Friends, Distractors and Adversaries- Lessons from the Paralytic Healed

In this message, Victor Ayoola talks about the different types of people we encounter when we need a miracle or breakthrough. He identifies three groups: distractors, who compete with us and lack vision; adversaries, who try to block us from receiving our miracle; and friends and advocates, who support and intercede for us. He uses the story of Jesus in Capernaum to illustrate these groups. He emphasizes the importance of surrounding ourselves with hardworking, dependable, and faith-filled friends who will stand with us in times of trouble. He also cautions against being friends with sinful, harmful, and greedy individuals. Ultimately, the choice of friends can greatly impact our ability to receive miracles. Hello and welcome to Statuary with Jesus. My name is Victor Ayola and it is my prayer that as you have come today, that the God of heaven will bless you mightily in Jesus name. In every situation when you need a miracle or breakthrough, you will expect to find three different types of people. The first people that you will expect to find are going to be distractors, people who are competing with you, who are just in the same arena with you, you know, in the atmosphere of miracles. When you go to a church and there is anointing that is moving, there will be other people, there will be thousands and multitudes that are also there. Many of them have no purpose in being there. Many of them, have a purpose but they don't have the discipline, the zeal, or the passion to get what they want out of the situation. I call them distractors. The Bible says that people perish because of lack of vision. Distractors perish because of a lack of vision. The second group of people that you will know that you will surely find are the adversaries. The people who don't want a miracle themselves or are too proud or arrogant to ask for their own miracle but will do everything in their power to block you from receiving your own miracle. Just because it rubs on their ego. Just because they want to put you in your place. Just because they just don't think you deserve it. I call that second category the adversaries. And finally, we have a third category, the friends and advocates. These ones, just know that you are the next person that God wants to bless. And they want to do everything to make it possible for God to bless you. They will intercede for you. They will plead for you. They will speak for you in the room where there is nobody else. They are the friends and advocates. We can find all these people in the book of Mark chapter 2 verses 1 to 12. In this reading, you will find the story of Jesus Christ in Capernaum as he went into a particular house and people gathered together so much that there was not sufficient room to receive them. And inside that room, we have the distractors. They were the multitudes. They filled the room so much that there was no more opportunity for anybody to step in. Now the distractors have characteristics. First, they are space fillers. You can also call them competitors. They remind you that you are not the only one who wants miracles. And sometimes they occupy spaces that you need for your miracle. Here, they have filled up the room. You know an example of distractors is when there is a vacancy for one position and 30,000 people apply many obviously not qualified or ready. It becomes a distraction. They are not able to get to the best candidate. They need to use technology to sieve through and identify those that match the criteria. And at the end of the day, they start throwing things that are unnecessary just to reduce the number. They can start telling you that you need to not be more than 23 years old and have 10 years of experience! Just because they are trying to reduce the number. It was caused because there are multitudes. There are distractors. So these distractors often may have the same dream as you but they don't have a strong enough convincing vision. And oftentimes they have other things that they are contending with. You can know them. They are in the church. They are playing with their phone instead of listening to the word of God. Or they are listening to the word of God and they are questioning. They are asking just like that man was asking the prophet. Even if God comes down can these things be? They are distractors. You need to be aware of the people who second guess when the message is going on. Or the people who tell you that God may be doing miracles for every other person but it's not yet your turn. You just need to wait. Those are distractors. Now let's move to the second group. The friends. You see these distractors have filled the room. And as a result, this man could not come in. But what do you notice happening? These friends were advocates. They decided that it did not matter how many people were in that room. Our friend must be attended to. And what did they do? They broke the roof. They broke through the roof and dropped the man down. And the Bible says that when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic in Mark chapter 2 verse 5. When Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, "Son your sins are forgiven you. Now it was friends that got him to that point where Jesus Christ could attend to him. There were enough others. There was no door. The door was already blocked by human traffic. There was no space in the air. There was no space at the door. In the air, there was a roof obstructing him. Everywhere there was no way. The Bible says that God makes a way where there is no way. Oftentimes, he makes that way by using human angels called friends. These are friends who are able to make their way through the roof even when there is no space on the door. And I pray that God will send you such friends in Jesus's name. We can learn from the friends of this man. The first thing you will notice from them is that they are hard-working. They are not lazy friends. So when you are surrounding yourself with friends make sure that you surround yourself with hard-working friends. And at least in that man's current state, these were stronger than him in his current state. So don't just be looking out for people who are weaker than you just because you want to shine among them. When you are rich and everybody you are trying to bring around you are just people who are going to flatter you. You need people who will challenge you to be your best. This man had for himself people who were stronger than himself. He had friends who were dependable. I mean not people that were going to abandon him. If you have read the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda which is another story. At the pool of Bethesda that man that has been there for I think 39 years and he was at the pool and not attended to. The Bible says that the people who were bringing that man have already abandoned him there. They were tired of him. But these friends were dependable. They were resilient. They were solution-minded. They were not just pity parties or grumpy. They are not just people that say "Oh sorry" and that is the end of it. No. They saw an opposition to their mission. They saw something that was not going to allow the joy of their friends to be full. And what did they do? They determined that even if it would take them to incur charges for rebuilding the house where Jesus was ministering, it was worth it. The important thing was that their friend must receive his healing. They had faith. The Bible specifically says that Jesus saw their faith. It was their faith that made them risk everything so that they could get their friend to Jesus. And finally, these friends were intercessors. They were pleading for their friend's cause. They were people that would speak for you in the room where you are not present. When there are people that are angry with you, your friends are the people that will tell them "oh no this is not what he intended. He is a good man". Are you that kind of friend or are you one of those who are envious and that will not allow them to succeed and you don't want to succeed yourself. And those are the third kind of people that I call the adversaries. And, in this story, we can see that the adversaries clearly were the scribes and the Pharisees. All they could see in everything that was going on was negative. They were not pleased that people were receiving their healing. They were not pleased that the paralytic man got his healing. When Jesus was healing they were classifying it as blasphemy. They were questioning his authority to forgive sins. They were questioning his right to forgive sins or to heal. And Jesus Christ said to them "why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiving you or to say arise take up your bed and walk". Verse 10 but you may know that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sins is said to the paralytic. 11 I say to you arise take up your bed and go to your house. If there are any adversaries that are blocking you from receiving your miracle the God of heaven is going to speak to them in Jesus name. But what this tells us is this when you are going to surround yourself make sure you surround yourself with advocates with friends who are going to be there for you in the days of trouble. And the Bible tells us how to choose such friends in many ways. One of the things that the Bible says in Proverbs 13:20 is that whoever walks with the wise becomes wise but the companion of fools will suffer harm. So make sure that you pick for yourself, wise friends. These friends were wise enough to know that if there is no way at the door you could create your own way through the roof. Proverbs chapter 1 verse 19 also lists the kind of people that should not be your friends. It includes that the sinners should not be your friends. Violent people should not be your friends. Murderers and killers and people of no good should not be your friends. You should not be friends with people who delight in causing harm to others. You should not be friends with arm robbers and people who engage in illegality. You should not be friends with greedy people. You should do everything that it takes to make sure that your friends are those that fear God. And that's why Psalm 1 says that you should not walk in the ways of the ungodly. You should not sit in the seat of sinners nor will you be with mockers or the scornful. So it is your choice now. This man would have missed his miracle if not for the kind of friends that he kept. I pray that God will guide you to keep good friends. To keep friends that will add to you and not diminish from you. Till we meet again, it's me O. V. O. Ayoola saying, God bless you, StartRight with Jesus.