Your Art Is Not Second-Rate Work: Embracing the Call as an Artist

I will embrace my vocation 102626 0625

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I will embrace my vocation as an artist,
artisan or creative professional, no matter my
medium, knowing that God wants to transform the
kingdoms of this world into the Kingdom of our Lord through the arts and creativity.

Sometime around the winter of 2012
I stumbled upon a verse of scripture
in Morning Prayer that I did not understand.

It was the end of the first chapter of Zechariah.
This is one of the few places in the Bible
where a prophecy is given
and the actual date is attached.
The date Zechariah had his vision was February 15, 519 BC.
So this is about sixty five years after the Babylonian Captivity.
Zechariah knew Jeremiah said the captivity would be seventy years,
and he is getting impatient with God.
And then Zechariah sees
four hours.
Four is an important number in the Hebrew mind.
It corresponds to the four winds
and the four cardinal directions.
It is all encompassing,
and represents the whole world,
and even more, "ha olam."
The whole created order.

Horns represent power.

God is showing Zechariah
the powers of the universe,
and in context
powers that are in rebellion against God.
And then the LORD shows him four
Charashim.
My bible at the time translated this word "smiths."

It was a weird verse.
Sometimes you find something
in the daily readings
and it bugs you.
This verse, for some odd reason,
bugged me.
And so, I went over to the Gordon Conwell Library,
and I started looking up the word.
And in the end,
I discovered that it was deliberately mis-translated.
Translators know what this word in particular means.
It is an artistic word.
The word meant artisan, or master craftsman.
And the two most prominent uses of this word
are in Exodus 35:35
in the second call and ordination of Bezalel
to be the Artistic Director of the Tabernacle.
And 1 Chronicles 4:14
where we discover that there is a valley
in Israel
where all the artists who maintain
and create things for the temple worship
live and work.
And that the nation of Israel
supported out of the Temple Treasury.
1 Chronicles 4:14 is extremely important
because
the word is actually defined,
and we can then find the Greek word in the New Testament.
And we then can find places
where there are references to the arts.

Bango.

I'm not going to go down the rabbit trail
about Bible translation today.
The point is this.
Zechariah
saw a moment in the future
when the entire world
and cosmic powers
would align against
Israel,
Jerusalem
and by extension
the real church.
In the face of hopeless
opposition from the whole world,
God raises up
artists and artisans
from the four winds to combat them.
And in the next verse it says
the artists will strike terror
in the hearts of the horns, these cosmic powers.

In 2006
when God called me to raise up an army of artists,
I had no idea what He was talking about.
And the people around me were worse,
they thought they totally knew what God was talking about
and thought I was a nut.
They all thought that I was starting a
Christian Artist Commune
where everyone was poor,
sang folk songs,
and ate lentils.

I hate lentils.

The attitude of the people around me
was the same as the translators who translated this verse
blacksmiths.
The arts are not important.
Artists are too lazy to do real work.
They aren't good with money,
are starving,
and they probably deserve to starve.
Why don't you get a real job.
Start a real ministry,
be a missionary or do something useful.

I have heard it all.

And I have dried a lot of tears over the past twenty years.
A lot of people in our house have been mistreated,
misunderstood,
and suffered real abuse,
sadly at the hands of the church
who want pretty things
but aren't willing pay for it.

And honestly,
there are people who love my books
but somehow never hear the message
and when I talk about artists
and raising up warriors
it just doesn't go in.
There is a spiritual block.

We have a lot of people
who have a big call on their lives,
but are too afraid to let go
of a small paycheck
to walk into it.
And I get that.
You all know I refused to quit my job
and so I was fired.

My life is a parable
for you who are called into the arts.
God asked me to quit my job,
not raise support,
and not do the ministry building thing,
no networking,
no promoting,
no pushing and building
to get a big thing going.
I am not called to build a big ministry.
I am a sign that you can step out and be an artist.
He told me to start telling people
that He could be trusted
so that artists would
embrace their call
and be disciples
and strike fear into the evil
that is gaining strength
every day.

The dark is getting darker,
but the church is still refusing to turn the light on
and get brighter.
And so
twenty years ago
I stepped out of my world
and into this uncharted one.

The whole point is this.
God has a secret weapon.
It is making the world beautiful
in the face of the barbarians who want to burn Limoges,
and who want to deface the Mona Lisa,
We are living in days of unprecedented evil.

And to this
God shows me the four artisans.
We have artisans and artists in the four corners of the world.
We have pockets of people
waiting for their marching orders.
The reason the Twelve I wills
take ten "I wills" to talk about discipleship
and not art
is that there are many powerless artists out there
who are really secular artists
who have been co-opted
by government grants,
the need to be in the contemporary art scene,
and the desire for fame and money.
These folks are not Christian artists,
they are worldly artists
who have compartmentalized their religious beliefs
but believe more in the world system.

That system is in a big shift,
and there is coming a time
when you will have to bow down to the idols they have made
if you want to be an artist at all.
And history has shown us
that when the marxists,
socialists,
and muslims
take over
the first ones they shoot,
dismember,
or stone,
are the artists.
Some places
they just quietly starve you
by keeping you out of a job
or a place of influence.
It is deadly to commit wrongthink.
They aren't going to be any different now
than they were yesterday.

No, from what I just said,
you now know
Belonging House International
is not a nice Christian arts ministry.

Belonging House International
is a community of trained warriors.

Instead of bayonets and bullets
we are calling people to be disciples
and be spiritual warriors.
You have to be solid on the inside.
You have to get your beliefs straight.
You have to be able to sift the barrage of lies
coming from institutions and media.
You have to get your life in line with God.
And you have to step out
and do that thing
God is calling you to do.
God is not raising up an army
of mid-level managers
in cubicles.
God is not raising up
people living paycheck to paycheck
trying to get by
who know they should be
painting,
writing,
composing,
or creating,
but just never seem to find the time.

God is raising up artists and creative people
who have learned that he can be trusted.
God is raising up people willing to step out of the boat,
and trust that the water will hold you up.

This is why I never use the word "creatives"
by the way.
It is a label, and Christians love labels.
It diminishes you and makes you less.
God is raising up people
who are intended to be the Image of his Son.
And John 1 tells us
that it is through him
that all things were made.
Jesus was a creative person.
And when you become a disciple
you are called to be like him.

I am going to talk about two people
in this house who I believe
really have become examples of what I am talking about.

I have watched Rachel grow
from a girl just out of college
into a mighty woman of faith.
Rachel has been willing to risk it
more than once
and she has gone to places I honestly
would be scared to go.
She has believed what I said last week,
your gift will make a way for you.
And that has opened doors to her
in places where Christian missionaries
are not welcome.
And she had a sense that Belonging House
was being called into New York City
before I did.
And when Rachel believes that God is saying something,
she jumps,
and she goes.
More than once she has really scared me.
And I have had to hold my breath
and commend her to God,
and God always comes through for her.

Last week I went to her apartment in Brooklyn
to help finish some unfinished projects.
When Jesus sends you someplace on assignment,
it may not be very nice,
but he gives you grace.
The apartment isn't fabulous,
but she lives next to her school.
She is the art teacher.
And last year she had a rough year,
and prayed alot about whether to keep the job.
She prayed in new teachers who know Jesus.
And she is able to be a light
in the lives of these children.
That is being a warrior artist.

Last year one of Rachel's friends
read my book Artists at a Shift in Time.
He started telling Rachel
that he needed to meet me.
About six months ago
Yeltsin did meet me.
We have had a lot of talks.
He is finishing his art degree this semester.
I did not go to art school
because I couldn't find a place
that would teach me how to paint
like an old master.
Yeltsin paints like an old master,
and in fact,
he really is descended from an old master.
It's in his blood.
And he is mostly self-taught.
In this last semester
he has been painting a series of paintings
that have profound spiritual meaning.
In the contemporary art scene
that is pretty rare.
Most artists talk about their practice,
and create artists statements
to get grants.

Yeltsin was working on his painting
at the college where he is studying.
One of the cleaning ladies came to him
and asked him about his painting.
She said that she didn't like cleaning the art studio,
because she feels demons coming off the paintings.

When she walked into the studio and saw Yeltsin's painting
it felt like it was cleaning the atmosphere.

Being an artist or a creative professional
is not second rate work.
Jesus Christ was an artisan,
and at the end of the book,
we discover a city coming down out of glory.
It is the city
Jesus went to prepare.
And into that city
the Kings of the earth
will bring the glories of their cultures.

I am going to wrap this up
by sharing a little thing I wrote ten years ago.

This message has been about
about why
God is raising up artists across the earth.
Why?
Because
God wants
to make the kingdoms
of this world
the Kingdom of our Lord
and of his Christ.

That's from the Bible,
and also Handel's
"Hallelujah Chorus."

Maybe you never noticed.
That's culture, by the way.
God's plan is to transform the earth,
so that when Jesus returns
to reign he will find
a place that feels like home.
The plan from the beginning
was to create a home.

A home
where God and man
could live together in love.
Yes,
I know,
that's radical.
God wants
to establish his Kingdom,
and God's government
is all about freedom and responsibility.

Freedom.
You get to be free from everything
holding you back and be a member of a royal family.
There are endless benefits and many responsibilities.
The biggest responsibility
is to be like Jesus.
You can't try harder to be like Jesus.
You can't be nicer to be like Jesus.
And you definitely should not be like Jesus on your own.
You have to give up your control
and let Jesus rule and reign through you.
That means
closing your mouth,
stopping and waiting,
and not doing anything
until Jesus is Lord.

That means
Jesus is the boss.

But I think that by now
you know that
letting Jesus be boss
is probably better
than you and your vision,
mission, career goals,
and success.

Jesus is
an awesome boss,
and the benefits are amazing.
But to do this is radical.
And it is dangerous.

You see,
although this isn't politics,
it is revolutionary.
Some people
want to keep
their power,
and
their control
over other people.

Remember what I said
about power over people and control.
That ain't freedom.
Even some people
who say they are
Christians
want power
over other people.
Power is a dangerous drug.
And you wield
a
dangerous
arsenal of weapons.

You have
the weapons
of creativity.

You can
paint pictures
and let people
see what you see.

You can
tell stories
of great adventures
that awaken the heart.

You can
write songs
that people remember and release life.

You can
design
better tools
to improve life.

And you can
help people
imagine
a better world
for themselves
and their children.

Remember,
an artist
is the only one
who can get free
and then help others
get free too.

And freedom is the foundation of the Kingdom.

And a lot of free people
are hard to control.
Especially
a bunch of
virtuous
free people
who have been
inspired to see
the Good,
the True,
and
the Beautiful
everywhere.

Remember,
this is why
there is a war
over the arts,
and a war over culture.

Whoever directs culture
determines government in the future.
not politics.

This is why
some people
want to control
which words
you are allowed to say.

And this is why,
when some people
get power,
they line up all the artists, writers, and thinkers
and shoot them in the head.

They do this first,
you know,
usually before
they start rationing
all the food.

Because
a free imagination
is a dangerous thing.

And the King is coming.
And the King's greatest weapon
is a bunch of free thinking people
making beautiful things that make life better.
That's a threat to the status quo.
That means change.
And it means the end of Satan's empire,
and the end of all his useful idiots.

As I said before,
the stakes are high.
And it's a fight to the death.

I hope you see now,
why God is forging a global arts movement.
There are songs,
and sounds,
that the world aches to hear.
All of creation
is groaning
for God's Royal Family
to start acting like one.

To exercise dominion,
and advance
the government
of the King.
Because
everyone wants a King like Jesus.
They just don't know it yet.
And you,
through excellent work,
are going to show them.
Not with a sermon,
but with your life.

The days
of struggling artists
in the back of the church
are coming to an end.
And the days
of creators advancing
the government of God are just beginning.
A story in a magazine that describes the culture of heaven.
A poem at a reading that makes people
hunger for something more.
A dance that moves the audience to see the unseen.
A movie that awakens the desire
for the Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.
It's not about you and your destiny.
It's not even about making a living.
Although these things
are important,
and God does care about them.

No.
It's about the future of the human race,
and the survival of planet earth.
It's about setting up
the throne of David
and expanding the influence
of the Kingdom of Jesus.

So that
when he comes
he will know he's home.
And we will be ready, and there will be many waiting
to take up residence in the castle
we have built together on the mountain.
Making art,
and eating food,
and showing off
the glories of the nations
together,
in Freedom.

Come under the roof

Belonging House is a movement of artists and creative people, now reaching thirty-eight nations, learning to listen to God together. We are not trying to survive the storm. We are the storm.

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