If you believe it, let me see it!
In the Kingdom Art Life, I talk about the importance of engaging in the full purpose of God as His artist, that is
receiving the things He wants to do and make happen for you as His child whom He deeply loves;
engaging in the relationship He desires to build with you;
submitting to the spiritual maturity and character sharpening He wants to produce in you, and
stewarding the vision and purpose He wants to work through you.
When I first started KAI in 2015, the Lord had me focused in the for and with aspects, because:
(FOR) If we are not confident that the Lord is for us as artists and for the work we feel led to create, we will be afraid or suspicious of letting Him be involved in our art ventures.
(WITH) If we don’t feel confident that the Lord wants to be with us in our creative journeys—that He actually cares about our creative hearts and wants to be involved in the minutiae of making art and putting it out into the world—we will feel silly about involving Him in our art lives because we believe He has deeper, more important things to tend to and care about.
But now we’re in a different place. Now that we know God is for us, now that we know our faith and art can work together in a career context (and how), and now that we know we are already whole in Christ, the Lord has a new charge for us. As we practice working like the whole artists we already are, and as we work through what it means to live out this wholeness in our faith walks, artmaking, and career building, His charge is simple: if you believe it, let Me see it!
And He started with me!
As always, He started with me. 2023 was a great year with lots of wonderful things that happened. But 2023 was also a very revelatory year for me. As I have taken steps to follow God in my own life and in stewarding the work He gave me, I have had a lot of starts and stops, a lot of bouts with insecurity, a lot of circling the drain, a lot of times where I kept finding myself back in the same place fighting the same ridiculous fight.
Finally fed up, I prayed and asked the Lord to show me the things in myself that were holding me back and keeping me from moving forward. I asked Him to show me the things I was doing, and the things I thought and believed that roped me back into the same struggles.
And He did. (And boy, you should pray that prayer every once in a while. It is a revelation. There were things I had NO IDEA I thought or believed about God and myself that were absolutely getting in my way). Out of that season, the Lord directed me to a question from my friend Lori:
If I truly believe that God is who He says He is; if I truly believe that I am who He says I am, and that I have and can do what He says I have and can do; how does that belief guide this decision in front of me? How does it guide the way I act or the actions I take?
And this is not one of those questions you answer once and put away, never to think of again. This is a question that you carry with you everywhere you go, one that you pull out and walk yourself through every time you have to make a decision.
Show me your faith by your works (James 2:18)
The Lord has been lovingly challenging me to walk in what I say I believe. If I truly believe He is my provider, He wants to see it. If I truly believe His favor goes before me, He wants to see me act like it. If I believe that He will give me wisdom and direct my steps, He wants to see me move like that. If I believe that He has filled me with vision and is telling me to move forward, He wants to see me take action.
And if you’re hanging out with KAI moving forward, that same charge applies to you. If you believe what you say you believe about God and about who He says you are, He wants to see it.
He wants to see it in the choices you make.
He wants to see it in the way you act.
He wants to see it in the ways you take space.
He wants to see it in the actions you take.
He wants to hear it in the way you speak.
And I’ll admit, in some areas, this happens easily. In other areas, I have to talk myself through a process—confronting my fear or hesitation, reminding myself of what God said, reaffirming that I do believe His word, and pumping myself to put my faith into action, sometimes despite my feelings or emotions.
Sometimes, I have to do some pre-work and take a moment to get to the root of my struggle with another Lori question:
What is holding me back from believing what He says or receiving His word over this area of my life? What am I afraid will happen if I actually act like what He says is true?
Other times, I hear myself say things that I have to correct because they are not things I would say if I believed what I say I believe. And if I’m going to put faith to work in my speech and conversation, faith speaks what it believes (2 Cor. 4:13).
And that’s what I will be challenging you to do as well.
So it’s important, then, for us to recommit to God’s word—both written and proceeding—to see what He says, to see what He tells us about Himself, to see what He says about us, who we are, and what we have. It is important that we learn about the things He’s made us and given us—”pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3)—through the finished work of Christ.
Be blessed!