AYAC 2025
21st August 2025
Day 3 Morning session Word 2
Topic: Understanding the Power of Association
Speaker: Pastor Joel Omamadaga
I want to bring to us our teaching titled: “Understanding the Power of Association.”
Understanding the power of association. A wise man once said, “You will be the same person in five years as you are today, except for the people you meet and the books you read.” – Charles ‘Tremendous’ Jones. “You will be the same person in five years as you are today, except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
Proverbs 13: 20 He that walks with the wise shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
You will not be destroyed! Say in belief, “Amen.”
What we are here this morning to understand is the power of significant influence. Significant influence, positive or negative. The power of significant influence rules your mindset, guides your actions, shapes your character, and ultimately determines your destiny. That’s significant influence. That plays a major role in what becomes of your life.
Hear me very well, people of God: You cannot build anything great beyond the company you keep. You cannot build anything great beyond the company you keep. There is a law they call the law of association. That law states: you become like the people you associate with. It is a law. You become like the people you associate with.
For instance, you cannot hang around smoke and not smell smoke. True or false? It rubs off on you. The Yoruba adage says that if a leaf stays long enough on soap, it becomes soap. So you cannot go beyond the company you keep.
A good seed will get choked when found in the midst of tears. A good seed: you plant a good seed in the midst of tears, it will choke the growth. It may grow, but it will have stunted growth at best, or it is killed. That’s why you need to clear up your environment. Clear up your environment of all tears, of all weeds.
You may have good intention in that relationship, in that partnership, in that courtship, in that friendship, good intention, but if you don’t want to mess up your destiny, clear up the weeds. Tell your neighbor, “Clear up the weeds!”
It’s very important for us to know, therefore, that association is not about socialization. That’s the mistake we make. Association is not all about socialization. “Pastor, you don’t want me to be social? I need to have my social life.” I agree. But it goes beyond it. Association is your destiny. Somebody say, “My destiny.”
1 Corinthians 6:17 He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit
He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. He that is joined to an adulterer becomes one spirit with the adulterer. He that is joined with someone that does wrong will become a wrongdoer. He that joins with a smoker will end up smoking. He that joins with a drunkard will end up drinking. Association defines your destiny.
It is vital, therefore, for us to know that a wrong association will not only distract you, it can derail you. It’s not only to distract you; it can derail you.
The story of Jonah is very clear. God called Jonah in Jonah chapter 1, verse 1: “Arise, get down to Nineveh and preach my word there.” And the Bible says, “And Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord and found a ship going to Tarshish, and he paid the fare.” And the Bible says, “And Jonah began to go down.”
There are so many kinds of ‘ship’ we enter, innocently or deliberately. Courtship is a ship. Friendship is a ship. Partnership is a ship. Associationship is a ship. If you enter the wrong ship, you will pay the price for it. You will pay the price. It said, “And Jonah paid the fare,” and he began to go down.
There are many associations that are bringing you down, and you are still there. What are you doing there? Someone says, “Pastor, you don’t understand, I have history with that individual.” I agree. You may have a history, but you don’t have a future with that person. You may have a history; it doesn’t mean you have a future. Your future is far greater than your history. Mind where you are going. Not everybody is fit to go along.
In my growing up days in the faith, 1993, God warned me specifically. He said, “Not everybody can be your friend.” He said that they are ungodly. I was taken aback by the word ‘ungodly’. I said, “God, you mean they are ungodly?” And God knew I didn’t understand. He said, “Let me explain to you. I called them ungodly, not because they are sinners—no.” He said, “These are fine Christians, fine believers, but because they will not profit you to where I’m taking you to, I call them ungodly.” Unlike God.
So from that moment, I began to choose my relationships. I began to choose my friends. I began to choose my association wisely. You will not make the wrong choice.
Hear me, people of God, Who you follow determines what follows you. The company you keep determines what accompanies you. Association can never make you different from the company you keep. You can never be different from the company you keep.
Walking with someone not going your direction will distract you. You are a man and a woman on a mission for God. Don’t associate yourself with someone not going your direction. That is not wisdom. That is not wisdom. Somebody not going your way, why keep a relationship with that person? Their legs are facing here, yours are facing here. “This is my friend.” Your eyes are looking straight; his eyes are looking everywhere, and you said, “This is my friend.” Be careful! Say, “Be careful.” You may be derailed. So be careful.
Hear this, people of God: If nothing is working in your life, check the association you keep. If nothing is working in your life, check the association you keep. Walking with someone not going your way of life will not only distract; it can destroy.
The instance of one of the sons of David, his name is called Amnon. He was destined to take over the throne in Second Samuel chapter 13. He was destined to take over the throne. But Amnon had a friend called Jonadab. He was so close to Amnon that he confided in him. He said, “My friend, I want to have an affair with my sister. I love her, but I don’t know how to.” And Jonadab began to scheme and to plan for Amnon. He said, “Pretend you are sick. Tell your father that your sister will bring food to you to eat. And when your sister comes to you to give you food to eat because you are sick, then you grab her.” And Amnon did the same thing.
The Bible says, and behold, Amnon slept with the sister. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Bible says Amnon was killed by all the brothers of the king. But Jonadab was the one that was spared. Jonadab escaped being killed.
Hear what I’m trying to say to you this morning: Most of the time, you are the victim of that association. You are the victim. The people you keep company with always escape more than you do.
I don’t know if you understand. When I was in school, University of Benin, there are people they call NFA: No Future Ambition. They just go everywhere. And you keep company with them, thinking they are not reading. But most of the time, when the exam comes, the result comes that they pass, you fail. Because you are the victim.
Listen to me: Don’t claim you can change them by being amongst them. “Pastor, these are people that I want to change.” Listen to this: If this is an edge of a cliff, this is where you are standing on a cliff that is a fall. A man standing by the edge of the cliff must be careful. For me to pull them up requires more energy, and I need to pull with much energy, but they require little energy to pull me down. That is why you must be sensitive to the association you keep.
Mama said, “You cannot convert an ant.” You cannot change them. All you need to do is to separate yourself and influence them. Being in their midst, they will corrupt you. If you try to convert them, they will convert you. May you not be converted! I said, may you not be converted!
That’s why God’s servant, our father in the Lord, said one time, he said, “To be the friend of everybody is to be a fool.” Friend of everybody is to be a fool.
The Bible speaking about the disciples, it says the apostles, they found their own company. There is a company for your life. There is a relationship for your life. There is an association for your life. Not everybody can be your friend. Say, “Amen.”
Our father in the Lord also said one time, he said, “Those who walk, they walk with many. Those who run, run with a few. But they that fly, they fly alone.”
Is that relationship profiting you? Is that association lifting you? You either rise or you fall by it. It does not leave you neutral. It can’t leave you neutral. You are either growing or you are groaning. You are either being lifted or you are being demoted.
I love what our resident pastor said on Wednesday, the first teaching. I was hooked up and I was blessed. If you were blessed by that, praise give God praise. He said, and I quote: “If your association is wrong, your future cannot be right. Your destination is determined by your association. Nobody working with the wrong company can end up in the right place. Your friends determine your future. Who you work with determines where you work to.”
Check those around you. You can tell where you are going. That’s why somebody says, “Show me your friends, and I will predict your future.” Show me your friends, and I can predict your future.
I pray that the colourful future God has mapped out for every youth in this commission, that future will come to pass. I said that future will come to pass in the name of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, note the following:
It takes iron to sharpen iron.
Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so, a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
“Iron sharpeneth iron.” You cannot use wood to sharpen iron; you will dull the cutting edge. That’s why many of our lives are becoming dull by the people we keep around our lives. In the name of association, our lives are not having effects, our lives are not having impact, our lives are not advancing because our cutting edge is dull. Iron sharpeneth iron. Whosoever is not blessing you is a burden to you. Whosoever is not exalting you is exhausting you, draining you. Whosoever is not a blessing is a liability. Drop him! Tell your neighbor, “Drop him!” If you are not being lifted, if you are not being sharpened in that association, run! God’s servant said, “Run, run, run!” That young man, George Laide, that testified on Wednesday, he said he brought a girl, his girlfriend, into the church who was sitting by him, who was a drug addict, wanting to bring him back to drug addiction. And Mama said, “Run, run, run! Run for your life!” And that is why he could testify. Tell your neighbor, “Run from that ungodly association!” Tell him or her, “Run!”
Hear this, people of God: Any association that is not adding value to you is taking something from you.
- No matter how anointed or dedicated you are, a wrong company can be very destructive. Anointed or dedicated, a wrong company will still wreck your destiny. Whatever you have successfully built can be destroyed overnight by the wrong association. Be watchful.
But right company is a positive and profitable asset to any destiny. Right company, right association, it is a plus factor that is factored into your life to give you a boost, to give you a shift.
Ecclesiastes 4: 9 – 12 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
“Two are better than one because they have a reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not easily broken.”
Right company strengthens the believer. Right company increases your productivity. Right company is profitable to where God is taking you to.
Paul kept company with Timothy, and Timothy became a bishop and great in his time. Elisha kept company with Elijah, and the mantle of Elijah came upon Elisha. Moses kept company with Joshua, and Joshua followed through. They had sweet association together, and Joshua became the ultimate leader.
Hear me, people of God: There are people that creep into your life. Be watchful. Some come to your life to give you comfort, while others come to your life to grieve your spirit. Anytime you are with them, you are grieved. What are you still doing there? When they knock on your door, you will say, “He has come again,” and you will say he is your friend. They want to throw you down.
Genesis 24:67 And Isaac saw Rebekah and took Rebekah to be his wife, and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
Nothing could comfort Isaac. Gift could not comfort him. But when the right person came in the person of Rebekah, Isaac was comforted.
Are you comforted in that association, or are you being grieved every time that person comes around you? You know that that person is not productive to you. Why carry him or her along? May you not make that costly mistake.
Now, let’s move on to examine the dynamics of association. What are the dynamics? How do we express ourselves in association? How do we know the kind of association we are in?
Please understand that number one Association can either be direct or by proxy.
When we talk about direct association, we talk about physical relationship. We talk about business partnership, your business colleagues. We talk about your personal friends, your close friends, your acquaintances. We talk about your companion, those you keep companionship with.
But by proxy, what do we mean by proxy? Proxy association: we talk about the books you read. Yes, that can be your association. Mind you what the man said, what Charles Tremendous Jones said. It can be by the books you read. It can be by the people you listen to, people that speak into your lives. That can be by proxy association.
It can also be, more particularly, people you follow on social media. Very, very dangerous. Jesus Christ warned us: “Take heed to what you hear.” Mark 4 verse 24: “Take heed to what you hear.” What you hear can either build you or destroy you. Take heed. People you listen to, the kind of music you hear. Don’t you know that words are spirit? Every man’s word contains a spirit, negative or positive.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life
And they have the power to shape your life. Words are spirits. If faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, so also cometh destruction by the things you hear.
It’s time to block your ear from the things that corrupt, the things that do not edify. Close your ear to them and disconnect from that person. Tell your neighbor, “Disconnect!”
That’s why when God met Adam after Adam knew he was naked
Genesis 3: 9 – 11 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Because what you hear cannot only transform you; it can deform you. It can destroy you.
- We must come to understand we must mind the books we read. Not every book is fit for consumption. Books carry the spirit of the author that wrote them. The Bible talks about false teachers that come speaking abominable heresies. 2 Peter 2 verse 1. Watch the books you read.
Charles Darwin, who was destined by God to be a priest in a seminary, to become an Anglican priest, but unfortunately, he dabbled into a small book titled The Evidences of Christianity. He began to read that book, and the book was all about the natural sense. As he was reading, another spirit entered into him, and he came about the Darwinism theory which is ruining the world today. Tell your neighbor, “Mind the books you read.”
- Guard your exposure to social media and those people you follow. Who you follow determines what follows you. Mind your interaction with social media. Learn to create a balance.
2 Corinthians 6:14 – 17 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you
Be not unequally yoked with the people you follow. I heard a story recently: 17 years old, always on social media, the negative ones, the positive ones, but unfortunately, he followed the wrong person who sent a friend invite, and he followed. From there, his brain became manipulated. The next thing we heard, he committed suicide. Mind who you follow! You are the CEO of your life. You have the power to delete and to terminate anybody. Don’t just follow anybody. And if a demon is following that person, the demon begins to seep into your life. That demon entered that young boy, and look what he ended up as.
How then do I identify the right company?
- Prayer of guidance. Don’t you know that God still gives good association? Jesus said, “Father, all you have given to me, I have kept
John 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
God gives good association.
Luke 6:12 -13 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray. What was he praying about? And continued all night in prayer to God.
And when it was day, he called the multitudes of disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom he named apostles.
Association is about divine guidance. Don’t just jump into a relationship for jumping’s sake. Pray! Pray! “Lord, is this person going my way? Is this person a profitable asset to me? Is this person a distraction to me?”
- Look out for spiritual alignment. What do I mean by spiritual alignment? I mean spiritual compatibility. Is this person spiritually compatible with me? My pursuit of godliness, is this person taking me towards that place? Be watchful of friends with carnal minds and speaking carnal words. That is spiritual alignment. You want to share the Scripture, that is when the person begins to tell you about a place they are going out for clubbing. A believer clubbing? Those habits are learnt. You learnt it; you copied it from the friends you are keeping company with. Those don’t align with your spiritual growth. He drinks; next time, he asks you to take that drink. Then he says, “Just take a sip.” Then from a glass to bottles, from bottles… If you hang around smokers, you are inhaling the smoke that comes from them. Watch out for spiritual alignment, those that don’t share your devotion to God’s mission for your life. Disconnect! Are they sharing God’s mission for your life? If they are not, disconnect! Are they growing your spiritual life? If they are not, disconnect! Question that association.
- Seek people with similar values. Seek people with similar values.
Amos 3:3 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet
Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Association. Does the association foster a growth mentality? That growth mentality in you? Do they help to shape your attitude, your character? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had the same spirit; they had the same values. No wonder the fire could not consume them. Are they standing with you towards your focus goals? You have set goals for your life. Focus goals. Are they helping you to be a better person, a better reflection of your person, spiritually and all? The right kept close association with each other. Look for people of similar values.
Hebrews 6:12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Look at where we are today. Look for those that walk the talk. Their thought, Not everyone you have in your hands is what you are looking for. What are you doing with that person? Cut it off! Disconnect!
- Be spiritually sensitive. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Be sensitive. Those that creep into your life to be your friends. “Oh, I love you. Be my friend.” Open. You can’t wait to! Friendship is not by force. Friendship is by choice. It’s time to make your choice. Forgotten association? Nobody can weep to you. Nobody can force you.
The Bible, speaking about Moses in
Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
He said, choosing. Rather, he made a choice to suffer affliction. He made the choice. He said, “He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” He refused. The cheapest thing to say is “No.” “Be my friend.” If you buy that, your association, pay attention. No assumption. No guesswork. Make conscious effort to evaluate your relationship. Are you a family? Your friends. Are you evading to association? Are you making a present? Am I going forward? Is this thing still profiting me? Any party not going your way is an excess baggage. Drop it from your list. Write it down to God.
I receive grace this morning to make productive choices for the kind of persons that come to my life. I receive grace to make productive choices for my association. Guide me, Lord, and disconnect me from anybody not going my way. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Give the Lord mighty praise!
Add a Comment