The Thriving Christian Artist

Your Supernatural Calling as an Artist

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

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What if your creative practice is meant to be a doorway where heaven meets earth? We dig into the supernatural calling of artists and why creativity isn’t a side note—it’s central to how the Kingdom moves. Drawing from Genesis, John, Ephesians, and the pattern of Bezalel in Exodus, I make the case that you were designed to carry God’s life and light into your studio, your market, and the moments where viewers unexpectedly encounter grace through your work.

I share a formative gallery story where a simple basket became a message of comfort, reminding us that the Holy Spirit can speak beyond our skill or intention. From there, we unpack five anchors: creativity is God’s idea; all creativity comes from Him; God can use any artist yet invites us to partner; art carries a prophetic role that can comfort and confront; and we’re called to co-create with God, not perform for Him. This isn’t about trends or chasing “spiritual” labels—it’s about becoming both filled with the Spirit and skilled in craft, trusting that your workmanship (poema) becomes a conduit for beauty, truth, and transformation.

You’ll learn how to approach your studio with expectation, invite the Holy Spirit into process and release, and drop the heavy yoke of performance for the lighter rhythm of collaboration. We talk about letting your work reveal redemption even when it names hard things, stewarding technique as an act of worship, and assuming connection—Christ in you, the hope of glory—as you make. If you’ve ever wondered whether your “hobby” matters, consider this your permission to step boldly into calling.

If this resonated, leave a comment with your biggest insight or story of God meeting someone through your art. Subscribe, rate, and share to help more artists find freedom and clarity.

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SPEAKER_00:

And did you know that God has an incredible purpose for your art that goes way beyond just decoration and being a hobby? He actually designed our art and our creativity as a doorway where heaven meets earth, this prophetic tool, if you will, where we get the opportunity to co-labor with the Holy Spirit to reveal his heart, to release transformation and his love and his power and see God awaken people to the love of God and to all that God wants to do in and through their life. I know that seems like a big calling, and sometimes it's like, well, how do I even step into that? Well, today we're going to be talking about the supernatural calling of artists and how you can start walking in this incredible creative calling that God has for you. Well, hey, my friend, I'm Matt Tommy. Welcome to the Thriving Christian Artists Channel, where every week I'm helping artists gain clarity and confidence and creative freedom in Christ. So I'm really excited today to jump into this idea of supernatural creativity and our supernatural calling as artists because God has something so much bigger for your art than you could ever ask or imagine. And hopefully today, through these five points that I'm going to give you, your mind and your heart are going to be opened up to understand the bigness and the hugeness and the important nature of what God has called all of us to do as artists. And the first thing is this creativity is not extra. Creativity is not just something that we get as a fun little gift to do on the side. Creativity is actually how the kingdom of God works. In fact, creativity and being a creator is the first way that God reveals himself to humanity, not as a judge, not as a preacher, not as a warrior, but as an artist. And God made us in his image, which means that creativity and the gift of creativity, the ability to see those things that are not as though they were and bring them into existence. The ability to hear and sense things from the Lord, marinate and form those things in our imagination with him, and then have those released through the work of our hands and through our lives. That's not extra. That's not being selfish. That's actually God's idea, and he hardwired it in every one of his children from the very beginning. I want to take you back to Genesis 1.27 because that's the foundation of where God says we were created in his image. In other words, we're to be image bearers. We're to bear his image to the world. In other words, when people see us and interact with us, they're supposed to be seeing the image of God. I love it in John 1.1 when it talks about in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was was God. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. I love that. And so when people see us and interact with us, not only us as people, but also the things that we do, they should be seeing and interacting with the life and light of God, the transforming nature of God. That's not, again, me being presumptuous. That's God's idea from the very beginning. And this means creativity isn't optional. Creativity is a part, a central part of our unique design as people in the earth. It's who we are. And this even picks up in the New Testament in Ephesians, right? Ephesians 2.10 talks about that we are his workmanship, right? Created for good works that he's already planned for us to do. So in other words, God created us in his image with creativity on board, hardwired in our DNA, and he created us as his poema. That's that's the Greek word there, his masterpiece to do good works. In other words, God created us as a creator with him to create works of art as a work of art. The word poema is actually where we get the word poem. So think about that. Your life and the art that you create, you are God's poem to the world. You're God's God's piece of art to the world. You are the piece of art that God has created. And as people that are created in his image, guess what? We get to also create and be an extension of what God has already done in us. That's how the kingdom works, right? Now, I don't know about you, but you know, for me, when I first started learning this years ago, this was a big moment of revelation. And maybe, maybe put in the chat, is this a moment of revelation for you? Are you starting to realize that wow, this thing that I love to do creatively, maybe this is more than just for decoration. Maybe it is a doorway. Maybe, maybe I've been kind of downplaying my creativity and my art. I don't know about you, but I did that for a long time. And so I really started realizing this is not just a little side hobby. This is what God designed for me to do from the very foundation of the world. That creativity and this gift to be able to see and feel and hear in my imagination and then bring it into existence through the work of my hands, that is God's idea. And that very process is a reflection of his nature. Now, some people hear me talk about prophetic creativity and they're like, well, Matt, that sounds really nice, but like, where is that actually, you know, in the Bible? And so I always want to take you back to God's word because I don't believe that anything that we should do in our life should be based on feelings or or trends. But then listen, there's a lot of things that we do that we practice in the Christian life that that are not explicitly stated in the word, you know, word by word, scripture by scripture, line by line, but that they're consistent with the Bible. There are things that we extrapolate, principles in God's word, that when we bring them together, we start to realize this is completely consistent with how God moves and how God wants to work in the earth. And so I think for me, prophetic creativity and understanding our role as artists in the new covenant and artists in the kingdom today, this isn't necessarily a new doctrine that I'm trying to create. This is actually a very biblical pattern. Again, when you go back to Genesis 1.27 and realize creativity is actually God's idea. It's hardwired into our DNA to be creative like our daddy, to that our lives and the work of our hands would bearing an image of the Lord, that everything that we do would be a beautiful reflection of what he's doing in and through us. And then also in Romans 11, 29, it talks about that the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. See, this is really important to understand because some people, you know, want to make a big distinction about, well, Christian artists and not Christian artists. Listen, all creativity is from God. Yeah, all creativity is from God. The issue is not where does the gift come from? The issue becomes how are we pointing this gift? In other words, are we allowing the Holy Spirit to move in and through our gifting? See, you can you can have a lot of talent, you can have a lot of gifting, you can have a lot of skill, but if you're operating in that outside of the Holy Spirit, in the movement of the Holy Spirit, you're you're missing the life-giving force that God wants to move in and through your creative process. And likewise, on the other side, if you're only concerned about the spiritual process of your work and you're not leaning into the actual development of your skill and the processes as an artist, you miss the fullness of what God wants to release there. And so in in Exodus 31, we see this beautiful pattern that God gives us in the life of Bezalel that says he was filled with the Spirit of God and skilled in every manner of workmanship. So all the our gift of creativity, it all comes from the Lord, whether somebody's honoring him with it or not. God is designed for us then is to walk both filled with the spirit and skilled in every manner of workmanship. So the issue then becomes how are we stewarding our gifts? Are we inviting the Holy Spirit into this beautiful design as an artist, this beautiful gift and calling that God's given us? Or are we trying to operate in our own silo over here, over here in our own strength, trying to figure out our own art in our own process, in our own mind, trying to figure out how to get it, if you're trying to grow an art business, trying to figure out how to do that on your own. Listen, if you're doing that, you're you're you're setting yourself up for a life of striving and frustration and trying to live life in a way that God never designed. Listen, his design is that you you realize, hey, this gift of creativity that I got, it's from God and it's for God. I get to be blessed by it as a maker, but I also get to be blessed to see God move through the work of my hands if I'll invite the Holy Spirit into every part of that process. Wow. Maybe in the chat, put, you know, whether you're inviting the Holy Spirit into your creative process right now, or maybe this is kind of a wake-up call for you that you're starting to realize, wow, I love Jesus and I'm saved, and you know, I want to honor him, but I've just I've just kind of been doing my art as is this thing on the side. And I never realized that it was a an important gift from God that he wanted to use as a doorway where heaven meets earth. One of the things that I love about the Lord is that God can use any artist, whether we know him or not. He he can use us, but he chooses to invite us to partner with him. And when you say yes to God, it opens up supernatural favor, it opens up, opens up supernatural opportunity, it opens your the eyes and ears of your spirit to be able to understand how God wants to lead and guide you, not only in your creative process, but also in your life as an artist. And to me, that is really, really cool. Think about if you started approaching your art every day. I mean, maybe put this in the in the in the comments right now. How would you start approaching your art differently if you realized that every day that you walked into your creative space that God wanted to reveal his beauty and his truth and his goodness through your work? Listen, when you start re understanding that that is God's intention for your creativity, you can't help but believe that your art and the work of your hands in your very life is designed to be prophetic by nature. Again, we're supposed to be a demonstration of the glory of God and image bearers of his very nature through the things that we do as artists. I mean, I bet if we were to sit down right now and talk about, you know, how you've seen God show up in your art over the years or maybe in the lives of others, maybe you've got a story like that where God showed up supernaturally, unexpectedly, maybe through through your art. If you do share it, I'd love to read it in the in the comments. I know for me, the first time that that happened, um, well, you know, I was I've been a musician my whole life. So I would always have people, you know, if I'd sing or if I'd lead worship or something, people would say, Oh, wow, I really felt God, you know, God really spoke to me during that song. And, you know, that that's awesome. But as a visual artist, I remember the first time that this happened to me. I was sitting uh in a gallery in in North Carolina. I was weaving a basket, I was doing a demo for a gallery that I was at. And this guy walked up to one of my pieces and he gasped. He was like, and I was like, oh my gosh, what? And he said, it's like the hands of God are reaching out, saying, I've got everything under control, as he looked at one of my baskets. And I was like, uh totally, like, like I mean, I wish I could say, like, oh yes, that's exactly what I meant. That was my intention when I created that. I had no clue. But I realized in that moment that God was using that piece of art that I created in my in my time with him as a creator. I realized that he was using that as an intersection point where heaven meets earth for some supernatural reason that was way beyond my skill, my abilities, even my intention. God chose to use that moment, that piece, in that place in time when that guy walked by to speak a message of encouragement to him. And we had a conversation and it was awesome. And since then, I've seen God move over and over and over. In fact, in my in my little book that I wrote, Prophetic Art, we, it's full of stories of glory stories of how God's moved in the lives of artists supernaturally. And I'm just telling you, friend, when you start to raise your expectation to this and actually start to look for God in these moments of creativity, as you're creating, as you're releasing your creativity in the market, all of a sudden your mind gets blown to this fact that wow, we get this incredible opportunity to see God move in and through our art, regardless of our skill level, regardless of how long we've been doing it, regardless of the medium. God can use you and I wherever we are, whenever we are in our journey, as long as we're saying yes to him and opening the door. And I don't know about you, but that is super encouraging to me as an artist. See, artists all throughout history have always had this sort of prophetic calling, this ability to uh help people see things that they're not normally able to see. That's why, you know, again, creativity is by its very nature prophetic. We we're designed by God to help people see the unseen, to we make visible the invisible, right? We see things in our imagination, we sense things from the Lord, we we sense uh artistic inspiration, and we take those things out of our imagination and out of the spirit, and through our yes in our heart and through the work of our hands, we bring those ideas into the visible and we help people. We we say, look, look at what God wants to say, look at how God thinks about you, look at this beauty, look at this uh this maybe challenging message. I mean, how many of you know sometimes God will use you in a way that that evokes great joy and breakthrough and victory? And other times God can can use us in in ways that that will challenge people and maybe challenge culture and talk about issues that are not easy to understand. But we can do, listen, as artists, we get to do it in a way that is wrapped in mystery and wrapped in the supernatural. I mean, you know, how many of you know that we can listen to a song, we can read a book, we can, we can look at a piece of art, and it may not have anything to do with the intention of the artist or the subject matter of what it's supposed to be, but God in that moment can use that image, that sound, that movement, that whatever it is, that creative expression, He can use that to trigger something inside of us to get us to realize something that we never realized before. How many stories have we heard of of people in a place of brokenness, riding down the road and all of a sudden hearing a song? And for whatever reason, they'd heard that song a hundred times before, but in that moment, that song, God used that song to break their heart and bring him, bring him back to them. Or people can look at a painting and all of a sudden have a realization or have a moment with the Lord of God speaking to them. That is the very prophetic nature of what we do. And so sometimes our calling isn't just to reveal beauty, sometimes it reveals truth in in uncomfortable ways. Sometimes, like the prophets, right, in the in the old testament, it can carry both burden and beauty, right? It can carry uh hope and and also confrontation, right? So so neither one of those are more the Lord than the other, but both of them are are you know uh important to understand that they're prophetic. They're they're they're declaring what God wants to declare in and through our work. And so when you and I create work that maybe it you know talks about injustice or lies or despair or the state of humanity or the state of culture or whatever, and we do it through a lens of redemption, that is a prophetic function. In other words, we are revealing the nature and the intention of God to the world through our art. And that's why your art is supernatural, and that's why what we do is a holy prophetic calling from the Lord. That's why it's so powerful. It doesn't just say something, it literally releases something because when God shows up, people are changed, things change, people have an encounter. Every time you see Jesus show up all through the Bible, things changed. Even on the day of creation, it says that the Holy Spirit was hovering over the face of the deep, right? And all of a sudden, in the middle of that, the Father said, What? Let there be light. And there was light. See, the Holy Spirit, just like he hovered over the chaos and hovered over the deep, I believe he hovers over us as artists as we make. I believe his spirit goes with the work that we create, and he uses the work of our hands as artists to meet people wherever they are and release his glory in transforming power to awaken them to the possibilities and to the understanding of who Jesus is and can be and wants to be in their life. And again, friend, that is a supernatural and a powerful calling that we all have as artists. Now, here's the last thing I want to say about this, lest you feel like, oh my gosh, this is this huge responsibility. I got to do this all by myself. No, absolutely not. God never designed you and I to create in our own strength. He never designed us to strive to make this sort of thing happen out of religious obligation or working for God. I mean, there's so many people out there that talk about, you know, working for God and I got to honor God and I got to, you know, please God, all this kind of stuff. Listen, all that stuff's wonderful, but if you do that out of a place of striving in your own strength, you will be absolutely uh worn out. There's a lot of well-meaning Christians that are absolutely worn out trying to do all these things for God that maybe God never asked them to do in the first place. You know, Jesus, I love it when in the New Testament when Jesus says, I just do the things that I fought, I see the Father doing. In other words, God has designed us as artists to just cooperate with him, to create with him, not just for him. In other words, the work of Jesus on the cross restored us to relationship, not performance. And if you love Jesus and you've been creating all these years, maybe out of a place of like obligation, like I got to use my art to please God. And you just, and there's kind of a heaviness to that. I just want to, I just am asking the Lord to free you from that today. Because the creating with the Lord and walking with him as an artist in the kingdom should be this beautiful place of relationship where he's moving and we're responding, we're moving and he's responding, and we're creating together with him. You know, when you start to do that, all of a sudden you start to realize that that God is not separate from you. He's not over here and you're over here. He you're not in your studio making your art and trying to beg him to get, you know, to come over here and bless what you're doing. No, the Bible says it's Christ in you, the hope of glory, right? We know that through the finished work of Jesus on the cross, he lives in us now through the power of the Holy Spirit. So you can, guess what? You can assume connection. The Bible says that as we delight ourselves in the Lord, what? He'll give us the desires of our heart. In other words, as you're with him and reading his word and investing in his presence and and tuning your voice and the eyes of your heart to the Holy Spirit, you can trust that the thing that God's putting on your heart and the way that he's moving through you creative creatively is being led by him. You don't have to have all this pressure on you to perform and to get it right. You can trust that as you are moving with intention and intuition in the studio, you can trust that the Holy Spirit is leading you, that you're creating with him, not just for him, that he's going to use the work of your hands and what you're creating in a way that you that is so far beyond what you could ever even ask or imagine. And to me, that's when it gets really fun being an artist. So, my friend, I hope today, as you really get the these five things that I'm I'm talking about. Number one, creativity is the nature of God, it's God's idea. Number two, all creativity comes from God. Number three, God can use any artist, but he invites us to partner with him. Number four, there's a prophetic role and a prophetic action of what we do, uh, a prophetic purpose of what we do as artists. And number five, God is inviting us to co-create with him. I hope that you're getting this clear understanding that your calling as an artist is so far beyond just decoration. It's so far beyond just a hobby. It is designed as a doorway where not only you can meet with heaven, but heaven can meet earth through what you do. Hey, friend, if this resonated with you today, I want to make sure you leave me a comment. I love your comments. Ask me a question. Who knows? I could be answering that on one of my next videos. Definitely hit the subscribe, the like buttons, ring the bell so you get all the notifications and never miss any of the content that I'm creating right here uh every week on this channel. And also stay tuned because I'm gonna be doing this. Is part of a series that I'm doing on the supernatural calling of artists. And in the next video, I'm gonna be talking about how we're created by an artist uh as an artist and how we're gonna begin to understand our identity in Christ as God's masterpiece and understanding the unique way that he wants to release himself through our work as artists. All right. I love you, friend. Thanks for being here. And remember till next time, 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 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.