Ecclesiastes 4:9

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.

Man was not designed to be an island of himself. From the time of creation, God never designed man to be by himself. After the creation of Adam, he spent some time alone, but God realized that life is not going to work very well for Adam and He said in Genesis 2:18 – ‘…It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him’. God went ahead and made a companion, a partner, a wife for Adam by name Eve. Nobody can do life all by himself. Anybody who has ever tried to do all things by himself or herself can testify that it never worked. No matter who you are or what you own on earth, you will always need somebody. Loneliness comes with heavy load of problems and challenges. Moses with all his anointing and grace could not lead the people of Israel all by himself. When it became burdensome to him, he cried unto God for help.

Numbers 11:14

I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

God hearkened unto his cries and gave him 70 elders to partner with him in leading the people. Beloved, we need each other. A car owner needs a mechanic to maintain his car; a student needs a teacher to guide him or her; a physician needs a nurse to assist him in caring for patients; we all need spiritual guides in person of pastors, teachers, apostles, prophets etc to help us in all our spiritual development. We need a church family to also help with our spiritual and even some physical needs. This was why God advised us not to despise the assembly of ourselves together.

See Hebrews 10:24-25: And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: ²⁵ Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Even for the Holy Ghost to come, the disciples had to be together. They were united in one accord and not isolated before the Holy Ghost could come.

Acts 2:1-2

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. ² And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

We need each other. Many things in life can only be achieved where there is partnership. Partnership is a very important thing in life. God believes so much in partnership and adopted the principle and power of partnership from the onset of the creation of man. In Genesis 1:26, He spoke to God the Son and God the Holy Spirit saying ‘…Let us make man in our image…’ God encourages partnership. You will never have a full impact of what you can do until you identify your partners. This is why the devil uses the power of loneliness to fight many servants of God. Do you know that today, many Pastors are going through crisis, depression and all manner of issues today because they are lonely. How many of you know today that statistics have proved that Pastors are the loneliest people on the face of the earth. Most of them are isolated. This is the trick of the devil to get the Pastor in the state of loneliness because when he or she is in the state of loneliness, he or she will be into a state of bareness. Mary said, ‘how can this be true seeing that I know not a man?’ In other words, ‘how can I be fruitful without a relationship?’ Immediately Jesus started His earthly Ministry, He went about seeking for partners. He called the 12 apostles because He knows that for His ministry to bear fruits on earth and even after Him, He needed a relationship so He went about from one city to another calling partners. He understood the power of team work and put together a coalition and a team for effective production. To be effective, a team of partners must be such that you don’t have to fight with, argue with, prove anything with, compete with or try to impress because you understand the power of team work. If there’s anything the devil fights the church and homes with more than anything, it is unity. Jesus was very clear about it when He said that a house divided among itself shall not stand.

Child of God, you cannot do it all alone. You need others; you need colleagues; you need partners.

Luke 5:1-11

And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, ² And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. ³ And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. ⁴ Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. ⁵ And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. ⁶ And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. ⁷ And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. ⁸ When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. ⁹ For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: ¹⁰ and so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. ¹¹ And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

I would like you to look at Verse 7 ‘…And they beckoned unto their partners… and filled both the ships…’ Verse 10 talks about James and John as partners with Simon.

In verse 2 of Luke chapter 5, the Bible records that the fishermen were washing their nets after catching nothing for a whole night. I can imagine what was going on in the minds of those fishermen after a profitless venture. They caught nothing for the whole night but instead of going into depression, wailing, crying, sulking, and questioning God, they started washing and mending their nets in preparation for another day. This shows me that the time of disaster should be a time of preparation. YOUR GREATEST FAILURE PRECEEDS YOUR GREATEST SUCCESS! Sometimes, you’ve done all you know how to do and it’s not working the way you expect. Either you sit down feeling sorry for yourself or going into depression or you can use that time of disaster for preparation. So whatever you did that didn’t work, that sent you into a stupor, that made you feel embarrassed, ashamed and depressed, you need to dry your face and go ahead and wash your nets and fix your broken places because your disaster time is your preparation time. When God allows you to have a disaster, it doesn’t mean that you have been denied. It simply means that you are being delayed and delay is always a blessing to get you better prepared. You may not see it that way but most of the time it is a blessing that you toiled all night and caught nothing because that prepares you better for a haul of fishes! Somebody shout alleluia!

You need to know that God permits disaster in your life because He always want you to learn that it is not by what you do but by what He says that the blessing breaks forth in your life and failure is part of your training.

Beloved, God always provide all you need to succeed very close to you. In fact, what you need is in the house. You are crying failure, failure…but all you require to succeed are given to you and they are in the house! In 2 Kings 4:2 we see that all that the widow needed to get the sons out of the grips of the bondmen was in the house! But she was blind to it and went through great harassment until the man of God pointed it to her and she obeyed.

While Peter and the people with him were washing their nets Jesus came up requesting to use one of the boats. Peter highly obliged and he never know that God was getting ready to teach him a principle…that if you get to understand this principle, it will change how your story ends. Peter gave Him his boat. When Jesus was done using the boat, He said to Simon to now launch his nets into the deep. Peter was able to catch so much fish as to begin to break his net. This was a man that toiled all night in the same waters but caught nothing. Peter did something that we should all learn today. He used what he had to get what he lacked! GOD WILL ALWAYS USE SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE TO GIVE YOU WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE. You have the boat but you do not have fish. Give Jesus the boat and get all the fish you need. You throw in one thing and you get another thing you need. Everything God gave you is a tool to get what you need. I have discovered that most times when God answers your prayers, He doesn’t give you exactly what you asked for but He gives you what it takes to get what you asked for. What you need is somewhere in what you have. Look for it! It’s in there! It’s not in your net, it’s in your boat and if you will give God your boat, He will fill up your net!!!

When Jesus told Simon to launch out the nets into the deep, Peter began to complain as if Jesus does not know what they’ve been through all night. When He gives you instructions, do not complain about past experiences because PAST PATTERNS ARE NOT ALWAYS PREDICTIONS. Don’t judge the outcome of your situations when God is involved based on past patterns. Just because you toiled all night and caught nothing doesn’t mean it won’t work in the morning. Peter’s experience has become his problem. What he already knows is getting in the way of what he ought to believe. He was operating in the natural but God operates in the supernatural. Jesus told Peter to cast his nets into the sea. “NETS”. But he threw his net. “NET”. This was just because of his past experience. He threw in only one net and the haul of fishes caused the net to begin to break. His net wouldn’t have broken if he had obeyed Jesus at first.

The quantity of fish caught was such that Peter couldn’t pull it by himself. Peter may not have had all his nets ready, but he had one thing ready … HE HAD HIS PARTNERS READY! When the net began to break, it was too late to begin to select partners at that time. His partners were already strategically positioned. So when the increase comes, he already has the kind of people to help him reap the harvests for himself and for them. There’s power in your partners because when the blessings begin to come the nets may begin to break. We need each other! As the nets began to break, if Peter had not identified his partners, everything God gave him would have been lost. But because he had already identified his partners before the production, when the release came, the beneficiaries already knew themselves. Beloved, I don’t know who you are and where you are headed to today but you can’t do it alone; we need each other.

Even before the haul of fishes, Peter already had partners just because he understands that they needed each other. The Bible says James and John, sons of Zebedee were his partners. They helped to wash and mend the nets. They must have helped to tidy the boats that Jesus used such that when the harvest came it was more than enough to reach them. The Bible says in verse 7 that the partners filled both boats with fish. That means both Simon’s boat and that of the partners were filled. Beloved, there’s great power and blessings in partnership! Be nice to everyone around you because you need each other! Whenever there is a partnership to the glory of God established in obedience to His word, each time God wants to release his blessings, he pours out more than enough to reach all the partners. You need to partner with God even in his services. God says one shall chase a thousand but two shall chase ten thousands. He says in our text, Ecclesiastes 4:9 that two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor.

One final thing… when Peter called the partners, they answered immediately. If they were far away from him, everything would have been lost because the net was breaking. Partners stick together! Partners lift the burdens, the worries and enjoy the blessings. Can you dare to be God’s partner? There’s power and blessings in your partner!

God is about to give somebody a net breaking blessing…! In your home it shall be a net breaking blessing…! In your job it shall be a net breaking blessing…! In your business it shall be a net breaking blessing…! Come on stand on your feet and shout ‘I receive my net breaking blessing! Give Him praise in the house…!