THOUGHTS FROM MY CURRENT JOURNEY: PROPHETIC ART
Ah, prophetic art.
What does that even mean?
I know there are a few definitions and discussions around. I've been on a bit of a quest recently to create some specific pieces as well as doing some exploring just to see what I can do, and I've decided that ALL my art is prophetic!
Let me explain.
Some of my art has been prophetic in the sense of releasing an image of something I believe God is doing or wanting to say, or creating something that speaks of Him and the kingdom. I believe it goes deeper than that though.
This started when I was released to create some art for around the YWAM base where I live and serve. It's a vulnerable thing for someone who doesn't consider themselves an 'artist' to have their work hanging around the place - but that's a different 'thought from the journey'! I soon found though that I had 'extra' ideas. Things I wanted to try, not for a specific piece or purpose, but just to see what would happen when I mixed those colors, or how I could create this effect, or what it would look like to try that technique. One afternoon in particular, I just wanted to see a particular color palette on a canvas. As a side note, it turned out to be one of my favorite things and became a piece I've chosen to hang in one of the rooms.
That's when God spoke to me about the significance of art in my current season.
I say again, I'm not an artist in the sense of being able to create amazing visual pieces. I AM creative though because I am made in the image of the Creator, but it is usually expressed in different ways. But I digress.
That afternoon, I was tired, I didn't feel like doing much, I'd had a week of hospital visits with diagnoses and porgnoses you don't want to hear. It's nothing new. It's been two years of health stuff, with issues that are significant both in terms of mortality and morbidity. It's a lot fo focus or thought about death, struggle, incapacity and all that kind of thing. And yet, in the middle of it, I found myself - not a painter, not a greatly skilled, talented visual artist or anything - wanted to paint. Wanting to experiment. Wanting to do something for no other reason but to create.
No other reason but to create.
To make something. To see something evolve on a canvas. TO BRING LIFE.
And there it was. I understood something of the significance of me being given the freedom to pursue the project at the base, and of my desire to take that beyond. Something in me wanted to create. In a season where so much focus was on death and destruction and tiredness and inability, my spirit said 'but, LIFE". That voice of God which speaks and ministers truth and desires life in fullness and healing and health and wholeness, and that brings life and joy and dancing to mourning, was stirring something in me that I didn't know, and saying "LIFE".
When I create something and give life to a vision or thought, I am coming in the opposite spirit to the one that is operating on my physical body. I am coming against the spirit behind the words and diagnoses and prognoses (I should say, my medical team is NOT negative or horrible....it's just the reality that we have to talk about a lot of stuff that isn't fun!) and way of living of the last two years. I am saying that in the middle of what the enemy would use to bring death and discouragement, I will continue to give life to something, and try new things. That desire has continued. Yes, the project will also continue, but so does something in me that often just wants to push through the tiredness and dread of tidying up (yes, that's a real thing that has often prevented me from doing more creative things) and just MAKE. God has dropped ideas into my head to bless others that involve being creative and making something (individual canvases with a 'word for the year' for the tam here). He has continued to give me ideas and moments of "I wonder if I could....?" He has stretched me with some of the specific art pieces for the base, so I am not just giving life to an image, but birthing new skills.
And so, I believe I can say my art is ALL prophetic - and I believe that's true for many others too, and it's a good thing to recognise its power! One of my next arty projects is doing henna for a friend I know through ministry with refugees and asylum seekers. There are aspects of her culture she misses, longs for, and wishes to engage with. She sent me pictures this week saying she thinks it's beautiful and would like to have hands like that. So I ordered henna, I started imagining, and I invited her over for movies, conversation and some henna painting. It's not prophetic in the sense of presenting something of the kingdom....but it IS prophetic, because once again, in a season of life I am making a physical representation and gesture that says IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SHADOW I WILL CHOOSE LIGHT AND LIFE. I will continue to birth new things and bring life, and create.
I wonder if that's partly why art therapy is so effective? Often people have been through situations that involve trauma and destruction and even death. Maybe it's not just about the release or the expression, but it's about the very act coming against that spirit, and saying 'BUT LIFE". I don't know if what I share is accurate, or if it resonates with you, but I know I will continue to allow that urge to create to rise up, and to choose creating to be part of my health journey, and each time I do sit down with paint or pens or pencils (or words, or food or anything else) , I will smile to myself and know that it is significant in the heavenly realm because it is an act that says BUT LIFE.
