IT IS POSSIBLE

 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak - II Corinthians 4:13

PREAMBLES

        Without equivocation, I affirm with every fibre of my being that It Is Possible. It is possible to attain higher heights in life. It is possible to realize your dreams, to overcome those challenges that are inhibiting your manifestation on the global stage.

It is possible to be who you want to be. If the Wright Brothers (inventors of aero plane) could dream of inventing a flying machine and indeed flew, you can achieve that dream. If Moses could dream of becoming a Prince, Judge and Deliverer of his people (Exodus 2:14) and was able to achieve his dreams (Acts 7:35-36), you can. You can if you believe you can.

I have elected to take the text of this presentation from Gospel of Jesus according to Mark Chapter 11 verse 23:                 

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

This is a statement of fact as well as a statement of faith. In the realm of life, faith (faith in God and self) is the only currency with which men and women of purpose transact. In the language of faith, impossibility is a strange word.

          Faith is a five-letter word whose capacity to unleash the possibility spirit can never be controverted. As a Christian, you are a powerhouse of possibilities. You are created in the Image of God and imbued with the nature and capacity of God. You are wired with ability to do the impossible.

          Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” If Jesus said, then I believe it. I am what God says I am, I have what He says I have, and I can do what He says I can do.

HOW POSSIBLE IS POSSIBLE?

The word, “Possible” means it can be done. It is possible because it is possible. All you need is to have faith in your faith and to doubt your doubt. Develop Can-Do Spirit. Human beings throughout recorded history have the capacity to dare any odd and to come out victorious. There is power that inhabits every one of us. You can, if you think you can. At Matthew 17:20 Jesus speaks with finality:

“For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

The power to be and accomplish your dream is inside you. All you need is to activate this power by focusing on the belief energy that God has given you. Everything begins and ends with personal belief. According to INC.com,

If you believe something is impossible, that belief will erode your confidence and turn that impossible belief into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

On the other hand, if you believe that you can do it, that it is possible, this belief will increase your confidence and turn this into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sometimes your past experiences are called in to assist in accomplishing the things people think are impossible. David’s previous experiences animated his self-belief to accomplish what others thought was impossible. Faced with the challenge of fighting against a Philistine giant whom every battle-tested Israeli in the days of King Saul feared to take on, young David looked into himself and cast his mind back to his past and knew that it was possible. At I Samuel 17:34-37 we read:

But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”        

          It is possible. What others think is “impossible” is only possible if you believe it is possible. Do not allow what people say or other people’s experiences to determine whether something can be done or not. Allow other people’s experiences to serve as your personal classroom; let their failure fire your enthusiasm to succeed. Where others go to fail, you can go to succeed.      

Fear is often what stops us in our tracks towards accomplishing our dreams in life. Do not let fear of failure cripple you. Fear is the enemy of possibility and an ally of the “impossible.” To overcome fear, you must take a step of faith. Do what you fear and the fear of fear will be gone. According to INC.com:

Fearlessness is a state of mind, not a genetic trait. You can acquire it and strengthen it. Start to build your courage now by reminding yourself of all of the amazing feats you've already accomplished in your life. Chances are, you have probably already made the impossible possible several times in your life. What have you already accomplished that you once thought could never be done? Write it down. Keep this list handy and read it whenever you are tempted to believe that you don't have what it takes to begin to make changes in your life.

YOUR DESTINY IS IN YOUR OWN HANDS

          Who you are is a gift from God, but what you become out of who you are is your gift back to God. Everything you need to succeed in life are already deposited inside you. II Peter 1:3 tells us that “God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” Because God has given to us all things that that pertain to life and godliness, the onus is now on you to become who He created you to be. At Judges 12:1-3 we read one can take his/her destiny in his/her own hands:   

And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thine house upon thee with fire. And Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands. And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I PUT MY LIFE IN MY HANDS, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are ye come up unto me this day, to fight against me? (KJV)

            This is what I refer to as Jephthah’s Alternative. Jephthah’s Alternative is nothing other than taking your own destiny in your own hands. It is doing by yourself and for yourself what no one else can do for you. It is taking personal responsibility for what you finally become, knowing that nobody owes you anything, rather, you owe yourself everything; it is the understanding that your success or failure in life is entirely your own making. In his book, Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits, T.D. Jakes (2007:4, 8) observed and asks,

Many of us attribute success or failure to fate or some external force. We believe that we have to be in the right place at the right time in order to achieve, much like winning the lottery. But success is a direct consequence of our wanting a more abundant life and working hard to earn it, like wadding through the mud puddles of life toward the beckoning sea…. Isn’t it time for you to direct your hope toward building your dreams instead of waiting on your dreams to build themselves?”   

Achieving your goals in life is not a serendipity affair – it is not a chance happening. Actions and reactions remain equal and opposite. What you sow into life is what you receive back from it. What you throw at life is what it throws back at you. You must learn to go for what you want even when others are not prepared to help you birth your dreams. Succinctly stated: You Must Take Your Life In Your Hands!

Jephthah took his life (destiny) in his own hands. This is what I call Jephthah’s Alternative. His alternative remains our only alternative in the face of challenging times such as these!

In Scripture, we encounter two challenging and life-changing questions:

1.     “What is that in thine hand?” (Exodus 4:2; cf. Exodus 14:15-16).

2.     “What do you have in thine house?” (II Kings 4:2).

Many times, we do not know that the solutions we seek in Sokoto are already in our Shokoto. Answers to our prayers may after all be in our hands. When we discover who we are, what abilities we have and resources we have “in the house,” put them to good uses, our stories will begin to change. We will discover that we will not be talking about unemployement but employment generation.

The key to Moses’ victory was already in his hands. When Israel cried to God for help, God told Moses to use what was already in his hand and bring solution to his people. When Widow of a prophet cried because of debt, she was told to look inwards and when she discovered she had a solution to her problem, she used it to settle her debts, settled herself, her children and then lived prosperous ever after.

What is in your hand and what do you have in your house? If no questions should jolt you out of your reverie, these should! Look at your hand and search your house! Take your life in your hands and do what you alone can do and what no one else has ever done!     

YOUR FUTURE IS IN YOUR PICTURE

Understand that “You cannot feature in a future you cannot picture!” The picture you have determines the future you possess. WHAT you see is as important as WHO you see. Fact remains that the you, you see is the you, you will be.

While some people have appropriate pictures of themselves, others do not. At Jeremiah 1:11-12, God confronted Jeremiah and asked, “… Jeremiah, what seest thou?” Jeremiah replied, “I see a rod of an almond tree.” The LORD said to him, “Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.” The picture you have determines what God will bring to bear upon your life.

Jesus encountered a man who was blind. Realizing that the man’s life was filled with restrictions, took him aside to restore his sight. At Mark 8:22-25 we read,  

And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw anything. He looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.

First, the man did not see as he ought to see. He saw men as trees. Jesus knew that he was not seeing clearly. He did what He did and the man’s sight was fully restored. He began to see clearly.

          I dare to ask you:

§ What do you see?

§ Who do you see?

 Twelve men were sent to spy out God’s Promised Land to Hebrews enroute Canaan. Two men came back with the appropriate picture but ten came back with wrong pictures in their minds. Their report said it all, “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.” (Numbers 13:33).

Do you see a giant or a grasshopper? Do you see an achiever or a failure? Do you see a person on a world stage or a person relegated to the background? Do you see a job creator (employer) or a job seeker? What you see is what and who you finally become. …we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

William James, one of America’s foremost Psychologists made the following observations:

There is a law in Psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.

Desires of tough-minded optimists die-hard. Dare to dream. Hold on to the line, be tough skinned and don't give in to doubt, frustrations and discouragement.

Dare to create that picture and God will see to it that it becomes your future. Let your faith a telescopic view. I do not know the vision you have of yourself. Do yourself this favor: whatever may be the circumstance of your present, hold on to the rope. Someday, somewhere and somehow it will click. At Habakkuk 2:3, God's Word has this to say:

For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.

DO NOT BE DETERRED BY YOUR PRESENT CHALLENGES

          You must understand that life is not a restaurant where you eat and drink, but a battle ground where destinies are determined and lives are changed. Anyone who expects life to be easy and dreams to be realized without challenges is only daydreaming. The greater the challenges you encounter in life, the greater the opportunities you have to succeed.

          Destinies are determined at places of challenges. There is possibility in “impossibilities.” Remember that ‘impossibilities’ does not exist. Things might be difficult, but not impossible. For the purpose of this presentation, we will be inter-changing the word “difficult” with the term, “Impossible.” Each time the word, impossible is used, we are only refereeing to that which is difficult.

          When a situation presents an impossible scenario, look beyond it to see possibilities. Every problem in life has in itself the seed of solution. You must overcome defeatist mentality. Do not see problems from their face value, see the opportunities of advancement they present. You must understand that there is nothing to gain if there is nothing to fight over. The fact that there are challenges show that there is something to profit. So, each time you are faced with mountains of challenges, be assured that they are only trying to stop you from accessing gold. Seek to surmount those challenges and you will go home with the prize.  One of my favourites Bible passages is Judges 14:14. It says:

“Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.”     

          With possibility mentality, what sets out to “eat” you will turn out to become your food and what you think is strong will end up in sweetness.

Arm yourself with the understanding that challenges of life are what will make you strong and give you the keys to achieve your goals. There is no prize without a price. At Luke 24:26, Jesus said, “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”

          Your challenges are keys to your successes. Do not be deterred by them.

DO NOT ALLOW YOUR THOUGHTS TO DESTROY YOU

Know that your thoughts can make or mar you. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” You are who and what you think. For this reason, I encourage you to engage in Positive Thinking and Mind Renewal exercises. Ephesians 4:23; Proverbs 4:23 say:

“…and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

“Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.”

Lots of people are suffering from destructive mentalities. These include “Defeatist,” “Impossibility” and “I am A Nobody” mentalities. Let us look at each of these:

Defeatist Mentality 

This kind of mentality sees only defeat. It compares itself with the size of the problems of life and becomes in its own mind too small and his problems too big to be handled by such a small person as himself. This kind of mentality gives up easily. Proverbs 24:10 says, “If you faint in the day of adversity,
Your strength is small.”

While others see an opening, he only sees strong walls of oppositions. This mentality characterized ten out of twelve spies sent to spy out land of Canaan by God through Moses (Numbers 13:27-31).

God did not create us to be ruled and ruined by defeatism (Joel 3:10; II Tim.1: 7).

Impossibility Mentality

Spirit of impossibility rules in lives of many people which explains many cases of dashed hopes and aspirations. In the real sense of the word, nothing is impossible in itself. Impossibility is only a state of the mind. Things are impossible to you because you think they are impossible. Things may be difficult, but are not altogether impossible.                    

Nothing is impossible to anyone who believes that things are possible (Matthew 17: 20). Some people think that it is impossible to change a certain lifestyle. To them, they have reached a point of no return.

Unlock yourself from impossibility mentality. Dare to do things; step out in faith and dare to take on the difficult and “impossibility” would give way to possibility.

“I am a Nobody” Mentality

Satan has deceived and ruined many lives by feeding them with lies (Hosea 10:13b; John 8:44). Who told you that you are a nobody? For your own sake, efforts should be made to reject in totality anything or anyone suggesting that you are a nobody. It must be unequivocally stated that “Nobody” is a nobody. You are somebody. Every one God created is created to be somebody. God does not take time to create a nobody.

You are created in the very Image and Likeness of God and God is not a nobody. He is somebody. He is important. You are important, too. If you are nobody, why should Jesus die for you? Jesus died for you because you are SOMEBODY. You have a destiny to fulfill that is why you are somebody.

CONCLUSION

          It is possible. Yes, it is possible to be a dedicated Christian. It is possible to succeed in perilous times. It is possible to attain any height in life. It is possible to be a smashing success.

          God wants you to believe it is possible because it is possible. God bless us all in Jesus’ Name!