Joel Osteen - Make Room For More
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God has unlimited blessings stored up for us, but to receive more increase, healing, provision, and favor, we must actively make room by enlarging our vision, clearing out doubt, unforgiveness, and limited thinking, and stretching our faith to create capacity for Him to fill.
Making Room for God’s Increase
I want to talk to you for a few minutes about «Making Room for More». It’s easy to get stuck in life and think we’ve reached our limits—this is as happy as I’ll ever be, as much as I’ll ever have. I’ve gone as far as my background allows. But God didn’t create us to reach one level and get stuck. The Psalmist said, «Open your mouth wide, and God will fill it.» The key is you have to make room for God to increase you.
In your thinking, you have to enlarge your vision. Raise your level of expectancy. Don’t go into a new year with an old mindset. And yes, it’s good to be content. It’s important to be grateful. But you shouldn’t be satisfied. There needs to be a hunger in your spirit, a believing for things you can’t accomplish on your own—that stretches your faith.
When you get up in the morning thanking God that He’s opening new doors, causing you to excel with more talent, more creativity, more influence. The Scripture talks about how God has blessings stored up for the righteous. There are blessings that have your name on them. They already belong to you, but they’re in storage.
Blessings Waiting in Storage
There’s healing with your name on it. There’s abundance, a paid-off house. There’s a promotion, a book, a song, maybe a spouse, a baby. How do you get it out of storage? Number one, you honor God. You keep Him first place. And number two, you have to make room for it.
Is there any capacity in your thinking for God to do greater things? Not ordinary, not what the circumstances tell you, but something uncommon—to live debt-free, to break the addiction, to see your children back on course, to run your own business. If you’ll open your mouth wide, God will fill it. He has unlimited resources. The supply is never the problem. It’s our capacity to receive.
If you think you’ll barely get by—"Man, Joel, this problem is too big, and I’m not that talented. I never get any good breaks"—your mouth is too small. Your vision is limiting your life. Make some room: «God, I believe You have greater things. I know I live under the open windows of heaven. That Your face is shining on me. I believe it’s going to be a blessed, favor-filled year.» That’s creating space. That’s giving God something to work with.
Making Room for Healing and Provision
If you’ve been dealing with an illness a long time, it’s easy to accept it, think that’s the way it’s always going to be. Now you need to make room for health. God is still in the healing business. He’s called Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our healer. It may have been that way for years, but this is your year to get well, to see a divine turnaround.
If you’re struggling in your finances, don’t get stuck in the rut: «I’ll never have enough. Nobody in my family can get ahead. I’m at a disadvantage.» God has ways to bless you that you can’t see right now. He brought a coin out of a fish’s mouth to pay taxes for Peter. He sent quail into the desert to feed two million people. He gave us the funds to buy the Compaq Center. He has supernatural provision.
Is there any room in your thinking? Are you believing for greater things, expecting God’s favor? Or have you let doubt, discouragement, delays take up all the space in your mind? Jesus could do no miracles in His hometown because of their unbelief. There was no room. They thought, «We know this man Jesus. We grew up with Him. He’s nothing special.» Their limited mindsets limited their life. Don’t let that be you.
Clearing Out the Junk in Your Mind
A while back, I ordered some new exercise equipment. I’ve been using the same weight bench and workout machine for almost 30 years. This company was scheduled to put down a new rubber floor in that room in my house, but they were backed up and weren’t going to be there for a month. All my equipment was coming the next week—big boxes and crates you had to assemble.
I was planning on storing it in the garage. The problem was, over the last five years, that garage had turned into a storage room. All kinds of stuff: old landscape lights from when a big storm blew down a couple trees (I had that «just in case I need them»), parts of old AC units, bicycles with flat tires we hadn’t ridden in 20 years (I was keeping them—"I might need those again»).
There was an old ladder—rickety, top rung broken, not safe. I was always planning to give it to Paul, but I kept putting it off. I finally came to the point: if I’m going to receive this new equipment that I really want, I’m going to have to make room for it. I gotta clean out all this junk that’s taking up valuable space.
It’s the same principle in our mind. Sometimes we’re holding on to things we don’t need, and it’s taking up space for the new things God has in store. There’s no capacity for increase, for favor. Maybe we’re holding on to doubt: «It’s not going to happen for me. I’m not that talented. I’ve had a lot of bad breaks in life.» Do yourself a favor—clean out the doubt. That’s taking up space for the good breaks, the open doors, the promotion.
Letting Go of Negativity and Insecurity
Some people are holding on to unforgiveness, thinking about how they hurt me, they did me wrong, I’m a victim. All that negativity is keeping you from the restoration, the new beginnings, the beauty for ashes. It’s not that God doesn’t want to—there’s just no room.
Pay attention to what’s taking up space in your mind. Maybe we’re letting insecurity, inferiority fill that room: «I’m not attractive. I don’t have a good personality. Joel, I’m too short. I’m not as smart as my cousins.» You need to get that junk out of your garage. God says you’re a masterpiece, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, that you have royal blood flowing through your veins, that He has crowned you with His favor.
But as long as you keep the insecurity, not feeling valuable, there’s no room for the confidence, for the favor that God has for you. He needs capacity to show you His goodness. What’s occupying your space? Worry? «I can’t do it. Not enough. Problem too big.» It’s time for a cleaning.
I met this couple after service. They had both been raised in very low-income families. All they saw growing up was struggle and lack and barely getting by. What we’ve seen modeled and how we were raised often becomes normal to us. It’s what we expect. We don’t realize it’s a limited mindset. It’s keeping us from rising higher.
Breaking Free from Limited Mindsets
That’s why it’s so important to go back to God’s Word and find out who you really are. Life will try to define you. People, circumstances will put labels on you, try to convince you to take on that identity—who they say you are: average, undisciplined, angry, addicted, unattractive. If you don’t know better, those lies will take up all the valuable space in your mind. There’s no room for God to work.
And that’s why we make that declaration every service: «I am who God says I am. I am blessed, prosperous, forgiven, talented, well able.» That’s clearing out the negative.
This couple was told by their parents that they would always struggle like they had and never have enough. That’s just who they are. The grandparents of the woman said, «All you’ll have in life is beans and rice, but that’s good enough.» They meant well—they were saying, «Hey, don’t expect too much. We made it on beans and rice, and you can too.»
But can I tell you, beans and rice is not your destiny. That may have been what you’ve seen, but that’s not who you are. You’re a barrier breaker. You’re a new generation. You know more, so you can do more. You believe bigger, so you can live bigger.
God said in Hosea, «My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.» If you think beans and rice is your destiny, then you’ll live lacking, struggling, hoping to get by. But when you realize God created you in His own image, He said you would reign in life as a king, that you are the head and not the tail, that you lend and not borrow, that whatever you touch will prosper and succeed—let’s not be arrogant, let’s not be greedy—that’s believing you are who God says you are.
Creating Capacity Through Faith
This couple started watching us on television, and their thinking began to change. That didn’t sit well with them—that they would always struggle and never have enough. They started believing that they were children of the Most High God. That although they may be limited, He is unlimited. He can open doors no person can shut. That He makes rivers in the desert.
Now, instead of all the doubt and negativity they had been programmed with, there was faith, expectancy. Instead of talking defeat, they started declaring God’s promises over their life. What were they doing? Creating capacity to receive. If you open your mouth wide, God will fill it.
This couple took a step of faith on very normal incomes. They started building a house. The man was in construction. When they had extra funds, they would hire contractors and buy more supplies—just little by little. A couple of years later, he said, «Joel, we can’t explain it, but we moved into this beautiful new house in a great neighborhood—all debt-free.» On paper it didn’t make sense, but God knows how to multiply what you have. His favor will cause you to defy the odds.
A few years after that, they sold that house for twice what they had built it for. The wife told me something I’ll never forget. She said, «Joel, my grandparents told me all we’d ever have were beans and rice, but I always knew one day we would have a house.»
If you’re going to see those blessings that are stored up, you have to do like her: take the limits off, enlarge your vision. Don’t let how you were raised, what was passed down, what somebody said convince you to settle for beans and rice—to live with the illness, to never be free from depression, to always be lonely.
You have to stir your faith up. Nothing wrong with beans and rice, but how about some enchiladas? How about some fajitas? How about chili con queso? You have to make room for more.
The Widow and the Oil: A Lesson in Capacity
And I know we’re all grateful for what God has done. We’re content in every situation, but that doesn’t mean you’re supposed to be satisfied. If you quit stretching, believing, expecting, then you are limiting your life. Is there any capacity for God to do something bigger—something people would never believe could happen? That’s what faith is. It’s capacity. It’s saying, «God, I’m open. I know You have greater in store.»
In the Scripture, there was a lady who was a widow. Her husband was a prophet, but he had passed, and now she and her two sons were living together. She was so in debt that the creditors were coming to take her sons as payment. She came to the prophet Elisha—he was a friend of the family—and she told him about the problem.
He asked her what she had in her house. She said, «Nothing at all except a small jar of oil.» Elisha told her to go to her friends and neighbors and borrow as many empty vessels—large pots—as she could find. One version says, «Borrow not a few.»
She could have thought, «Elisha, what good is that going to do? I need funds. I need provision. I don’t need empty vessels.» Sometimes God will ask you to do things that don’t make sense, but obedience creates capacity. Do what He’s asking you to do, even when you don’t understand it—even when it’s a hard thing.
God may ask you to apologize when you know it was the other person’s fault. You know they were wrong, but God is asking you to be the bigger person. You can’t always see what He’s doing, but you can be sure your obedience is making room for a blessing.
Forgiving those that hurt you is not easy. Doesn’t seem fair. But holding on to the hurt is taking up space for God to pay you back. When you let go, there’s room for Him to make it up to you. God will do it better than you could ever do.
Obedience and Unlimited Supply
This widow went out knocking on the neighbors' doors, asking to borrow those empty pots. And you think about how foolish she looked. I can hear people talking, gossiping: «That crazy lady came to your house asking for an empty jar. What’s wrong with her?»
People may not understand you. They may think you’re far out. «What are you doing at the early service at Lakewood? Why don’t you go party with us?» Don’t worry about what people think. Be concerned about what God thinks. He controls the universe.
Noah looked foolish building an ark—a 500-foot boat when it had never rained. But his obedience saved his life. His obedience made room for God to do something that had never been done before.
After this widow gathered all these pots, Elisha told her to pour the little bit of oil that she had into the big jar. Imagine a little six-inch jar into this two-foot jar. Again, she could have questioned him: «What good is that going to do, Elisha? I’m not here to play games, to transfer the oil.» But God’s ways are not our ways. You have to trust when you don’t understand. Be obedient when it doesn’t make sense.
This lady poured a little bit of oil, and it kept pouring and pouring. Then it filled up the whole pot. It didn’t make sense. When you do what doesn’t make sense, God will do what doesn’t make sense. She was standing there in amazement. She kept pouring oil until all the vessels were full. Then she went out and sold the oil, paid off her debts, had plenty of money to live on.
But here’s what I want you to see: the oil never ran out until she filled all the vessels. Let’s say she borrowed 20 empty pots—the oil filled all twenty. If she had borrowed 30 pots, the oil would have filled thirty. If she had borrowed three pots, it would just fill three. With God, the problem is never supply—it’s capacity.
How Many Vessels Are You Gathering?
How many vessels are you gathering? What are you expecting this year? What are you believing for? «Well, Joel, man, if I can just make it through this year, I’ll be happy. If my child just doesn’t get in trouble. If I can just survive this depression.» Jesus said to a blind man, «According to your faith, it will be done.» It wasn’t God’s faith—it’s our faith. It’s how many vessels do we have?
Do yourself a favor—get some more empty pots. Stretch, believe bigger. That’s how you create capacity. See, some people gather a couple vessels, and that’ll help them survive. Other people, they’ll gather a dozen—they’ll make it through okay. But there’s another group that pray bold prayers, that expect over-and-above favor. They’re obedient in hard things. They’ve been coming to Lakewood. They get their vessel after vessel after vessel. They have capacity for healing, for greater resources, for more influence, more creativity, more generosity.
Many of you have been doing this. Your mouth is open wide. Get ready—God is about to fill it. Something big is coming that you can’t explain. You didn’t have the resources, the training, but suddenly the door opened. Maybe the medical report said you’d have to live with that sickness, but a turnaround is coming. God is going to do what medicine could not do.
Or perhaps you thought that breakup stopped your destiny, that you had seen your best days. God is about to surprise you—someone better than you imagined. You didn’t have to go after them—they came to you. Now keep believing. Keep making room for more. You’re going to step into increase and favor that catapult you ahead.
Breaking Away for a New Standard
This is what my father did. He was raised very poor. He had to drop out of high school to work on the family farm just to survive. And all the circumstances said he would live a defeated life—struggling, barely getting by. That’s all he had seen. But he gave his life to Christ—the first one in the family. Something rose up in him, the Spirit of the living God saying, «You were made for more. This defeat is not your destiny.»
Like my father, you may have gotten off to a rough start, but how you started is not how you’re going to end. You’re the one to set a new standard. Daddy’s parents told him that all he knew how to do was work on the farm, that he better not leave—he wouldn’t make it. But sometimes to make room, you have to get out of a limited environment. You have to break away from people who are telling you what you can’t do, how you don’t have what it takes.
God told Abraham, «Leave your country and leave your family and go to a land that I am showing you.» Abraham didn’t have all the answers. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew he couldn’t see the blessing and favor staying where he was. The people in his city worshiped idols—the sun, the moon, the stars. Had he stayed there, it would have limited his life.
To make room for more, you may have to make changes—with who you hang around, where you go, get out of places that are causing you to compromise and that are polluting your thinking. That’s taking up space for the promised land that God has taken you to.
My father left the farm at seventeen. He didn’t have a car—he had to hitchhike. But he left with a new mindset. He told me, «Joel, I made up my mind at 17 that my children would never be raised in the poverty and defeat that I was raised in.» He emptied out all the negative, the lack, the not enough. He made room for increase, for God to open doors, to break barriers of the past.
Visualizing the Future in Faith
When I was a little boy, we had the first Lakewood building—the little feed store that seated 90 people. Daddy would say to the congregation, «Look over there past that wall. Can you see that new auditorium seating a thousand people?» There was nothing out there but an empty field. But week after week, Daddy said, «I can see that new auditorium.» He was making room for it. He built that one and many more.
At 65 years old, my father was in the hospital about to have emergency open-heart surgery. All the family was in the room—a very critical time. He asked me in the hospital room to go home and get his running shoes and put them by his bed. I thought, «Daddy, you got a lot of faith. You’re not going to need these shoes for a long time. This surgery is a big deal.» But he wanted those shoes there to show that he was planning to get well, that he’d be running again—healthy, whole. He was making room. He was saying, «This is not the end. Healing is coming. Restoration is coming. I will run and not be weary.»
He came out of surgery and lived many more years—healthy and whole, traveling the world. What’s taking up space in your thinking? Is there any room for God to do something bigger—to increase you, to heal you, to free you, to use you in a greater way? God is looking for capacity. He’s looking for people who are stretching, believing for bigger things.
No Room in the Inn: A Warning
When Jesus was about to be born, there was a census, and everyone had to go back to their hometown. Joseph and Mary traveled by donkey 80 miles to Bethlehem. They were tired—it was late at night. Mary nine months pregnant. Joseph saw this inn—a place to stay—and he knocked on the door, told the innkeeper, «Hey, my wife’s pregnant. We’ve traveled a long way. We need a room. She’s about to have a baby.»
The innkeeper said, «I’m sorry. There’s no room. We’re full.» He started to walk away. I can hear Joseph saying, «Hey, wait a minute. You have to understand—this is no ordinary child. There’s something special. The hand of God is on our baby.» The innkeeper says, «Yeah, alright. I told you we don’t have any room.» Shut the door, went away.
Imagine 30 years later, the innkeeper hears about this man named Jesus—how He’s healing the sick, opening blind eyes, feeding the multitude. All the news about His miracles and His influence. Suddenly the innkeeper has a flashback to Mary and Joseph—realizes that’s the young couple that came to the inn that night. He’s the man that was asking me for a place to stay.
«Had I known this baby was going to change the world, had I known what God was offering me, I would have made room. I would have moved things around. I would have let them stay in my own quarters. If I’d known, I could have been a part of history.»
The truth is, the innkeeper wasn’t a bad person. He wasn’t being mean—he was just full. He was busy. He was practical. «This is the way it always works. I can’t make an adjustment. I don’t have any room.»
Most people are not bad people—they’re just full. Life is busy. They’re distracted. They got sports on Sunday. Too tired to get up in the morning, thank God for His goodness. They don’t recognize who’s knocking at the door.
Now I wonder—if we’re missing blessings because there’s no room in our inn. We’re not seeing the favor, the destiny moments, because our inn is full—the doubts, the hurts, the mistakes, things people have said. When destiny comes knocking: «Sorry, I can’t do that. I’m not qualified.» Or «I have these friends I want to hang around with.»
Creating Space for Destiny
You make room in your inn. God is about to come knocking with something unusual, something far and beyond. But it may look common—just another couple needing a place to stay. Don’t miss your destiny moments. God wants to use you to make a greater impact, to be an example of His goodness. But you have to do your part and empty out all the things that are cluttering your mind and cluttering your life—the people, distractions, maybe social media, the comparisons. That’s taking up valuable space.
Create some capacity. Go grab some empty vessels—not a few, but enlarge your vision. Believe for the dreams that God whispered in your spirit. Stretch your faith. You wouldn’t be hearing this if God wasn’t about to do something you’ve never seen.
Now the question is: Is there any room in your inn? Are you creating space for increase, abundance, victory? If you’ll open your mouth wide, I believe and declare 2026—God is going to fill it. Not with beans and rice, but fajitas, blessings, promotions, breakthroughs—a bountiful, favor-filled year. In Jesus' name. And if you receive it, can you say amen?
Amen. I receive it as well.