The Thriving Christian Artist

Recognizing God's Voice in Your Art

• Matt Tommey: Artist, Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur and Artist Mentor

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Have you ever sensed something greater than yourself flowing through your creative process? That feeling isn't just your imagination—it's an invitation to recognize and collaborate with the Holy Spirit as you create.

For Christian artists, creativity isn't merely self-expression but a sacred conversation with our Creator. This divine partnership transforms not only what we make but who we are becoming. When we understand that our artistic impulses are often spiritual nudges, we enter a deeper relationship with God through our creative practice.

Many artists struggle with the false belief that their work must contain overtly religious symbols or themes to be spiritually significant. The truth is profoundly liberating: God cares much more THAT you create than WHAT you create. Those nagging feelings of inadequacy or not being "Christian enough" in your art are never from the Lord. If God didn't want you to express your unique artistic voice and perspective, He wouldn't have designed you with those specific creative inclinations.

Creating an atmosphere for divine collaboration requires practical steps: establishing consistent studio time, journaling your impressions without self-judgment, and developing community with others who can recognize God's movement in your work when you might miss it. Like a well-maintained sailboat with its sail raised, you prepare and show up faithfully to your creative practice—but the divine wind that powers your journey comes from God alone.

The most beautiful aspect of this collaboration? Sometimes God uses your work in ways you never anticipated. You might create with one intention, but once released into the world, your art may minister to others in completely different ways. Rather than feeling frustrated when things don't go according to plan, embrace the adventure of creating with God and trust Him with the results.

Ready to recognize God's voice in your creative process? Join our thriving community of artists learning to create with purpose and kingdom impact. Subscribe to receive weekly inspiration and practical guidance for your artistic journey.

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Speaker 1:

Have you ever felt like your art is more than just your creation, like there's something actually bigger than you in the process? Well, listen, today we're going to explore how we can start to recognize God's voice in our art, in our creative process, how we can start to recognize and even collaborate with these Holy Spirit nudges as he leads us in our creative process. Today, on the Thriving Christian Artist, as he leads us in our creative process. Today, on the Thriving Christian Artist. All over the world, artists are awakening painters and potters, writers and weavers, poets and dancers. Not chasing followers or fame, but sons and daughters called for such a time as this, transformed from the inside out, creating with purpose, releasing the glory of God and living in the power of the kingdom. Right now, this is the Thriving Christian Artist. Well, hey, my friend, it's Matt Tommy, super glad that you are here. Whether it's your first time, first time in a long time, or maybe you're a regular listener and watcher of this podcast, really glad that you are here with me. I want to jump into this idea of learning to recognize God's voice because I think for, as believers, this is huge for us, right? We believe that we're not just artists out of our own talent or out of our own abilities, but we're actually collaborating with the Holy Spirit in this unique opportunity to hear God's voice, to see and agree with Him and to release heaven in the canvas and in our art and our music and our writing and our baskets and our weaving and our wood and jewelry and metal and whatever it is God's called us to do. We've got this unique collaborative opportunity to be able to hear Him and respond to Him and see His glory not only manifest in our life as we create, but also through the things that we create as well. You know, depending on what part of the body of Christ that you've come out of or maybe you've got experience with, or maybe you're a brand new believer and you're like this is all brand new to me, matt.

Speaker 1:

Depending on you know how you come to this you may not believe or may have a lot of questions about this idea of can I even hear God's voice in the context of my creativity? Is God even still speaking today? And I would just say, of course God is still speaking today. His Word says that he's the same yesterday, today and forever, and throughout His Word we see just incredible opportunities and examples of God speaking to His sons and daughters, those he loves, those he wants to invite into collaboration with him. And so don't ever, ever, ever, think that you can't hear God's voice If you love Jesus.

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When you gave your heart to him and he came in, the Holy Spirit took up residence inside of you, and I love this verse. It actually is in Isaiah, sort of a prophetic declaration Isaiah 30, 21,. It says your own ears will hear him. Right. He's going to say go to the right, go to the left. This is the way. Walk in it, right? I love that. I love that because it's this declaration that's saying you can hear and you will hear the voice of the Lord. Even Jesus said my sheep know my voice and they'll follow it. Right?

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So it's a normal part of your creative life. It's a normal part of your life in the Lord to learn to hear his voice and to respond to him. It's a normal part of your Christian life to realize that God is not distant from you. He's not somehow over there and you're over here like you're begging him to come be a part of your life. No, he is in you and you are in him.

Speaker 1:

Listen, that's always the big thing, right that the enemy is trying to get you to come out of agreement with, come out of understanding with, is that you're in Christ and that Christ is in you. The enemy is always trying to get you to think that you're separated from God, you're inadequate, you're not able to hear him, that somehow you're confused or out on your own, or just trying to make it happen out of your own strength that nothing could be further from the truth. Right, in Christ you've been restored. In Christ, you've been reconciled to, to relationship, and so God is personal, right, he's present. Jesus is Emmanuel, god with us, and so he's involved in every part of our creative process and in our life, and especially our art.

Speaker 1:

Right, because, listen, if you understand that this thing that we do as artists, this motivation to see the world differently and to create, this is not just something that you came up with, this is just not your idea or my idea. This is a divine invitation from the Lord. We get to reflect and reveal his image, because it was his idea, right? So, forever, push away this idea that somehow your creativity is just this thing that you're wanting to do out of selfishness. No, this is God's idea, this is God's invitation for you to cooperate with him and, of course, of course, if God has made this invitation for you to create and be an artist and collaborate with him, of course he's going to speak to you in the context of that process. Listen, you may need to hit pause right now. Context of that process. Listen, you may need to hit pause right now.

Speaker 1:

Just do a little bit of thank you, jesus, over this whole idea that God is wanting to involve you in the process, that this is a normal part of creative living. All right, a normal part of kingdom living. Isn't that cool, I mean? I just think, not only in our art, but in every situation of life, every issue that we deal with, every problem that we come up to, every situation that needs a divine solution, god's already got that divine solution. He's already got that release of creativity that he wants to release through His sons and daughters, and he's just looking for those of us that will see and agree with him, that will say yes, that will say I believe that this nudge that I'm getting from you, I believe that this creative idea, I believe that this idea that I've never seen expressed before, I believe that this, this nudging toward creating something that's beautiful and inspired is not just me, but it's actually your Holy Spirit leading me.

Speaker 1:

Now, why does he do that? Well, number one, he wants to do that because he wants you to be changed in the process and the movement of your heart and the release of your creativity, combined with this Holy Spirit, to be a moment of transformation, an invitation to transformation for somebody else, and not just one time, but ongoing as long as that piece of creativity is out there in the world. Think of that. I mean the songs you create, right, the poems that you write, the paintings that you create. These are not just one-time little selfish events that you just kind of went in the studio and did whatever you wanted to do. No, these are opportunities, invitations that God is creating not only in you but through you, to release his nature. And so when you understand that, all right.

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When that becomes the paradigm, if you will, the framework, if you will, for how you're understanding your creative process, you start to realize that these things that you may have just pushed off as your own creative intuition are not those things. Those are actually spiritual guidance from the Lord. It's the Holy Spirit nudging you and leading you and guiding you toward things. I believe that when we get saved, all of us get saved right. This beautiful engine of imagination and creativity that God gives us gets sanctified, gets set apart as holy before the Lord, and God begins to speak in and through these creative processes and nudgings.

Speaker 1:

Why is that important to understand? Well, listen, it's huge to understand because it's important that you realize, when you're, like me, maybe walking in the woods, or when you're at a museum or listening to music or just doing whatever it is that you do to be inspired, when things are pricking your imagination, when they're catching your attention right, when something is welling up inside of your heart, when something is causing you to be emotional or a tear to come to your eye or something to really move your heart, realize that is a primary way the Lord is starting to draw your attention to the things that he wants you to focus on uniquely. Listen, it's important for you to realize that not everybody is moved by the same things. I'm not going to be moved creatively by the same things you are. Why Not? Because those are good things or bad things, or because I'm more spiritual than you or you're more spiritual than me, but it's because God's uniquely wired me to respond to his nudgings and to different catalysts and impulses in my natural world and in the spirit. He's wired me to respond to those in different ways, and likewise he's done the same for you.

Speaker 1:

Why? So that when I create, I'm responding to and revealing and reflecting unique parts about who God is and about his nature. And you're doing the same thing, and that's why the Bible says we're a body right, I'm bringing a part, you're bringing a part, everybody's bringing a part, because God is infinite in his beauty and in his creativity and in his nature, and it takes all of us and all of the company of heaven and all the power of the Holy Spirit moving within us just to touch the surface, the tip of the iceberg of all that God wants to release through us. And so the idea for all of us is that we need to be cultivating this ear to the spirit. All of us is that we need to be cultivating this ear to the spirit, this eye of faith, to be able to see and connect with those things that are not yet in the natural but that we're seeing and being impressed by in the spirit. We need to be cultivating an ear and an eye to those things in the context of learning to hear God's voice and being in an intimate relationship with him. Why context of learning to hear God's voice and being in an intimate relationship with Him? Why? So that we can begin to receive all of this variety of inspiration that's coming into us on a daily basis, on a moment-by-moment basis, not just as creative intuition, not just as this little thing that I'm trying to do with my latest piece of artwork. No, as a divine invitation from the Lord to be able to allow his glory and his nature to be released in and through our artwork.

Speaker 1:

My friend, listen, when you start to get this woo, I mean, things really start to change in your life. Why? Because you realize you're not doing this by yourself. You realize you're on assignment as a son and as a daughter. See, I really believe that our art process is so much more than just the culmination of materials and techniques. Right, it is this sacred conversation, this sacred process that we're involved in, and so it takes us realizing that, to realize that we need to be inviting the Holy Spirit into this process. And listen that, in itself, when you invite the Holy Spirit and when you accept the fact that God's wanting to do something in this and when you're making yourself available. That in itself is a process, is an act of faith. That in itself says I believe that God has wired me as an artist, designed me as an artist, assigned me as an artist, and I'm showing up with my yes. I'm showing up with my ear and my eye to the Spirit, ready to cooperate and collaborate with Him, whether it's overtly Christian or not. Listen, one of the biggest things that I see artists who are believers deal with is this idea that my art is somehow not spiritual enough, my art is not Christian enough. My art's got to have a dove or a cross or an overtly Christian theme to it in order for God to use it, and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, let me just give you a little insight here.

Speaker 1:

Anytime, anytime, you are hearing this nagging accusatory voice that is somehow trying to create a feeling of inadequacy in you. 100% of the time it's not Jesus. 100% of the time it's not the Lord. Why? Because God created you uniquely. God wants all of you to be filled with all of him. If he didn't want you to be you, he wouldn't have created you. If he didn't want you to have the perspective that you have. If he didn't want you to have the desires that you have, uh, artistically, if he, if he didn't want that in you, he wouldn't have given it to you Rightically. If he didn't want that in you, he wouldn't have given it to you right. So if you're walking in intimate relationship with the Lord, if you're loving him and following after him and reading his word and spending time in his presence and inviting him into your process and into your time with him as an artist, guess what? He wants all of that to be filled with all of him. So these, these little inadequate feelings that you might be having, these, they're just lies of the enemy. They're just fiery darts from the enemy that he's just trying to get you to come into agreement with him and out of agreement with who God's called you to be. So you got to start realizing that God cares much more that you create than what you create. It doesn't matter if you're painting Christian pictures or not I don't make Christian baskets, right. It doesn't matter if you're creating Christian music or Christian poetry. It matters that you do the thing that God's put on your heart, inviting him into that process with you and learning to follow the intuitions and nudges of the Holy Spirit along the way, so that he can use you and the process that you're in not only to change you but to change others through what you are doing.

Speaker 1:

Now. One of the cool things, I think, is that sometimes we recognize God's nudges and the way that he works as we're creating, right? You may be feeling kind of this moment of momentum, right? Or you may get a picture or an idea in the middle of what you're doing, or maybe before you create and you're sketching it down and, man, as you do it, things just begin to unfold. There's a grace, right, there's a flow that begins to happen. But sometimes you're just doing what you do, you just show up faithful in the studio and you're just creating out of the latest thing in your sketchbook and you don't even realize what God is doing until after you release your art.

Speaker 1:

And maybe, when people begin to see your art or hear your song or read your poem or see the movement or spoken word that you do, all of a sudden, it's in that moment that you begin to see God move in ways that you could never even understand, you could never even plan for or anticipate, I mean to me. I think that's even more exciting, right? Because it's like God using what I'm doing in spite of me. Like you know, god uses our intention and I think he loves inviting us and moving in us in the creative process. But don't ever be under the illusion that that's the only way that God can use you. God can absolutely use you and me in our creative process and our creative product in spite of us, right? We may think we're creating one thing, but he could totally do it in another way. I've seen God do that so many times in the lives of artists that I've mentored over the year. They create with one intention and yet God and God minister to them in that process and they're moving with him in that process and responding to the nudges.

Speaker 1:

And once they put it out, people start seeing it and responding to it in an entirely different way and honestly, you know, sometimes artists can be like well, that's not what I meant, you know, that's not what I intended. Who cares, right? Who cares? You got blessed as you made it. Other people are getting blessed as they interact with your work. God's being glorified, I mean to me, I don't know. That's the point, right?

Speaker 1:

I think one of the things you learn as you walk with the Lord is like let me just release my expectations to you, lord. Instead, I want to be walking with expectancy that says, no matter what I'm doing, as long as I'm giving it to you and inviting you in the middle of this process and trusting it to you when I get through it, I know that you're going to show up, I know that you're going to be glorified, I know that I'm going to be blessed in the middle of it and to me, that's life in the kingdom, right? It's only when we start getting frustrated with well, this didn't happen like I wanted it to and this God didn't move like I thought he would and they didn't respond like I thought. That just keeps you frustrated, right, and I don't know about you, but I got enough drama in my life. I don't need that in my life, right? I just want to trust that when I'm showing up, faithful God's going to use it in ways that I could never imagine. So how do you start to do this, right?

Speaker 1:

I think it's important that you realize that you can create an atmosphere of intention with the Lord. You know, you've heard me maybe say before on on this channel, this podcast, that I've got a big yield sign. It's a big, you know triangle, upside down triangle, big traffic sign, yield sign over my studio door and it's just a reminder that when I come in Holy spirit, I want to yield to you. In other words, I'm bringing everything that I got right, I'm driving in with all that you put in the package of Matt, all the inspiration, all the skill I've developed, all the things in the work that I've done, all the things that are inspiring me. I've written down everything that you told me, lord, and now I'm coming in prepared. But, god, I'm choosing to allow you to move.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of like a sailboat, right, you know, it's our responsibility to keep the sailboat, you know, in good repair. It's our responsibility to make sure that the ropes on the sailboat are strong, that they're not frayed. It's our responsibility to make sure that the sails don't have holes in them, they're not tattered, they're all connected in the way they need to be. It's our responsibility to lift the sail right. But, man, what is God's responsibility? God's responsibility is to let the wind blow and to lead and guide and move us in the direction that he wants to move. And so you got to keep your boat steady, right. You got to keep your boat right. You got to keep your boat in good repair. You got to lift the sail. You got to show up in the studio and do the stuff right. You got. God can't move through you If you're not showing up in the studio. God can't move through you, through through inspiration, if you never write the inspiration down, if you're not keeping a sketchbook, if you're not journaling about these things, if you're not taking these things to the Lord in prayer, if you're not experimenting and playing in the studio with ideas. This is all right, part of how we steward well, the nudgings and the voice of God in our art, right.

Speaker 1:

So many times people over-spiritualize this process. They say, well, if God said it, he's just going to do it, I don't have to do anything, I just need to sit here and wait on him to move my hands. God's not going to move your hands, right. God's not going to take you supernaturally into the studio. You got to walk your butt into the studio. You got to move your hands. You got to write those ideas down. You got to get in there and play and struggle and move in the studio and do the things that God's called you to do and what, as you do those things, as you begin to trust the Lord, as you begin to lean not into your own understanding, as you begin to realize that there's a supernatural process to this and that there's a divine flow that he's wanting to bring you into, as you begin to know all that, what he's going to direct your path, he's going to be the one that leads you and guides you in direction, and so I just encourage you show up in the studio, invite the Lord into this process, believe that, as you're doing these things, that God is going to breathe on the simple things that you're doing in the studio, on these simple materials, this paint and brushes, these canvases and panels, these natural materials of wood and clay and metal and fiber and whatever it is that God's given you. These are our five loaves and fishes that we bring to the Lord and say God, move upon these things and accelerate and multiply these things.

Speaker 1:

Now just some practical things I think that you can do to create this kind of atmosphere. Number one you got to have a consistent time and place. If you're just still in this idea of, well, I just kind of my art's, just this little fun thing I do. I don't have any consistent time or space or place. You need to do that right, if it's important enough, if your art is important enough for God to give it to you, it's important enough for you to take time to pursue it every week. Right? Remove the distractions, create an atmosphere that you love with lighting, with cleanliness, with organization, with the things that you would light. Right, with all the things that you know you need to create. Be intentional about that.

Speaker 1:

Number two, and I've been saying it this whole time journal and reflect right now, the things that God's giving you on a regular basis, the dreams and the impressions, the scriptures. Right, sketch those things out. Don't try to filter them through. You know all this judgment and well, this won't work and I've already done that and nobody wants that. Don't again all those feelings of inadequacy and not enoughness 100% of the time. Those are not the Lord. So kick them to the curb. Ask God questions, write those things down and allow those things to kind of marinate in your imagination, in this beautiful engine of creativity that God's given you.

Speaker 1:

And number three, I would just say one of the biggest things that you can do to learn to recognize God's voice and the nudging of the spirit is learn to do that in the context of community. Sometimes you don't recognize how powerfully God is moving through your art until you allow other artists that you're in relationship with to speak into your life. I know that. You know I've created with natural materials now for over 30 years and sometimes you know I just like everybody, I'm just on autopilot, just doing the thing that I love, and it's only when I sit down and I say, what do you see in my body of work? What do you, what do you see in the way I approach my materials? Or are there themes that are showing up in my work? Because sometimes we just don't see it right. We just are into what we're doing.

Speaker 1:

And man, the gift that community and collaboration can be when we give others permission to be able to speak into our work, others permission to be able to speak into our work. That's one of the things I love about the creative community we have in Created to Thrive, our mentoring program and the foundations courses that, on a regular basis, artists are giving other artists the opportunity and the permission to say, hey, I see God in you. You may not see this. But, man, there's a theme through your work, there's a, there's a, an inspiration that is flowing through you that you may not even understand. But, man, there's a theme through your work, there's an inspiration that is flowing through you that you may not even understand, but, wow, it's really great. Or wow, when you do that, man, that's so awesome. That's a unique thing that God's given you and you should do more of that.

Speaker 1:

I just believe, you know, I've always believed that there's a level of maturity that all of us are designed and destined to come into in the Lord, but that it's going to take the influence of others and the investment of others in our life and, vice versa, our investment in them, in order for us to walk in the fullness of what God's called us to do. And, my friend, if you don't have a community like that, I want to encourage you start one right. Grab one of my books. Start a small group in your area, start inviting other artists you know into your, into your church, into your home, in your studio, just to begin to have a critique group or encourage one another. Join the foundations course, join the, the mentoring program. Allow us to start walking with you as as you grow your art business or as you grow your art ministry, or maybe you need to come in the foundations course and just begin to get rid of all this, this, these lies that the enemy's been been, you know, throwing at you for years, that you've been believing that you've gone on this roller coaster up and down, up and down, a little bit of success, one step forward, two steps back.

Speaker 1:

Listen, if you're just tired of that, I'm telling you you don't just need good teaching, which which would give you in the programs right, you need community. You need other people to say I see god in you, or here's how god brought me out of this, and if he did it in my life, he'll do the same thing in yours. Listen, it's, listen. It's almost impossible. It's almost impossible for any of us to walk in ongoing glory to glory, freedom and growth in our life by ourself. You know why? Not because we're unable, but because it's not God's plan. God's plan in the kingdom is family, it's community, it's learning to hear his, his voice, learning to link arms with others, and I just I want to encourage you in that, as you're learning to hear god's voice. Part of how we do that is that as we do it together, uh, in community.

Speaker 1:

So, my friend, listen, I hope that this is encouraging you today, that god wants to speak. He is speaking. He's probably been speaking to you the whole time, but you've just not been recognizing that was him. And I believe today that as you begin to say, lord, I'm going to step out and believe that that's you. I'm going to take that step of faith, even though it doesn't make sense in the natural. Listen as you do. You're going to begin to feel a momentum and a whoosh of the Spirit like you've never, ever seen before.

Speaker 1:

Father, thank you, holy Spirit, thank you that you are in us and we are in Christ. There's no separation. And, father, thank you that in this new covenant, this better covenant that the New Testament calls it, this better covenant that we've been brought into through the finished work of Christ, we already have all things. We have need of nothing. We've been reconciled to relationship with you. We've been seated with Christ in heavenly places. God, you, our Father, through the voice of the Holy Spirit, speak to us and we can hear your voice, we can know it's you and we can follow it. And not only can we follow it, we can see its results as it manifests your word and your nature, manifests in our art process, in our art product and in the transformation that you release in and through who we are and what we do. God, I pray that you'd heighten our heart, heighten our senses today to recognize your voice, in the nudgings of your spirit as we create with you. In Jesus name, we pray Amen.

Speaker 1:

My friend, I love you. I'm always so glad that you're here with me on the Thriving Christian Artist. Please make sure that you're subscribed. If you're on YouTube, make sure that you hit the notifications button so you can make sure you always get notified of all the new content that's here. Leave a comment, if you will.

Speaker 1:

If you're listening on the podcast, be sure to subscribe there. Leave a review so everybody can know, and whatever you do, make sure that you share. You know as well as I do, there's two or three people in your life that need to hear this message today, and I pray that you will share this with them intentionally, so that they can be blessed as well. I love you, my friend, and remember until next time you were created to thrive. Bye, hey, my friend.

Speaker 1:

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 in 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, bye.