Making the Impossible Possible Through Faith

In this uplifting episode of The Make Room Show, Jennifer delves into the theme of 'Possibilities', intertwining spirituality with the power of positive thinking and big dreaming. She starts with the profound truth in Matthew 19:26, "With God, everything is possible," setting the tone for an exploration of hope and faith in the face of doubt and skepticism. Jennifer emphasizes the importance of believing in the seemingly impossible, recounting personal anecdotes and biblical promises to inspire listeners. She offers practical exercises for reflection and prayer, encouraging listeners to visualize their hopes and align their actions with their deepest desires. The episode is a blend of spiritual wisdom and actionable advice, perfect for those seeking to expand their horizons and explore the possibilities in their lives. This podcast caters to an audience interested in spirituality, personal growth, and the intersection of faith and daily living.

 Talking Points:

• The Power of Possibilities and Hope: Emphasizing the connection between possibilities and hope in life.
• Belief in God's Promise: The significance of Matthew 19:26 in fostering belief in life's possibilities.
• Overcoming Skepticism: Addressing the inner skeptic and embracing faith and hope.
• Visualization of Dreams: Encouraging listeners to visualize and pray for their hopes and dreams.
• Importance of 'Why' in Dreaming: Understanding the 'why' behind one's hopes and aspirations.
• Practical Steps for Achieving Dreams: Providing actionable steps for making dreams a reality.
• Power of Imagination: Stressing the role of imagination in shaping our lives and destinies.
• Daydreaming and Planning: The importance of spending time daydreaming and planning for the future.
• Surrounding Yourself with Positivity: The need for positive influences and avoiding negativity.

Our stuff takes up an incredible amount of our space, time, energy, and money. But do all these possessions truly make us happier? If you are ready to stop letting the stuff control your life… If you are ready to MAKE ROOM for the people and the things that matter the most… Sign up for the Make Room Masterclass.

Imagining And Believing In Possibilities

I want to thank you so much for joining me and being part of the show. We're going to be talking something that I'm passionate about and that's called possibilities. It is something that breathes the word hope. As soon as we hear the word, possibilities, all I can think about is hope and being hopeful in our life. A lot of times, with possibilities, there’s much more behind the scenes than we can even imagine. That's going to be the topic of the episode. Before I get started, here are a few quick announcements. Number one, if you haven't already hit subscribe to the podcast, please do so. We're focused on growing the show. For new podcasters like me, hitting subscribe is the most important thing to me. If you want to take a step further and give me a review, I would love you forever. That's what keeps podcasters going. That's what helps podcasts grow. If you've been listening to the show and you've been getting good information, make sure that you hit subscribe and let us know what you think.

I'm going to start reading reviews every single week from people that leave them. I'm going to share them online when I do the podcast. We would love for you to do that. Also, don't forget, there are tickets still available to the Created Order Conference that is happening in Charlotte. If you would like to attend the conference, change your life forever, learn how to get organized and declutter, learn how to get better at time management, be able to create a new vision for your life and start living out your God-given purpose then you need to come! You are all created for a specific purpose in mind. It's because of your unique skills, abilities and gifts. We all have our own pretty package that we can use to make a difference in the world, whether it'd be in your home, in your community or worldwide. It can be anything. Check it out. Go to JenniferFordBerry.com/Created-Order-Conference. You can see all the details about the conference there.

I'm going to go ahead and jump in with a new part of my book, Possibilities. It's going to be chapter one. I just got back from a conference in Toronto with my daughter and some girlfriends. It was a powerful transformational event. The women that spoke were speaking life into us. One of them was Lisa Osteen. One of them was Cynthia Brazelton. When I leave a conference, I always want to leave with tangible, actionable steps that I can write down in my notebook, take home, open up and say, “This is something I want to work on.” That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you some actionable steps. When you hear something inspirational such as about possibilities, what does that look like in your life? How can you apply that on a daily basis? It's super important to know how to do that.

Everything Is Possible: Matthew 19:26

I want to start off with Matthew 19:26. It says, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible but with God everything is possible.” That's my first question for you. Do you believe that anything in your life is possible? Do you truly believe that? Take a minute and wrap your head around that. “With God everything is possible.” He did not say, “Some things.” He said, “Everything.” That statement is not just for celebrities, preachers or your neighbors. It is a promise for all of us, every single one of us, even when we don't fully grasp it, even when we don't understand it and even when we don't fully believe it. We all have moments of disbelief in our life. I have taken on a lot of big visions and goals. There have been so many days when I have no idea how I'm going to pull it off. But, I do believe God can pull it off. I don't think it's something that I can do on my own. Our disbelief never changes the promises of God. They're always the same, whether or not we believe them. If we miss the boat, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

I want to know what your story is. I want you to ask yourself, “Has there been other things in my life that have already happened, where I was thinking, 'There's no way this is possible?’” Think back to a time when you are hoping and praying for something but you had no idea how it was going to turn out and it turned out well. It could be anything from wanting a baby, a job that you were hoping for, a house you were praying for, healing in your body and the doctor said it wasn't possible. All of a sudden, something changed and it became possible. You have to, first of all, believe in order to receive that promise that with God anything is possible. I don't know what you've gone through up to this point in your life. There could be things that have changed your heart. You're like, “Jen, this is easy for you to say.” We all have stories of overcoming obstacles with possibilities, it doesn't mean that you're the only one going through this stuff. We all have times when we think, “Is this specific outcome truly possible?” It comes down to faith. It comes down to believing that with God, it can happen.

What Possibilities Look Like

I'm going to give you a mental image of what possibilities look like. Kris Vallotton's book is one of my favorite books. It's called Poverty, Riches and Wealth: Moving from a Life of Lack Into True Kingdom Abundance. I'm going to read one of the quotes that he wrote in there that I absolutely love. It says, “There is something very powerful about your imagination. It is a vision that shapes our lives and directs our destinies. What you imagine has a huge effect on who you are becoming. You are forming your outer world with your inner thoughts.” For me, that is such a powerful statement. Sometimes we have that self-doubt that creeps in and says, “You have this specific goal that you're trying to achieve, but what if this or what if that? What if it doesn't happen?” You need to sit there and say, “Am I going to talk myself out of it? Am I going to miss that opportunity to get to experience something that seems impossible because of my inner thinking or my inner thoughts?”

"Big goals and big dreams don't happen overnight."

The first thing I want you to do is to remember that the synonym for possibility is hope. Think of something you've always hoped for that hasn't happened yet. Imagine the possibility of what that looks like. Imagine, “Here's the thing that we're hoping for or we're praying for.” What does that specifically look like? What would it change in your life? What would it change on a daily basis? Who could you help with that possibility? What could it mean for the next generation of your family? Take it a step further and envision how you would feel if these things happen. Feelings are so powerful. They make us feel a possibility, something that's in our imagination is taking place. How would you feel about yourself? Would you feel proud? Would you feel content?

Would you feel excited? Would you feel joyful? Would you feel relieved? Take a few minutes and write down your hopes and dreams. Start to pray over the things that you are wishing for, the possibilities that you would love to see to come to fruition. Think about posing them in a place where you can see them every single day and be able to be intentional. Sometimes even though we have these deep desires or prayers, we still get distracted by the everyday mundane tasks. We're running the kids around. We're checking email, paying bills, cleaning the house. We're forgetting about, “I should be praying for these prayers that are on my wishlist or these possibilities that I want to see come to fruition.” Write them down, get serious about it and pray over it every single day.

Have A Why

The big thing is when you're thinking about a possibility, you need to have a why. You're thinking, “This is a possibility in my life that I would love to happen.” Maybe you're like, “I would be so excited if I could move to Texas or if I could start a new career in this field, or if I could get married and have a family.” Why is it that that is something that you're hoping and dreaming for? What is the big why? Your why is always a compelling reason why you want to do something. It gives you direction and it gives you your desired future. Your why is something that you always want to keep at the forefront of your mind. When you have a dream or a goal and you start to work toward that, there are going to be days where it's super hard. You're going to want to give up. You're going to want to quit. I've had those days where I wanted to quit. When I go back to my why, “Why am I doing this? Why am I pursuing this?” it always gets me back on track. Knowing your why is important.

When you read this episode, maybe you're driving in your car or cleaning your house or sitting and relaxing with a cup of coffee. You're thinking, “When was the last time that I stopped and thought about all the possibilities in my life?” It's not what is, not what you can see and not what is your current circumstance but a true possibility like, “What if this happened? What if I could pull that off?” Thinking about something like that is important. It's important to take a few minutes every day or once in a while even. It's better than nothing. Maybe it's getting out of debt. Maybe it's losing weight. Maybe it's spending more quality time as a family. Maybe it's as simple as more family dinners. If you can't imagine it in your mind, if it's not part of your imagination, it's never going to be seen in your physical life. You have to first imagine it!

When I was a little girl, I used to love to climb trees. I lived in a house that was surrounded by trees. I would get up in a tree, sit there for hours and think about my life. I would think about who I was going to marry. I thought about what I was going to do for my job and what my kids are going to look like. It excited me. It was so vivid in my mind that I could almost reach out and touch it. I think back on that and I'm like, “When was the last time I did something like that?” I'm not climbing trees anymore. I'm a little old for that. I'm afraid I'm going to fall and break something. That might not be the answer, but I can still sit and give myself permission to have time for myself just to sit and imagine. When we do that, with our journal and things down, they start to feel more achievable. That's where dreams are born. That's where we reach back down inside of ourselves. We remember what has been put there a long time ago that maybe we've forgotten about it because we've been so busy.

Called To Dream

A lot of you know that I love Jennie Allen. I was able to meet with her. She says this quote that I'll read to you, “We are called to dream but we are afraid to. Because we are called, when we don't act on it, we become restless, restless to find purpose, to make a difference in the world, to matter.” If we want to dream but we're afraid to, why would it make us restless? It's because that's what we're created to do. We're created to not look at what everybody else is doing, but look inside and follow our own heart. When we're not, it bugs us. It's like God's tapping us on our shoulder and saying, “I put these dreams in your mind for a reason. Let's not squash them and ignore them. Let's pay attention here.” I want to encourage you to take some time to stop, maybe for fifteen minutes and let your imagination run wild. Ask yourself questions like these, “If I could do anything with my life, what would it be? What am I most passionate about? What do I love doing? When am I the most joyful? What have I always dreamed about doing? What are my gifts? What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?”

"Do not share big ideas with small-minded people. It's a waste of time."

A lot of times, we have these dreams and they'll pop into your mind. Immediately you think, “But.” Forget the but. What if you don't know? What if you think you would fail but you wouldn't? What would that look like? What could you contribute to the world that would make you feel proud or excited? What kind of parent do you want to be? What do you want your home to feel like? What do you want more of? What do you want less of?

The thing that drives me the most to be honest with you in my entire life is, “How do you want to be remembered when you have left this Earth?” That's something that I ask myself all the time. Nobody goes to a funeral and talks about how many pairs of shoes that person owned, how many clothes they had in the closet, how many cars they had in the driveway or anything about possessions. It has nothing to do with that. When we leave this Earth, we're leaving empty-handed. We need to be remembered by what we did, not with what we owned or what we had.

Eight Steps To Possibilities

Here are a couple more things to get your heads wrapped around this whole possibility thing. I'm going to give you eight steps. They're short but powerful.

1. Look beyond your current circumstances.

When you're thinking about possibilities and you're thinking about what you want to change about your life, you cannot look at your current circumstances because that's already putting you in a tiny box. It's already putting you in that snapshot of what you currently have. You have to look beyond it. There are many different seasons in life. For example, you may have small children at home that need you to be with them so that you can avoid daycare expenses. That doesn't mean you have to leave them now, but soon there will be a season where they are in school. I always say I wrote my first book when my son was napping and my oldest was at preschool. I might've had ten minutes here, fifteen minutes here. That's how I did it. Don't look beyond your current circumstances because the seasons keep changing and life keeps rolling on. You never know what the future might have in store for you.

2.  Do not let other people's opinions direct your steps.

How many stories have you heard about successful people receiving 100 noes before they even got a yes? It happens all the time. God gives us all different opinions, personalities, and dreams for a specific reason. This makes it difficult for us all to be on the same page at the same time. It doesn't matter if nobody else understands what you want for your life. It's specifically for you. Don't let other people's opinions direct your steps.

3. Stop worrying about your own limitations.

If you have a dream in your heart, if you are imagining some grand possibility, there's no way you can accomplish it entirely on your own.

Possibilities: If you have a dream inside of you that seems so big and ridiculous that you have no idea how it's going to happen, chances are that is from God.

You're not going to accomplish it overnight. Big goals and big dreams don't happen overnight. When you look at Instagram, Facebook or the news and somebody has become famous, they reached their dreams or they hit a goal that they were so excited to share, the media is all about that one specific day or that one specific year where it looks like they have hit the lottery. People that are watching forget how many days, hours, weeks and years of hard work went into that dream and how it was not accomplished overnight. We don't know the highs and lows that they went through to get there. It was probably quite a story.

I have another piece of advice to tell you. If you have a dream inside of you that seems so big and ridiculous that you have no idea how it's going to happen, chances are that is from God. God wants us to rely on him. He wants us to put our trust in him. He wants to show us that these God-size goals and possibilities are placed in our hearts so that we can be used to fulfill his goals, not our own. He has something in store for us. He knows the world needs this dream to come true for other people to benefit from, not just for us. He already has all the details figured out. He already knows how it's going to happen. You do not need to fear your own limitations because he's got this.

4. Spend some time daydreaming and imagining the possibilities for your life.

When you have a clear picture in your mind, create a vision board or a vision journal. Look at it and pray over it every single day. This is so powerful. I do a vision journal. I don't do a board. I do look at it every week and usually several times a week to be reminded. It's crazy because ever since I've been doing this, I've been able to check off things that have happened because I've been intentional about it, I've focused on them and I've prayed over those goals. They'd start happening and you want to do more.

5. Be intentional about teaching your mind to dream big.

Fill it with audio messages, with books, with podcasts and positive people that are going to keep you focused on what you are going for. They're not going to talk you down. They're not going to say, “You can't do it.” They're going to lift you up and encourage you to get where you want to go. That's something that I've been focused on. If somebody is not going to be positive and they're going to be negative, then you don't need it. You're in charge of what goes into your mind, into your ears, and into your eyes. Be very specific about what you're allowing in.

"If your thoughts create your future, your words declare it to the world."

6. Play out the what-ifs in your mind.

What if you could earn a living doing what you love? What if you could use your gifts to help others? What if you quit your current job to start that business that you've always dreamed about doing? What if you ask someone you admire for a quick phone call or conversation over coffee and say, “I want to do what you're doing. Can you give me some basic steps? Can you give me some advice? Do you have ten minutes of your time where you can share some of your wisdom with me?” People usually are going to say yes. It's nine times out of ten that they're going to say yes. What if you took a big step into your purpose? Play it out. You might say, “This could happen. I could lose some money on an investment,” or you could multiply your investment times five. You don't know. Play them all out in your head, even the scary ones. Sometimes, playing the what-ifs in our mind that are scary make some a little less scary.

7. Do not share big ideas with small-minded people.

It's a waste of time. That is my favorite statement in the whole wide world. There are certain people that if you were ready to spill the beans on everything you're working toward, they might not get it. That's okay because they don't have to get it. It's not their dream. It's yours. People always expect the worst. The people that expect the worst have little hope for a bright future. These people are not going to get you where you want to go. They're not going to aid you. Limit your time with anyone that is a negative voice in your head.

8. Train your tongue.

Words have power. No more complaining. No more sabotaging your future by speaking negatively. If your thoughts create your future, your words declare it to the world. What you say is super important. You don't speak, “This is never going to happen.” You speak, “This is going to take place. I can't wait for the day that it happens.

I know that God is behind me. I know that he's directing my steps, that he is laying out the path before me and that it will happen.” You speak positively. Even on the days that you feel doubtful, speak positively. Your words have so much power. Somebody reading this is going to say, “Maybe this is a tap on the shoulder.” I always hear a message at the perfect time. I realize that if I'm struggling with something and I hear that message, it's God tapping me on the shoulder. Hopefully, that is a message that's going to tap somebody reading on the shoulder where they're going to say, “Maybe this message is for me. Maybe I can make a change in my life. Maybe I'm selling myself short. Maybe I haven't thought of all the possibilities my life could be. I'm going to try it. Why not?” What do you have to lose? You don't have anything to lose.

The only thing you're going to lose out on if you don't do this is the possibility of being made into a newer person, a person that grows, a person that's going to experience more, a person that can help others and a person that loves life a little more. You're going to miss out more than you're going to regret. You're not going to regret ever taking a possibility and trying it. If it doesn't work out, all you can say is, “I tried.” You should be proud of yourself for trying. You should try again and try something else. I hope this is some encouragement for you. If it is, please let me know. You can comment. You can also send a review. You can email me. If you're struggling with any of this, feel free. I'm always available for an email at JenniferFordBerry.com. I'd be happy to help you out. Thanks for reading. We'll be back again soon with another episode.

Important Links:

• Created Order Conference
• JenniferFordBerry.com/Created-Order-Conference
• Poverty, Riches and Wealth: Moving from a Life of Lack Into True Kingdom Abundance
• Jennie Allen
• Purpose Over Possessions: decluttering your life so you can live on purpose