June 13, 2025 • 25 mins
Ever wonder if your creative expression truly matters in God’s kingdom? In this inspiring and joy-filled conversation, Michele Kus interviews Charity Williams, founder of Hope Words, whose journey from the ICU to prophetic painting shows us that creativity isn’t just a hobby but a divine partnership with heaven.
In this episode, the first in our Kingdom Creativity series, Charity shares her remarkable journey of discovering her creative purpose. What started with painting encouraging words and images on her shoes (“because I was looking down so much”) became a healing and hope-filled ministry that invites others to encounter God through art, creativity, and joy.
Charity unpacks the difference between worldly creativity and kingdom creativity — the kind that co-creates with Holy Spirit to shift atmospheres and release heaven on earth. She shares how God freed her from perfectionism with these powerful words: “What you see in your mind is what I show you, and what comes out gets to look like you.”
Whether you’re an artist or not, Charity will help you see yourself as creative because you were birthed by the Creator Himself. Her refreshing perspective reminds us that creativity flows not from striving but from our identity and relationship with our Creator. This conversation will ignite your imagination and childlike wonder, and will remind you that it’s not about being perfect. It’s about being YOU.
Tune in and start seeing your creative expression through heaven's eyes — as a powerful reflection of God’s image on earth.
CONNECT WITH CHARITY!
Welcome to Today’s Kus Word — where life coaching meets spiritual formation! Join musician, life coach, and spiritual formation prof Michele Kus, as she serves up short, powerful teachings, immersive meditations, bold declarations, and holy f(reedom)-bombs that are based solidly in scripture, grace theology, and positive psychology. Whether you’re seeking calm, clarity, courage, healing, deeper self-awareness, or just a fresh Kingdom perspective, throw on your headphones and tune into your next breakthrough. #TodaysKusWord
*There is no actual cussing on Today's Kus Word. We keep it squeaky clean!
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All content © 2025 Michele Kus, M.A. All rights reserved.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michele (00:00):
It's Friyay, June 13th, and this is Today's Kus Word.
Welcome to Today's Kus Word.
I'm Michele Kus, your spiritualgrowth coach, and we are
launching into a super fun newseries on kingdom creativity and
co-creating with God.
(00:20):
I'm doing my very first podcastinterview.
You don't want to miss it.
Hello, hello.
Well, I was away in Georgia onvacation, but I'm back and I am
so excited to share with you myvery first podcast interview
where you will meet my friend,Charity Williams, who's the
founder of a creative and superencouraging ministry called Hope
(00:45):
Words, and in this interviewshe is dropping some incredible
nuggets of inspiration.
I'm actually going to break theinterview up into several
episodes because there's so manygolden nuggets.
I don't want you to miss any ofthem.
So here is the firstinstallment of my interview with
(01:05):
Charity Williams.
I hope you love it.
Welcome to Today's Kus Word.
I'm your host, Michele Kus, andI have a very special treat for
you.
Today I'm doing my very firstpodcast interview.
I have never done a podcastinterview before and it's always
just been me teaching ortalking or leading you in
(01:26):
meditations or putting randomsongs up, and I felt a couple
weeks ago kind of a nudge fromthe Holy Spirit to start
interviewing people that I thinkthat the Lord wants more people
to know and some hidden gems,if you will, and so I prayed
(01:49):
about it, and the first personwho popped to mind is the person
on with me today, who isCharity Williams, and which is
funny because Charity and I havenever actually met in real life
.
We know each other by via socialmedia probably, like a lot of
(02:11):
you do.
And it's one of those things,though, like do you ever connect
with somebody on social mediaand you kind of low key stalk
them?
That was me with CharityWilliams.
I kind of low-key stalked herfor a while because I remember
one of the early posts she hadpainted a pair of shoes with all
(02:34):
these encouraging words allover the shoes and my daughter,
ironically, had done somethingvery similar at a similar time
in, at a similar moment in time,and so I thought, oh, that's
interesting.
So I kind of started stalkingCharity and found out she has a
(02:56):
ministry called Hope Words,which I think is a good
complement to Kus words.
So we'll give you the hope andI'll give you the Kus um anyway.
So she's one of those peoplethat I've never actually met in
real life, but I kind of feellike I know her in a way, and we
run with a lot of the samepeople, we love a lot of the
(03:19):
same people and run in similarcircles.
So I want you to get to knowCharity Williams, and we're
going to be talking today aboutkingdom creativity and
co-creating with God, and Ican't think of a better person
to talk to about this topic thanCharity Williams.
So, Charity, thanks so much forhopping on Today's Kus Word
(03:42):
with me today.
Charity (03:44):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
I love that you, low key,stalked me.
Michele (03:51):
Yes, yeah, you have a super stalkable social media
presence because it's so fun,it's so artistic, it's so
colorful and creative, and I'mgoing to give you guys all of
(04:16):
her social media links so youcan go stalk her as well,
because she's super stalkable.
So, Charity, I want to get toknow you a little bit better and
I want the people who listen tothis show get to know you a
little bit better.
So tell us the story behindHope Words, how it got started,
or even just a little bit aboutyou and how you got started in
your journey.
Charity (04:35):
Yeah, sure, so I guess I'll kind of do both.
I've always kind of been.
I've always been creative,since I was a little person, you
know, just always drawing,always doing something creative,
crocheting, you know, creatingwith my hands, whatever it could
be.
As I grew up, that kind offaded, because I grew up and I
(05:07):
was like, well, this isn't asimportant, so kind of had
seasons where, you know, it gotshelved for a while and it got
put aside and then it would comeback out and then it would go
back on the shelf, and so it'sjust kind of one of those things
.
But in 2017, I got super sickand I landed myself in the ICU
for five days.
I stopped breathing and it wassuper crazy, but God, you know,
(05:35):
has restored my life since then.
You know it's been a journeyover the last eight years of
healing and you know, overcominganxiety and panic and
depression and all of thesethings that came with that
trauma.
But in that time, I startedpainting shoes, as you know, and
you know I was sitting in mykitchen one day and I was
(05:56):
looking at my feet and I wasdepressed and I was like God,
like you know, I had just thosemoments where I was like it
would have been better if Iwouldn't have made it like this
is so hard.
You know, my kids would havecould have moved on, my husband
could have moved on, theywouldn't be stuck with this
vegetable of a woman in theirhouse.
Just, you know, I felt like Iwas just weighing everybody down
(06:16):
because I was just stuck.
I was just not well and Godtold me he's like I want you to
go to the craft store and I wantyou to get a pair of shoes and
I want you to paint hope on thembecause you need hope.
And so I grabbed this pair ofshoes, my first ones, and I drew
flames on the toe and I wrotecourage.
(06:38):
You know, like I have courage,you know.
And so I just wrote all thesewords and all these vibrant
colors that were just soopposite of what I was feeling,
so opposite of what I wasexperiencing, because I needed,
I needed hope.
I needed hope on my shoesbecause I was looking down so
much.
And so Hope Shoes was born andI went on to have the
(07:00):
opportunity to paint lots ofdifferent shoes for lots of
different people around the US,and that was super amazing.
And then it's kind of morphedinto Hope Words, and I guess the
vision behind Hope Words iswords of hope.
You know it started with theshoes.
(07:21):
Words of hope.
I've always been my husbandcalls it a fonter so I always
love to draw, lettering, I loveto font, I love.
You know, words have alwaysbeen, I mean, even when I was a
little kid.
They've always been soimportant to me.
And so you know, Hope Words,it's the words of hope, and then
(07:42):
also hope words in the sense ofmoving toward hope.
Jesus is our hope, he's ouranchor, and so we're going
toward hope, we're going hopewords, you know, in every step
that we're taking.
And so that's where Hope Wordskind of came from.
And you know it exists to helppeople encounter God, to
(08:03):
experience Him firsthand forthemselves, to experience His
healing, to reignite theircreativity, to tap back into
that creativity that heimprinted on their DNA when they
were, you know, formed in theirmother's womb, and to uncover
that, discover that again, andthen to help them walk in that
(08:26):
purpose, help them walk fromthat place of who am I, that
identity of who God says thatthey are.
And so, yeah, so that's what weare, that's what we do.
Michele (08:39):
I love that, and I had no idea about the play on words
with hope words, like movingforward toward hope.
That is so cool.
Yeah, so tell me a little bitabout your personal walk with
(09:02):
God and how that how you feellike that shaped your, just your
creative journey.
Charity (09:03):
I've always been creative.
It's always been there, youknow, and God has.
I was raised in a Christianhome and so I was raised knowing
that God was there and wasavailable and was my friend,
went through seasons as a kiddothat you know, God was my only
friend.
You know, my siblings are mucholder than me and there weren't
(09:26):
really kids in the church that Igrew up in and so I was alone a
lot.
I thought, you know, but I knewGod was with me.
I didn't have language for Ididn't have language for what I
did, but I would always findmyself talking to God.
You know, it was just like,like I remember being little and
(09:48):
just like swinging on my, myswing set in the backyard and
giggling because God told me afunny joke and I was like you
know, and it was just like Ididn't, I didn't know what was
happening, I didn't, I didn'thave language for it, I didn't
understand.
I just knew that God was realand that like he actually talked
to me and I didn't know if hetalked to other people like that
(10:11):
.
I cause I had no grid and um,you know, so we would, we would
sit and we would draw and, likeI could, just I could feel Him
around me, I could feel Hispresence, I could feel His
delight.
You know, as a child, and Iwould sit in church and I would
see somebody and I would likeI'm going to draw them a picture
(10:31):
.
They need something, you know,they need some encouragement.
So I would color a picture ordraw a picture and then I would
go give it to them.
I had no idea what I was doing,I was just, I was just
listening, you know, I was justplaying with Jesus, I was just
being in his presence.
And so, you know, as I've grownup, kind of like the creativity
(10:52):
, like I said earlier, ebbs andflows where, you know, I've felt
super close and super like Godis accessible, he's right here,
and then had those times whereI'm like God is so far away and
there's no way he could love me.
I'm just, you know, evil,wicked, sinner that I am, you
know those types of mindsetsthat we get ourselves in
sometimes and it's like so thatyou know, the walk has been that
(11:16):
, but God is so faithful and ithas formed my creativity because
, you know, he made me creative.
He made me creative from dayone to want to create, to want
to be in His presence, to wantto, you know, bless other people
with the creativity that he putin me.
And you know, now I understandwhat he was doing.
(11:38):
You know, I understand now whatwas happening, but I didn't
have a grid for it until I wasan adult.
So, yeah, it's just kind of.
I was thinking about thequestion and I was like you know
how the Trinity is like oneLike I feel like me and God and
creativity is just like thisball.
It's just like one, like I feellike I feel like me and God and
(11:59):
creativity is just like thisball.
It's just like one like we justkind of move together and it's
always been, it's just alwaysbeen that way.
I don't know.
So I don't know if that reallyanswers the question, but that
was just what I thought of it'slike we're one, it's always been
, we've always been.
Yeah, so yeah.
Michele (12:18):
I love that and I love that you said that you would
draw pictures for people if youfelt like they needed something.
It's almost like you knew, evenas a child, prophetically, like
this person needs a word ofencouragement, or you know
whatever it is, like you weremoving in the prophetic and
didn't even know it.
(12:39):
I had no idea.
Yeah, didn't even have that language when you were that
age.
Charity (12:47):
No, not until I was an adult and I went to a creativity
class that was kingdomcreativity and I learned.
I was like, oh, that's a thing.
I did that when I was little.
That's amazing.
So, it's crazy yeah.
Michele (13:01):
Yeah.
So I have to ask so why is itthat creativity is essential to
the kingdom, and how doeskingdom creativity, so you said
you went to a class on kingdomcreativity, so how is, maybe we
(13:23):
would say like creativity in theworld?
Charity (13:25):
Yeah, no, I think I think you know.
First, creativity is essentialto the kingdom because, you know
, back in Genesis, like, Godmade us in His likeness and His
image, right, he formed us inthat way.
So from the very beginning hemade us creatives, he made
(13:47):
everybody with that creative DNAimprinted on us, imprinted on
our hearts and our minds.
We were made to create, we weremade to reflect Him, to be like
Him, to have His likeness andin His image.
And he calls us to havedominion and be fruitful.
(14:11):
And so it's like that's fromthe very beginning.
It's so important.
And as kingdom creatives we getto partner with Him and you
know we get to.
I always say, you know, I lookto see what heaven is saying or
doing, and so that is that'skingdom.
I always say, you know, I lookto see what heaven is saying or
doing, and so that is that'skingdom creativity it's God.
(14:31):
What are you doing?
What are you saying?
Where are you in the room?
What are you moving on in thismoment?
And how do I partner with that?
How do I co-create with you inthat?
How do I, you know, how do Ibecome that conduit from heaven
to earth?
Through my hands, through mywords, through my hug even.
You know I'm known at churchfor my hugs because I'm like you
(14:55):
know what?
Okay, every time I hug someoneI want heaven to come through me
and encounter their heart sothey feel God's love through me.
It's not about me, it's notabout my arms, it's about being
that conduit from heaven toearth.
And so you know that goes intokingdom creativity, that goes
into just being a kingdom, youknow, person.
God did give creativity toeveryone He created right, it's
(15:20):
in the beginning.
He made man in His likeness andHis image.
So everyone, no matter ifthey're following God or not,
creativity is, it is.
And so the difference betweenkingdom creativity and the
world's creativity is that theydon't yet know their true
identity.
(15:40):
They don't yet know Him in theway that brings life.
That brings that you know.
Know Him in the way that bringslife.
That brings that you know thereare, I mean, you see so much
creativity in the world and it'sjust, it's mind-boggling, but
they don't yet know how topartner with Holy Spirit and
they don't yet know how toabsolutely just shift the
(16:01):
atmosphere the way that Goddesigned that creativity to do.
And so you know it looksdifferent, because when kingdom
creatives create, we actuallyshift.
We actually shift the world andwe're bringing heaven to earth
and we're, you know, we'remanifesting His presence and we
(16:23):
get to draw other people intothe kingdom and get them to
begin to create too.
So, yeah, it's super importantand it is very different.
You know, I was thinking too.
You know the enemy can't create, right?
So he was a created being.
(16:43):
He is not capable of creatingsomething and he wasn't made in
God's likeness and His image.
So he loves to try to stealthat creativity and use it for
His kingdom.
And when we create, we createby the Spirit, whether it's Holy
(17:06):
Spirit or whether it's, youknow, the world's spirit.
And I'm not saying thateverybody that doesn't know
Jesus is evil, wicked.
I'm not saying that at all.
They're not filled with Satan.
That's not what I'm saying.
But there's two kingdoms, right?
So when we, as kingdom creatives, create from Holy Spirit, Holy
(17:26):
Spirit manifests on the earthand those that create not from
that place of knowing HolySpirit, you know it's just kind
of false.
You know it just is kind of.
It kind of is.
Sometimes it is dark, sometimesit is used for, you know,
Satan's glory, if you want tocall it that.
But he loves to.
He loves to lie to us and tellus that creativity doesn't
(17:49):
matter.
And I think that's one thingthat I struggled with, you know,
kind of a lot.
You know, growing up was, oh,it's just a hobby, oh, it's just
silly, oh it's just childish,oh, it's just.
You know, I'd always have somereason as to why I shouldn't be
creative until I realized thatit's a lie.
You know, I'm like Satan isjust trying so hard to get to
(18:12):
stop me from doing the one thingof reflecting God's image and
likeness on the earth, like hedoesn't want that.
So of course he wants to shutthat off.
And so, yeah, it's absolutelyimperative that we're creating,
you know, co-creating with Godand bringing the kingdom to the
earth.
Michele (18:30):
Yeah, and I love this phrase that you use co-creating
with God because I think that'sa new perspective for a lot of
people, like even people who arehighly creative in the kingdom.
A lot of times, just think ofit as I'm going to use my
creativity for God, right, orI'm going to do this for the
(18:53):
kingdom, but don't necessarilysee it as I'm co-creating with
God.
And I love some of the stuffyou were saying about tapping
into what is heaven doing, whatis heaven saying, what does God
want to release on the earth andhow can I partner with him to
release that on the earth?
Do you want to say more about?
Charity (19:13):
Yeah, co-creating is.
It's just, it really is comingfrom that place of our identity
in Christ.
You know who he says we are andcoming from that place of that
position of authority.
You know where.
You know it says we're seatedin heavenly places, where we're
(19:34):
beings that live in two realmsat one time.
You know which is that newcreation that he made us.
When we come into the kingdom,when we receive Jesus, when we
are filled with the Holy Spirit,you know we're made a new
creation and the Bible says thatwe're seated in heavenly places
and we also live on the earth.
So when we are co-creating withHim, like I said earlier, we're
(19:59):
literally bringing heaven toearth, we're literally
partnering with Him.
So you know, I used to strugglebecause I would see, I'm a seer,
so I see in the spirit.
I see, you know, pictures orwords or whatever just kind of
blip across my imagination andit's like a video a lot of times
(20:20):
, and I would get so frustratedtrying to co-create with him
because I would get stuck and Iwould go, ah, what I see in my
mind, what I see is so beautifuland so wonderful, and then I
take it to the page and it lookslike a two-year-old drew it.
I'm like I don't understand.
(20:42):
You know, I get so stuck onthat like perfection of wanting
to just make it so perfect forhim, because I wanted to, I
wanted to honor him, I wanted tomake, you know, make it, make
it look beautiful, and and hetold me one day I was, I was
just kind of I don't like this,and he was like.
He was like you know, what yousee in your mind is what I show
(21:03):
you, and what comes out on yourpaper gets to look like you!
Like you're co-creating with me.
It gets to look like you too,and so I think that just set me
free from that like thatperspective of perfection and
comparison.
It's like I don't, I don't haveto be, you know, the best
artist in the world, I don'thave to be the greatest, I don't
(21:24):
, I don't, I don't, I just getto look like me.
And I think, you know, creatingwith Him is coming from that
place of like that intimateintimacy with Him, that place of
you know, God just flow throughme and you know, and I think,
too, we can get into that.
You're saying creating for God,and we can get into that place
(21:47):
of striving really easily, whereI'm going to do this for God,
I'm going to do that for God,I'm going to, you know, and it
just becomes all about works andstriving and almost trying to
earn.
It just becomes all about worksand striving and almost trying
to earn our place with Him, hisstamp of approval on our life
Like God.
Do you love my picture?
Is it good enough?
And he's like, of course it is.
(22:09):
It looks like you.
And so I think when he begins toheal our hearts, we begin to
understand that it's arelationship.
It's not about works andworking for Him and you know
being busy bustling for Him butit comes from that place of
resting in Him and Him movingthrough us.
(22:31):
And so I think that's reallywhat that co-creating is is like
God, you love me so much thatyou show me so much.
You show me these amazing,beautiful, wonderful things and
I get to co-create on the earthand I get to bring heaven to
earth and it gets to look likeme.
I mean, how wonderful is that?
(22:52):
You know, instead of looking atit and going, oh, it doesn't
look like what I wanted it tolook like.
It's like actually I love it.
You know it might look like atwo-year-old drew it, but that's
okay because it looks like meand I'm fun and I'm.
I think it's just important tojust come from that place of
like rest, resting in Him.
You're not striving to earn,you're resting by knowing and
(23:16):
you're resting in that identityand it's pleasurable, it's
delightful to co-create with Himand it takes the pressure off.
You know, it takes thatpressure off of like I have to
be something, I have to dosomething, I have to show up and
be amazing.
It's like I just get to be meand I just get to release the
kingdom.
(23:36):
And how exciting is that.
You know how freeing is that tojust there's no pressure on me.
You know it's like I just getto play, I just get to be and
it's enough.
Michele (23:47):
I love this interview.
You just get to play, you justget to be, and that is enough.
And that is what I got for youtoday, my friend.
Isn't Charity great?
I hope you loved this firstpart of our Kingdom Creativity
teaching series and my firstpodcast interview and if you
(24:11):
loved it, make sure you share itwith a friend and make sure you
connect with Charity andeverything she's doing.
I've dropped links to herwebsite and all of her socials
down in the show notes, so besure to check those out, and
Charity goes live and does a15-minute teaching every
(24:32):
Wednesday on her Hope WordsFacebook page.
So make sure you check that outfor more nuggets of wisdom and
inspiration from Charity, andkeep an eye out for her brand
new Hope Words podcast, which Iheard is launching soon, and
part two of our conversation isgoing to continue next week.
(24:55):
So make sure you're followingthis podcast on your favorite
platform so you don't miss it.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on Today's Kus Word and I
will see you again next time.
It's Friyay, June 13th, and this is Today's Kus Word.
Welcome to Today's Kus Word.
I'm Michele Kus, your spiritualgrowth coach, and we are
launching into a super fun newseries on kingdom creativity and
co-creating with God.
(00:20):
I'm doing my very first podcastinterview.
You don't want to miss it.
Hello, hello.
Well, I was away in Georgia onvacation, but I'm back and I am
so excited to share with you myvery first podcast interview
where you will meet my friend,Charity Williams, who's the
founder of a creative and superencouraging ministry called Hope
(00:45):
Words, and in this interviewshe is dropping some incredible
nuggets of inspiration.
I'm actually going to break theinterview up into several
episodes because there's so manygolden nuggets.
I don't want you to miss any ofthem.
So here is the firstinstallment of my interview with
(01:05):
Charity Williams.
I hope you love it.
Welcome to Today's Kus Word.
I'm your host, Michele Kus, andI have a very special treat for
you.
Today I'm doing my very firstpodcast interview.
I have never done a podcastinterview before and it's always
just been me teaching ortalking or leading you in
(01:26):
meditations or putting randomsongs up, and I felt a couple
weeks ago kind of a nudge fromthe Holy Spirit to start
interviewing people that I thinkthat the Lord wants more people
to know and some hidden gems,if you will, and so I prayed
(01:49):
about it, and the first personwho popped to mind is the person
on with me today, who isCharity Williams, and which is
funny because Charity and I havenever actually met in real life
.
We know each other by via socialmedia probably, like a lot of
(02:11):
you do.
And it's one of those things,though, like do you ever connect
with somebody on social mediaand you kind of low key stalk
them?
That was me with CharityWilliams.
I kind of low-key stalked herfor a while because I remember
one of the early posts she hadpainted a pair of shoes with all
(02:34):
these encouraging words allover the shoes and my daughter,
ironically, had done somethingvery similar at a similar time
in, at a similar moment in time,and so I thought, oh, that's
interesting.
So I kind of started stalkingCharity and found out she has a
(02:56):
ministry called Hope Words,which I think is a good
complement to Kus words.
So we'll give you the hope andI'll give you the Kus um anyway.
So she's one of those peoplethat I've never actually met in
real life, but I kind of feellike I know her in a way, and we
run with a lot of the samepeople, we love a lot of the
(03:19):
same people and run in similarcircles.
So I want you to get to knowCharity Williams, and we're
going to be talking today aboutkingdom creativity and
co-creating with God, and Ican't think of a better person
to talk to about this topic thanCharity Williams.
So, Charity, thanks so much forhopping on Today's Kus Word
(03:42):
with me today.
Charity (03:44):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
I love that you, low key,stalked me.
Michele (03:51):
Yes, yeah, you have a super stalkable social media
presence because it's so fun,it's so artistic, it's so
colorful and creative, and I'mgoing to give you guys all of
(04:16):
her social media links so youcan go stalk her as well,
because she's super stalkable.
So, Charity, I want to get toknow you a little bit better and
I want the people who listen tothis show get to know you a
little bit better.
So tell us the story behindHope Words, how it got started,
or even just a little bit aboutyou and how you got started in
your journey.
Charity (04:35):
Yeah, sure, so I guess I'll kind of do both.
I've always kind of been.
I've always been creative,since I was a little person, you
know, just always drawing,always doing something creative,
crocheting, you know, creatingwith my hands, whatever it could
be.
As I grew up, that kind offaded, because I grew up and I
(05:07):
was like, well, this isn't asimportant, so kind of had
seasons where, you know, it gotshelved for a while and it got
put aside and then it would comeback out and then it would go
back on the shelf, and so it'sjust kind of one of those things
.
But in 2017, I got super sickand I landed myself in the ICU
for five days.
I stopped breathing and it wassuper crazy, but God, you know,
(05:35):
has restored my life since then.
You know it's been a journeyover the last eight years of
healing and you know, overcominganxiety and panic and
depression and all of thesethings that came with that
trauma.
But in that time, I startedpainting shoes, as you know, and
you know I was sitting in mykitchen one day and I was
(05:56):
looking at my feet and I wasdepressed and I was like God,
like you know, I had just thosemoments where I was like it
would have been better if Iwouldn't have made it like this
is so hard.
You know, my kids would havecould have moved on, my husband
could have moved on, theywouldn't be stuck with this
vegetable of a woman in theirhouse.
Just, you know, I felt like Iwas just weighing everybody down
(06:16):
because I was just stuck.
I was just not well and Godtold me he's like I want you to
go to the craft store and I wantyou to get a pair of shoes and
I want you to paint hope on thembecause you need hope.
And so I grabbed this pair ofshoes, my first ones, and I drew
flames on the toe and I wrotecourage.
(06:38):
You know, like I have courage,you know.
And so I just wrote all thesewords and all these vibrant
colors that were just soopposite of what I was feeling,
so opposite of what I wasexperiencing, because I needed,
I needed hope.
I needed hope on my shoesbecause I was looking down so
much.
And so Hope Shoes was born andI went on to have the
(07:00):
opportunity to paint lots ofdifferent shoes for lots of
different people around the US,and that was super amazing.
And then it's kind of morphedinto Hope Words, and I guess the
vision behind Hope Words iswords of hope.
You know it started with theshoes.
(07:21):
Words of hope.
I've always been my husbandcalls it a fonter so I always
love to draw, lettering, I loveto font, I love.
You know, words have alwaysbeen, I mean, even when I was a
little kid.
They've always been soimportant to me.
And so you know, Hope Words,it's the words of hope, and then
(07:42):
also hope words in the sense ofmoving toward hope.
Jesus is our hope, he's ouranchor, and so we're going
toward hope, we're going hopewords, you know, in every step
that we're taking.
And so that's where Hope Wordskind of came from.
And you know it exists to helppeople encounter God, to
(08:03):
experience Him firsthand forthemselves, to experience His
healing, to reignite theircreativity, to tap back into
that creativity that heimprinted on their DNA when they
were, you know, formed in theirmother's womb, and to uncover
that, discover that again, andthen to help them walk in that
(08:26):
purpose, help them walk fromthat place of who am I, that
identity of who God says thatthey are.
And so, yeah, so that's what weare, that's what we do.
Michele (08:39):
I love that, and I had no idea about the play on words
with hope words, like movingforward toward hope.
That is so cool.
Yeah, so tell me a little bitabout your personal walk with
(09:02):
God and how that how you feellike that shaped your, just your
creative journey.
Charity (09:03):
I've always been creative.
It's always been there, youknow, and God has.
I was raised in a Christianhome and so I was raised knowing
that God was there and wasavailable and was my friend,
went through seasons as a kiddothat you know, God was my only
friend.
You know, my siblings are mucholder than me and there weren't
(09:26):
really kids in the church that Igrew up in and so I was alone a
lot.
I thought, you know, but I knewGod was with me.
I didn't have language for Ididn't have language for what I
did, but I would always findmyself talking to God.
You know, it was just like,like I remember being little and
(09:48):
just like swinging on my, myswing set in the backyard and
giggling because God told me afunny joke and I was like you
know, and it was just like Ididn't, I didn't know what was
happening, I didn't, I didn'thave language for it, I didn't
understand.
I just knew that God was realand that like he actually talked
to me and I didn't know if hetalked to other people like that
(10:11):
.
I cause I had no grid and um,you know, so we would, we would
sit and we would draw and, likeI could, just I could feel Him
around me, I could feel Hispresence, I could feel His
delight.
You know, as a child, and Iwould sit in church and I would
see somebody and I would likeI'm going to draw them a picture
(10:31):
.
They need something, you know,they need some encouragement.
So I would color a picture ordraw a picture and then I would
go give it to them.
I had no idea what I was doing,I was just, I was just
listening, you know, I was justplaying with Jesus, I was just
being in his presence.
And so, you know, as I've grownup, kind of like the creativity
(10:52):
, like I said earlier, ebbs andflows where, you know, I've felt
super close and super like Godis accessible, he's right here,
and then had those times whereI'm like God is so far away and
there's no way he could love me.
I'm just, you know, evil,wicked, sinner that I am, you
know those types of mindsetsthat we get ourselves in
sometimes and it's like so thatyou know, the walk has been that
(11:16):
, but God is so faithful and ithas formed my creativity because
, you know, he made me creative.
He made me creative from dayone to want to create, to want
to be in His presence, to wantto, you know, bless other people
with the creativity that he putin me.
And you know, now I understandwhat he was doing.
(11:38):
You know, I understand now whatwas happening, but I didn't
have a grid for it until I wasan adult.
So, yeah, it's just kind of.
I was thinking about thequestion and I was like you know
how the Trinity is like oneLike I feel like me and God and
creativity is just like thisball.
It's just like one, like I feellike I feel like me and God and
(11:59):
creativity is just like thisball.
It's just like one like we justkind of move together and it's
always been, it's just alwaysbeen that way.
I don't know.
So I don't know if that reallyanswers the question, but that
was just what I thought of it'slike we're one, it's always been
, we've always been.
Yeah, so yeah.
Michele (12:18):
I love that and I love that you said that you would
draw pictures for people if youfelt like they needed something.
It's almost like you knew, evenas a child, prophetically, like
this person needs a word ofencouragement, or you know
whatever it is, like you weremoving in the prophetic and
didn't even know it.
(12:39):
I had no idea.
Yeah, didn't even have that language when you were that
age.
Charity (12:47):
No, not until I was an adult and I went to a creativity
class that was kingdomcreativity and I learned.
I was like, oh, that's a thing.
I did that when I was little.
That's amazing.
So, it's crazy yeah.
Michele (13:01):
Yeah.
So I have to ask so why is itthat creativity is essential to
the kingdom, and how doeskingdom creativity, so you said
you went to a class on kingdomcreativity, so how is, maybe we
(13:23):
would say like creativity in theworld?
Charity (13:25):
Yeah, no, I think I think you know.
First, creativity is essentialto the kingdom because, you know
, back in Genesis, like, Godmade us in His likeness and His
image, right, he formed us inthat way.
So from the very beginning hemade us creatives, he made
(13:47):
everybody with that creative DNAimprinted on us, imprinted on
our hearts and our minds.
We were made to create, we weremade to reflect Him, to be like
Him, to have His likeness andin His image.
And he calls us to havedominion and be fruitful.
(14:11):
And so it's like that's fromthe very beginning.
It's so important.
And as kingdom creatives we getto partner with Him and you
know we get to.
I always say, you know, I lookto see what heaven is saying or
doing, and so that is that'skingdom.
I always say, you know, I lookto see what heaven is saying or
doing, and so that is that'skingdom creativity it's God.
(14:31):
What are you doing?
What are you saying?
Where are you in the room?
What are you moving on in thismoment?
And how do I partner with that?
How do I co-create with you inthat?
How do I, you know, how do Ibecome that conduit from heaven
to earth?
Through my hands, through mywords, through my hug even.
You know I'm known at churchfor my hugs because I'm like you
(14:55):
know what?
Okay, every time I hug someoneI want heaven to come through me
and encounter their heart sothey feel God's love through me.
It's not about me, it's notabout my arms, it's about being
that conduit from heaven toearth.
And so you know that goes intokingdom creativity, that goes
into just being a kingdom, youknow, person.
God did give creativity toeveryone He created right, it's
(15:20):
in the beginning.
He made man in His likeness andHis image.
So everyone, no matter ifthey're following God or not,
creativity is, it is.
And so the difference betweenkingdom creativity and the
world's creativity is that theydon't yet know their true
identity.
(15:40):
They don't yet know Him in theway that brings life.
That brings that you know.
Know Him in the way that bringslife.
That brings that you know thereare, I mean, you see so much
creativity in the world and it'sjust, it's mind-boggling, but
they don't yet know how topartner with Holy Spirit and
they don't yet know how toabsolutely just shift the
(16:01):
atmosphere the way that Goddesigned that creativity to do.
And so you know it looksdifferent, because when kingdom
creatives create, we actuallyshift.
We actually shift the world andwe're bringing heaven to earth
and we're, you know, we'remanifesting His presence and we
(16:23):
get to draw other people intothe kingdom and get them to
begin to create too.
So, yeah, it's super importantand it is very different.
You know, I was thinking too.
You know the enemy can't create, right?
So he was a created being.
(16:43):
He is not capable of creatingsomething and he wasn't made in
God's likeness and His image.
So he loves to try to stealthat creativity and use it for
His kingdom.
And when we create, we createby the Spirit, whether it's Holy
(17:06):
Spirit or whether it's, youknow, the world's spirit.
And I'm not saying thateverybody that doesn't know
Jesus is evil, wicked.
I'm not saying that at all.
They're not filled with Satan.
That's not what I'm saying.
But there's two kingdoms, right?
So when we, as kingdom creatives, create from Holy Spirit, Holy
(17:26):
Spirit manifests on the earthand those that create not from
that place of knowing HolySpirit, you know it's just kind
of false.
You know it just is kind of.
It kind of is.
Sometimes it is dark, sometimesit is used for, you know,
Satan's glory, if you want tocall it that.
But he loves to.
He loves to lie to us and tellus that creativity doesn't
(17:49):
matter.
And I think that's one thingthat I struggled with, you know,
kind of a lot.
You know, growing up was, oh,it's just a hobby, oh, it's just
silly, oh it's just childish,oh, it's just.
You know, I'd always have somereason as to why I shouldn't be
creative until I realized thatit's a lie.
You know, I'm like Satan isjust trying so hard to get to
(18:12):
stop me from doing the one thingof reflecting God's image and
likeness on the earth, like hedoesn't want that.
So of course he wants to shutthat off.
And so, yeah, it's absolutelyimperative that we're creating,
you know, co-creating with Godand bringing the kingdom to the
earth.
Michele (18:30):
Yeah, and I love this phrase that you use co-creating
with God because I think that'sa new perspective for a lot of
people, like even people who arehighly creative in the kingdom.
A lot of times, just think ofit as I'm going to use my
creativity for God, right, orI'm going to do this for the
(18:53):
kingdom, but don't necessarilysee it as I'm co-creating with
God.
And I love some of the stuffyou were saying about tapping
into what is heaven doing, whatis heaven saying, what does God
want to release on the earth andhow can I partner with him to
release that on the earth?
Do you want to say more about?
Charity (19:13):
Yeah, co-creating is.
It's just, it really is comingfrom that place of our identity
in Christ.
You know who he says we are andcoming from that place of that
position of authority.
You know where.
You know it says we're seatedin heavenly places, where we're
(19:34):
beings that live in two realmsat one time.
You know which is that newcreation that he made us.
When we come into the kingdom,when we receive Jesus, when we
are filled with the Holy Spirit,you know we're made a new
creation and the Bible says thatwe're seated in heavenly places
and we also live on the earth.
So when we are co-creating withHim, like I said earlier, we're
(19:59):
literally bringing heaven toearth, we're literally
partnering with Him.
So you know, I used to strugglebecause I would see, I'm a seer,
so I see in the spirit.
I see, you know, pictures orwords or whatever just kind of
blip across my imagination andit's like a video a lot of times
(20:20):
, and I would get so frustratedtrying to co-create with him
because I would get stuck and Iwould go, ah, what I see in my
mind, what I see is so beautifuland so wonderful, and then I
take it to the page and it lookslike a two-year-old drew it.
I'm like I don't understand.
(20:42):
You know, I get so stuck onthat like perfection of wanting
to just make it so perfect forhim, because I wanted to, I
wanted to honor him, I wanted tomake, you know, make it, make
it look beautiful, and and hetold me one day I was, I was
just kind of I don't like this,and he was like.
He was like you know, what yousee in your mind is what I show
(21:03):
you, and what comes out on yourpaper gets to look like you!
Like you're co-creating with me.
It gets to look like you too,and so I think that just set me
free from that like thatperspective of perfection and
comparison.
It's like I don't, I don't haveto be, you know, the best
artist in the world, I don'thave to be the greatest, I don't
(21:24):
, I don't, I don't, I just getto look like me.
And I think, you know, creatingwith Him is coming from that
place of like that intimateintimacy with Him, that place of
you know, God just flow throughme and you know, and I think,
too, we can get into that.
You're saying creating for God,and we can get into that place
(21:47):
of striving really easily, whereI'm going to do this for God,
I'm going to do that for God,I'm going to, you know, and it
just becomes all about works andstriving and almost trying to
earn.
It just becomes all about worksand striving and almost trying
to earn our place with Him, hisstamp of approval on our life
Like God.
Do you love my picture?
Is it good enough?
And he's like, of course it is.
(22:09):
It looks like you.
And so I think when he begins toheal our hearts, we begin to
understand that it's arelationship.
It's not about works andworking for Him and you know
being busy bustling for Him butit comes from that place of
resting in Him and Him movingthrough us.
(22:31):
And so I think that's reallywhat that co-creating is is like
God, you love me so much thatyou show me so much.
You show me these amazing,beautiful, wonderful things and
I get to co-create on the earthand I get to bring heaven to
earth and it gets to look likeme.
I mean, how wonderful is that?
(22:52):
You know, instead of looking atit and going, oh, it doesn't
look like what I wanted it tolook like.
It's like actually I love it.
You know it might look like atwo-year-old drew it, but that's
okay because it looks like meand I'm fun and I'm.
I think it's just important tojust come from that place of
like rest, resting in Him.
You're not striving to earn,you're resting by knowing and
(23:16):
you're resting in that identityand it's pleasurable, it's
delightful to co-create with Himand it takes the pressure off.
You know, it takes thatpressure off of like I have to
be something, I have to dosomething, I have to show up and
be amazing.
It's like I just get to be meand I just get to release the
kingdom.
(23:36):
And how exciting is that.
You know how freeing is that tojust there's no pressure on me.
You know it's like I just getto play, I just get to be and
it's enough.
Michele (23:47):
I love this interview.
You just get to play, you justget to be, and that is enough.
And that is what I got for youtoday, my friend.
Isn't Charity great?
I hope you loved this firstpart of our Kingdom Creativity
teaching series and my firstpodcast interview and if you
(24:11):
loved it, make sure you share itwith a friend and make sure you
connect with Charity andeverything she's doing.
I've dropped links to herwebsite and all of her socials
down in the show notes, so besure to check those out, and
Charity goes live and does a15-minute teaching every
(24:32):
Wednesday on her Hope WordsFacebook page.
So make sure you check that outfor more nuggets of wisdom and
inspiration from Charity, andkeep an eye out for her brand
new Hope Words podcast, which Iheard is launching soon, and
part two of our conversation isgoing to continue next week.
(24:55):
So make sure you're followingthis podcast on your favorite
platform so you don't miss it.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on Today's Kus Word and I
will see you again next time.
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