Everyone has dreams. Usually, they look like a set of achievements: a dream house, a dream job, a dream family, a dream vacation… However, in pursuing them, we often become disgruntled and disheartened as challenges, setbacks, and opposition come our way. We get stuck focusing on what we don’t have and where we want to be. Nick Nilson, Associate Pastor at Lakewood Church, offers a different approach to overcome these challenges: a change of perspective. What if we stopped focusing on what we lack, and instead focused on what we do have, and the possibilities our life currently offers us?

Your words are like seeds. Every time you say them, they're taking root and growing. Are you planting good seeds? Are you seeing the increase, the health, the relationships, and the happiness you dream about? If not, check out what you’re saying. Whether you realize it or not, the words you speak today are setting the direction for the rest of your life. In Speak the Blessing, New York Times bestselling author Joel Osteen offers you unique insights into this profound truth: Your words have creative power.

Many of us have let our minds become conditioned to thinking we've reached our limits; we've made too many mistakes; we'll never do anything great. The good news is that people don't determine our destiny - God does. And he has already taken into account every detail of our lives and factored them all into his plan. In his new book, Next Level Thinking, Joel Osteen teaches us that we weren't created to go through life weighed down by the past. God has destined us to rise higher - to the next level.

God helps you accomplish what you couldn't manage on your own. With his blessings, you stand out in the crowd and get breaks that you didn't deserve. The psalmist said, "God's favor surrounds us like a shield." That means that everywhere you go, you have an advantage, a divine empowerment, and a key to open up the right doors. With Joel's encouragement, you'll see how God's goodness uplifts you every day.

You may feel weak and fatigued, but that is not your destiny. When you feel overwhelmed, like you can’t go on, he comes in and gives you special strength. Strength that you didn’t get on your own. Strength to move forward when you should be stuck, strength to overcome that hurdle, strength to outlast that opposition. You’re going to feel strength that you didn’t have, joy when you could be discouraged, and hope when you should be depressed. You’re going to have the power to endure, the favor to overcome, and the determination to outlast.