The Thriving Christian Artist

5 Simple Steps to Creating Your Art With God

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

Share episode

Send us a text

What if your studio felt less like a grind and more like a sanctuary—where ideas arrive with ease, your hands stay light, and joy returns to the work? We walk you through a simple, repeatable flow for co-creating art with God that turns pressure into partnership and fear into freedom.

We start with intimacy and the bold posture of assuming connection with the Holy Spirit. From there, we show how revelation naturally follows—through scripture, quiet impressions, colors, and emotions—and why a spirit-led sketchbook becomes your best tool for stewarding ideas. Then comes agreement: the decisive yes that silences resistance and opens a path through creative block. You’ll learn how to trade self-judgment for trust and move with the grace that arrives with each new nudge.

Response is where presence meets craft. We explore what it means to be filled and skilled: curating a beautiful, ordered studio; developing technique; and staying attentive while you work so excellence grows without perfectionism. Finally, we reach incarnation—the moment ideas take form and your painting, song, sculpture, or story carries God’s life beyond your studio. Think of your work as an altar of remembrance and a table of encounter that speaks now and years from now.

Along the way, you’ll hear practical practices, scriptures like John 15, John 16, and Exodus 31, and a short activation to use before and after you create. If you’re ready to step into creative flow with God—steady, joyful, and deeply grounded—this conversation is your on-ramp. Subscribe for more, share with an artist friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review with the step you’re starting this week.

For more resources for Christian Artists, visit https://www.matttommeymentoring.com 

Find out more about The Created to Thrive Foundations Course 

Fuel Your Creative Calling with Weekly Encouragement
Join thousands of Christian artists who are growing in faith, creativity, and purpose.

Subscribe to The Thriving Christian Artist Weekly and receive powerful, faith-filled content every week—designed to encourage your heart, spark your creativity, and equip you to walk boldly in your God-given calling as an artist.

👉 Click here. It’s free. It’s faith-filled. And it’s just for you.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, have you ever wondered how to start actually co-creating your art with God? Not just dedicating your art to him, but actually sensing his presence with you, guiding you and leading you in everything that you're doing as you make art. Well, listen, if that's you, then you're in the right place. And today I'm going to give you five really simple and practical steps on how you can start co-creating your art with God so that you can experience the joy and fulfillment and divine partnership that God has for each of us as artists every time you go in the studio. So, hey, welcome. So glad you're here. If you're ready to get started, put I'm ready in the chat and let's go. Okay, so I promise I'm going to make this really simple. We're going to learn five things today that are a little process I call the flow of co-creation. And they're super simple. All right. Intimacy, revelation, agreement, response, and incarnation. And once you understand how this flow starts to work together, it'll make co-creating with God very, very simple and very, very natural for you as you go in the studio. Listen, I've been making art, probably like you, for a long time. When I started going in the woods years ago and harvesting bark and vines and making my baskets and all that, I really did not do that because I thought it was God's plan for my life or anything big like that. I just loved to do it. And I knew that I felt more me than ever, you know, when I was out there doing that. I knew that when I was creating work, I was inspired and I was joyful and I would just get lost in the moment. But the more I began to understand the Lord, I started understanding, wow, this is not just me doing what I love to do. This is actually me coming into agreement and partnering with the Lord in my creative process. In other words, my process turned into a partnership. I love it in my life, and I'm sure you can you can kind of share the same things that when you're going along and all of a sudden you realize, oh, God's been working in this the whole time. And I didn't even realize it. And I think, you know, as much as I'd like to say, I planned this thing out the whole time and knew what God was doing, I didn't, but the Holy Spirit surprised me. And I hope today, through understanding this process of learning to co-create with God, that you're going to start realizing, oh my goodness, the Holy Spirit's been there the whole time leading me. And you can just learn some intentional steps today to start letting your ear get a little bit more uh tuned into Him. Your eyes begin to realize a little bit more of what God's doing and assume this connection that's already yours in Christ. Because guess what? You don't have to beg the Holy Spirit to show up in your studio or show up in your sketchbook. You don't have to beg him for ideas, you don't have to beg him to come in and infuse your studio. Listen, he's already in you. In Christ, the Holy Spirit is living and active inside of you, leading you into all truth, leading you into all wisdom, guiding and directing your every step. And so the point of co-creating that I want to set the stage with today is that you as a child of God can assume connection, not because you're, you know, being like, oh, I think I got it all together. No, you're doing that because you're a child of God. And you can't be separated from the power of the Holy Spirit that's inside of you. When Jesus died upon the cross, he restored the fullness of the kingdom to you. He redeemed you from death, hell, and the grave, reconciled you to the Father, and restored you into every good thing God has for you. And he's living inside of you right now through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so when you and I create, we don't have to just create for him. We get to create with him. And listen, when you understand that, it changes everything about how you show up in the studio. Now you know, everything I do here on the channel, I love to start out of scripture. And John 15 is one of my really life sections of scripture. I love it in John 15, 4 and 5. It says this, remain in me. This is Jesus talking, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. And then Jesus says this. I love it. He says, I'm the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. So listen, when you know, a lot of times we think about the fruit of our life, spiritual fruit, the fruit of the spirit, but I want you to begin to understand that your artwork is an overflow of what's going on in your heart. Your artwork is an overflow of what God wants to do in and through your life. And so everything begins, not only in our life as believers, but in our lives as artists. It starts with intimacy with the Lord. So before you pick up a brush, before you go to your creative, you know, place, before you get the clay out, before you like me going out and walking in the woods or everything, just pause and take a deep breath and just acknowledge Him. You may think this is funny, but literally as you walk in my studio, my studio is in a barn here on our property, when you walk in my door, I've got a big yield sign, like a traffic sign over my door. And you know, it's not something super spiritual, but it's just something that every time I walk in, I just kind of take a breath and I'm like, Holy Spirit, I'm yielding to you today. And whatever I'm doing and whatever you're calling me to, as I'm learning to listen and walk with you, I'm gonna, I'm gonna learn to yield. I'm gonna choose to yield. Because listen, when his presence becomes your starting point, it turns your studio and your workspace into a sanctuary and a sacred space. And listen, I I want my space and your space to be that sacred space that when you walk in, you know the atmosphere shifts. Something's different because you're acknowledging the presence of God in your workspace as an artist. Now, the second step, again, very simple, is revelation. This is the beautiful thing I love. Anytime you get in the presence of the Lord, he loves to speak. Jesus said, My sheep know my voice, right? They're not going to follow other voices because their ears are attuned. So I love John 16, 13, just another chapter over, right? It says this when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, talking about the Holy Spirit, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He only speaks what he hears, and he will tell you what is to come. So listen, out of that place of revelation, out of that place of intimacy with the Lord, revelation is what happens. Again, he's going to begin to speak to you. He's going to begin to move on your heart. Maybe as you're sitting there in silence with him, maybe you see a vision, maybe you see something in your mind's eye, or you remember something, you get an impression, or you start to be led to a color or a Bible verse or maybe a certain emotion that you want to begin to communicate through your art. But the beautiful thing is when the Holy Spirit begins to speak and reveal things, a lot of times we just think, oh, isn't that cool? Well, I've just learned keep a sketchbook. Now, if you're like me, I got like sketchbooks everywhere, right? But one of my sketchbooks is, I mean, just super simple. This is one I just grabbed off my studio table, but literally it's just filled with ideas and sketches and notes. And sometimes I'll write stuff and sometimes I'll paint stuff, and sometimes I'm making notes, and sometimes it's in color, and sometimes it's in pencil. And there's there's no right or wrong, right? It's just me getting down ideas in my sketchbook about new projects. But you know what's powerful about this? I think it it declares to the Lord and to yourself and to the all the forces of of evil that are trying to come against us all the time, it declares, hey, when God's speaking, I'm listening. When God's showing me something, if he cares enough to show it to me, I'm gonna care enough to write it down. And so when you keep this sort of spirit-led sketchbook, if you will, whether you're using it to journal or whether you're using it to sketch ideas or both, you're you're writing down these ideas that are literally dripping out of heaven like honey. They're valuable, they're beautiful, they're revelation for the next thing. And here's the thing I would say don't feel like you gotta like rush and write everything down. Don't get you know religious about it and don't get even overzealous about it. Write down the things that move you, and especially if you don't understand, because a lot of times we want to judge those things, like, oh, that didn't make sense, or well, I could never do that, or I don't understand that idea. No, just just write it down because there's so many things that God will show you in your creative process that you may not understand now, but listen, you may understand it at the end of the project, you may understand it three years from now. It may just be an opportunity for you to get it down so that you can come back and revisit it later. But I'm telling you, as you begin to steward that revelation well and begin to act on it, that's how you begin to get more and more and more revelation in your life. If God's giving you something and you don't write it down and you don't really steward it, why is he gonna give you more? All right. So steward the revelation that God gives you in a just a very simple way that works for you. All right. So the first step was intimacy. The second one was revelation, which is the natural fruit of intimacy. God loves to speak to his children, loves to show us things, right? Number three, then, is agreement, and it's all about saying yes to what God is showing you. Now, I love 2 Timothy 1, 7. It says this, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, right? But of power and of love and a sound mind. See, when revelation comes, when the Holy Spirit starts speaking, showing you, nudging you, giving you impressions, all those little things that we just take for granted sometimes, when he starts doing that, the number one thing that the enemy is gonna do, and he loves to do this to artists in the studio. The number one thing he's gonna do is throw up fear in order to get you to agree with fear and resist what God's trying to bring to your heart and try to bring into your creative process. See, fear resists. Fear says, I can't do that. Fear says that doesn't make sense, fear says I'm not ready. Fear says uh nobody will buy that. Fear says, uh, you know, I'm not a good enough artist to make that happen. But faith, even when it doesn't make sense, faith says, I agree. Yes, Lord, if if if you felt, you know, strong enough to give it to me, if you felt it was important enough to give it to me, then I'm gonna choose to say yes to it. Because see, here's the deal. When you can say, Holy Spirit, I trust your flow more than I trust my fear, that's when things change. That's when things change. See, I've just learned over the years in your art process and in your life, when the Holy Spirit shows you something, He's giving you the opportunity and the authority to begin to move in that direction. When God's showing you something in your creative process, he's giving you an open door. Now, that doesn't mean that uh you're gonna know everything that you need for the whole project or how this is gonna work out perfectly. No, it just means that, hey, here's an open door. There's grace being released for this as you begin to walk toward it. And I've just learned, my friend, you know, some of the best projects that I've ever made, some of the best things that I've ever done creatively have come out of those moments of, wow, thank you, Lord. And a little bit of trepidation of like, I have no idea how this is gonna work out, but but I'm so excited. I'm so excited that you chose to give me. See, agreement opens the door for heaven's flow of creativity to flow through your hands. And I think that is a super, super, super important thing for you to realize. Judgment and fear block your hands. Judgment and fear and all that stuff that the enemy wants to bring, it literally builds a wall around you. That's why you feel creative block, that's why you feel paralyzed, that's why you feel stove up and unable to create freely. But listen, when God gives you an idea, just realize 2 Peter 1, 3 and 4, you've already been given everything you need for life and godliness. So guess what? That means the ideas, that means the next steps, that means the skills that you're gonna need, that means all the stuff that you're gonna need. It's already yours. And as you begin to walk by faith in the creative process, guess what? Holy Spirit's gonna make sure you got exactly what you need at the right time. And as you cooperate with him and you respond in faith, that's how you begin to grow as an artist. And listen, that is super, super fun. Listen, it takes all the pressure off of you and me as artists, and it allows us to lean on the strength and the creativity of the Lord. Listen, he's the original artist, right? We're created in his image. And so we're leaning into the process that he developed and that he wants to move through us, not just trying to make it happen on our own. Now, before we get into number four, I want to say this. You'll notice intimacy, revelation, agreement. You're like, Matt, this has nothing to do with making art. It has everything to do with making art. You know why? Kingdom principle alert, right? In the kingdom, everything that happens in the external world starts in the internal world. The reason you have creative block, the reason you feel paralyzed, the reason you feel frustrated and not enough in the studio is not because you don't have the skill, not because you don't have the ideas, not because God doesn't love you. It's none of that. It's because of all the inner blockage that's going on inside. That's why we start with intimacy with the Lord. We start with who we are in Christ. We're in a in a relationship with the most high God, the original creator who's created us in his image. And then we learn to receive revelation from him as a natural flow. And then we agree with it in our heart. Listen, when you're doing that, what that's doing is that is naturally pushing out the forces of the enemy that are trying to stop you and hinder you in your creative process. You're you're literally through the power of the Holy Spirit and your agreement with him and through his word, you're cleaning out the creative pipes, if you will, of yourself so that the free flow of the Holy Spirit can move in and through you. All right. And that brings us to number four, which is response. That is, you know, we start to actually create with the Holy Spirit and with excellence. Now, I want you to get this, this Exodus 31, one of my favorite, favorite chapters in the Bible. And if it's not, it should be one of yours as well as an artist. But Exodus 31, the first couple of verses says this, see, I have chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah, and I've filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, and with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills to make artistic designs in work in uh or artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. So I want you to realize not only are we created in the image of God, we are to reflect and reveal his nature through our creative process. But Bezalel is the first artist that we see in the Bible, this healthy artist that it says he was filled with the Spirit of God, but also skilled in every manner of workmanship. I want you to think about being filled and skilled as two wings of a plane, right? If you only have one wing, you're just flying around in a spiral, right? Not what we want to be doing, right? We we we operate in both because when we're filled with the spirit, we're filled with the life in the presence of God, the movement of the Holy Spirit, but we have a part to play. See, faith always requires a response. Faith always requires action, all right? And that that attentiveness that we have to give. And so when the Holy Spirit's moving and we respond in excellence and we continue to develop our excellence as artists, what we're doing is we're expanding our creative language to be able to allow the Holy Spirit to move through us in ways that we never, ever, ever thought possible. So one of the biggest ways that you can learn to honor God with your art is to be filled in skill, not only cultivating your life with the Lord, but also cultivating your life as an artist that is growing in everything that you're doing. So as you start to create in the studio, it's just important to keep your spiritual senses open. This is this is where I think people get a little squirrely. We like to keep our relationship with God over here and our art process over here. But today, you know, I'm trying to get you to understand, like everything in the kingdom, these are merged, right? God wants to speak in and as you're moving. Now, some people will ask, well, Matt, how do you know if it's you? And how do you know if it's it's God? And I would just say this the Holy Spirit's living inside of you. When you got saved, all of you got saved. The Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above, right? And so guess what? If it's good, it's God. If you're in the middle of a creative process and you begin to feel uh sense and moved and inspired in in a direction, don't you don't have to stop and pray for three hours about it and go, oh gosh, is this God? No, that's fear. See, fear and religious fear is the thing that's causing you to go, oh no, oh what if I do it wrong? What if I don't create the thing that God has for me? What if I mess it up? Oh, you know, listen, listen. That's not God's intention for us as creatives. God gave us our creativity to have fun and to fulfill the desires of our heart, to be able to commune with him. And I've just learned, again, assume connection. If if I'm inviting the Holy Spirit, if I've got my worship music on, if I'm in this place where I'm listening to his voice, his word is in my heart, I'm creating this atmosphere of expectancy with him, then listen, go with it. Go with it. If blue is inspiring you, go with blue. If this branch is inspiring me or this texture or this subject matter, I'm gonna go with that. Why? Because I'm trusting the movement of the Holy Spirit in me. I'm trusting that he's gonna lead me into this process as I create with him. The other thing that I would say is as you create, is that the space that you're creating is in is super, super important. I believe in working in spaces that that are beautiful and inspiring, that are organized, that are clean, you know, that are that have all the things that I need. So as you create that sacred space with the Lord, again, it just kind of sets the atmosphere that when I walk in here, my eyes are open, my ears are open, my heart is open, I'm ready to flow with the Lord. I'm creating an environment where creating with the flow of the Holy Spirit is easy. See, excellence, you know, being filled and skilled, excellence in your art does not mean perfection. It really is about partnership. I'm gonna say that again. Excellence is not about perfection, it's about partnership. It's about learning to honor the inspiration that God's given you and the process to the best of your ability. And I believe, you know, as as we're mastering things, we continue to grow, we continue to press ourselves as artists. Why? Because we're expanding the creative language that God wants to move in and through our lives as artists. And I just love that. I get super excited about that as well, to see all the things that God wants to do in my life as an artist. Now, the fifth step in this process is what we call incarnation. And that's actually where your work gets to release the glory of God. In other words, the things that were just existing in the heart of God and in your imagination actually get combined with the work of your hands and get released into a physical form. Whether that's a book or a song or a dance or a painting or a sculpture or a piece, some kind of piece of art, it actually becomes physical. That's what incarnate is all about. That's what it means when you know Jesus was incarnated, right? The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And see, we get the same opportunity to allow God's word and his nature and his presence to move in and on and through the objects that we create. See, God designed us to create with him. Not just out of, you know, vain creativity, as if creativity itself could be vain, because it's from God, right? It reflects his nature. But he designed it so that we're creating, I like to think of them as these altars of remembrance or these tables of encounter, where as we create these incarnational pieces, right, that reflect the beauty and the nature of God, all of a sudden, these go out into the world and they get to be moments, if you will, encounter, intersection points where the Holy Spirit can speak to somebody today, tomorrow, and years and maybe even generations later. I mean, think of all the incredible artwork that's been created over millennia in our world and how much of it still speaks today because it was it was created through and inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit. My friend, listen, your creativity is not just this little thing that you do on the your on the side. It is designed by God to reveal and release his life and light. And listen, when you and I do that, whoa, it not only it not only fulfills us, it also transforms the people who encounter it. Not because we're just great artists, but because the living God has chosen to move in and through the work of our hands. And I don't know about you, but I just see that as an incredible, incredible privilege and opportunity as an artist. So as we wrap this up today, I just want to recap those five points. All right, again, number one, intimacy, just learning to be aware of his presence that's already inside of you as a believer. Number two, revelation. That's just learning to listen for his voice because he's always speaking, especially to his sons and daughters, and especially in our art process. All right. Number three, agreement. That is just say yes to what God shows you without judging it or being fearful about it. Number four, respond, that is, create with the Holy Spirit and with excellence and continue to expand uh your creative toolbox and skills, as you will, uh, as you grow as an artist. And then number five, incarnation. That is, create the work and release it for his glory, trusting that he's gonna continue to use your work in a powerful way to encounter people everywhere that they may encounter your work, no matter how long uh it's around in the world. So here's the deal. I want to give you a little bit of activation. All right. Next time you go in the studio, I want you to just walk in, maybe turn a little worship music on. Just take that deep breath. Just thank the Lord, say, Holy Spirit, thank you that you are in me and through me and around me. Thank you that you made me as an artist. Thank you that you that you designed me for such a time as this. Holy Spirit, thank you that you want to speak to me. And now, Lord, I just as I breathe with you and rest in this moment, Holy Spirit, I'm asking for you to speak, to lead me in my creative process today. Lord, I offer this time to you. And again, just start going through that process. Sketch down, write down what he shows you. Maybe if you feel inspired to move in a direction, just go. Just do it. Do it in freedom, do it in peace, do it in joy. And I promise you, as you start doing that every day in the studio, you're gonna, you're gonna begin to create with such a sense of flow and beauty and fulfillment. And the last thing at the end of the day, as you're getting ready to turn off the light in your studio space or wherever it is and go eat dinner, go cook dinner, whatever it is that you're doing, just say a little prayer as you're leaving. Say, Lord, thank you. Thank you that we did just tell him whatever it is that you did today. Lord, thank you that it's good. Thank you that my work today with you is enough. And I I release it to you and I trust you that you're working all things together for my good. Listen, when you do that, you end the day with it with a sense of accomplishment and also a sense of relationship with the Lord that lets you know you're in the right place doing the right things with the Lord as an artist. My friend, listen, as you start co-creating with the Lord in your studio every day, it starts to become a lot more than just self-expression, as we talked about today. It really does become a doorway for his presence, for you to experience him and for others to be able to experience him as well. If you want to learn a little bit more about this, I want to encourage you, if you've not gotten it already, uh thousands have, but grab this little book, it's on Amazon. It's called Prophetic Art, uh Practical Guide to Creating with the Holy Spirit. The thing I love about this, it builds on what I just taught you, a little bit deeper on that, um, actually, a good amount deeper on that. But also the thing I did in this book is that I put a bunch of glory stories in it. So every chapter has got stories of artists that are doing the things that I'm telling you to do and how God showed up in their creative process. And if you love that kind of stuff, you're gonna love that little book. All right. Also, if you're looking to grow deeper in your own faith as an artist and you're wanting to really lay that foundation, you you're even realizing as you're watching this today, gosh, I really don't know who I am in Christ. Gosh, I do struggle with a lot of fear and anxiety and and being paralyzed and inadequacy and all the stuff that kind of is keeping me back internally as an artist. Listen, if that's you, I want to say number one, you're not alone. And number two, you're exactly who I created the foundations course for. It is a simple nine-week journey that we walk you through with a combination of biblical teaching, community, and daily art projects where you start to lay a solid foundation in Christ as an artist, allow the Lord to heal the broken places of your heart and start to build habits and a life that will strengthen you and set you on a firm foundation as an artist in the kingdom. You can find out all about the foundations course right here in this description of this video so that you can take the next step on that as well. Friend, as we get ready to go, I want to pray for you real quick because I believe that you're here by divine appointment. I believe that God brought you here for a reason. And so, Jesus, I thank you for my friend that's watching right now. God, I pray that you would inspire them, that you would lead them, that you would draw them in a supernatural way as they create with you. God, as they do the thing that you created for them to do. And God, I thank you that you're faithful. God, your word says you speak. Your word says you lead us, your word says you guide us as we walk with you. And so, Lord, we just say, God, we're we're walking and we're ready to move with you. And we thank you that you're gonna meet us in our sacred studio spaces. Be with us, Lord. Bless my friend today with everything they need for life and godliness, for ideas and inspiration, revelation, God, financial blessing that they need to take the next steps, Lord. Supernatural encounters with you, divine appointments, open doors. God, I pray it all for them according to your will. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Listen, friend, again, make sure you're subscribed here on the Thriving Christian Artists channel. I never, ever, ever want you to miss any of the great content that I'm sharing. 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.