Art has such a powerful way of breaking through its’ medium of communication to speak to the heart + the soul in meaningful ways. Being an artist is not some frivolous distraction from the so called spiritual things- such as being a pastor or a missionary in the traditional sense. It is a calling. God anoints us to create, not only for his glory but for the simple sake of beauty. There’s no secular vs. sacred here, it is God breathing life and creativity into our voice and our art. Art is in essence deeply spiritual, yet we tend to compartmentalize. We separate what we feel as “serving God” on one side and on the other we cling tightly to our passions, our dreams, our desires not wanting to give up control. When God so deeply wants to co-create with us in those things as well, to anoint us to be a voice of truth and beauty in this world.
“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.”
Have you ever noticed: the very first person who is mentioned as being filled with the spirit of God in scripture was Bezalel, an artist! Not only was he filled with the Spirit of God, the word says God fills him with “ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship.” Woah. As an artist myself, this blows me away. God not only wants to partner with me in my creativity, He wants to anoint me with skill, with craftsmanship. More than ever this makes me open up to God, and allow Him to play deeper role in my creative process. To give Him the space to breath life, breath creativity, and to give anointing to what I am crafting so that it leaves a deeper impact.
My prayer for you, for me is that God would anoint us, take us deeper and fill us with His spirit as artists. That we would be God honoring in not only what we create, but in our character, in how we make people feel, and in the beauty that we craft.
Take courage my friend, for you are anointed for art.
YOUR GIFT AS AN ARTIST IS NOT SEPARATE FROM YOUR CALLING;
THEY CAN BE ONE IN THE SAME!
Join us for one of our 2 artistic focused DTS run each year in September: the PHOTO-STORYTELLING DTS at our San Antonio Del Mar campus and the MUSIC + MISSIONS DTS at our Ensenada campus.
words + photos by Tiffany Lambert.
Tiffany is full time staff with YWAM SDB and leads our Photo-Storytelling DTS.