Prophetic Art is basically creating art with God, as a partnership, keeping in mind that we are one with Him (Romans 8:17). His Spirit flows through us to inspire and bring either transformation, revelation, or to communicate an aspect of Him as well as a message through the artwork. In this way the artwork has a unique chance to become transformative and a conduit of His grace and presence. The artist will often even find that the process itself and all that has occurred in creating the art piece, has been prophetic - and God through His Spirit has revealed an aspect about Him, about you or shared something on His heart He’d like you to know. You may enjoy the blog articles I’ve created on the process and story behind some pieces of my artwork, such as “The Conqueror”, White Lion, as an example of this. God still speaks to us and our every day activities even through painting as just one of those ways.
Creatives such as visual artists are simply bearing the image of God as creator. Remember, we are created in the image and likeness of God. This first way that God was revealed in Genesis was as creator or in other words, artist. Creativity and the expression of that not only comes to us as a gift from God but as an expression of who He is through us. This is one reason it is vastly important how you express this gift. It ultimately is given to us to expand His Kingdom and be expression of Him. In this way as you create, you are doing so in Spirit and truth. The art and process becomes an expression of worship towards God. It is a way to praise Him. However, the gift given to us by God can and is often used in many ways. We get to choose on this earth how we use the gifts that He has given us. So how are we using it? Is it being used as it was intended by God or not?
For you creatives out there, it may be interesting for you to know that in the Old Testament, the very first individual that was mentioned as being filled with the Spirit of God, were the creatives, namely Bezalel. They were the ones tasked in Exodus 31:3 with the job of creating the tabernacle and Bezalel was the chief artisan. “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Our, of the tribe of Judah (the tribe associated with the praise of God). I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship.” So this indicates here, the importance God places on the creative arts and the partnership He wants us to have with His Spirit.
In terms of defining prophetic art more specifically, we can use scripture to narrow it down as well. Let’s break down what the Bible determines what the gift of prophecy does according to the New Testament. “But [on the other hand] the one who prophesies speaks to people for edification [to promote their spiritual growth] and [speaks words of] encouragement [to uphold and advise them concerning the matters of God] and [speaks words of] consolation [to compassionately comfort them] 1 Corinthians 14:3.
So, prophetic art will often attempt to do the following:
Edify (promoting spiritual growth)
Encourage (to uphold and advise concerning matters of God)
Console and Comfort
However, it can also be used to express various gifts of God's Spirit, such as the knowing of a future event, a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom, so long as it is done through the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). And some prophetic art is intercessory (this means the artwork is a call or pray on behalf of something or someone and may be the sign that God uses to give the knowledge of that need). Again, this can be seen in the story behind, "The Conqueror".
This type of artwork would be done of course in partnership with His Holy Spirit because the gift of prophecy comes from His Spirit. Without that it is merely a person creating something nice, which is fine, but I think of it as buying a basic model of a car or getting one with all of the bells and whistles. God will give you all the bells and whistles because He is the God of abundance and when you ask for something He gives you the best of what He's got. When God’s Spirit is involved, what would be just a nice looking piece of art, now has an impartation to it so to speak. It releases something from God to others, even if the painting isn’t an obvious christian theme or painting (the obvious ones such as the cross, God holding a lamb, the lion of Judah and so on).
Often christian artists will paint obvious themes that others can say, “Oh, I know that is a christian artist or painting.” But God is not always so obvious. Think about the flowers and birds, the intricate and delicate details, the design of the universe. They may not scream, “God is in this” unless you look closely because He leaves much for us to seek Him out and discover how this or that reflect Him. The earth He created and everything in it is an artistic masterpiece that reflects Him, the story of us together with Him, and His love for us. This is the same in prophetic art. He does not need to be overt or obvious. The art piece can be subtle and left for the seeker to find His presence and message in it. And this is how I often work as a prophetic artist. Almost every piece of artwork I create is prophetic. It is my intention everything I sit down to create a work to partner with His Spirit. This allows the opportunity to not only worship Him in the process but the art piece to “edify, encourage, and comfort” whether it is obvious or not. It is up to His Spirit to draw the person in through the art piece. I simply say yes to Him and we create it together.
If we lived in a perfect and not a fallen world, every piece of art we create would be prophetic because it would always be about Him. There is nothing we would do apart from Him because there is no separation. When you are an artist that intentionally creates with God, ultimately every piece you create becomes prophetic because you have no separation. You are one with Him, fully accepted by Him and you fully accept Him. You, your process and art is surrendered to His Spirit. So everything you create is done with His heart, surrendered to His will. And what is that will in terms of artwork? It will always be redemptive, edifying, encouraging, comforting, light, love, truth, hope. It will reflect His very nature and heart.
It can also be overt, having obvious christian themes or Holy Spirit inspired messages with the artwork. You can discover some of those in my Collection called, “Shine Your Light”. Check it out here. Available pieces are on this link.
Ta Ta for now and more later.
Love,
Steph
*If you have more questions or would like to know more about Prophetic art and how this works, please share. I’d love to hear from you! I may just create a series of blog articles on this topic in the future.
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