October 14, 2025 • 22 mins
What if your creative practice is meant to be a doorway where heaven meets earth? We dig into the supernatural calling of artists and why creativity isn’t a side note—it’s central to how the Kingdom moves. Drawing from Genesis, John, Ephesians, and the pattern of Bezalel in Exodus, I make the case that you were designed to carry God’s life and light into your studio, your market, and the moments where viewers unexpectedly encounter grace through your work.
I share a formative gallery story where a simple basket became a message of comfort, reminding us that the Holy Spirit can speak beyond our skill or intention. From there, we unpack five anchors: creativity is God’s idea; all creativity comes from Him; God can use any artist yet invites us to partner; art carries a prophetic role that can comfort and confront; and we’re called to co-create with God, not perform for Him. This isn’t about trends or chasing “spiritual” labels—it’s about becoming both filled with the Spirit and skilled in craft, trusting that your workmanship (poema) becomes a conduit for beauty, truth, and transformation.
You’ll learn how to approach your studio with expectation, invite the Holy Spirit into process and release, and drop the heavy yoke of performance for the lighter rhythm of collaboration. We talk about letting your work reveal redemption even when it names hard things, stewarding technique as an act of worship, and assuming connection—Christ in you, the hope of glory—as you make. If you’ve ever wondered whether your “hobby” matters, consider this your permission to step boldly into calling.
If this resonated, leave a comment with your biggest insight or story of God meeting someone through your art. Subscribe, rate, and share to help more artists find freedom and clarity.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
And did you know that God has an incredible
(00:01):
purpose for your art that goesway beyond just decoration and
being a hobby?
He actually designed our art andour creativity as a doorway
where heaven meets earth, thisprophetic tool, if you will,
where we get the opportunity toco-labor with the Holy Spirit to
reveal his heart, to releasetransformation and his love and
his power and see God awakenpeople to the love of God and to
(00:25):
all that God wants to do in andthrough their life.
I know that seems like a bigcalling, and sometimes it's
like, well, how do I even stepinto that?
Well, today we're going to betalking about the supernatural
calling of artists and how youcan start walking in this
incredible creative calling thatGod has for you.
Well, hey, my friend, I'm MattTommy.
(00:45):
Welcome to the ThrivingChristian Artists Channel, where
every week I'm helping artistsgain clarity and confidence and
creative freedom in Christ.
So I'm really excited today tojump into this idea of
supernatural creativity and oursupernatural calling as artists
because God has something somuch bigger for your art than
you could ever ask or imagine.
And hopefully today, throughthese five points that I'm going
(01:08):
to give you, your mind and yourheart are going to be opened up
to understand the bigness andthe hugeness and the important
nature of what God has calledall of us to do as artists.
And the first thing is thiscreativity is not extra.
Creativity is not just somethingthat we get as a fun little gift
to do on the side.
Creativity is actually how thekingdom of God works.
(01:31):
In fact, creativity and being acreator is the first way that
God reveals himself to humanity,not as a judge, not as a
preacher, not as a warrior, butas an artist.
And God made us in his image,which means that creativity and
the gift of creativity, theability to see those things that
(01:51):
are not as though they were andbring them into existence.
The ability to hear and sensethings from the Lord, marinate
and form those things in ourimagination with him, and then
have those released through thework of our hands and through
our lives.
That's not extra.
That's not being selfish.
That's actually God's idea, andhe hardwired it in every one of
(02:14):
his children from the verybeginning.
I want to take you back toGenesis 1.27 because that's the
foundation of where God says wewere created in his image.
In other words, we're to beimage bearers.
We're to bear his image to theworld.
In other words, when people seeus and interact with us, they're
supposed to be seeing the imageof God.
(02:35):
I love it in John 1.1 when ittalks about in the beginning was
the word, and the word was withGod, and the word was was God.
In him was life, and the lifewas the light of men.
I love that.
And so when people see us andinteract with us, not only us as
people, but also the things thatwe do, they should be seeing and
interacting with the life andlight of God, the transforming
(03:00):
nature of God.
That's not, again, me beingpresumptuous.
That's God's idea from the verybeginning.
And this means creativity isn'toptional.
Creativity is a part, a centralpart of our unique design as
people in the earth.
It's who we are.
And this even picks up in theNew Testament in Ephesians,
right?
Ephesians 2.10 talks about thatwe are his workmanship, right?
(03:23):
Created for good works that he'salready planned for us to do.
So in other words, God createdus in his image with creativity
on board, hardwired in our DNA,and he created us as his poema.
That's that's the Greek wordthere, his masterpiece to do
good works.
In other words, God created usas a creator with him to create
(03:48):
works of art as a work of art.
The word poema is actually wherewe get the word poem.
So think about that.
Your life and the art that youcreate, you are God's poem to
the world.
You're God's God's piece of artto the world.
You are the piece of art thatGod has created.
And as people that are createdin his image, guess what?
(04:10):
We get to also create and be anextension of what God has
already done in us.
That's how the kingdom works,right?
Now, I don't know about you, butyou know, for me, when I first
started learning this years ago,this was a big moment of
revelation.
And maybe, maybe put in thechat, is this a moment of
revelation for you?
Are you starting to realize thatwow, this thing that I love to
(04:30):
do creatively, maybe this ismore than just for decoration.
Maybe it is a doorway.
Maybe, maybe I've been kind ofdownplaying my creativity and my
art.
I don't know about you, but Idid that for a long time.
And so I really startedrealizing this is not just a
little side hobby.
This is what God designed for meto do from the very foundation
(04:50):
of the world.
That creativity and this gift tobe able to see and feel and hear
in my imagination and then bringit into existence through the
work of my hands, that is God'sidea.
And that very process is areflection of his nature.
Now, some people hear me talkabout prophetic creativity and
they're like, well, Matt, thatsounds really nice, but like,
(05:12):
where is that actually, youknow, in the Bible?
And so I always want to take youback to God's word because I
don't believe that anything thatwe should do in our life should
be based on feelings or ortrends.
But then listen, there's a lotof things that we do that we
practice in the Christian lifethat that are not explicitly
stated in the word, you know,word by word, scripture by
(05:33):
scripture, line by line, butthat they're consistent with the
Bible.
There are things that weextrapolate, principles in God's
word, that when we bring themtogether, we start to realize
this is completely consistentwith how God moves and how God
wants to work in the earth.
And so I think for me, propheticcreativity and understanding our
(05:56):
role as artists in the newcovenant and artists in the
kingdom today, this isn'tnecessarily a new doctrine that
I'm trying to create.
This is actually a very biblicalpattern.
Again, when you go back toGenesis 1.27 and realize
creativity is actually God'sidea.
It's hardwired into our DNA tobe creative like our daddy, to
(06:17):
that our lives and the work ofour hands would bearing an image
of the Lord, that everythingthat we do would be a beautiful
reflection of what he's doing inand through us.
And then also in Romans 11, 29,it talks about that the gifts
and callings of God areirrevocable.
See, this is really important tounderstand because some people,
you know, want to make a bigdistinction about, well,
(06:39):
Christian artists and notChristian artists.
Listen, all creativity is fromGod.
Yeah, all creativity is fromGod.
The issue is not where does thegift come from?
The issue becomes how are wepointing this gift?
In other words, are we allowingthe Holy Spirit to move in and
through our gifting?
See, you can you can have a lotof talent, you can have a lot of
(07:01):
gifting, you can have a lot ofskill, but if you're operating
in that outside of the HolySpirit, in the movement of the
Holy Spirit, you're you'remissing the life-giving force
that God wants to move in andthrough your creative process.
And likewise, on the other side,if you're only concerned about
the spiritual process of yourwork and you're not leaning into
(07:21):
the actual development of yourskill and the processes as an
artist, you miss the fullness ofwhat God wants to release there.
And so in in Exodus 31, we seethis beautiful pattern that God
gives us in the life of Bezalelthat says he was filled with the
Spirit of God and skilled inevery manner of workmanship.
So all the our gift ofcreativity, it all comes from
(07:44):
the Lord, whether somebody'shonoring him with it or not.
God is designed for us then isto walk both filled with the
spirit and skilled in everymanner of workmanship.
So the issue then becomes howare we stewarding our gifts?
Are we inviting the Holy Spiritinto this beautiful design as an
artist, this beautiful gift andcalling that God's given us?
(08:07):
Or are we trying to operate inour own silo over here, over
here in our own strength, tryingto figure out our own art in our
own process, in our own mind,trying to figure out how to get
it, if you're trying to grow anart business, trying to figure
out how to do that on your own.
Listen, if you're doing that,you're you're you're setting
yourself up for a life ofstriving and frustration and
(08:30):
trying to live life in a waythat God never designed.
Listen, his design is that youyou realize, hey, this gift of
creativity that I got, it's fromGod and it's for God.
I get to be blessed by it as amaker, but I also get to be
blessed to see God move throughthe work of my hands if I'll
(08:51):
invite the Holy Spirit intoevery part of that process.
Wow.
Maybe in the chat, put, youknow, whether you're inviting
the Holy Spirit into yourcreative process right now, or
maybe this is kind of a wake-upcall for you that you're
starting to realize, wow, I loveJesus and I'm saved, and you
know, I want to honor him, butI've just I've just kind of been
(09:11):
doing my art as is this thing onthe side.
And I never realized that it wasa an important gift from God
that he wanted to use as adoorway where heaven meets
earth.
One of the things that I loveabout the Lord is that God can
use any artist, whether we knowhim or not.
He he can use us, but he choosesto invite us to partner with
(09:35):
him.
And when you say yes to God, itopens up supernatural favor, it
opens up, opens up supernaturalopportunity, it opens your the
eyes and ears of your spirit tobe able to understand how God
wants to lead and guide you, notonly in your creative process,
but also in your life as anartist.
And to me, that is really,really cool.
(09:57):
Think about if you startedapproaching your art every day.
I mean, maybe put this in the inthe in the comments right now.
How would you start approachingyour art differently if you
realized that every day that youwalked into your creative space
that God wanted to reveal hisbeauty and his truth and his
goodness through your work?
Listen, when you start reunderstanding that that is God's
(10:20):
intention for your creativity,you can't help but believe that
your art and the work of yourhands in your very life is
designed to be prophetic bynature.
Again, we're supposed to be ademonstration of the glory of
God and image bearers of hisvery nature through the things
that we do as artists.
I mean, I bet if we were to sitdown right now and talk about,
(10:42):
you know, how you've seen Godshow up in your art over the
years or maybe in the lives ofothers, maybe you've got a story
like that where God showed upsupernaturally, unexpectedly,
maybe through through your art.
If you do share it, I'd love toread it in the in the comments.
I know for me, the first timethat that happened, um, well,
you know, I was I've been amusician my whole life.
So I would always have people,you know, if I'd sing or if I'd
(11:04):
lead worship or something,people would say, Oh, wow, I
really felt God, you know, Godreally spoke to me during that
song.
And, you know, that that'sawesome.
But as a visual artist, Iremember the first time that
this happened to me.
I was sitting uh in a gallery inin North Carolina.
I was weaving a basket, I wasdoing a demo for a gallery that
I was at.
And this guy walked up to one ofmy pieces and he gasped.
(11:27):
He was like, and I was like, ohmy gosh, what?
And he said, it's like the handsof God are reaching out, saying,
I've got everything undercontrol, as he looked at one of
my baskets.
And I was like, uh totally,like, like I mean, I wish I
could say, like, oh yes, that'sexactly what I meant.
That was my intention when Icreated that.
(11:47):
I had no clue.
But I realized in that momentthat God was using that piece of
art that I created in my in mytime with him as a creator.
I realized that he was usingthat as an intersection point
where heaven meets earth forsome supernatural reason that
was way beyond my skill, myabilities, even my intention.
(12:12):
God chose to use that moment,that piece, in that place in
time when that guy walked by tospeak a message of encouragement
to him.
And we had a conversation and itwas awesome.
And since then, I've seen Godmove over and over and over.
In fact, in my in my little bookthat I wrote, Prophetic Art, we,
it's full of stories of glorystories of how God's moved in
(12:35):
the lives of artistssupernaturally.
And I'm just telling you,friend, when you start to raise
your expectation to this andactually start to look for God
in these moments of creativity,as you're creating, as you're
releasing your creativity in themarket, all of a sudden your
mind gets blown to this factthat wow, we get this incredible
opportunity to see God move inand through our art, regardless
(13:00):
of our skill level, regardlessof how long we've been doing it,
regardless of the medium.
God can use you and I whereverwe are, whenever we are in our
journey, as long as we're sayingyes to him and opening the door.
And I don't know about you, butthat is super encouraging to me
as an artist.
See, artists all throughouthistory have always had this
sort of prophetic calling, thisability to uh help people see
(13:23):
things that they're not normallyable to see.
That's why, you know, again,creativity is by its very nature
prophetic.
We we're designed by God to helppeople see the unseen, to we
make visible the invisible,right?
We see things in ourimagination, we sense things
from the Lord, we we sense uhartistic inspiration, and we
take those things out of ourimagination and out of the
(13:47):
spirit, and through our yes inour heart and through the work
of our hands, we bring thoseideas into the visible and we
help people.
We we say, look, look at whatGod wants to say, look at how
God thinks about you, look atthis beauty, look at this uh
this maybe challenging message.
I mean, how many of you knowsometimes God will use you in a
(14:09):
way that that evokes great joyand breakthrough and victory?
And other times God can can useus in in ways that that will
challenge people and maybechallenge culture and talk about
issues that are not easy tounderstand.
But we can do, listen, asartists, we get to do it in a
way that is wrapped in mysteryand wrapped in the supernatural.
(14:31):
I mean, you know, how many ofyou know that we can listen to a
song, we can read a book, wecan, we can look at a piece of
art, and it may not haveanything to do with the
intention of the artist or thesubject matter of what it's
supposed to be, but God in thatmoment can use that image, that
sound, that movement, thatwhatever it is, that creative
(14:51):
expression, He can use that totrigger something inside of us
to get us to realize somethingthat we never realized before.
How many stories have we heardof of people in a place of
brokenness, riding down the roadand all of a sudden hearing a
song?
And for whatever reason, they'dheard that song a hundred times
before, but in that moment, thatsong, God used that song to
(15:12):
break their heart and bring him,bring him back to them.
Or people can look at a paintingand all of a sudden have a
realization or have a momentwith the Lord of God speaking to
them.
That is the very propheticnature of what we do.
And so sometimes our callingisn't just to reveal beauty,
sometimes it reveals truth in inuncomfortable ways.
(15:33):
Sometimes, like the prophets,right, in the in the old
testament, it can carry bothburden and beauty, right?
It can carry uh hope and andalso confrontation, right?
So so neither one of those aremore the Lord than the other,
but both of them are are youknow uh important to understand
that they're prophetic.
They're they're they'redeclaring what God wants to
(15:55):
declare in and through our work.
And so when you and I creatework that maybe it you know
talks about injustice or lies ordespair or the state of humanity
or the state of culture orwhatever, and we do it through a
lens of redemption, that is aprophetic function.
In other words, we are revealingthe nature and the intention of
(16:18):
God to the world through ourart.
And that's why your art issupernatural, and that's why
what we do is a holy propheticcalling from the Lord.
That's why it's so powerful.
It doesn't just say something,it literally releases something
because when God shows up,people are changed, things
(16:39):
change, people have anencounter.
Every time you see Jesus show upall through the Bible, things
changed.
Even on the day of creation, itsays that the Holy Spirit was
hovering over the face of thedeep, right?
And all of a sudden, in themiddle of that, the Father said,
What?
Let there be light.
And there was light.
See, the Holy Spirit, just likehe hovered over the chaos and
(17:02):
hovered over the deep, I believehe hovers over us as artists as
we make.
I believe his spirit goes withthe work that we create, and he
uses the work of our hands asartists to meet people wherever
they are and release his gloryin transforming power to awaken
(17:22):
them to the possibilities and tothe understanding of who Jesus
is and can be and wants to be intheir life.
And again, friend, that is asupernatural and a powerful
calling that we all have asartists.
Now, here's the last thing Iwant to say about this, lest you
feel like, oh my gosh, this isthis huge responsibility.
I got to do this all by myself.
No, absolutely not.
(17:43):
God never designed you and I tocreate in our own strength.
He never designed us to striveto make this sort of thing
happen out of religiousobligation or working for God.
I mean, there's so many peopleout there that talk about, you
know, working for God and I gotto honor God and I got to, you
know, please God, all this kindof stuff.
Listen, all that stuff'swonderful, but if you do that
(18:04):
out of a place of striving inyour own strength, you will be
absolutely uh worn out.
There's a lot of well-meaningChristians that are absolutely
worn out trying to do all thesethings for God that maybe God
never asked them to do in thefirst place.
You know, Jesus, I love it whenin the New Testament when Jesus
says, I just do the things thatI fought, I see the Father
doing.
(18:24):
In other words, God has designedus as artists to just cooperate
with him, to create with him,not just for him.
In other words, the work ofJesus on the cross restored us
to relationship, notperformance.
And if you love Jesus and you'vebeen creating all these years,
(18:46):
maybe out of a place of likeobligation, like I got to use my
art to please God.
And you just, and there's kindof a heaviness to that.
I just want to, I just am askingthe Lord to free you from that
today.
Because the creating with theLord and walking with him as an
artist in the kingdom should bethis beautiful place of
relationship where he's movingand we're responding, we're
(19:07):
moving and he's responding, andwe're creating together with
him.
You know, when you start to dothat, all of a sudden you start
to realize that that God is notseparate from you.
He's not over here and you'reover here.
He you're not in your studiomaking your art and trying to
beg him to get, you know, tocome over here and bless what
you're doing.
No, the Bible says it's Christin you, the hope of glory,
(19:31):
right?
We know that through thefinished work of Jesus on the
cross, he lives in us nowthrough the power of the Holy
Spirit.
So you can, guess what?
You can assume connection.
The Bible says that as wedelight ourselves in the Lord,
what?
He'll give us the desires of ourheart.
In other words, as you're withhim and reading his word and
(19:52):
investing in his presence andand tuning your voice and the
eyes of your heart to the HolySpirit, you can trust that the
thing that God's putting on yourheart and the way that he's
moving through you creativecreatively is being led by him.
You don't have to have all thispressure on you to perform and
to get it right.
You can trust that as you aremoving with intention and
(20:15):
intuition in the studio, you cantrust that the Holy Spirit is
leading you, that you'recreating with him, not just for
him, that he's going to use thework of your hands and what
you're creating in a way thatyou that is so far beyond what
you could ever even ask orimagine.
And to me, that's when it getsreally fun being an artist.
(20:36):
So, my friend, I hope today, asyou really get the these five
things that I'm I'm talkingabout.
Number one, creativity is thenature of God, it's God's idea.
Number two, all creativity comesfrom God.
Number three, God can use anyartist, but he invites us to
partner with him.
Number four, there's a propheticrole and a prophetic action of
(20:58):
what we do, uh, a propheticpurpose of what we do as
artists.
And number five, God is invitingus to co-create with him.
I hope that you're getting thisclear understanding that your
calling as an artist is so farbeyond just decoration.
It's so far beyond just a hobby.
It is designed as a doorwaywhere not only you can meet with
(21:20):
heaven, but heaven can meetearth through what you do.
Hey, friend, if this resonatedwith you today, I want to make
sure you leave me a comment.
I love your comments.
Ask me a question.
Who knows?
I could be answering that on oneof my next videos.
Definitely hit the subscribe,the like buttons, ring the bell
so you get all the notificationsand never miss any of the
(21:41):
content that I'm creating righthere uh every week on this
channel.
And also stay tuned because I'mgonna be doing this.
Is part of a series that I'mdoing on the supernatural
calling of artists.
And in the next video, I'm gonnabe talking about how we're
created by an artist uh as anartist and how we're gonna begin
to understand our identity inChrist as God's masterpiece and
(22:02):
understanding the unique waythat he wants to release himself
through our work as artists.
All right.
I love you, friend.
Thanks for being here.
And remember till next time, youwere created to thrive.
Bye.
Hey, my friend, before you go,make sure that you're signed up
for the Thriving ChristianArtist Weekly.
It's my free newsletter full ofspiritual encouragement,
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(22:24):
thrive in everything that God'scalled you to do as an artist in
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Every issue is absolutely free,and it includes the latest
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everything that God's got foryou as an artist in the kingdom.
You can click the link righthere in the show notes to join
(22:46):
us, and it's a great way to stayconnected.
All right, love you.
Bye.
And did you know that God has an incredible
(00:01):
purpose for your art that goesway beyond just decoration and
being a hobby?
He actually designed our art andour creativity as a doorway
where heaven meets earth, thisprophetic tool, if you will,
where we get the opportunity toco-labor with the Holy Spirit to
reveal his heart, to releasetransformation and his love and
his power and see God awakenpeople to the love of God and to
(00:25):
all that God wants to do in andthrough their life.
I know that seems like a bigcalling, and sometimes it's
like, well, how do I even stepinto that?
Well, today we're going to betalking about the supernatural
calling of artists and how youcan start walking in this
incredible creative calling thatGod has for you.
Well, hey, my friend, I'm MattTommy.
(00:45):
Welcome to the ThrivingChristian Artists Channel, where
every week I'm helping artistsgain clarity and confidence and
creative freedom in Christ.
So I'm really excited today tojump into this idea of
supernatural creativity and oursupernatural calling as artists
because God has something somuch bigger for your art than
you could ever ask or imagine.
And hopefully today, throughthese five points that I'm going
(01:08):
to give you, your mind and yourheart are going to be opened up
to understand the bigness andthe hugeness and the important
nature of what God has calledall of us to do as artists.
And the first thing is thiscreativity is not extra.
Creativity is not just somethingthat we get as a fun little gift
to do on the side.
Creativity is actually how thekingdom of God works.
(01:31):
In fact, creativity and being acreator is the first way that
God reveals himself to humanity,not as a judge, not as a
preacher, not as a warrior, butas an artist.
And God made us in his image,which means that creativity and
the gift of creativity, theability to see those things that
(01:51):
are not as though they were andbring them into existence.
The ability to hear and sensethings from the Lord, marinate
and form those things in ourimagination with him, and then
have those released through thework of our hands and through
our lives.
That's not extra.
That's not being selfish.
That's actually God's idea, andhe hardwired it in every one of
(02:14):
his children from the verybeginning.
I want to take you back toGenesis 1.27 because that's the
foundation of where God says wewere created in his image.
In other words, we're to beimage bearers.
We're to bear his image to theworld.
In other words, when people seeus and interact with us, they're
supposed to be seeing the imageof God.
(02:35):
I love it in John 1.1 when ittalks about in the beginning was
the word, and the word was withGod, and the word was was God.
In him was life, and the lifewas the light of men.
I love that.
And so when people see us andinteract with us, not only us as
people, but also the things thatwe do, they should be seeing and
interacting with the life andlight of God, the transforming
(03:00):
nature of God.
That's not, again, me beingpresumptuous.
That's God's idea from the verybeginning.
And this means creativity isn'toptional.
Creativity is a part, a centralpart of our unique design as
people in the earth.
It's who we are.
And this even picks up in theNew Testament in Ephesians,
right?
Ephesians 2.10 talks about thatwe are his workmanship, right?
(03:23):
Created for good works that he'salready planned for us to do.
So in other words, God createdus in his image with creativity
on board, hardwired in our DNA,and he created us as his poema.
That's that's the Greek wordthere, his masterpiece to do
good works.
In other words, God created usas a creator with him to create
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works of art as a work of art.
The word poema is actually wherewe get the word poem.
So think about that.
Your life and the art that youcreate, you are God's poem to
the world.
You're God's God's piece of artto the world.
You are the piece of art thatGod has created.
And as people that are createdin his image, guess what?
(04:10):
We get to also create and be anextension of what God has
already done in us.
That's how the kingdom works,right?
Now, I don't know about you, butyou know, for me, when I first
started learning this years ago,this was a big moment of
revelation.
And maybe, maybe put in thechat, is this a moment of
revelation for you?
Are you starting to realize thatwow, this thing that I love to
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do creatively, maybe this ismore than just for decoration.
Maybe it is a doorway.
Maybe, maybe I've been kind ofdownplaying my creativity and my
art.
I don't know about you, but Idid that for a long time.
And so I really startedrealizing this is not just a
little side hobby.
This is what God designed for meto do from the very foundation
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of the world.
That creativity and this gift tobe able to see and feel and hear
in my imagination and then bringit into existence through the
work of my hands, that is God'sidea.
And that very process is areflection of his nature.
Now, some people hear me talkabout prophetic creativity and
they're like, well, Matt, thatsounds really nice, but like,
(05:12):
where is that actually, youknow, in the Bible?
And so I always want to take youback to God's word because I
don't believe that anything thatwe should do in our life should
be based on feelings or ortrends.
But then listen, there's a lotof things that we do that we
practice in the Christian lifethat that are not explicitly
stated in the word, you know,word by word, scripture by
(05:33):
scripture, line by line, butthat they're consistent with the
Bible.
There are things that weextrapolate, principles in God's
word, that when we bring themtogether, we start to realize
this is completely consistentwith how God moves and how God
wants to work in the earth.
And so I think for me, propheticcreativity and understanding our
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role as artists in the newcovenant and artists in the
kingdom today, this isn'tnecessarily a new doctrine that
I'm trying to create.
This is actually a very biblicalpattern.
Again, when you go back toGenesis 1.27 and realize
creativity is actually God'sidea.
It's hardwired into our DNA tobe creative like our daddy, to
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that our lives and the work ofour hands would bearing an image
of the Lord, that everythingthat we do would be a beautiful
reflection of what he's doing inand through us.
And then also in Romans 11, 29,it talks about that the gifts
and callings of God areirrevocable.
See, this is really important tounderstand because some people,
you know, want to make a bigdistinction about, well,
(06:39):
Christian artists and notChristian artists.
Listen, all creativity is fromGod.
Yeah, all creativity is fromGod.
The issue is not where does thegift come from?
The issue becomes how are wepointing this gift?
In other words, are we allowingthe Holy Spirit to move in and
through our gifting?
See, you can you can have a lotof talent, you can have a lot of
(07:01):
gifting, you can have a lot ofskill, but if you're operating
in that outside of the HolySpirit, in the movement of the
Holy Spirit, you're you'remissing the life-giving force
that God wants to move in andthrough your creative process.
And likewise, on the other side,if you're only concerned about
the spiritual process of yourwork and you're not leaning into
(07:21):
the actual development of yourskill and the processes as an
artist, you miss the fullness ofwhat God wants to release there.
And so in in Exodus 31, we seethis beautiful pattern that God
gives us in the life of Bezalelthat says he was filled with the
Spirit of God and skilled inevery manner of workmanship.
So all the our gift ofcreativity, it all comes from
(07:44):
the Lord, whether somebody'shonoring him with it or not.
God is designed for us then isto walk both filled with the
spirit and skilled in everymanner of workmanship.
So the issue then becomes howare we stewarding our gifts?
Are we inviting the Holy Spiritinto this beautiful design as an
artist, this beautiful gift andcalling that God's given us?
(08:07):
Or are we trying to operate inour own silo over here, over
here in our own strength, tryingto figure out our own art in our
own process, in our own mind,trying to figure out how to get
it, if you're trying to grow anart business, trying to figure
out how to do that on your own.
Listen, if you're doing that,you're you're you're setting
yourself up for a life ofstriving and frustration and
(08:30):
trying to live life in a waythat God never designed.
Listen, his design is that youyou realize, hey, this gift of
creativity that I got, it's fromGod and it's for God.
I get to be blessed by it as amaker, but I also get to be
blessed to see God move throughthe work of my hands if I'll
(08:51):
invite the Holy Spirit intoevery part of that process.
Wow.
Maybe in the chat, put, youknow, whether you're inviting
the Holy Spirit into yourcreative process right now, or
maybe this is kind of a wake-upcall for you that you're
starting to realize, wow, I loveJesus and I'm saved, and you
know, I want to honor him, butI've just I've just kind of been
(09:11):
doing my art as is this thing onthe side.
And I never realized that it wasa an important gift from God
that he wanted to use as adoorway where heaven meets
earth.
One of the things that I loveabout the Lord is that God can
use any artist, whether we knowhim or not.
He he can use us, but he choosesto invite us to partner with
(09:35):
him.
And when you say yes to God, itopens up supernatural favor, it
opens up, opens up supernaturalopportunity, it opens your the
eyes and ears of your spirit tobe able to understand how God
wants to lead and guide you, notonly in your creative process,
but also in your life as anartist.
And to me, that is really,really cool.
(09:57):
Think about if you startedapproaching your art every day.
I mean, maybe put this in the inthe in the comments right now.
How would you start approachingyour art differently if you
realized that every day that youwalked into your creative space
that God wanted to reveal hisbeauty and his truth and his
goodness through your work?
Listen, when you start reunderstanding that that is God's
(10:20):
intention for your creativity,you can't help but believe that
your art and the work of yourhands in your very life is
designed to be prophetic bynature.
Again, we're supposed to be ademonstration of the glory of
God and image bearers of hisvery nature through the things
that we do as artists.
I mean, I bet if we were to sitdown right now and talk about,
(10:42):
you know, how you've seen Godshow up in your art over the
years or maybe in the lives ofothers, maybe you've got a story
like that where God showed upsupernaturally, unexpectedly,
maybe through through your art.
If you do share it, I'd love toread it in the in the comments.
I know for me, the first timethat that happened, um, well,
you know, I was I've been amusician my whole life.
So I would always have people,you know, if I'd sing or if I'd
(11:04):
lead worship or something,people would say, Oh, wow, I
really felt God, you know, Godreally spoke to me during that
song.
And, you know, that that'sawesome.
But as a visual artist, Iremember the first time that
this happened to me.
I was sitting uh in a gallery inin North Carolina.
I was weaving a basket, I wasdoing a demo for a gallery that
I was at.
And this guy walked up to one ofmy pieces and he gasped.
(11:27):
He was like, and I was like, ohmy gosh, what?
And he said, it's like the handsof God are reaching out, saying,
I've got everything undercontrol, as he looked at one of
my baskets.
And I was like, uh totally,like, like I mean, I wish I
could say, like, oh yes, that'sexactly what I meant.
That was my intention when Icreated that.
(11:47):
I had no clue.
But I realized in that momentthat God was using that piece of
art that I created in my in mytime with him as a creator.
I realized that he was usingthat as an intersection point
where heaven meets earth forsome supernatural reason that
was way beyond my skill, myabilities, even my intention.
(12:12):
God chose to use that moment,that piece, in that place in
time when that guy walked by tospeak a message of encouragement
to him.
And we had a conversation and itwas awesome.
And since then, I've seen Godmove over and over and over.
In fact, in my in my little bookthat I wrote, Prophetic Art, we,
it's full of stories of glorystories of how God's moved in
(12:35):
the lives of artistssupernaturally.
And I'm just telling you,friend, when you start to raise
your expectation to this andactually start to look for God
in these moments of creativity,as you're creating, as you're
releasing your creativity in themarket, all of a sudden your
mind gets blown to this factthat wow, we get this incredible
opportunity to see God move inand through our art, regardless
(13:00):
of our skill level, regardlessof how long we've been doing it,
regardless of the medium.
God can use you and I whereverwe are, whenever we are in our
journey, as long as we're sayingyes to him and opening the door.
And I don't know about you, butthat is super encouraging to me
as an artist.
See, artists all throughouthistory have always had this
sort of prophetic calling, thisability to uh help people see
(13:23):
things that they're not normallyable to see.
That's why, you know, again,creativity is by its very nature
prophetic.
We we're designed by God to helppeople see the unseen, to we
make visible the invisible,right?
We see things in ourimagination, we sense things
from the Lord, we we sense uhartistic inspiration, and we
take those things out of ourimagination and out of the
(13:47):
spirit, and through our yes inour heart and through the work
of our hands, we bring thoseideas into the visible and we
help people.
We we say, look, look at whatGod wants to say, look at how
God thinks about you, look atthis beauty, look at this uh
this maybe challenging message.
I mean, how many of you knowsometimes God will use you in a
(14:09):
way that that evokes great joyand breakthrough and victory?
And other times God can can useus in in ways that that will
challenge people and maybechallenge culture and talk about
issues that are not easy tounderstand.
But we can do, listen, asartists, we get to do it in a
way that is wrapped in mysteryand wrapped in the supernatural.
(14:31):
I mean, you know, how many ofyou know that we can listen to a
song, we can read a book, wecan, we can look at a piece of
art, and it may not haveanything to do with the
intention of the artist or thesubject matter of what it's
supposed to be, but God in thatmoment can use that image, that
sound, that movement, thatwhatever it is, that creative
(14:51):
expression, He can use that totrigger something inside of us
to get us to realize somethingthat we never realized before.
How many stories have we heardof of people in a place of
brokenness, riding down the roadand all of a sudden hearing a
song?
And for whatever reason, they'dheard that song a hundred times
before, but in that moment, thatsong, God used that song to
(15:12):
break their heart and bring him,bring him back to them.
Or people can look at a paintingand all of a sudden have a
realization or have a momentwith the Lord of God speaking to
them.
That is the very propheticnature of what we do.
And so sometimes our callingisn't just to reveal beauty,
sometimes it reveals truth in inuncomfortable ways.
(15:33):
Sometimes, like the prophets,right, in the in the old
testament, it can carry bothburden and beauty, right?
It can carry uh hope and andalso confrontation, right?
So so neither one of those aremore the Lord than the other,
but both of them are are youknow uh important to understand
that they're prophetic.
They're they're they'redeclaring what God wants to
(15:55):
declare in and through our work.
And so when you and I creatework that maybe it you know
talks about injustice or lies ordespair or the state of humanity
or the state of culture orwhatever, and we do it through a
lens of redemption, that is aprophetic function.
In other words, we are revealingthe nature and the intention of
(16:18):
God to the world through ourart.
And that's why your art issupernatural, and that's why
what we do is a holy propheticcalling from the Lord.
That's why it's so powerful.
It doesn't just say something,it literally releases something
because when God shows up,people are changed, things
(16:39):
change, people have anencounter.
Every time you see Jesus show upall through the Bible, things
changed.
Even on the day of creation, itsays that the Holy Spirit was
hovering over the face of thedeep, right?
And all of a sudden, in themiddle of that, the Father said,
What?
Let there be light.
And there was light.
See, the Holy Spirit, just likehe hovered over the chaos and
(17:02):
hovered over the deep, I believehe hovers over us as artists as
we make.
I believe his spirit goes withthe work that we create, and he
uses the work of our hands asartists to meet people wherever
they are and release his gloryin transforming power to awaken
(17:22):
them to the possibilities and tothe understanding of who Jesus
is and can be and wants to be intheir life.
And again, friend, that is asupernatural and a powerful
calling that we all have asartists.
Now, here's the last thing Iwant to say about this, lest you
feel like, oh my gosh, this isthis huge responsibility.
I got to do this all by myself.
No, absolutely not.
(17:43):
God never designed you and I tocreate in our own strength.
He never designed us to striveto make this sort of thing
happen out of religiousobligation or working for God.
I mean, there's so many peopleout there that talk about, you
know, working for God and I gotto honor God and I got to, you
know, please God, all this kindof stuff.
Listen, all that stuff'swonderful, but if you do that
(18:04):
out of a place of striving inyour own strength, you will be
absolutely uh worn out.
There's a lot of well-meaningChristians that are absolutely
worn out trying to do all thesethings for God that maybe God
never asked them to do in thefirst place.
You know, Jesus, I love it whenin the New Testament when Jesus
says, I just do the things thatI fought, I see the Father
doing.
(18:24):
In other words, God has designedus as artists to just cooperate
with him, to create with him,not just for him.
In other words, the work ofJesus on the cross restored us
to relationship, notperformance.
And if you love Jesus and you'vebeen creating all these years,
(18:46):
maybe out of a place of likeobligation, like I got to use my
art to please God.
And you just, and there's kindof a heaviness to that.
I just want to, I just am askingthe Lord to free you from that
today.
Because the creating with theLord and walking with him as an
artist in the kingdom should bethis beautiful place of
relationship where he's movingand we're responding, we're
(19:07):
moving and he's responding, andwe're creating together with
him.
You know, when you start to dothat, all of a sudden you start
to realize that that God is notseparate from you.
He's not over here and you'reover here.
He you're not in your studiomaking your art and trying to
beg him to get, you know, tocome over here and bless what
you're doing.
No, the Bible says it's Christin you, the hope of glory,
(19:31):
right?
We know that through thefinished work of Jesus on the
cross, he lives in us nowthrough the power of the Holy
Spirit.
So you can, guess what?
You can assume connection.
The Bible says that as wedelight ourselves in the Lord,
what?
He'll give us the desires of ourheart.
In other words, as you're withhim and reading his word and
(19:52):
investing in his presence andand tuning your voice and the
eyes of your heart to the HolySpirit, you can trust that the
thing that God's putting on yourheart and the way that he's
moving through you creativecreatively is being led by him.
You don't have to have all thispressure on you to perform and
to get it right.
You can trust that as you aremoving with intention and
(20:15):
intuition in the studio, you cantrust that the Holy Spirit is
leading you, that you'recreating with him, not just for
him, that he's going to use thework of your hands and what
you're creating in a way thatyou that is so far beyond what
you could ever even ask orimagine.
And to me, that's when it getsreally fun being an artist.
(20:36):
So, my friend, I hope today, asyou really get the these five
things that I'm I'm talkingabout.
Number one, creativity is thenature of God, it's God's idea.
Number two, all creativity comesfrom God.
Number three, God can use anyartist, but he invites us to
partner with him.
Number four, there's a propheticrole and a prophetic action of
(20:58):
what we do, uh, a propheticpurpose of what we do as
artists.
And number five, God is invitingus to co-create with him.
I hope that you're getting thisclear understanding that your
calling as an artist is so farbeyond just decoration.
It's so far beyond just a hobby.
It is designed as a doorwaywhere not only you can meet with
(21:20):
heaven, but heaven can meetearth through what you do.
Hey, friend, if this resonatedwith you today, I want to make
sure you leave me a comment.
I love your comments.
Ask me a question.
Who knows?
I could be answering that on oneof my next videos.
Definitely hit the subscribe,the like buttons, ring the bell
so you get all the notificationsand never miss any of the
(21:41):
content that I'm creating righthere uh every week on this
channel.
And also stay tuned because I'mgonna be doing this.
Is part of a series that I'mdoing on the supernatural
calling of artists.
And in the next video, I'm gonnabe talking about how we're
created by an artist uh as anartist and how we're gonna begin
to understand our identity inChrist as God's masterpiece and
(22:02):
understanding the unique waythat he wants to release himself
through our work as artists.
All right.
I love you, friend.
Thanks for being here.
And remember till next time, youwere created to thrive.
Bye.
Hey, my friend, before you go,make sure that you're signed up
for the Thriving ChristianArtist Weekly.
It's my free newsletter full ofspiritual encouragement,
creative inspiration, andpractical tips to help you
(22:24):
thrive in everything that God'scalled you to do as an artist in
his kingdom.
Every issue is absolutely free,and it includes the latest
podcast episode, featured artistspotlights, a worship song of
the week, and again, tons oftips and encouragement and
inspiration for you to keep youinspired and encouraged in
everything that God's got foryou as an artist in the kingdom.
You can click the link righthere in the show notes to join
(22:46):
us, and it's a great way to stayconnected.
All right, love you.
Bye.
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