want to focus on something that was a follow-up to our last conversation. We discovered that the real secret of these friends being able to help in intercession, being able to help in being helpers of destiny, the true secret that they have is their collaboration and unity. You see, it's a good thing to have one friend who is very devoted and very committed to you. When you have many friends with one goal who are determined to make you succeed, it means that where the strength of one feels, the strength of the other can come together and together they can really, really be more valuable. It was Sir Isaac Newton, the famous scientist who said, and I quote, if I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. can When you are able to stand on the shoulders of giants, you are able to see far beyond what mere mortals can see, what other people can see, because you see people who take you into rooms that you do not belong, you know. I pray that God will take you to rooms that you feel you don't belong in Jesus' name. And that's why the Bible says that it lifts the poor from their jungle and beggars from their ashes and it sent them in the company of princes. And I pray that God will lift you up in Jesus' name. Oh, you see, this man that we are talking about was lifted up. He was lifted up by his friends. I want us to, please, let us read again from Mark chapter 2. It says, then they came to him bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men, verse 4, and when they could not come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. High-quality friends is important, but what if you have many high-qualityy friends who can collaborate to make you a winner? You know, hardly do we have friends who can solve our problems, but when we collaborate in prayer, in purpose, we can achieve so much more. And that's why the Bible says that one shall chase a thousand, but two shall chase ten thousand. Also, the Bible says that two is better than one and they receive a reward for their labor. In fact, the Bible goes further to say that a three-fold cord cannot be broken. Here we have this man, a paralytic who could not walk, who could not help himself, but we have four mighty men, four men of valour, carrying him on their shoulders, walking perhaps kilometres and miles to get to where Jesus was. And when they got there, they met an obstruction. Some people will be called the multitudes who just want to be there. They have blocked the way of somebody who has a serious case, a person who has an urgent need, so they don't have an access. But these friends decided that they are not going to allow the multitudes, they are not going to allow the to deny their friends access to Jesus. Who is preventing your friend, your family members from having access to Jesus? There is something that you can do. You can join hands with like-minded people to pray for them. You can join hands with like-minded people to intercede for them. You can join hands with like-minded people to bring them to the place of Jesus. And that collaboration is what these friends did. And when they discovered that the multitudes would not allow them to go, they went to the roof and they broke down the roof. Every roof, every obstruction that is hindering you, God will remove in Jesus' name. You see, these friends, they demonstrated the unity of purpose, they demonstrated focus and resilience, and they demonstrated to us the importance of collaboration and teamwork. Why is unity and collaboration important? We've seen through descriptions and in real life that whenever there are hindrances, whenever there are mountains that stand against your goal, collaboration can be a way to break it down. And you could see that example in the book of Genesis, when the people decided that they were going to build a tower that was going to reach to heaven, even God himself testified that nothing can be removed from these people if they remain united. He even had to scatter their language so that that purpose will not be accomplished because it was an evil purpose. So collaboration can get where individual efforts cannot get to. And if you see the best companies in the world, you will discover that their strength is not in the brilliance of the one man who started it, but in the collective brilliance of many people who come together to evolve an idea. And from one simple, simple, little idea, they begin to develop things that become world-beaters. When you collaborate with others intelligently, when you collaborate with like-minded people and everyone is committed, you can achieve much more. Why is collaboration a key to breakthrough? Because, as we can see in the book of Genesis, Chapter 6, in the case of the Tower of Babel, collaboration helps people to put up together their energy to be focused. We can also see in the story of Peter that we looked at previously, we can see that Peter fished all night with his partner and they did not succeed. But when Jesus Christ intervened in their matter, they had such a huge success that they could not handle it alone. Collaboration enables you to handle success that you cannot handle alone. And that is the reason why many small businesses are failing. That is the reason why statistically, within one year, over 30% of small businesses would have failed. Because there is a strength that comes in unity. There is a strength that comes with bringing ideas from different people and working together. We could also see another example in Moses. When Moses was specifically told, you will kill yourself, this thing that you are doing is not good. You cannot be the only one judging these thousands of people. You need to appoint leaders to them. So, collaboration helps us to manage stress, to manage effort. Just imagine, if it was only one man that was carrying that man, he would have grown tired, he would have grown weary. But standing on the shoulders of four men means that when one person is tired, the others can wait for him and they can coordinate together. And it reduces the burden that each person is carrying proportionately. Collaboration reduces your personal burden. And that is why in partnership, even though you are sharing profit, it also means that in the case of a loss, you are sharing losses. It is not going to be that one person that has just pledged his house is just going to be wiped off. Because of collaboration, they can share resources, they can share risk. But it is not all collaborations that are godly. And it is not all collaborations that will get you to Jesus. And that is why the Bible says that you should, that the companions of the wise will be wise. But the Bible also says that associate yourself, O ye people, that the people that associate themselves contrary to God, they will not be able to succeed. The Bible says, among other things, that those that gather against you, they will be scattered. It says let them gather together. But as many as gather together against you, they will be scattered. So people can collaborate against you. People can come together to make co-Satanic collaborations. But the promise of God is that they will be scattered. The Bible also promises, it says, let them decree a thing. He shall not stand, for God is with us. When people come together against you, and you are one with God, and you are in two with God, it does not matter what they decree. God will frustrate their plans. In the book of Psalm 2, the Bible says that why do the nations rage? And they have imagined a vain thing. And the Bible says that they have devised things that they are not able to perform, and that the Almighty God will love them to their reach. In other words, when people collaborate for evil, God frustrates their plans. If you are in the good books of God, and you know what, and you have done what you need to do. And I pray that today, that God will raise for you collaborations and unity among people that will help your destiny. And He will frustrate every devices of the crafty over your life in Jesus' name. Till we meet again, to look at how you can undo those who are collaborating against you, how you will undo the adversaries. It's me, O. V. O. Ayoola, saying, start right with Jesus, and you will always win, ultimately. God bless you. Bye.