The Thriving Christian Artist
The Thriving Christian Artist
When Heaven Meets Earth: The Hidden Power of Your Art
The moment your art leaves your studio, something remarkable happens. Beyond metrics and transactions, a supernatural exchange takes place—one that transforms atmospheres, touches hearts, and creates ripples in the spiritual realm.
As we explore Matthew 5:14-16, we discover Jesus wasn't speaking metaphorically when He called us "the light of the world." For kingdom artists, this becomes a powerful commissioning: your creative expression isn't meant to be hidden away but strategically positioned like a lamp on a stand, illuminating darkness wherever it goes.
What sets spirit-led creativity apart isn't perfectionism or promotional savvy—it's authenticity. Like a campfire's warmth or a candle's gentle glow in a dark room, your art carries God's presence naturally when created from a place of connection with Him. I've witnessed countless stories of artists who, simply by being faithful to create and share their work, have seen God use their art to bring healing, hope, and transformation to people who never would have encountered His presence otherwise.
Your creative offerings function as seeds of beauty and truth in a world starved for both. While you might not witness every seed sprout this side of eternity, know that the Master Gardener sees each one and ensures it accomplishes exactly what He intends. What appears insignificant to you might become the precise vehicle God uses to speak to someone who's broken, discouraged, or searching.
Ready to experience this firsthand? This week, share something meaningful from your work—post about your process, tell the story behind a piece, or even give something away. Invite the Holy Spirit to surprise you with how He uses your creativity, and watch what happens when you recognize your art isn't just a hobby but a divine calling that creates intersection points where heaven meets earth.
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Have you ever wondered what really happens when you share your art with the world? I mean, not just the likes and the comments and the sales, but actually what's happening in the spirit? What if your creative expression isn't just something that you love doing, but it's actually something that God wants to use as a vehicle of His transforming presence, his light, his life, his healing, his transformation to others? Well, guess what? That's what we're going to be talking about today here on the Thriving Christian Artist podcast. Welcome to the Thriving Christian Artist, the podcast where we hope you connect with God, to bust through the roadblocks that have held you back for years, create the work you love and really live the life you know. God created you to live as an artist in his kingdom.
Speaker 1:I'm Matt Tommey, your host. Let's get started. Well, hey, my friend, so glad that you're with me today. It's Matt, your host, faithful host, I hope, every week, trying to bring inspiration and encouragement on your walk with the Lord. Hey, listen, I want to dive into this really beautiful truth I think that comes from right out of God's Word that I've come to discover as a kingdom artist and probably you are too that when you share your art actually from your heart and inspired by the Holy Spirit, it doesn't just bless others superficially. It really changes the atmosphere in a supernatural way. It releases something eternal. It releases the light and life of God and affects change and that's really really huge for you to understand, for all of us to understand, I think, as we approach not only creating our art but also sharing our art with the world. You know I love to base everything we talk about here on the podcast in God's Word, and I want to jump into Matthew 5, 14 through 16.
Speaker 1:This is out of the New Living. It says you are the light of the world. This is Jesus talking like a city on a hilltop. That cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, the lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house In the same way. Let your good deeds shine out to all, for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly father. See, I love that this is not just like some poetic metaphor that Jesus is using in the scriptures.
Speaker 1:Actually, I believe a commissioning, I mean Jesus is talking in this verse to you and to me, to all of us that have been given any kind of gift, but especially for us that have been given creative gifts, artistic gifts. It's a light, it's an expression of his heart, a revealing of his nature and his image into the world. And he's saying, hey, this thing is not to be hidden. Think about that. This image right of a lamp being placed on a lampstand even your art right being placed on a lampstand. It's not hidden somewhere in a corner or it's not being like, turned down and like don't show anybody, like, don't be too prideful, don't give any attention to this. No, it's positioned by God on purpose. To do what? To bring light and life into the room. And, friend, listen, that's what your art is designed to do. When we have the creative expression of our heart, born out of intimacy with the Lord and being led by the power of the Holy Spirit and offered to the world in that place of authenticity and connection with Him, guess what Our creative expression becomes? This light, this beacon, this lighthouse, if you will, that's pointing people to hope and healing and truth, often in ways that people didn't even know they needed.
Speaker 1:In fact, I love that when I hear the stories of these ripple effects, if you will, of artists being faithful, to create a piece of work, put it out there at a coffee shop or in a gallery or in a show or, you know, at a at a exhibition that they're doing or whatever. And and somebody just out of the blue, seemingly right, walks up and goes oh my gosh, I don't know why, but I just can't stop looking at this piece. Or, wow this, this piece is really, really speaking to me. See, that's not coincidence, that's the supernatural nature of what God wants to do in and through your art. That's the transforming presence and power of God being released, not only in you as you create and in your art, but through your art as you offer it to the world. See, this is not about us trying to make art to perform better, trying to make art to be accepted by the world. No, this is about us, as artists, as makers, creating from a place of faithfulness and trusting God for the fruitfulness.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say that again. It's about us creating from a place of faithfulness and trusting God for the fruitfulness to release what's in our heart and then trusting that, when we do that from a place of connection with the Lord, it's going to carry his fragrance, his life, his light, his pieces, his power, because that's what we want people to encounter. Right? I mean, I'm a pretty good artist. You're probably a pretty good artist. We've been doing a lot of work, you know, over the years, trying to get better and build skill and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:But I'm just going to tell you, no amount of skill, no amount of technique, no amount of marketing or Instagram hooks and hacks can get us to a place of real spirit-led transformation. And listen, I'm at the place in my life and I know you are too, if you're listening to this podcast that I'm not just about creating art for art sake. I'm. I don't want to do. I don't need to just weave one more basket. I don't need to just paint one more painting or write one more song or write one more poetic reflection. I want to know that the things that I'm giving my life to the work of my hands are being multiplied and accelerated far beyond the culmination of techniques and materials and just my best intentions. I want to know that God is moving in me and through me and on the things that I'm creating in order to have an eternal impact. See, sometimes I think you know, because of social media, you know just the way. It is right. Everybody posted the the shiny, perfect parts of their life and everything.
Speaker 1:We get this idea that letting our light shine can somehow mean that it's got to be super polished or perfect or or hyper promotional or or whatever. But I want you to get this idea that the kind of light that Jesus is talking about, he wants to shine through us, is not about performance. Right, it's like, um, I don't know, like the warmth of a campfire or the glow of a candle in a dark room. Right, it's natural, it's organic, it flows beautifully from who you are. It's not, it's not pushy, right, all it's got to be is authentic and real and present. And all you got to be willing to do and I've got to be willing to do is just to light the darn candle.
Speaker 1:Right, to be willing to show up and bring what we have and release it into the world and trust that God is going to use that as a prophetic expression of his nature, no matter how simple it is, no matter how unpolished it may seem to us. Listen, when we're faithful to bring the loaves and fishes, when we're faithful to just bring the thing that we're working on in the studio with the Lord and say, god, I'm trusting this to you and with you, that you're going to use this for so much more than I could ever ask or imagine. Listen, when you do that, god can take that seed and multiply it. In fact, I think it's helpful for us to think of our art as like planting seeds, right, seeds of beauty, seeds of truth, seeds of the nature of God, the presence of God. And the beautiful thing is, you know, when you plant a seed, it may seem really, really, really insignificant in your life, but we can trust that when we're planting the seed of art into the world and into other people's lives, we may not be able to see the full fruit, the full maturity of what that produces this side of eternity. But let me tell you this God absolutely sees that. He sees the seed. He gave you the seed. He gave you that thing to plant right, and he sees that when it goes into the earth, it is not going to return void. It is going to do the thing that he intends to do through it. He's like this master gardener, right, he's this master artist, and so he can take this seed offering, if you will, of our art, this canvas that you've painted this sculpture, that you've made this piece that maybe you thought was not good enough and you didn't almost share it, or whatever it was. Listen, he takes that and he multiplies it and he waters it and he plants it and he shines the light of his presence on it and he begins to bring that thing to fruition in the right place at the right time in the life of the person or people or communities that need it most.
Speaker 1:Listen, I just can't tell you. You know, I've been mentoring artists for many, many, many years. I've just heard story after story after story of artists who've been faithful to do this, not trying to preach where there's work, not trying to say something profound, but just being faithful to show up and do the work. And I hear over and over every week in the mentoring program or in comments on our blogs or emails, whatever it is, of artists that are absolutely blown away saying, wow, I was faithful to do that, I was faithful to release this thing and doggone it, god showed up and he did something incredible and I got, and I sold that piece, or I got another commission, or while somebody just got really touched by the Lord in my booth and I don't know about you, but that's why I want to do what I'm doing. I want to see my life matter.
Speaker 1:Listen, the enemy is always about trying to get us to underestimate what we do when we create with the Lord, right, just? Oh, this is just a little hobby. Oh, this is just, it doesn't matter. It's not spiritual love or whatever. No, listen, your art is becoming this divine intersection point where heaven meets earth.
Speaker 1:And when you not only approach your art like this when you're making it, but when you're presenting it, when you're sharing it with the world, I believe that that in itself is an act of faith. That God begins to see the intention of your heart and he says, hey, I can use that. I can use that piece of art to speak to that person who's never even set foot in a church, or to that person that's walked away from their relationship with me, or that person who's so discouraged or broken or freaked out about life situations that they need encouragement, they need life, they need comfort. I can use that piece of art and your faithfulness to release it. I can use it in a way that I can't use anything else. Right I've talked about this for years that our art becomes.
Speaker 1:These, these tables, these thin places where heaven meets earth, these, these tables of conversation, these intersection points, right when God shows up in the middle of somebody's experience, and just blast them in a good way with his love and his transforming power and his grace, and his transforming power and his grace. And so, listen, I just need you to hear today and I believe the Holy Spirit wants you to hear today that the world needs what you carry. You carry a unique perspective, you carry a unique voice. You carry a unique image of God in the world and it's wrapped in his presence and it's wrapped in his beauty. And listen, in this world where I don't know about you, but I am just absolutely bombarded right With all the noise and the negativity and all the junk that the enemy is trying to throw at us to get us to keep our focus off of the Lord and all the good things he wants to do, listen, god wants to use your art and your life now more than ever. You've got to, my friend, shift your thinking from thinking that this is just this little hobby thing that I do to actually believing that this is your calling.
Speaker 1:So listen, this week I want to encourage you post something meaningful from your work? All right, maybe a story behind a piece that you created. Invite somebody through social media through a story, through an email, through an interaction with somebody. Invite them into what inspires your work, right? Maybe tell a story on social media this week about how your process is going. Maybe give a piece away. Maybe donate it. Maybe sew it into somebody's life, right? Whether it's online or at a show or just one-on-one.
Speaker 1:Use your artwork and just invite the Holy Spirit. Say Holy Spirit, just surprise me this week how you want to use my art as a testimony of your goodness and listen. I promise when you do that, he's going to show up, he's going to surprise you and he's going to use you in an incredible way to not only see your life blessed, but see the lives of others transformed around you. Jesus, I thank you that you've given us this incredible, incredible gift of creativity, not just to keep us busy, not just to fulfill our lives, but, god, to be used as a demonstration of your power and your kingdom in our life. God, we pray. Use us for your glory, use us in your power and in your authority to release the power of your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Hey, my friend, I love you. Thanks for being with me on the podcast today. Remember, leave a comment, subscribe, share this on social media. We're on our way to 2 million downloads this year. I can't believe it, and it's all because of your faithful listenership and sharing the podcast with others. I'll see you next time. Remember, you were created to thrive. Bye, hey, my friend. Before you go, make sure that you're signed up for the Thriving Christian Artist Weekly. It's my free newsletter, full of spiritual encouragement, creative inspiration and practical tips to help you thrive in everything that God's called you to do as an artist in his kingdom. Every issue is absolutely free and it includes the latest podcast episode, featured artist spotlights, a worship song of the week and, again, tons of tips and encouragement and inspiration for you to keep you inspired and encouraged, and everything that God's got for you as an artist in the kingdom. You can click the link right here in the show notes to join us, and it's a great way to stay connected. All right, love you.