Oprah and Edwina Findley Dickerson on Manifesting Life’s Dream for You

Hey, everybody.

Thank you for listening to the Oprah podcast.

And hello to you watching on YouTube.

I am happy to be here with you.

And we are living in some defining times, challenging times.

And we can all feel that it's understandable if you're starting to, in your life, feel overwhelmed.

That's why I'm interested in having conversations with people who can give us a positive, a new perspective, a fresh take at some of the issues holding us back in life.

And on this episode, we're asking the question, do you feel stuck?

Have you lost sight of the big dreams that you once had for yourself?

And maybe, just maybe you've decided to just settle for whatever you think is in this moment and let those dreams fall by the wayside.

Well, my guest.

Today is going to inspire you to reconnect with what she calls your God dream and the belief that your story is far from over.

In fact, your most powerful chapters may still lie ahead.

Her new book is, The World is Waiting for You.

Embrace your calling and manifest the God dream over your life.

Welcome to the tea house, Edwina Finley Dickerson.

Thank you, Oprah.

I'm so happy to be here with you.

Edwina Finley Dickerson is an award-winning actress, a loving mother, a devoted wife, and motivational speaker.

In 2002, Edwina got her start in Hollywood with her breakout role as Tasha in HBO's groundbreaking series The Wire.

She later starred in Tyler Perry's hit drama If Loving You Is Wrong on own.

Then when all of this falls apart,

you are going to regret it.

Most recently, Edwina played the critically acclaimed role of Sheila in Shonda Rhimes' hit Netflix series, The Residence.

I have no idea why he says this.

Zero, none.

Edwina's dear friend and mentor, Academy Award winner Viola Davis, writes the foreword for Edwina's debut book, The World is Waiting For You.

In the book, Edwina reveals how every success and milestone in her life was foreshadowed by what she calls divine signs.

And she explains how you can recognize the divine signs in your own life.

Sometimes we just have to live with a certain level of awareness and being awakened to our lives and awakened to the messages that God's trying to send us.

We made it to you.

Well, we first met over 10 years ago, and I've watched your rise.

I've watched your rise with such pride.

I first met you on Tyler Perry's If Loving You Is Wrong, which aired on Own for five seasons, and so many of you loved it and loved her on that show.

What did you learn being on a Tyler Perry set all those years?

Well, first of all, I feel like Tyler Perry is vision incarnate.

Yes.

Right.

So his introduction to the Tyler Perry studios was magical.

And it was, it was in and of itself a manifestation.

And, you know, when you drive up, there's this huge building aptly called the Dream Building.

The Dream Building.

And I feel like what Tyler does is bring people from all walks of life together

who may not be living in their fullness.

But because he's operating his God dream, he invites many others.

So when I was there, there were people who shared with me, janitors and payroll operators and actors who said, I was homeless before Tyler gave me a job.

I was formerly incarcerated.

I was on drugs.

But because his dream was big enough to cover all of us, we were launched into this new place of abundance.

And I will always be grateful for him for that.

Well, that is what he does.

And you know, many years ago, actually 20 years ago, I did something here on the grounds of Promised Land called The Legends Ball.

Yes.

And we had a gospel brunch out front.

I remember Yolanda Adams.

And Yolanda Adams.

And really, I'm telling you, it was passing the mic.

There was Patty LaBelle and there was Gladys Knight.

They were all on the front lawn.

And it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

And Tyler, when he left, we were interviewing people as they were leaving.

And he said, I'm going to leave here and I'm going to have a bigger dream.

I'm going to dream a bigger dream.

I'm just absolutely floored.

And my thing leaving here, I'm going to dream bigger and dream more.

He taught me her.

And he did.

Yeah.

And he did.

And we were all there at the Imagine That.

Wasn't that so appropriately named?

You know, that huge opening celebration.

And I remember when Tyler, one of the things that he did for us during, If Loving Me Is Wrong, me and my castmates, he drove us around this empty lot and he showed us his vision.

I see a soundstage right there.

Yeah.

And I see 12 sound stations and I see houses everywhere.

Yes, yeah.

And just to see it all come together, it was like he allowed us to have a front row seat to a God dream.

Yeah, to a God dream.

So let's talk about the title.

Where did you get the title?

The world is waiting for you.

Embrace your calling and manifest the God dream of your life.

Well, you know, I've always been inspired by your quote that God can dream a bigger dream for you than you can dream for yourself.

And one of the things that's happened in my life a lot is receiving prophecies.

And so I received these prophecies first as a young person at 16 years old that I didn't fully understand.

And then from strangers, and they would lay out exactly what was about to happen in my life next.

And I started realizing that, oh, this is higher than my vision.

This is higher than my dream, that I'm a part of a larger God dream.

And I believe that that's really that visceral.

divine calling, that divine story that was written over your life before you were ever born.

coming.

You do such a beautiful job of relating your story in your book and relating your story and how your story relates to all of our stories and being able to see God's dream for us.

Now, what's really interesting, you were just talking just before we started that Reverend Wentley Phipps was used to be your pastor.

You know, I met Wentley when I was in Baltimore and was very, very young and trying to figure out what I was doing in my life.

And I was at one of those programs that people have.

And he came up to me backstage and he said, may I speak to you for a moment?

And I said, sure.

And he said, God has impressed me to tell you that you

have been chosen to speak to millions of people around the world.

Now, I'm in Baltimore working as a young reporter.

making $22,000 a year.

And I said to him then, I said, in Baltimore?

And he said, God didn't tell me where it was, but God has impressed me to tell you that that is what's going to happen in your life.

And I sort of held on to that.

And when I got the call to come to Chicago, I was like, well, not millions of people, but all right, I'm going to follow this dream.

So, how has that prophecy manifested in your life?

The prophecies manifested.

But that's a big one.

Isn't that a big one?

I mean, that's a big one.

You know, and something similar happened to me actually multiple times, but there was one church service I went to in Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.

I had never been to Tennessee in my life.

And I was invited to this church service and they said, it's going to be a prophetic revival.

And I said, okay.

A prophetic revival.

That's right.

And there was a prophet, Todd Hall, that he was invited.

And he came and he started prophesying to everybody all over the building.

And then he stopped speaking and he started writing these notes.

And all of a sudden he came down all the way from the pulpit and put them in my hand.

And when I opened them up, it talked about real estate I was going to own.

It talked about doing movies and television in California, New York, Georgia, the Caribbean island.

He spoke about all these things.

And then as he walked back up, he said, oh, and about, by the way, you're about to know Oprah Winfrey.

No.

And then he started talking about my mom.

Within seven days, I was at a dinner with you.

On the eighth day, I was at a brunch with you.

And two months later, I had received the offer to film in Georgia on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Exactly Exactly how he said.

So I do believe that when you are called and when you are chosen, God is already mapped out the way.

It's really about us discovering and partnering with him to manifest it.

And sometimes it's greater than what we think.

Yeah, well, I learned that, as you thank you for the shout out in the book, I learned that in

so many ways, but particularly in Color Purple, when I had this, I had the dream of being just, can I be the water girl?

Can I be the script girl?

Can I be the whatever?

And then am given the opportunity to actually be in the movie.

And then everything that followed from that.

And then I get to live in this space that I obviously paid for, but

it is the doing of the Lord.

I do know that it is the doing of the Lord.

The fact that you name this the promised land.

And you know, I have my favorite scripture, Joshua 1, 3, wheresoever the sole of your foot shall shall tread, I will give unto you.

And I know that this, this property is not a mistake.

You treaded on some places.

You believed some things.

And this came into manifestation.

And it came into manifestation.

You are a big manifestor.

Did you manifest working with Shonda Rhymes?

So

in the residential 1st,

2022, I'm thinking, what should I post for April Fool's Day?

Yeah.

And something just said, why not Photoshop yourself on the cover of a Chandelamp poster?

I'm like, oh, that's kind of hilarious.

So I had someone Photoshop me on the cover of a Chandeliam poster and I announced my new role.

Well,

everyone just started congratulating me.

And I'm thinking, oh, this is hilarious.

But it was something about their pure faith that just knew, oh, this is happening.

Congratulations.

Look at God.

This is amazing.

You deserve it.

And their faith, I just took it in and wondered, could something this big actually actually happened?

Well, a few months later, I was sent the script for The Residence, a new Shonda Lane production.

And by the following April Fools, I was on set with Shonda Lane filming The Residence.

Oh my goodness.

And those of you who've watched The Residence, you know, she portrays Sheila, a White House butler, who is a little bit messy.

Just a little.

A little bit, maybe a little bit on the side,

taking a few sips.

Just a little few few sips.

You are so great and so fun to watch.

Thank you.

I can see you really inhabit her and that you, what did you do to get to that character?

You know, I mean, she's an alcoholic and I felt I wanted to honor, right?

It's a comedy, right?

But I felt like it was also important to honor her life.

And so I started going to AA meetings.

I started really discovering what that journey is.

I was watching documentaries.

I also was going to UCB, taking improv.

And then I was just doing a lot of script analysis and a lot of of research.

My grandmother worked in the White House.

So there was something that also was a full circle manifestation with that because our home growing up was filled with pictures of my grandparents with the presidents and all kinds of trinkets and memorials from the White House.

So this was all very full circle.

And getting into character for Sheila was, it was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

Well, you deserve it and you worked it.

LO, you worked, Miss Sheila.

I appreciate you spending your valuable time with us here on the Oprah podcast.

When we come back, Edwina explains how a season of waiting can be powerful if you lean into it and surrender to it.

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Welcome back to the Oprah Podcast.

So glad you're here.

Talking with award-winning actress Edwina Findlay Dickerson about her debut book, The World is Waiting For You, and how she was able to tap into God's divine plan for her life.

Let's return to that conversation.

You all know I believe God can dream a bigger dream for you than you ever dream for yourself.

I discovered that back in 1985.

Let's talk about chapter five.

It's called The Secret Power of Hearing God's Voice.

I think people think that, you know, you're going to hear God's voice like Moses in the burning bush, or you're going to hear, you know, the Sermon on the Mount.

But you and I know, obviously, that it doesn't work that way.

How would you describe how

God speaks to you and how others can begin to hear it in their own way?

Yeah.

You know, there are a lot of different ways that God can speak, right?

God can speak through literal dreams while you're sleeping and give you these deep impressions that you're not sure even when you wake up.

What was that?

Was that meant for something important?

Am I supposed to do something?

Through signs and wonders, right?

Like with me, that's how I ended up in Hollywood.

My camera actually took a picture by itself.

And the sign said, from Harlem to Hollywood, you're a star.

Congratulations.

Well, I was living in New York at the time.

And I'm looking at this sign and I'm thinking, how did this even happen?

Well, within one year's time, I was casting a show.

In Hollywood, ended up living with the Viola Davis.

You know, but the introductions.

He does the board.

Yes.

But God used a literal sign to get my attention.

And then there's also things in nature.

You know, there's sometimes like I have a friend who always sees a white butterfly.

And she says, it seems like every time something significant is happening, I see a white butterfly.

And then she started looking it up.

And so there are these different ways that God tries to get our attention.

And so what I encourage people to do is to really pray, is to seek God.

The times where I have felt the most prophetic, where I'm the most sensitive to what is God saying about my life, about the lives of others that are around me, it's because I have opened myself up in a very intentional way to hear from God.

And there's a wonderful scripture in Jeremiah that says, call to me and I will answer you.

I will show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

And that's a promise.

So I really believe that when we claim that promise, when we say, God, I want to hear from you, I need to hear from you, that he will show up in ways that you may not expect.

We have listeners joining us via Zoom who want to talk with Edwina about their own dreams.

Jamesia is a former TV producer and now a substitute teacher.

Hello.

Love that hat, girl.

And I hear you've been feeling a little lost lately, which I think a lot lot of people are experiencing at work in particular.

What's going on with you?

Yeah, so I'm 40 years old and my life is not what I thought it would be at 40.

My 14-year career ended.

I put in applications, networked, and no doors seemed to open.

I'm now living here in Georgia with my mom.

Substitute teaching, I created a kids' YouTube channel, trying all the things.

And I just feel like I'm unable to chart a path forward.

I believe God God has a plan for me for sure, but I am unable to access it.

So any advice you have on that would be helpful.

Javicia, thank you so much for your vulnerability and for the courage to share in such an authentic way what you're going through right now.

One thing that really stood out to me is the fact that you're 40.

And there's a very significant, that's a very significant number in the Bible.

And if you think about it, the children of Israel wandered for 40 years, but there was a point in Deuteronomy 2, 3 that says, you've wandered this hill country long enough.

Now turn north.

And just with that one instruction, they entered into the promised land.

And I believe for you that it's not the end.

I think that this may just be your waiting season.

This may just be your season of surrender, which I talk about in the book, where God is pouring into you and he's teaching you new things and he's showing you.

who you're made of.

And that when it's time to come out of this season, it's going to be even greater than before.

and so one thing i'm going to encourage you to do especially if you feel like doors have been closing again sometimes that's the most powerful place to be because you're at the end of yourself that's when you surrender when you have done everything you can there was one role that i wanted so bad and i tried everything for three straight months i couldn't even get an audition And one day I heard God say, you know what?

I want you to get up and go to this Bible study.

I'm like, God, I just got home.

I'm tired.

I'm trying to go to bed.

But I felt that impression so strongly.

I want you to get up, put your clothes back on, get on two buses, a train, then walk across town to this Bible study.

I get there.

Sure enough, it's ending.

I'm like, oh, God, why was I supposed to be here?

And then this woman I saw across the room that I just felt led to pray for.

I prayed for her.

She cried and she grabbed my hand.

She said, the things that you are saying to me are things that I've been praying to God about.

And here you are.

So I just, that was enough for me, just the confirmation that God sent me here for her.

Then I said, you know what?

We didn't even exchange names.

I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself.

I'm Edwina.

And she said her name.

I said, wait a minute, are you a, are you a writer?

And she said, yes.

I said, did you create this show?

And she said, yes, that's my show.

I said, I've been trying three straight months.

to get an audition for your show.

Look at God, will you?

So she arranged that audition and that is the show that brought me to Hollywood.

So you don't always have to know the how.

A lot of times that blocks us from our dream, right?

Because he gives us this huge dream and then we have the question of, but how, but how, but how?

He will intercept your path sometimes with instructions.

And when you make that one decision to follow God's voice, you will end up in a place that you never thought you'd be.

So I want you to be encouraged and I want you during this wilderness season to be very sensitive to the instructions that you're given because i think there's a breakthrough closer than you think pay attention to the signs pay attention to the signs it doesn't come when you exactly want it but you know old folks used to say it always comes on time and it is in time in in timing with when you are most open and ready to receive it

you know when you are most open and ready to receive it awesome thank you guys so much that was helpful awesome thank you jamicia jamicia Clayton is a health and wellness coach joining us from North Carolina.

Clayton, I hear you've been feeling your light start to dim.

What's happening?

Yes.

So almost a decade ago, I made a promise to myself while I was in school and shining my brightest light that I wouldn't let my light dim like I saw happen to so many adults around me.

But life as it does had its way, and there was struggle and change and burnout.

And, you know, one thing I used to use to measure my light was

my curiosity.

And I had noticed that it had significantly faded.

So now I'm starting to allow that light to flicker back, but it's very, very slowly.

So my question is, what helps you reconnect to your light?

And how do you nurture it when it starts to dim?

Yes, that's such a beautiful question.

Chapter two in the book is called You Are a Star.

And star is a double entendre, right?

It's not just being rich and famous and wealthy.

Yes.

It's really about using your light in service of others and igniting this world with your light.

So if you feel like your light is beginning to dim, sometimes it's about leaning into service.

Sometimes it's about connecting with a community that you feel called to serve.

Because what that does is bless them.

as well as bless you.

So when you start to feel more alive, usually it's because you're using your gifts, talents, and abilities that you've been given and you're connecting in with your calling.

So if you're feeling right now that your light is dimming and maybe there's even a sense of isolation that's coming with that, I encourage you to step out, to step out of the box, to take a risk, to make a bold faith move, as I talk about in the book, and allow yourself to be used in service of others.

And you're going to see that as they experience their joy, you are also going to experience joy.

And you're going to light their flame and they're going to light yours.

And I promise you, you will be reignited.

Yeah, that's how you do it.

You light yourself up by giving your light.

However dim you think it may be in this moment, however dim she thinks it is, it's strong for somebody else.

So I could see you light up when Edwina said that.

How does that resonate with you?

Surprisingly enough, that is the word that comes up for me a lot.

And I haven't really given it the attention that it's needed because it always feels like, oh, well, later, when this is done, then when I have the space for that or the funds for that or the time or whatever it is.

But I think that by you sharing that, it sounds like, let on.

What is the word that comes up over?

Service.

Wow.

Honey child.

Honey child, let me tell you, if it's coming up over and over, it's coming up over and over for you to pay attention to, which is another thing that Edwina talks about in the book.

That is the pattern of how, for some people, how God shows himself,

how it speaks to you, because it keeps, you'll see a sign, then you'll see the sign again.

You'll see the billboard.

You'll see a TV commercial and it comes through another way and it comes another way.

And, you know, my favorite quote of all times is from Martin Luther King, who says that not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great

because greatness is determined by service.

And I will share this with you.

Any job that you have, any career that you choose, if you operate from the paradigm of service, you will be elevated and enhanced and successful.

100% guaranteed.

The Oprah Winfrey show was a number one show for 25 years

because

I understood the paradigm of service and had called the producers in and said, this is 1980, we started in 86 and 89.

I said, we're no longer just going to be a talk show.

We are going to serve the audience where they are.

We're going to offer ourselves in service to wherever they are, whatever their dreams are, whatever their desires are.

And that's why we were, number one, because we were in service.

And I would say this, no matter what you are, you're a teacher, you're a lawyer, you're a clerk.

If you change the paradigm, to how do I use this in service to something bigger than myself, your fire will get ignited.

Your Your light, it automatically brightens your light.

Thank you so much.

You are welcome.

You are welcome.

The world is waiting for you.

Isn't that true?

Isn't that true?

You're using your art in service.

Let me tell you, everything,

even getting on those buses and that train,

in service.

In service.

Us, my husband and I, we produced this little series, 21 Days of Happy.

Yes.

Purely in service.

That's all.

We felt like God said, you know, help encourage people during the pandemic bring other faith leaders

when you did together and then after that and we just put it out into the world purely as an act of service and who called me on the phone

but miss oprah winfrey i almost fell out of my seat she said i love that you've been doing i love it edwina Oprah.

Edwina, Oprah.

Oprah.

But the fact that you had been exposed to 21 days of happy, you know, that again was a reminder that when we do things purely out of obedience and out of service, we have no idea what's on the other side that we can be blessing others and it turn around and bless us too.

Are you thinking about how you can switch the paradigm to service?

Yes, absolutely.

You are?

Yeah, I'm telling you.

Guaranteed.

Guaranteed.

Thank you, Clayton.

Thank you.

Listener, I thank you for taking the time to be here with us on the Oprah podcast.

When we return, we're going to hear from guests from around the country who feel stuck in their personal lives and their careers.

Edwina has advice on what she calls the god dream over your life.

You know I know a few things about that.

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I'm so glad you've joined me here on the Oprah podcast.

I'm here with Edwina Findlay-Dickerson.

Let's get back to our conversation.

One of the things that you talk about, you introduce this to the term neuroimagining.

You say when you visualize a dream or a desired experience, your brain doesn't differentiate between that imagined experience and reality.

And you practiced this with your aunt Iris on the visit to LA, you say.

I did.

So at that time, I was literally living in low-income housing in New York City.

I was stopping drug deals and gunfights, and there were sirens every night and literally stopped an attempted murder.

Like I was not living a fabulous life.

But I was invited to come here as an act of service to speak to aspiring artists of faith who really wanted to come into the entertainment industry.

And so I just poured out what I had.

And while I was here, my Aunt Iris said, you know, I just want to take you on a little road trip.

I said, okay.

And first she said, I need you to rent the car, though.

I need you to drive.

And I'm like, Aunt Iris, I haven't driven in years.

She said, you need to rent the car.

So here I am with my little bit of buddy.

And the clerk gives me a drop top convertible for the price of the economy of economy that I reserved.

So I'm looking at this convertible like, wow, okay.

And the top is down and I'm feeling the wind.

I go pick up on Iris.

She gets in the side and we drive down the coast of Southern California.

And I smelled the salty air and I heard the birds chirping as I do right now and the wind blowing.

I felt it on my face.

And there was something about that moment that showed me what was possible.

These rolling hills and these huge mansions that I had never belonged here.

But you said something in your spirit said, I belong here.

The world is waiting.

The world is waiting for me.

Yeah.

And so, what I normally do when I find myself in moments like that, I'll take a picture because I want to mark this day.

I want to mark this moment.

And so I took pictures along the way.

And what ended up happening just a year later, I was invited, as I shared, to do this show here.

And all of the housing that I tried to secure fell through.

So now I'm going to be out here in like five days.

I have nowhere to live.

And something in my spirit said, go back to that vision.

If you could live anywhere in California, what would it look like?

And so I went back to those pictures of when Aunt Iris and I were driving.

And I saw this one house.

It was so beautiful.

And I said, God, I would love to live in a house like that, even though I'm just trying to rent a room in California to get here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, do you know I'm on the phone on Craigslist, just trying to negotiate a price for this room?

And my line clicks and it's Julius Tennon, Viola Davis's husband.

And he said, Edwina, we're in New York City right now.

I said, oh, really?

You are?

He said, yeah.

He said, but yesterday we had a shift.

I said, a shift.

What do you mean?

He said, well, she was supposed to go into another movie right after this, but.

Now the financing is strange.

So we're going back to California on Sunday.

He said, you know, when are you coming to California?

I said, on Monday.

He said, oh, you can live with us.

And suddenly, I went from trying to rent that little room on Craigslist to living in a home that looked just like the home that I saw.

I'm telling you, you are a great manifester.

You are a great manifester.

I'm good, but I could not manifest living in Viola Davis's house.

That is really, really good.

I mean, that's...

Bil Davis has now written the forward to your book.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, that's why I call it a God dream, because I'm very aware that it's not just me manifesting, right?

It's me stepping into a bigger plan and a bigger vision.

And that if I can just have the courage to elevate to the things that God has shown me, then he will help to bring it into manifestation.

So here's the thing.

Listen.

I live here and I will say that

what I have learned to do is do exactly what you talk about and the world is waiting for you, is to live in God's dream for me.

So I stopped even dreaming for myself because I can see exactly as you say in the book, how God's dream is so much bigger than anything we can ever imagine.

So I'm just saying, show me what it is.

And you say that embracing God's divine dream for your life requires trust and surrender.

I know this to be true because I always say you work as hard as you possibly can and then you surrender it.

Why do you think surrender is such an important part of this process, Edwina?

You know, I think surrender is important because ultimately it's about trust.

If this is God's dream that we're stepping into, if this is a divine story that's been written for us.

Which we all have our divine story.

We all have it, right?

But then we do all the things.

We push, we pull.

I remember when I first got to California, this woman, this beautiful Jewish woman, stopped me and she said, I have a word for you.

Can I pray over you?

And she did.

And she put her hand on my forehead and she said, sweet and simple, sweet and simple, sweet and simple.

Three times.

She said, you've been pressing and pushing.

I can see in the spirit.

People just come up to you and do that.

Yeah, that happens.

She said, I see in the spirit that you've been.

exerting so much energy to push those door down.

She said, but God is saying, stay in a sweet and simple place.

He's going to take it from here.

Yeah, I think that that's one of the things that you make clear in the world is waiting for you is that so many people are resisting the dream.

They're pushing against the dream instead of surrendering to the dream.

Yeah.

And surrender, I think, also is a breeding ground for glory.

Because when you let go and when you realize, I'm not powerful enough to get this all the way to fruition.

Yes.

You invite God to create miracles in your life.

Yes.

And suddenly what's happened is an actual act of God.

It is a miracle.

It is divine intervention.

And at the end of the day, who can get glory?

Yes.

But the one that created the dream.

Yeah, absolutely.

Nicole is joining us from Los Angeles with a question.

Hi, Nicole.

Your question for Edwina.

Hi, Oprah.

Hi, Edwina.

It's such an honor to be with both of you today.

So yeah, a little backstory.

I've been incredibly blessed to be surrounded by courageous and bold women in my life.

When they want to pick up and move to a different state, they move to a different state.

When they want to pivot careers, they pivot.

And me, on the other hand, I feel a bit more anchored in my life.

I'm a leader in my career, also a leader in my family system.

So my decisions kind of feel weightier.

I know God has a great plan for my life and I'm confident in that.

But my question is, how do I learn to see them as a source of inspiration versus being discouraged by comparison?

Comparison is so huge.

You know, I write in the book about really resisting the curse of comparison because what happens is that it makes you feel small.

It makes you feel as though you're not significant.

And sometimes you don't see the worth that you actually bring in the context of the people that you're around because you esteem them so highly and then therefore in comparison to them, feel that you're unworthy.

But one thing I'm going to tell you is that not only are you worthy, but they're surrounding you for a reason.

There's a light that you have that they actually need.

And it's funny also because I think about, when I think about comparison to, I think about the story of David in the Bible and how Samuel the prophet came to try to find that next king.

And God said, you're going to find the next king right here in this lineage.

But he goes to Jesse, David's dad, and says, show me your sons.

Well, Jesse shows him one son son after another son after another.

So this one is strong and this one is smart and this one is powerful.

This one is great.

But God said, no, no, no, it's not one of them.

It's not one of them.

And then he says, man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

He said, I feel like there's one other person that you haven't shown me.

And it was that David, that little shepherd boy that was out there getting dirty and, you know, was ruddy and may not have been the most beautiful, may not have been the smartest or the most handsome, but that's the one God chose.

And so I just want you to walk with that because that very essence that maybe you're diminishing right now may actually be your superpower.

And among all the things that you're comparing against others and yourself, it may very well be that you are the one that's been chosen for such a time as this.

So I want you to step into your calling and your purpose and understand that the world is waiting for you, not in context with with the people that are around you.

You have a very singular, unique light that you are meant to use to brighten up the world.

And I'm very excited personally to see what you're going to do.

Oh, thank you so much, Aduina.

That means a lot.

You're welcome.

And I'm sorry, just one more thing.

Sorry.

Nicole, do you know the meaning of your name?

Yes, I do.

It's Victorious One.

Victorious One.

Victorious One.

And Victory of the People.

Victory of the people.

And the reason why that's significant is that there are people waiting to hear from you.

And as you step into your light, you are going to ignite them to step into theirs.

Can you feel that?

Yeah, I'm trying to hold back tears, to be honest, because I feel it.

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

I really...

value the meaning of my name.

I've personally taken that on as like what God has wants me to do in the world.

So

yeah, this resonated.

I could tell.

You know, she's telling you the truth.

You know it.

You can feel it.

You can feel it.

You can feel it.

I can't.

All right.

Nice to meet you, Nicole.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So we live in a culture obsessed with star power.

How do you think people can begin to realize their own?

You talk about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the world is waiting for you.

Yeah.

I mean, that's one of the things in my three-year season of surrender and season of waiting, God talked to me a lot about this word star, star in the Bible, star in the dictionary, star in the galaxy.

And I realized that embedded in this word star was a light shining in darkness.

And so I met this young man when I was doing the show, The Wire on HBO, and we rode the train together.

This Indian...

The Wire, one of the best TV shows ever done.

in the history of TV.

I am still honored that I was able to be a part of that show.

But there was a young man about my same same age, and he had the stick Indian accent.

And I said, What's your name?

He said, Dibya Deep.

Dibya Deep.

I said, Oh, what does your name mean?

He said, The light that continues to glow when there's darkness all around.

Wow.

And I believe that that's exactly what our calling is as stars in this world to glow when there's darkness all around.

There's political upheaval.

There's corruption.

There's homelessness.

There's poverty.

There's no shortage of ways that we can be a light in the midst of darkness.

But we have to know that there's a light inside of us, and that's where it starts.

We are all stars.

Hey there, listener.

Thanks for being here.

When we return, Edwina is going to share her ideas on successful vision boarding.

I was on her vision board.

Obviously.

that worked and how her own vision board manifested into a miraculous reality.

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only.

Welcome back to the Oprah podcast.

Do you ever struggle with comparison?

Edwina shares ideas on how to rethink this in order to walk in your own authenticity.

I know so many people want that.

I think this is so helpful for readers, too.

At the end of many of the chapters,

she gives steps in the world is waiting for you

for what you can do right now.

And one of the things you describe is making a vision board as a sacred act.

How has a vision board worked for you?

I know a lot of people think, oh, vision board, that's woo-woo stuff.

It is not.

It is not.

It is not.

I want to know if the promised land was on your vision board.

The promised, well, the promised land comes in the category for me of God can dream a bigger dream.

Because just like you riding around with your aunt Iris, I used to, when we leave the church

services, my father was always the last one to leave.

He had to shake everybody's hand.

He wasn't the preacher, but he was a deacon.

And it was like in his big green long Osmobile, we would drive through the rich part of town.

There's a part of town in Nashville called Belmead.

And we would go through Belmead and look at all of the rich white people's houses.

And I would pick out, I'm going to live in a house like that.

I'm going to live in a house like that.

And so

the idea of having a beautiful home, surrounded by beautiful things, surrounded by trees, surrounded by, I had this vision once when I went to one of my friends' houses who was the richest person I knew at the time, Arlene Weiner, and there were six trees in Arlene's front yard.

And I thought, if I ever, ever had enough money, I was going to have me some trees.

I was going to have six trees in my yard.

And one morning I was making coffee at my house and I looked out beyond the six trees to the multiple other trees in the yard.

So I am a manifestor.

I didn't have a vision board, but I had a vision.

I didn't have a vision board, but I I had a vision.

And that's one of the most powerful things about vision.

Vision is realistic for some.

Some people say, oh, I'll believe it when I see it.

Right.

So it's a very literal interpretation of what you can see with your eyes.

That's what I would call natural vision, but then there's spiritual vision.

There's supernatural vision.

There's vision that is prophetic.

that sees into the future, that sees

a manifestation of something that you can't put your hand on right now, but you know in your spirit, what you saw is going to come to pass.

And that's what happened with you and those trees.

It was a spiritual, something in your spirit

awoken and said that those trees that she has, there's something about that that that's meant for my journey.

And for me, it's interesting because the wieners, going into their house, there were three cars.

There was like a Jaguar, there was a BMW, there was a Mercedes.

It wasn't the cars that impressed me.

It was the trees.

And now with the trees, you have an abundance of trees.

An abundance of trees.

Abundance of trees.

It's amazing how God will multiply your vision, right?

That he'll expand it.

It starts here.

And then through these spiritual, the ability to hear God's voice, signs, wonders, miracles, that he will open up your life in a way that you didn't see coming, but that was written for you the whole time.

And also, this is what you talk about here.

People not only just paying attention to the signs, everybody gets them.

Yeah.

Everybody gets them.

That's why the world is waiting for you to notice what the signs are for you.

Everybody gets them.

I think everybody gets them, but they don't trust it when they see it.

That's why you speak in the world is waiting for you about trust and surrender.

Yes.

Trust and surrender.

The two go hand in hand.

And also, we're such a connected culture.

And when I say that, I mean we're constantly on our phones.

We're constantly listening to music.

We're constantly watching TV.

We're constantly on social media.

So when our focus is on all these other things all the time, and when our head is down

all the time, swiping and scrolling and doing all these things, we're not even awake enough and present enough to hear the bird

or to feel the wind.

Or to know, ooh, ooh, I just felt something.

There's something in this moment that I'm supposed to clock.

There's something about this is a destiny moment.

Sometimes we just have to live with a certain level of awareness and being awakened to our lives and awaken to the messages that God's trying to send us.

What was on your vision board, though?

What was actually on your vision board?

Well, first of all, Oprah, I tell people, some people have a vision board.

I had a vision book.

Okay?

A vision book, everybody.

So it's literally this thick.

And I dedicated a page to all these different things, all these things that I felt called in my life.

So I was a very single girl, just got out of college, had no money, but I was at the Shakespeare Theater, Washington, D.C., one of my very first roles.

And I had this big stack of magazines, glue, paper, scissors.

Everyone's like, girl, what are you doing between shows?

And I just felt like this is my opportunity to chart my life.

And so the first part is affirmations and goals.

And then I started putting role models.

And guess who's on there?

You.

And then after that, there's a page about marriage because I really believed God for marriage.

And so there was this one picture I found in a magazine.

There was something about it that just called me.

And so I said, okay, I'm going to cut that out.

And it was of this lighter, brown-skinned African-American man with a bald head.

And he had this white t-shirt on and he was laying back, reclined on a bed with a little baby on his chest that had a white onesie on.

So I clipped it out.

I put it on my marriage page in my book.

Well, years later, I'm now married.

I'm like, wow, this is manifested.

I have had a baby.

I walked into her nursery to check up on her during her nap.

And I see my husband, a light brown-skinned African-American man with a bald head, a white turtle.

Don't tell me he had it on a white shirt.

He laid

back on the bed holding a little baby with a light onesie on his chest.

And when I saw it, I said, oh my, wait, but that, but that's in my vision book.

And so as they were sleeping, I ran to the next room to get the vision book and literally had to open the page and look at that.

And that's how I realized, Oprah, that vision boards and vision books, they're not just, oh, woo-hoo, that there can be prophetic significance.

And I really believe that through prophecy, it's a preview of coming attractions, right?

God gives you a glimpse.

And it was just that specific.

There were things in that vision book that had to do with dates, you know, that

things actually manifested on those dates.

So I just encourage everybody, and I walk you through how to create a vision book in the world that's waiting for you.

But I really feel like it's important to lean into what is God saying and how can I visually represent that on the page.

And are you able to do it all the time?

Because

I find that when you surrender your dream to the bigger dream that God has for you, things just move and flow.

And that when you find yourself stuck, as we started out talking about, it's because you haven't surrendered.

And I think people get really confused with the idea of surrender because they think surrender means giving up.

It doesn't.

It means that you allow for a different force of energy to enter and that you're not just trying to do it by yourself.

I love how you have your hands open like that because a lot of times when we're trying to hold on to things, we close our hands.

Yes.

We grasp it, right?

Like hold it tightly because I have to maintain control.

But it's when you allow yourself to open your hands, not only is something able to come out, but something else is able to be received.

We can't receive with closed hands.

We can't receive.

So that universal symbol of surrender with open hands and saying, I'm here.

I'm here, God.

It's obvious through the writing of the book that you have paid attention to your life, that you have been a great servant, that you have been obedient to the call for yourself.

What did writing the book teach you about yourself that you didn't know?

What did it teach me about myself?

You know, it taught me that I was capable of more than I thought.

As most things, the book was prophesied, right?

So I went to a service.

And there was a prophetess there.

And she literally on the mic started singing.

And she said, where's your book?

Where's your book?

God's been speaking to you about writing a book.

And then she began to tell me the two titles that I was wrestling between.

She said, this book is going to go around the world.

And she said, and God called you to write about manifestation.

You're not going to have to change a thing.

Well, at that time, I was in all these meetings with different publishers.

They all wanted me to change stuff.

And they specifically did not want me to write about that very word that I was called to, manifestation.

They all told told me to change it.

And so at the end, I was like, okay, God, you know, I thought you called me to write a book, but the publishers, you know, it's not moving forward.

And do you know, this, this little woman, this beautiful woman reached out to me and she said, God told me to call you right now and ask you what's the status of your book.

And I said,

Okay, well, we've been pitching and I'm not so sure.

You really tapped in.

And she said, I believe in you.

I believe in the message.

And I believe that people around the world need to hear it.

And she, unbeknownst to me, walked that book proposal directly into HarperCollins.

Harper won.

Tell me this.

And they said, within a week.

What is your spiritual practice?

Because you are really, really tapped in.

You know, I worship.

I pray.

I really, I read the Bible.

And what I try to do is allow myself to be filled up, right?

The times where I felt the furthest from God or where I felt dry, right?

Where like, I'm not hearing anything.

I don't know which way to be.

Nothing's happening.

Nothing's happening.

I feel so confused.

Usually it's because I'm striving in my own strength.

And you're disconnecting from the right source.

And so I feel it's almost like a fan, right?

Like if you stay connected to that power source, you're going to keep going.

You're going to keep going.

But then when you start to disconnect, it may look like you're still going.

Yeah.

But eventually you start to putter out.

And so I feel like for me, through prayer, through worship, through reading the Bible, through being surrounded by other believers and having a tribe of people that when I do feel like, ooh, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, it just seems like obstacles the whole way through, that they're strong enough to keep me encouraged.

And so I really encourage people through that book of, hey, get tapped in, join a community, have a tribe of people who are able to be strong when you're weak, because that also is a spiritual practice, staying in community.

It is.

Well, it has been my delight to be able to have this conversation with you here today.

Thank you, Edwina.

Finley Dickerson, and I always love

just being able to talk with you.

And the way even, I won't even get into how this came about.

I won't even tell you.

how this happened.

Anyway, your positive energy is infectious.

Thanks to my guests who joined us on Zoom, Jamesia, Clayton, and Nicole.

Edwina's book is called The World is Waiting for You.

Embrace Your Calling and Manifest the God dream over your life.

And I will say it again, God can dream a bigger dream for you than you could ever dream for yourself.

Lean into God's dream for you.

This book is available anywhere you buy your books.

Thank you, dear listeners, for taking the time to hear Edwina's hopeful message.

And I'll see you next week.

Go well.

Go well.

Excellent.

Thank you.

You can subscribe to the Oprah podcast on YouTube and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

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Thanks, everybody.