December 2023 I start my series of paintings titled ‘Worthy Is The Lamb’. It will be an ongoing series with no end date. I’ll be exploring it for what seems to be ages to come, reflecting the eternal cry of Heaven.
This series has been 7 years in the making, thick with history of the ministerial calling to be an artisan for God and the romance of Christ’s blood.
I shared briefly in this blog post Do What God Called You To Do about some of my spiritual awakening with art and how God values it as a ministry. I think it pairs well with this reading.
When I decided to dive into painting abstract in 2016, I knew that I was called to paint the Scriptures. At first I didn’t understand how to approach such a weighty endeavour and I had to understand that my humanity could not do such a work, only by His Spirit through me. Painting the Scriptures didn’t felt like a want but rather a drawing and alluring by the Holy Spirit. It was an inner-knowing that I knew would be apart of my life’s course and not just a moment or hobby to pass the time.
I knew that these pieces would create an impact and leave stains in the Earth. It was only a matter of time, the right time, for them to be released.
I remember opening my Bible in 2016 and landing on Isaiah 1:18 in a time when darkness saw my growing devotion to God and desired friendship with me. The vibrancy of that verse illuminated my soul. I knew everything about the blood to be true. It was lovely to me. I was enthralled by the power of His cleansing. So I painted it.
I had an experience in 2020 that I consider to be a seal of what was already revealed years prior, redolent of an impression in my spirit of profound revelation about myself as an artisan for God by way of painting. This happened when I was called to live paint for a women’s conference. I remember getting ready to leave my home in tears because I was overwhelmed with disappointment that I was unable to fly to Brazil for The Send during that time. I wanted so badly to see His move on His people. Unbeknownst to me, there was a different kind of flight that was reserved for me to Heaven that day.
I left the house in tears for a few things, the aforementioned and also feeling like I had no idea how to paint prophetically in front of people, as this was something I did with the Lord intimately in my room. Intermingled was a winded conversation with God telling Him that all I know to paint is the crucifixion, nothing else, that’s it. That season of my life was spilling over with the awareness and accute understanding of the beauty of the blood of Jesus. I wondered if people would truly embrace a painting of His blood instead of something easier to digest. I wondered why it isn’t easy to digest. I wondered if they would see Him like how He revealed Himself to me and that His crucified state is just as romantic as Jehovah Jireh. Will they still want Him in a painting without flowers? Words? Lion of Judah? I wondered.
So, I went and painted what I knew, the blood of the One Who saved me.
This captivating experience feels cheap when hollowed out to fit into the confines of language but I will try my best to paint the picture. An apt way to describe it, simply put, is that I was caught up in heaven.
I didn’t know that Jesus was so passionate about art in this way. I knew He liked it, but I didn’t know the magnitude. At all.
What happened to me that day was the most supernatural encounter I have ever had with art specifically.
I live comfortably in the depth and mystery of His presence but never have I experienced His heart for art in that way. I know partly, the reason for this encounter was a personal one; an awakening into my life’s work, adding to the revelations of creating articles used for worship and welcoming His presence.
While painting, everything in my mind was swirling and teeming with the romance of the blood of Jesus. It consumed me and I allowed myself to swim in it. While painting I found myself inside the wounds of His stripes. Not figuratively or exaggerating, but literally and actually. I was in there. It was beyond and otherworldly.
At the end of my session, I was given the opportunity to share the meaning behind the painting and when I closed my eyes, I went up. I went up and away. I knew I wasn’t on Earth anymore and my spirit soared into the dimension of God. While speaking, I forgot there were people in the room and when I opened my eyes I was hit with the reality of Earth. The room didn’t exist when I closed my eyes to speak. I was elsewhere.
In 2022 I started thinking about why that happened to me during painting, as I encounter Him in similar ways outside of this context in my day-to-day, but this way was just different. So different. It was unique to the act of painting. It was specific and attached to the actual action. The Lord showed me the mirror of the Passover and that through painting His blood I was mimicking the ancient ways to the heart of God. This action was wrapped up in God before the foundations. The hyssop in the Passover acted as the paintbrush used to paint the blood on the post and lintel. In my modernity, it was my paint as the blood and the canvas as the house.
I am certain I’ve only peeled back, close to nothing, this mystery and overlap, but what I do know is that I was in the chest of God and I heard very clearly the way to His heart. It’s His crucified Son.
So here it is, the first batch of paintings singing out my life’s message, Worthy Is The Lamb.
It is such an honour, truly, to be called into this work of creating sacred objects for the worship of our precious Lord. Calling believers deeper into contemplation of His blood and nonbelievers to draw near by interest. I can see it now and hear the intrigued whisper “what is that and why am I drawn to it?” And seeing you have the opportunity to share about This Man, the Saviour of the world and the One who makes demons tremble in fear.
Here’s more about the process:
The red for His blood, purple for His robe of mockery, the darkened colours for the depth of our sin and white for the purity of His cleansing. Sprinkled throughout are hand-dyed pieces of thread that I have stitched into the canvas to represent the casting of His garments after the crucifixion.
When I painted the first one, I spent days and days and days savouring it, wanting to paint it slowly and really give it the attention it deserved. Then the Lord reminded me again about the Passover, and that I must paint them quickly because even the process of making these paintings is powerful. It is reminiscent of the swiftness that the Israelites had to move in for their deliverance in Exodus 12. These paintings will facilitate the deliverance of His people.
I enjoy embellishing my art with gold leaf and have been doing it since 2016. I wanted to incorporate it into this series to represent His majesty. However, I could not shake the thought of “no, just no”. After adding it, I woke up the next morning adamant that the gold must go. I used my exacto knife and scratched it off completely and the wind of contentment blew over me. Now it looked right. Now it was perfect. Even while doing this, I thought about this very action being symbolic of the Lord descending from the dazzle of Heaven, stripping Himself of gold and being content and pleased to tent Himself in skin. I asked the Lord about why it made me so irritated and why I just felt like the painting looked off even though it was pretty and resplendent. He showed me that the gold is already in His blood and His people are going to see the simplicity of His blood as beautiful. His people are going to learn to love Him in His crucified state, not only in the resurrection and His white horse entry.
These paintings preserve the solemnity of the crucifixion. My choice of using the dimensions of 6x6” was to retain the intimacy of drawing near to the cross to observe and ponder. It bids you to come close and touch Him.
These paintings are not merely décor but objects used in the home for worship for glory and beauty. It is to be treated as such, with dignity and reverence not to be placed solely for filling space or to appease an aesthetic but with intention and holy adoration.
They are imagined for altars and the spaces where you meet with Jesus vis-á-vis. I created these with the understanding that objects reserved for holiness have the power to welcome and beckon His presence into a space. These paintings are heirlooms to be passed down generations to generations gracing the sanctuary of the home with memoirs of Christ’s blood.
My hope is that you would see the wax seal like a stamp of promise for His abiding presence, and that He will never leave you nor forsake you and will be with you ‘til the end of age.
Thank you for being here and thank you for your support. I’m excited to see these travel and to hear your testimonies!
From my depths,
To yours.
Comments