Hi beautiful people.
How are you?
Welcome to the kingdom creatives Zoom chat.
We are so glad you are here.
We will give a few minutes to let
everyone sign in.
We are going to give a few minutes
for everyone to sign in.
Hi Penny.
Hi Zoe.
We will give a few minutes for
everyone to log in.
I know with the time zone change
here in North America we did our
daylight savings.
I know the time zone change is
different for everyone around the
world.
We will give a few minutes for
everyone to sign in.
It usually takes three or four
minutes for everyone to jump into
the party.
We are so glad you are here.
Hi Marlene and Laurel.
All of these beautiful women.
I'm loving it.
I've been having a dance party
all morning.
I've been listening to music.
The new album called lion.
I have literally been here.
Dancing it up all morning.
So many beautiful songs.
I know music is so personal based
on your preference.
Based on what kind of style you
like.
I'm so glad you are here.
I'm loving it.
Weeping, singing, dancing,
twirling.
It's such a beautiful thing to
move our bodies and dance in
God's presence.
These amazing beautiful women.
I have to say this kingdom
creative chat is one of my
favorite parts of the kingdom.
Understanding who you are and
what you are doing is so beautiful.
It is so inspiring.
I was praying to the Lord this
morning.
It is such a gift when you have
the gift of relationship.
The gift of seeing and connecting
with people in the kingdom all
the time.
The gift of seeing people doing
something.
Walking in their unique design.
They are creating and being
fruitful.
It is the most beautiful thing to
celebrate people.
It pulls out something in you
.
The joy of the Lord.
The delight of the Lord.
Look at what they are creating.
It is inspiration.
Jealousy can be a gift.
It shows us what is on the
inside of us and what we are
longing for.
It shows us what they are
experiencing.
If God can do it for them,
God can do it for me.
They are expressing something.
I get to marvel.
I get to marvel at the wonder and
beauty of that person.
I get to come alongside and
experience it.
I get to bring expression in
loving God with all of my heart,
giving creative expression.
God bringing excellence to that.
It would nurture people and serve
people and beautify humanity.
That is what happens when we get
to see people doing what they are
doing.
It is like a little
butterfly.
Who are you?
All these beautiful faces.
Hey, Z.
What's up?
I was just saying,
with the time zone change,
having a quick moment where our time zone changed.
we had daylight savings last
Last night I was like, see you at this time.
He's like, no, you're wrong.
I was like, I'm so sorry.
And then this morning I realized,
oh, it's cause the daylight savings.
We have like, we used to be 12 and a half hours apart
and now we're, is it 13 and a half hours apart?
The thing is last time my time was the night 10.30 PM.
Yes.
So I was expecting the same time because 9 AM.
But today it actually, it was 9.30.
I'm still figuring out how.
So, yeah.
So that's why I texted you last night.
Cause I was like, see you at 9.30, I was like, no.
But then I just realized I was so tired.
I should have communicated.
Oh, it's cause of the daylight savings time.
But then I was like, maybe I'm out of it.
And he's like, girl, what are you talking about?
That's not the time, it's 10.30.
I'm really sorry.
I was thinking that I've got one more hour to go for life.
I was actually waiting and chilling at home.
No, it's great.
This happens all the time.
This is the beauty of doing life
with one another internationally,
with all the time zones.
It's always a tricky thing.
I'm just glad we're all here.
I'm just glad that we caught that
and that we're both on the same page.
Yes.
I'm so glad you're here.
It would have been sad, just me, without-
I know.
We've got all these beautiful people.
I was just also just saying
the beautiful thing about in the kingdom,
that there's no comparison or competition,
but there's just celebration.
And especially in the realm of artists.
I think in anything that you're called to do,
there's always that journey
that you have to hold within your heart
of maintaining that thing of honor and respect
and celebration for one another
when people are doing the very thing
that you're created to do.
And yet, when you have that heart positioned
to see with the eyes of the father
and to just celebrate every brother and sister,
every son and daughter, every mother and father around you,
and that everything that we create
actually elevates humanity.
Everything we create actually just beautifies the earth
and it shows us what's possible.
And it gives us keys to unlock our own identity
and our own understanding of the nature
and character of God.
And it actually shows us when God favors and blesses
and gives abundance to anyone,
it just shows us that's the nature of our father.
That is the nature of our God.
And if he can do it for them, he can do it for us.
Revelation 19, it's the spirit of prophecy,
the testimony of Jesus.
So when we see the testimony of Jesus,
what God is speaking and doing and releasing
in another human, it is the spirit of prophecy.
We can say, God, you did it for them.
Come do it for me, you know?
And God, would you unlock me?
And it is the nature of love to provide.
And every good and perfect gift comes from the father.
So any gift that we see in the world,
it comes from the father and we get to just rejoice in it
and delight in it and celebrate it.
And so that is our heart here at Kingdom Creatives
of raising royalty, our whole heart for these chats.
Is that we would provide a safe place for dialogue
to be seen and to be known.
Like the kingdom is all about relationship.
We just wanna get to know you.
We wanna love you.
We wanna serve you.
We wanna champion you.
And we wanna come just with some content,
some different themes and topics that we can talk about
that's just helps encourage you
and helps serve you in your journey
of your relationship with God,
of walking out your purpose, your calling, your destiny
and the creative expression on your life.
Whatever that is, whether it's just your own,
you wanna interior decorate your home,
whether you wanna have fashion or beauty,
whether you want to write poetry,
whether you wanna do architecture,
you're a fashion designer, you're into song,
you're into dance.
I mean, whatever, you're a digital design, you're in media,
you're in creativity and artistic expression
can have a thousand different ways.
So whatever that looks like,
we just want to see you fully come alive and thrive
in who God's created you to be.
And we're all on the journey of going like God.
We want the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know you
and to know who you've made us to be
so that we can fully live life to the full.
We can seek first the kingdom and your righteousness,
have all things added to us
and live out the fullness of what you've called us to do.
So for those of you that are just jumping in the first time,
maybe you haven't joined in
or maybe you've watched some of the replays
or maybe you're new to raising royalty,
that's just a little bit of our heart.
And we have the wonderful Zylan
who is just an incredible man and leader
and artist himself and creative.
He is in India, and we also have Fee,
which is another incredible man, and he's in Madagascar.
He'll be joining us hopefully shortly as well.
And he won our Kingdom Talent Quest, which is amazing.
So he, yeah, he's an incredible gift,
incredible singer, songwriter, and artist.
So Zailin, talk to me.
How's your day been?
Yeah, it's super hot here.
It's, the summer just started,
and it's already really, really, like, intense.
And yeah, doing pretty nice, pretty good.
For those who don't know me, I'm a singer-songwriter.
I started a new project with one of my friends.
So we were just doing some productions kind of thing.
So yeah, so that's what's happening right now at the moment.
Awesome.
When do you think your project will be released?
When do you think it will be finished,
or is it kind of, like, still to be determined?
Yeah, the thing is, we are just, like,
getting out of this pandemic situation.
So the entire entertainment industry
is kind of, like, now slowly waking up,
and there are a lot of pending works, you know?
So, and the guys that I am working with,
usually work with, like,
I work with a lot of mainstream artists,
and they're already packed with a lot of works.
So the process is kind of slow,
so we haven't reached a place to decide
when we can finish this project.
But thank God, at least we started.
Yes, oh, it's so good.
Oh, I'm so glad.
Yeah, it's so good to be getting things moving again.
Yeah, so, yep.
Yeah, awesome.
Well, I've seen more and more of you beautiful people
hopping on.
It's so good to see you, Rebecca and Phoeben and Wanda
and Esther and Therese.
All these beautiful people.
Thank you so much for joining.
We just love it.
The more people, the better.
I mean, it's great when it's just one or two
or when it's five or 10,
but, like, the more people, the better.
We just love seeing your faces, hearing your voices.
Maybe you can let us know,
where are some of you guys tuning in from?
We'll get started in a few minutes,
but I just thought,
where are some of you tuning in from?
You can just say hi for a few seconds.
Anyone wants to come on screen?
Carol Gravanti, and I'm in Tampa, Florida.
Awesome.
It's my first time.
I've been wanting to do this with you,
and it's my first time, though.
I wish I had joined the others,
but you say there are replays, so that's exciting.
Yes, there are replays.
So on our Kingdom Creative Guide,
of the Raising Royalty Facebook page,
so that is free.
If you're part of our Raising Royalty community on Facebook,
there is a guide called Kingdom Creatives,
so they'll all be posted there,
as well as you can go to our new platform,
RaisingRoyalty.io,
and that is our new website platform,
and all of our Kingdom Creatives Zoom chats
are there as well.
So I think all five of them.
So this is our sixth chat.
We usually do one chat a month.
So yeah, they're all there,
and they've all got a different theme, different topics.
We just discuss different things.
Usually me and Zylan and Fi
will kind of talk about 10, 15, 20 minutes.
We'll kind of go back and forth sharing different insights
and inputs and revelations and encouragement,
and then we kind of open it up if people have questions
or if people have anything else to share,
and we kind of dialogue together,
and then we kind of pray at the end,
and that's our beautiful time together.
Thank you.
Yeah, thanks for saying hi, Carol.
So glad you're here.
Hey, I'm Gigi,
and I'm from heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
but on earth, I'm in upstate New York.
I love it.
Oh, that's awesome.
Welcome.
I'm so glad you're here.
I love New York.
One of my dear friends is heading there next week,
and I'm like, oh, I want to go to New York.
I'm like, oh, I want to go to New York.
And I'm like, oh, I wish I could go and meet up
and live it up.
Like, New York's just beautiful.
I love it.
All the different sides of New York, you know?
Beautiful.
Well, glad you're here, Gigi.
Well, thanks.
I'm Terese.
Dials, I live in Lexington, Kentucky.
Hi, oh, and I remember your beautiful face as well
from, was it the talent quest time or there was,
there was a live?
We did.
There was, yeah.
No, this is my first time on this.
Yes.
Cause I always miss it because I'm in a prayer group
a lot of times, but this is, but I was,
when I did the master class.
That's it, yes.
I remember there was another Zoom.
I remember seeing your face.
So I was like, hi, it's so good to see you.
I actually won a prize too.
Yes, that's right.
It was the masterclass because I remember,
I remember going through each, yeah,
each contest that I was doing for each day.
And I remember that's it, that's it.
Oh, it's so good to see you.
Yeah, it's good to be here finally.
I just got off of prayer Zoom.
So it's like, oh, and I saw the email and I said,
oh, click.
Oh, I'm so glad.
Oh, so good.
Thank you for being here.
It's so good.
It's good to be here.
Yeah, it adds so much just beauty and depth
when you just get to see every different person.
You know what I mean?
Cause we're all made just so uniquely
and we all have father's fingerprints and his goodness.
And we reveal the father in a unique way on the earth,
but only we can.
And so when you see each person and hear their voice
and see their face and we get to hear your story,
oh, I just love it.
So thank you for being here.
Anybody else want to say a quick hi before we get started?
Yes, I'm Pierre Goulard, I'm from Gatineau, Quebec.
Hi.
So this is the first time I'm on those call
and I don't really know what to expect.
I only saw the website and I saw the videos
that were there were very aligned
with things that are important to me.
So I was very interested in being there.
There's things that I have to do.
So I'm going to have to leave in about 10 minutes
and try to come back maybe in 15 minutes after that
if the call is still going.
I'm very, or I'll just shut down everything,
but I'm very interested in seeing what the group is about
and it sounds interesting.
So I'm looking forward to see what's ahead.
So nice to see you, everyone.
Yeah, I just have to say hi, Pierre.
It's been so awesome to see you here.
It's good to see you.
So I got the link from you, Laurel, yeah.
Oh, I love that.
I love the connections
and just like bringing friends into the journey.
Yeah, this is awesome.
You can always come back and watch the replay.
We usually go for about an hour and a half,
sometimes two hours and really our time.
Yeah, this is our sixth chat together.
Okay, good.
We do this once a month
and this is just one aspect of Raising Royalty.
Raising Royalty is a large movement
where we're basically wanting to serve men and women
all across the world in the body of Christ,
sons and daughters,
see them fully awaken to their identity in Jesus,
walk in their unique dreams,
their calling, their purpose and bring heaven to earth.
And that's in every sphere of influence.
That's in every different realm of our humanity.
And so Kingdom Creatives,
we're just one aspect of the big movement of Raising Royalty
and we're just wanting to serve people
who have a desire to grow in their artistic expression,
their creativity,
whether you are in a profession
and a career of art or creativity,
or whether it's just something just within your humanity,
you're wanting to explore more,
you're wanting to understand more.
So that is our heart here.
So we're so glad you're here.
I'm so glad.
Thank you.
It's good to see you.
Good to see you too.
Thanks.
Does anybody else wanna say hello?
There's no pressure to,
but just if you want to.
I have to say a quick hello.
Oh, how are you?
I'm in the middle of cooking as usual,
so I'm gonna have to bob in and out.
But it's just nice to say hello.
Sunny, shining hair is beautiful in the UK.
Oh, I love it.
Spring is coming.
Spring is here.
It is.
Yeah, all those green shoots, it's lovely.
Yeah, oh, that's lovely.
So good.
So, so grateful you're here, Zoe.
Zoe, sorry.
Just seeing in the chat,
few people saying hello, Beth from Alabama.
Morag from PEI. Oh, Morag! I remember you, beautiful woman. Oh, so good to see you're
here. Fabian and Esther. So glad you're here from Toronto. Laurel from Arizona. Rebecca
from UK. Hello, all you beautiful people. Well, it is so... Marlene from New Zealand.
Yes, I remember your beautiful face from before. Oh, so good. So good to have you here.
Well, we might kind of jump into it. Our whole heart in this chat, I'm just going to see
that little beeping noise for a second. I'm just going to close out of a window in my
lovely... Oh, it's still going. Bless the Lord. Just going to get out of there. There
we go. So hopefully that beeping won't continue on. Our heart today, we're going to be talking
about intentions and motivation in artistic expression. So why do we express ourselves?
Why do... What's the intentions? What's the motivations behind our creativity, behind
our art, behind all of that? Oh, just got someone coming on. Maybe it'll shift. Sorry,
my screen's just showing that someone's wanting to come on. So we're just going to be kind
of like jumping into that. And I'm going to share a little bit. Zylan's going to share
a little bit. If Phi comes on as well, he'll share his heart. I've got lots of kind of
different thoughts, but I thought I would just start out kind of... I actually woke
up this morning. I was just praying last night, like, God, would you just so speak to me?
Would you come through with, yeah, things that are on your heart? And I actually woke
up this morning. Do any of you know the Chariots of Fire story? Eric Liddell, like that movie
Chariots of Fire. So basically there was a movie written about these two runners, I believe.
I actually even haven't watched the movie. I've just heard about it so much. But I woke
up with this story on my mind and with the Lord reminding me. So there is this incredible
runner and he was a Christian and he made the statement. I think he ran for the Olympics
and he made this statement. He was also passionate about going to China to preach the gospel
and be a missionary. If I have the story correct, forgive me if I have it wrong. But
when questioned about why he ran, he said, when I run, I feel the pleasure of God. And
it just like, I just woke up with that, the intention and the motivation. One of the things
of going, wow, we are alive to know God and love God, to experience his joy and his delight.
And in his life, he's like, God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure. And when
I go and do this race, if I win, it is actually to honor the Lord. So his whole motivation
as an athlete, his whole desire in his relationship with God and his understanding of his humanity
was he was like, God made me fast and I was born to run. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.
And in this race, in this Olympic, in what I do, when I win, I honor him. There's a spirit
of excellence that comes that when I express myself in my divine design, I actually feel
his pleasure and delight that he made me for that way. And when I bring excellence to that,
there is any accolade, any fame, any notoriety, any significance, any influence. It's actually
all to honor him. And I just was like thinking and meditating on that. I'm just like laying
in bed thinking like, wow, isn't that a beautiful intention and motivation for us as humans
in anything that we do, that we would understand our divine design and that we wouldn't try
to fit the mold of anything. But what comes naturally to you? What do you naturally do
that when you do it, you're just like, there is something on the inside of you that you
cannot, you're just drawn to it. You are drawn to create, you're drawn to express yourself
this way. And when you do it, you feel alive. When you do it, you feel joy. You feel the
pleasure of God. When you do it, you feel more connected to God than in any other way.
You feel his presence. You feel his voice. You feel like, man, when I do this, when I
express myself this way, maybe it's in writing. Maybe it's in creating. Maybe it's in design.
Maybe it's in singing or dancing. Maybe it's you see color. Maybe you hear things. You
hear things in your mind.
in your mind, in your spirit, and then when you actually begin to create it. Maybe it's in
sculpture, you know. I know that the Michelangelo thing was like when he saw a piece of like stone
and he's like, I saw, I'm gonna get, I hope I get this right. It's just coming to me, reminding me
of this thing. David with the Michelangelo or Michelangelo with the David. I'm just having a
moment. He carved, he saw the image that he wanted to create and he carved until he created it. He
had this image, he knew what he saw in his mind and he created and he chipped away and he chiseled
away until he actually created what he saw in his heart, in his mind. And a lot of us, I think,
we are made for a unique divine purpose. We actually have the fingerprints of the father.
When the father dreamed us up, he dreamed us up and he put us in our mother's womb with so much
intentionality of why we are the way we are, the way we see, the way we think, the way we feel.
And I think sometimes in our world, based on where we're born, nature versus nurture,
maybe depending on what was celebrated in your life or what wasn't. Sometimes things in our
humanity, we try to fit a certain mold or we, maybe your mom and dad wanted you to be a lawyer
or a doctor or something, or they wanted you to fit into something, but actually naturally
you were born to express and create yourself. You had a natural desire for something else and that
didn't get nurtured in you, but the nature of who you are was actually something. And I think in our
humanity throughout our childhood and our adulthood, we're constantly becoming awakened to who we
really are, the truest, most authentic version of who we are in our humanity. And then when we do
that, when we actually discover this gives me so much joy and pleasure and delight. And wow, I
actually feel the pleasure of God in this. It is like, there's nothing that can compare to it.
Does anybody, has anybody experienced that before? When you actually feel celebrated and you feel
that divine connection on like, I was, yeah, I was born to do this. And I know for me in my life, there
was a lot of that growing up, but then there was a lot of expectation. There was limitations put on me.
There was actually, Dana, we know that this is who you are, but we need you to do this. And I actually
started being in different roles and functioning in leadership and in ministry and different things
that weren't my gifting, that weren't my primary gift, but I was doing it out of a desire to serve
and a desire to bless and what I thought God wanted from me. Meanwhile, it was kind of burning
me out when there was all of these other things that I was far more gifted and caused me to come
alive. And I felt his joy and his pleasure and so much more kind of fulfillment and anointing would
flow in that, you know? And I think there's something to be said of our personal discovery
and really getting with the father and being like, what did you make me for?
You know? So I think one thing I just want to highlight with the intentions and motivations
is that we are made to feel joy and pleasure and delight in how we are uniquely made.
And it all comes from the revelation of who the father is and who he's made us to be. And so when
we truly know who God is, and when we're growing in that place of intimacy, communion with him,
and we know our divine design, my gosh, so much, like there's nothing that's not possible.
I have so many other thoughts, but I just thought, Zylan, do you have something to share on that?
Do you have any thoughts on that? Well, I think you can just continue. I'll...
Yeah, yeah. Okay. I just saw you pop up. I just didn't know if you had anything to add.
Yeah. So just that first thing of just joy, delight, pleasure in God, discovering who we're
created to be, and having that artistic expression first and foremost come from our divine design
and from relationship with God. I think as artists and creatives, there is something,
I don't know if any of you also can relate to this, there is just like an innate
driven desire to create. There is something almost like if you put a bird in the air,
if you put a fish in water, if you watch a creature in its natural habitat, it's just
going to do that. It's unnatural for it not to. There's just that natural desire. And I think as
creatives and artists, we're born with something that is just so natural, that actually... So our
intention, our motivation is it's like breathing. It's like living. I just see the world and I have
to see it. And I don't know if I can put it in words, but I think we're born with something
to respond this way.
There's just something internal
that is just so natural. And I think as artists and creators, we're born with something that is
that just becomes like an expression.
And I think that's a really, it's a simple way,
just so natural. And I think as artists and creators, we're born with something that is like
but it just kind of like, yeah,
it just simplifies something
that can sometimes be overcomplicated.
Like, why do artists do this?
Well, it's like, I was just born to do it.
It's just natural, like breathing.
I've got some notes here too
that I might just read off some of my notes
just to kind of, just to touch on a few things
and then I'll throw it over to you, Zylan.
But just my notes just say,
why do people create or perform art?
There's countless reasons
that motivate the creation of art.
Some of them are making our surroundings more beautiful,
creating records of a specific time, place,
person, or object, and expressing and communicating ideas.
Art is inspiring and stimulating for the human mind.
There's a brilliant quote from Pablo Picasso,
who is a Spanish painter.
And he says, art washes away from the soul,
the dust of everyday life.
And I love that quote.
Art washes away from the soul of everyday life.
It's refreshing.
Art is beautiful.
It's stimulating.
It causes an awakening.
It's meant to refresh us.
It's meant to revive us.
It's meant to open up possibilities.
That is the gift of what art does.
So an intention and a motivation of art
could be just that, to awaken, to revive,
to refresh, to renew.
You know, how many times have we been
through a really difficult time
and we hear a piece of music
and we're just like, oh my gosh, you know?
Or we see something beautiful and we're just like awestruck.
You know, the Mona Lisa is just like one of those things.
People travel from all around the world, you know,
to see this piece of art.
Like art is captivating.
Gosh, all of the different art that is like
from all different times in history,
you see how art actually marks times in history.
It marks centuries.
It marks different pockets of time.
And we know it by the sculptures, the painting,
the cathedrals, the songs, the fashion.
It's so powerful in how it communicates.
So art is an important part of being human.
Not only do we have the ability to create tools
and modify our surroundings,
but we also have the curiosity for making objects beautiful.
There are many possible reasons and explanations
as to why humans make art,
and it would probably take years
to identify each one of them.
But let's explore some of the most likely reasons
that humans create art.
Some of them are to make our surroundings more beautiful,
creating objects to decorate our surroundings
has motivated the creation of many types of art,
such as architecture, painting, sculpture, jewelry,
design objects for everyday use, and many others.
Creating records of a specific time,
a place, person, or an object
is also a major motivation for art.
Paintings of individuals, battle scenes,
even those artistic wedding photographs
that could be considered art
are made for the purpose of recording something specific.
Expressing and communicating ideas
also moves the creation of art.
Expressing religious beliefs,
artwork for criticizing elements of society,
art for educating people,
even for showing that we are capable
of doing something that no one else has tried.
How many of us have seen a concert
or have seen some crazy art
that someone's taken some recyclable,
you know, some piece of trash
and they've made something beautiful.
And you're like, what?
How did someone make art out of that?
Or how did someone build a building
or build a house out of that?
Like art has this incredible creative possibility
that we go, I never knew that was possible,
but someone with an artistic creative mind
took something ordinary
or took something out of nothing and created something.
So it shows the ability.
It really is, it reveals God
because God created out of nothing.
And so when we create with him,
it is showing God likeness.
It is showing God's nature, God's character,
God's ability in humanity.
I'll just say a few more things
and I'll throw it over to you, Zai.
Yeah, there are countless other reasons
for the creation of art,
but art has been important for mankind
since the early dawn of civilization.
Our ancestors started to create art
at least 30,000 years ago.
Among the oldest known examples
are the prehistoric paintings on the wall caves
of Europe and Asia,
depicting human and animal figures
and small items for decorating the body.
Since those days,
as art and mankind have evolved together.
we've been able to create art
that is not only about the human body,
but also about the nature of the human body.
And art is valuable for society.
And I think that's one of the reasons
Art is inspiring and stimulating for the human mind.
why we've been able to create art
that is not only about the human body,
Of course, we all don't like the same types of art
but also about the nature of the human body.
or enjoy every single piece of art in the same way.
However, when we see a work of art,
our feelings and our thoughts are often awakened.
There is a connection of art as an exterior stimulus
with an internal inner emotional state in our minds.
This is one of the reasons of the value placed on art
and what it does to the human heart, the soul, the mind,
the emotions, the physical experience
of what art does to us.
Throughout history,
art has been given many valuable meanings
and different objects have been given a great importance
because of what they mean
or represent to a specific group of people.
Some have been treasured
because of their religious experience or significance
and others have become symbols of political power
or national identity.
Some are not only valued for their beauty
but are also given a material value,
especially pieces created with precious metals
or others have become symbols of their time.
Art is often considered incalculable value.
Museums and collectors pay a lot of money
to get a single piece.
And although it might seem outrageous to some,
having those pieces bring benefits like attracting visitors
and promoting is an important cultural environment
to our society.
Art tells us about ourselves and it's a lasting legacy.
History is marked by certain artists and sounds and beauty.
Art is deeply related to human history
and it provides a significant insight into specific culture.
So art provides a means to express the imagination.
So things, places, ideas that might feel unreal
or unknowable in non-grammatic ways.
And so unlike words, which come from sequences,
each of which has a definite meeting,
art provides a range of forms, symbols and ideas
and meanings that can be determined by the artist.
And we all know that, right?
We all can see that an artist can create something
with their own intent, with their own idea
of what that means,
but someone else can come and look at something
and be profoundly impacted by a different way.
Like art is an expression of the artist,
but it actually has the ability to be interpreted
by the individual so differently.
You know what I mean?
So I have a whole bunch more thoughts,
but I just wanted to check in with you, Zylan.
Is there anything that you wanna jump in or share?
Do you want me to keep going or do you wanna take over?
Well, I think you're on fire, you know.
Okay.
You just carry on.
Okay.
I think I don't wanna interfere with your flow,
just go ahead.
Yeah, I love listening to you, yeah.
Okay, I'll just go for a few more minutes
and then I'll hand it over to you.
How are the rest of you?
You guys are all good?
We're all tracking together?
I'm hoping that this is encouraging, inspiring.
I hope it's adding value to you.
So the purposes of art,
got a little bit more notes on this.
So art has a great number of different functions
throughout its history,
making its purpose difficult to quantify
to any single concept.
This does not imply that the purpose of art is vague,
but that it has many unique different reasons
for being created.
Some of the functions of art
are provided in the outline below.
So I've gotten some of these notes from brilliant websites.
Like I was just looking at different artists,
different communicators.
So there's different websites
that have taken different writings and notes,
and I'm serving you from this point.
So all of these aren't just my own thoughts.
These are other writers and artists
that I've been listening to and reading and going,
wow, they said it better than I could.
So I'm just reading what they've said.
So some of this is from Claude Levi-Strauss.
So he says there's seven, I believe he has it, no, eight.
Eight different purposes of art.
So this is by Claude Levi-Strauss.
Number one, the expression of the imagination.
So as I said before, art provides a means
to express the imagination of things, of places, ideas.
Art can create, an artist can create visual imagery
of mythical animals, religious concepts,
fictional places, or other things from their creative minds.
So you have this ability to create so much meaning
that aren't just limited to words.
So number two is a ritualistic and symbolic function.
So in many cultures, art is used in religion,
spiritual or magical rituals, performances.
dances as a decoration or symbol of a God or other divine quality. So with us as Christians,
we are wanting to reveal the nature and character of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
and give full honor and expression to who he is. But this is also art just in the world,
we're talking about that. So while these often have no specific utilitarian purpose,
anthropologists know that they often serve a purpose at the level of meaning within a
particular culture. So this meaning is not furnished by any one individual, but is often
the result of many generations of change and understanding, and of a cosmological relationship
within the culture. So number three is communication. So this is all purposes of art.
So communication, art at its simplest, is a form of communication. Most forms of communication
have an intent or goal directed towards other people. Illustrative arts, such as scientific
illustration, are a form of art as communication. Maps are another example. However, the content
need not be scientific. Stories and emotions and feelings are also communicated through art.
Number four is entertainment. Art may seek to bring about a particular emotion or mood for
the purpose of relaxing or entertaining the viewer. This is often the function of art industries,
such as motion pictures or video games. And of course, more traditional art, some as being
paintings or sculpture, are simply meant to be enjoyable. Aren't we just grateful for that,
that art as entertainment, it just soothes us, it revives, yeah, it's entertaining,
but it's also healing. You know, art can be very healing and restorative and just relaxing, you know,
with all the things that we have to juggle in our day, with the stresses, the ups and downs, twists,
turns. I'm so grateful that God gave us the gift of beauty and art to just remind us of heaven,
you know, remind us of the beauty of who he is and all that is created in life is a gift.
Number five, the purpose of art is political change. One of the defining functions of early 20th
century art has been to use visual images to bring about political change. Art movements have had
this goal. The purpose of art continues today in many objects aimed at exposing corruption of the
ruling class, including government, the wealthy and corporations. And we see that, right,
especially in our day with all the social media, with all of the technology, with all the brilliance
that we have in this technological age and the gift of creativity, we see how art is very powerful
in communicating in the realm of politics, in the realm of getting a point across. It's not just
someone standing and talking, gosh, images, music, movies, it captivates us. It engages every part of
our mind and our soul and it actually gets us, it really pulls us into something that we believe in
or we don't, maybe we don't even agree with something, but men, people know when they put
visuals and music and art and beauty and they captivate the human heart, they can almost persuade
them to believe anything or try to at least. So political change is one. Number six is social
causes. Art can be used to raise awareness for a large variety of causes. A number of art activities
are aimed at raising awareness of different health issues, autism, cancer, human trafficking, and a
variety of other topics such as ocean conservation, human rights, murdered and missing individuals,
elder abuse, marriage equality, pollution. Trashing is one, using trash to make fashion is one example
of using art to raise awareness. So social causes, a lot of people use art to again
get behind a movement or a thought or an ideology or something that they're wanting to
to again persuade, to awaken, to grab people's attention, they use art. Number seven is psychological
and healing purposes. This is one of my favorite things about art is art is also used by therapists,
psychotherapists, clinical psychologists as art therapy.
Yeah, there's so many different, I've just written some different ways that art is used
yeah so it says the diagnostic drawing series for example is used to determine
the personality and emotional functioning of a patient of an individual.
The end product, the art object is not the principal goal in this case, but rather a
process of healing through creative acts.
So I don't know if different ones of you have ever tried this.
I'm not a painter myself, but it's been incredibly healing when I go and get a blank canvas and
a whole bunch of paint and I just creatively paint.
I'm like a five-year-old finger painting.
It doesn't look good to anyone else, but it is so healing to me.
Or when you dance or when maybe I'm making a new meal and I'm throwing a whole bunch
of different foods together and flavors, it's healing, right?
Or singing, or sometimes you just lay down in nature, go to a river, go to an ocean,
go in the forest, and you're listening to a beautiful piece of music.
Or you go to a museum and you're just stressed out or whatever it is, and you just need that
healing.
So what you actually do, art, has an expression of healing pain, of grief, of trauma.
Maybe you've gone through something really hard.
Maybe you've gone through a divorce, or maybe you've lost a loved one, or maybe you're in
chronic illness yourself.
Maybe you're processing childhood trauma.
Maybe there's a difficulty.
Maybe you've gone bankrupt.
Maybe you've lost something.
Maybe you're just in a really difficult time right now in your life, fill in the blank.
Artistic expression can be incredibly healing.
It's releasing.
It's refreshing.
It's renewing.
You encounter God.
There's a part of you and your soul that you're able to connect with and find healing in,
in your expression.
So moving on to the final one, number eight purpose of art is propaganda or commercialism.
Art is often utilized as a form of propaganda and thus can be used subtly to influence popular
conceptions or mood, especially regarding political issues.
In a similar way, art that tries to sell a product also influences mood and emotion.
In both cases, the purpose of art here is to subtly manipulate the viewer into a particular
emotional or psychological response towards a particular idea.
How many of us know that, right?
I can have, especially as Christians, right?
We can have really strong core values, biblical worldview, biblical understanding of things.
And then we turn on the TV and they're selling yogurt, but it's a woman in a bikini doing
all these sexual things.
And you're thinking you're selling yogurt in a very interesting way.
Why are you, you know, but the artistic expression of that feminine woman trying to use her sexuality
to sell a yogurt or to sell a car, or maybe someone's doing, like, I saw this really powerful
army recruit recruitment for the army.
And it was powerful.
Like, at the end of it, I was like, I'm ready to sign up for the army.
What are you doing?
Like, the way that they engaged humanity and wanting to make a difference and wanting to
stand up for truth and wanting to be an overcomer and wanting to, you know, stand up for your
fellow countrymen.
And, you know, you always knew you were born for greatness, like the way that they use
music and words and did the videography.
At the end, you were left like totally like wanting to be part of this, like art has an
amazing ability to engage your emotions, to touch into the fabric of the deep part of
our human need.
We have a lot of different human needs, a lot of different ways that, that God created
us for, and he used, he's created art to, to positively, redemptively, restoratively
lead humans into bringing heaven to earth, bringing the nature and character of God,
bringing healing, redemption, restoration, strength, beauty, justice, truth, freedom,
awakening, liberation to the human heart.
But it can also be used in our society, in our world, in our culture to, to play on those
strings.
And we all know that, right?
or advertising or marketing or things with political agendas or different organizations.
And they, they know what they're doing.
Marketing agencies know what they're doing.
Because when you study humanity and you know what makes them feel seen and known and cared
for, and then you add a little music to it, like you can manipulate people, you can really
lead people in a certain way, you know?
And so that is something that we've also seen.
So I'm going to kind of just wrap it up there that the last thing I guess I want to hone
in on, which is something that I said at the very beginning is one of, one of the beautiful
things that I know, as I see through scripture, as I, as I've encountered in my own life is
one of my greatest intentions and motivations.
As a daughter, as a woman, as a follower of Jesus, is to see God's healing, his love,
his voice, his presence, express himself through me in everything that I do.
We see in scripture, it says, whether you eat or you drink, whatever you do, do it for
the glory of God.
I want everything that I create, the words that I speak, the relationships, the creativity,
I want it to be drenched in the presence of God.
I want to leave the world a better place.
I want every person, every interaction that I have, to have God's joy, his nature and
his character, his redemption, his healing, his freedom, his gold.
I want his voice and his presence to be flowing.
Anything that I would create, whether it's a piece of music, whether it's something I
write, whether it's through my photography, I want to capture something of the heart of
God, of what he thinks and he feels about something, and then I want to bring expression
to that so that the hearer or the viewer or the human on the other side of anything that
I create feels seen, feels known, feels the love of God, is awakened in their humanity
and their consciousness to God's light, his voice, his presence, that anything is possible,
that there is a father in heaven that sees them and knows them and that they're important
and that they're alive for such a time as this.
I want the redemptive, restorative, oh, sometimes you just struggle to put it all into words.
I just want God, his manifestation of his joy and his love and his sight and his goodness,
the goodness, the kindness, the glory of God to be expressed and felt and experienced
by every person that would taste or touch or experience anything I create.
Can I get an amen?
Is that all of our hearts?
I think so, right?
And I think sometimes in our artistic expression too, if we can get really raw and honest,
we're all born with a desire for significance and for greatness, and we want to experience
his favor, favor with God and favor with man.
And I think sometimes there's this wrestle that we go through in our walk with the Lord
too is we want to be known.
We want significance.
We want influence.
Sometimes there can be like, I want fame or I want money or I want attention or I want
all of these things.
And all of those things aren't bad in of themselves.
We see in the disciples, they longed for greatness, but Jesus taught them the true road to greatness
and what that looks like.
And he never shut them down for the longings of their human heart, but he led them in what
true greatness looked like.
And Jesus took the towel and he went and washed the disciples feet.
And I think one of the greatest things is that if we have a servant's heart, when it
comes to art, that we actually see faces of people that we're serving.
We actually have a vision that's larger than us.
We actually are so confident that we, our greatness, our significance before the father,
we're getting that met by him.
So then we're able to express and live from a confident place as sons and daughters.
We're no longer orphans.
We're no longer out there just trying to have other people meet all those needs.
We actually know who we are before the father, and then we're able to create from that place.
And it comes from just a real anchored place, a secure place.
And the invitation to seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all of these things
will be added.
Those deepest dreams and desires of your heart, whatever it is that you desire, the provision,
the significance, the house, the car, the family, the possessions, seek first his kingdom
and his righteousness, and all these things will be added.
In his time, in his way, he is so good.
He is the father of heavenly lights that gives good gifts to his children.
And so we can say, oh, I don't have to be motivated by money.
I don't have to be motivated by fame.
I don't have to be motivated by trying to get my significance or trying to be known
by man.
When I fully know I'm known by the father, and I seek first his kingdom, and I come alive
to who he is, and I get lost in love and relationship with God, and things start to flow from that
place, oh my gosh, things open up, provision comes, abundance comes, relationships come,
vibe comes, oh my gosh, these possessions, these different dreams and desires, these
divine connections, these opportunities, seek first the kingdom, and all of this will be added.
And the other thing is just that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all
of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And so when we yield to that, when we surrender to that,
God, I want to love you with my mind, with my heart,
with my soul, with my body.
I am a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Come and fill me.
And then out of that place,
I want to be faithful with what you've given me.
I want to steward what you've given me.
Is it one talent?
Is it two?
Is it three?
Is it five?
Is it a hundred?
Whatever you've given to me,
it's not about comparison with anyone else.
This is about me being faithful to steward the gifts
and the talents.
And just like Eric Liddell in the chariots of fire,
he was like, when I run, I feel his pleasure.
And when I win the race, I do it to honor him.
It's like, yeah, I want excellence on my life.
I want to return the gifts and the talents
and show the father I'm bearing fruit,
fruit that will remain, fruit that will nourish humanity,
that will add value, that will beautify the earth,
art and creativity that will reveal heaven,
that will have a healing, redemptive,
restorative activity on the earth.
Ultimately that God will come through prophecy,
through change, through encouragement,
through exhortation, through beauty,
through awakening, through liberation,
through freedom to the human heart.
That is my intention.
That's my motivation.
So I hope this has been encouraging to you.
I hope I haven't talked too long.
I know that was a long time,
but I'm hoping that there is some stuff
that was sparking for you, maybe stuff that was confirming,
maybe Holy Spirit's coming and speaking to you
and just encouraging you like, yes, this is why you're alive.
Like, feel my joy and delight over you
and how I've created you.
And you don't have to hold that back.
You don't have to be limited.
You can fully just let go and be like,
God, come release your abundance.
Come release your anointing.
Come release your strength.
Come release your grace upon me to take my talents,
my gifts, how I've been divinely created
and cause there to be an explosion of fruit,
an explosion of like an X factor, an upgrade.
Like I'd take my fishes and loaves and multiply it.
Come and do signs, wonders, and miracles
through my creative expression.
You know what I mean?
Whether that's like making a meal for someone
and it just holds the nature and the love
and it just makes someone feel seen and known
through your creative expression of this food you've made
or you've drawn a building and you've built a home
for someone or it's a song or it's a poem or it's a letter
or it's a piece of fashion that when people wear
that piece of fashion, they feel that they have a garment
of heaven upon them that inspires them
and they hold themselves with nobility and regalness
as a king and a queen, you know, whatever it is.
It's just bringing that X factor to him
who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
more than you could think, hope, dream, or imagine.
It is the God factor in everything that we do
and it's just welcoming that anointing upon our lives.
So Zylan, I'm gonna end there.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Yeah, talk to me.
Wow, it's amazing, Dana.
I think I don't have anything to say.
You already covered every point
that I was actually planning to say.
Thank you, that was wonderful.
And yeah, I just wanted to add something.
Before that, how many of you heard this
like couple of years ago?
No, maybe more than 10 years ago.
There was this Italian artist who made chocolate Jesus.
He made a six feet Jesus, nude Jesus, naked Jesus
in dark chocolate.
And he called that piece,
My Sweet Lord.
And the entire Catholic church got crazy, you know,
and it was a big controversy at that time.
And so since we are talking about intention and motivation,
he's not a Christian artist.
Since we are here, you know,
calling ourselves kingdom creatives.
So we are addressing to a people
who are actually artists who are Christians.
And one of the things that I just wanna agree with Dana
is like as an artist, not just Christian artists,
like we are here to record time, right?
So the time that we are in living
and some people make art to confront, you know,
what's wrong.
And some people here to reflect, I mean,
where, what's happening.
all those kind of stuff. And some people do art to lead to a better place. And
one of the things that I was observed in the church, because we grew up in this
American evangelical backdrop. So all of our artists, unfortunately,
I'll explain, okay, it can sound a little crazy. Unfortunately, most of our art actually gonna
look, I mean, he's looking like, like a pamphlet. We only know one plot. Because, you know,
all our songs and all our paintings and our expression, and even most of the Christian
movies, it's all about, you know, preaching the gospel, you know, just like you're a sinner,
and Jesus died for you. And you repent and believe that, you know, he'll give you an eternal life.
That's it. And it's been happening, like, maybe more than 300 years, if we, if we really study
the history of Christian songs, it's all about that, you know, there is not much plot, bigger
than that. So it's a very noble thing to do, you know, to, to tell people that God loves them. And,
you know, through your creative expression, it's a great thing to do. I believe in that thing.
But some people are actually we need to increase, you know, in the beginning, Dana said that we need
to celebrate everyone's intention and motivation. At the end of the day, you know, we are here to
bring God's heart and his love to people. And unfortunately, what we do is when we approach,
approach God or Bible, we start from Genesis three, instead of Genesis one, you know,
we actually start our entire story from the fall. You know, it's not the fall that we start,
we start from before that, you know, where God made everything and he saw it's good, it's beautiful.
You know, that's where the entire story starts, actually. And unfortunately, we actually start
from the third chapter, you know, how we messed up. And, and so our thing is all about this
transactional thing, you know, it's actually not theology. So obviously, it will reflect on whatever
we do, you know, check out all the Christian songs, it's all about this plot, you know,
just Lord, I'm a sinner, you came and you died. And here I am, here I am. It's a beautiful thing.
But I think that we live in a world, and a time that we need to rethink, and we need to recheck
our, our ideology. And I believe the revelation is progressive, each time is actually unfolding,
you know, and we live in a time where God is actually looking for sons, you know, he's looking
for sons and daughters to raise up and represent him, you know, and create this place beautiful
and help the people to see this place is a beautiful place, you know, and to find meaning
and find direction, you know, and I believe that every artist doesn't matter if he's a Christian or
non Christian artists, everybody carries a mandala prophetic in their lives, you know,
all our prophets, because the ministry of prophet prophecy is there is to confront and, you know,
and, and reflect and, and ultimately lead to people to a brighter side, maybe a closer to God,
you know, God made everything beautiful. I've read somewhere that it's, it just changed my
perspective or about everything. I've read it somewhere that God only cast out humans from Eden,
and rest of the creatures are still in need. And I was like, what?
I was actually blown away from that thought. I was like, literally changed my entire theology.
You know, seeing things, you know, every time when I listen to the birds, you know, sing,
singing in the morning and everything and I was like, kind of, they're still in the bliss,
you know, they're still actually celebrating God's beauty. I have this issue of I'm still
working on my thing. You know, I'm, I'm
I'm hard to impress, you know,
because everything that I see,
I can see only the negative stuff.
So, I had this kind of a really bad
attitude or bad way of seeing things, you know.
I only see the imperfection, the negative.
Oh, it's not that great, you know, that kind of thing.
Eventually what happened, it literally spoiled my heart
because I came to a place where I become a very bitter
person, a miserable person, you know,
because I cannot enjoy the beauty.
And I realized that it's my problem, you know.
So, I'm actually teaching myself.
It's been a journey to see things different
and appreciate beauty.
And what happened is it literally changed me as a person.
And I believe that we are here to help people to see,
you know, this beautiful place as a,
that's why the Bible says that the creation is waiting,
you know, for the revelation of the sons of God, you know,
because we are here to co-create with the spirit of Jesus,
to bring the kingdom, you know, here as it is in heaven.
So, we are sons and daughters carrying the same spirit.
And, you know, and as kingdom creative,
so our intentions and our motivation should be,
this is what I believe that should be, you know,
like as Diana said that to just help people to see
the father's heart, you know, to celebrate life,
celebrate Jesus, celebrate humanity, you know,
and there are good things happening in this world, man.
The thing is, we only focus on bad things.
I have rearranged my social media like long time back.
I like now when I open all my feeds are like,
I wanna know what good happening around the world, you know,
because all my feed news was like, you know,
against my, all the bad stuff happening around the world,
you know, and I rearranged that.
And I found out that there are a lot of good things
happening around me and I'm not able to see it.
So, you know, so I started writing, I'm a worship leader.
I used to write a lot of worship songs and I still do it.
And I travel around and, you know,
lead congregation to worship
and do all the usual worship leader stuff.
Then I, a couple of years back, I started writing songs,
which is not, you know, doesn't have much Christian language
and the church started to like, you know,
think that I'm backsliding.
But the thing is, I just upgraded my theology, you know,
I understood that this is huge.
What I am carrying is big,
because that's why he called us as salt and light, you know,
because there are people who can't see, you know,
there are lives which is tasteless.
Now without me, it's gonna be still tasteless, you know?
And so I started writing about stuff like
addressing about depression and, you know, hopelessness,
all the stuff that everyone face.
And I feel good, but the thing is sometimes
the church is actually so caught up
with their little theology,
because what will happen,
because it's the, how do we say that?
You know, they're thinking that, you know,
they are not socially responsible
because they are waiting for the Lord to come
and just fly away, you know?
So there is no responsibility,
but that's not Bible, I mean, in my understanding, you know?
Bible is all about art.
Everything is all about just love your God
and love your neighbor, you know?
This vertical sort of connection, whatever we do,
if you can't bring that thing, you know,
there is no point of doing it, you know?
So as an artist or a human being, you know, whatever it is,
it should,
on this love factor that we can't love an invisible God without loving a visible brother
or a sister. Now if we can't see the image of God in my Hindu neighbor, there's no point of me being
Christian, you know. If I can't see Jesus in them, they are Hindus and there are Muslims out there.
I can't see Jesus in them, the image of Jesus, the love of God, you know, showered upon their lives.
What's the point of me singing about love and Jesus and all, you know. So it's all about being
sons, son becoming mature sons, you know, mature sons who reflect father, who carries father's
heart and that's what I just wanted to like, you know, emphasize that it's all about,
you know, sharing God with your neighbor, you know, whatever you do, you know.
And please don't get me wrong that I really celebrate people who actually do art and
movies and make music and to evangelize, you know, it's a noble thing to do it.
But, you know, I want people, I want to see church to grow bigger just to get out from their four
walls because church is wherever we go, you know. And when I started to write this
non-Christian songs, people started asking, is that a secular song? I was like, no, it's a Christian
song, but it doesn't sound like a Christian song. I said that because I'm a Christian.
So whatever I do, it's a Christian thing, right? And yeah, it's a beautiful thing,
but we have to broaden our mindset. So that's why we are actually building a community like this,
not just to have conversation about maybe theology. I know that there are many people here
who really don't agree with what I'm saying, but I'm open to have a communication, a conversation,
a dialogue, you know, that's the whole point. And we are coming from a different
denomination, theology, you know, perspective, worldview about
why we do what we do. And that's okay, you know. So if we can come to a place where we can
have dialogues and encourage each other, celebrate each other,
then that's the most beautiful thing we can do.
Yeah, I think Fee is here. Yes, he is. Zylan, that was so good. Oh, it's so good hearing your heart.
When you were talking about creation from Genesis 3, but we need to go after Genesis 1,
I was sitting here like, literally, I was just like, oh my gosh. It brings me back to Psalm 24,
I believe, where it talks about the earth is the Lord and everything in it, like everything.
Everything he made was good. And yes, we do live in a fallen world. We do live in a reality
where there are a mixture of the good things that God has created, where people maybe take it and
use it for a twisted way or a dark way or in an evil way. But redemptively and restoratively,
when we go back to original intent and original design in who God is, it was just such a reset
for me of going, wow, yeah, I want to create from Eden, not just create from the fall. I want to
walk with you in the cool of the day. I want to walk with you in Eden and eat from the tree of
life, not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, where I'm just living. And we're not called
to live from the tree of eating from knowledge of good and evil constantly every day being like,
is this good? Is this bad? Is this evil? Is this good? No, no. We're actually called, created to
live from the tree of life. Is this life-giving? Is there abundance? What is the beauty? What is
the nurture? What is the river of joy? All of that goodness, right? So I just love what you
were sharing. I also just was reminded of something of just, you know, you were talking about the salt
and the light that we are meant to bring flavor and we're meant to bring light in the midst of
the darkness and color and beauty. It's like when you see a dark night and you see fireworks go off,
it causes this like awe and wonder of like, I didn't realize there could be that kind of color.
And when you taste a meal and you have salt to it, it brings out all the other flavors. And so
just as you were saying,
as sons and daughters we're not just Christian in a religious spirit of Pharisees and well I'm
Christian and I've got my Christian hat on no no no we're sons and we're daughters that are revealing
a totally other kingdom and we're revealing a person not a religious institution not a way of
doctrine of thinking we're revealing a person and that is the father that is the beloved of heaven
that is Jesus that is Holy Spirit and when we shift that way of thinking yes there's doctrine
yes there are so much theology but we're constantly learning and upgrading and at the
heart of that theology is the revelation of a person and so it just changes everything when
we think about it and the last thing I'll say before we go to Fi because we're so glad that
Fi is here with us um is one of the intentions of art is to communicate to people that wouldn't be
able to know or hear the gospel story in another way and one of the things I love I don't know if
you guys know this but when I learned this I was like oh my gosh in cathedrals and churches you
know how there's stained glass as art in all of the old European churches the motivation behind
that was there was people that were illiterate they didn't know how to read they didn't know how
to write so they couldn't read the bible and they're only like one of the ways behind the
stained glass was to communicate the gospel story through art so when they would come to church
yes they would hear the preaching they hear the hymns but they would literally visually be able
to see the gospel story they would visually be able to see God's heart through stained glass
when I understood that but there was a motivation behind that I was like wow it is for expression
and beauty but it was for a divine purpose to reveal certain parables stories so that people
could hear could see isn't that amazing and that's what we were talking about earlier the purpose of
art is to communicate and it's to communicate the heart of God but it doesn't always have to use
words and just like Zylin was saying he's a worship leader he's writing songs but then when
he began to write about different things of the human experience if you were to look through the
book of psalms David is like talking about depression he's talking about lament grief oh
my gosh I've sinned I've just been in adultery I just killed this person but lord this is my
heart like he's talking about the full human experience right the ups the downs the good the
bad and how powerful it is when we hear people that it isn't just all of the christianese language
when it's actually putting language to the human experience but it's coming from a redemptive a
healing a loving a comforting you know that when it talks about in corinthians the the role of
prophecy it's to encourage it's to comfort and to strengthen so when you're creating art
that comforts you know I remember there's another thing another quote I can't remember who it is by
but art is meant to comfort um the the disrupted or and disrupt the comfort disturbed disturbed
disturbed art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfort the comfortable right
that is so powerful of what it actually can do it can disturb us out of our slumber it can awaken us
it should disturb us it should alert us alarm us bring sobriety but then it should also comfort
and so when we think about prophesying when we pray over someone we give them a prophetic word
it should always have the heart to encourage to strengthen to comfort to reveal the heart
and the father not to judge never to accuse never to shame never to blame never to condemn because
that's not who god is jesus isn't sitting there just judging condemning pointing the finger he
lets go of the stones he opens up his arms he brings compassion he brings kindness it's his
kindness that leads to awakening to repentance it's his compassion that meets us in our most broken
dark hour and leads us out leads us into love so how do we have art that is fueled by compassion
that is not judgmental or accusatory or condemning or pointing the finger but it's actually got arms
open wide it's the father running to the prodigal son putting on the robe the ring putting on a feast
it's that celebration it's that welcoming home to the father it's that going there's a seat at the
table for you come feast so xylan i just love what you shared i can't wait to listen to that
again on repeat it's so good and fee what's up brother how are you where are
Are you fee? We want to hear from you. If you want to unmute yourself,
we want to see your beautiful face and hear your voice.
Hello. Hello. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Good to see you all.
I know you're just doing that,
but we've been talking about a whole bunch of different things, teachings,
and then silence just shared his heart,
but we would love to hear from you anything in your life as an artist,
as a creative, or if you want to teach us,
or if you want to say something that motivates you,
something that's marked you,
whatever you have to share on intentions and motivations of art.
We just want to hear it.
Yeah. I've heard a little bit about, I've heard a little bit of what you guys
say and it's yours. It's beautiful. And it's powerful.
Yeah. When Zion talked about,
we start when we read the chapter of Genesis,
we start on the chapter three and it's actually true.
And thanks for bringing that up,
Zion. Can you guys hear me? Okay.
Okay. Great. Yeah.
Sure. I think,
I think God created a being that
who learns through touch and sight
and smell and hearing and taste.
And when I imagine how the first
worship session in heaven, when there was no music instrument yet,
when there was no singing at the garden,
because we don't see in Genesis that Adams
was singing or dancing or whatever.
But to me, I think the first worship was when,
when Adam saw,
Adam saw his face through God's eyes after God,
the father breathed into his nose.
Cause I believe God, the father was so close like this.
And he saw himself in God's eyes and he was like, wow,
this is beautiful. And I think, I think
when we, I think that is part of that.
Wow. Thing is part of why we do what we do when we,
when we keep being amazed with what,
even with what God is doing.
St. Irenaeus, he said,
said the glory of God is men and women fully alive.
And then that joined what Diana said,
when David was sharing about his
anger, his depression,
his joy, he was fully alive. David was,
he was, he was fully alive. And I think
for me, that is why I do what I do.
It's like through my music, I make people feel, I make people think,
I make people have memories.
And, and that, that's,
that is powerful because it helps people to be
awake, more awake, and to be more aware of,
of what's around them, what's inside them.
And also to be aware of God,
because through my songs, I speak, I don't, I am like silent. I don't,
I don't use a cliche Christian words in my songs.
I, I talk about my life, my struggle, my questions,
my anger, my everything that goes,
that goes into my head and my life. I share it.
And, and I think it helps people to
to see another aspect of a Christian because like we like showing our best side,
but also as a human, God wants us to be human.
Otherwise he made us something else.
And this is part of, I think this deserves to be
celebrated as well. This part of us that is struggling,
this part of us that is trying to find the truth, this part of us that is
tempted, but somehow.
fight to do the right thing and those things needs to be celebrated and also the beauty
we see and you know like when sometimes when when this is the power of music or power of
the lyrics of the music because like when you so there are there are things you cannot
express you cannot even say but through music you the lyrics sometimes god gives lyrics that
it's like have you ever been have you ever listened to a song where you say ah this is
exactly what i want to say is exactly if i this is exactly what i want to say right now to god that
that is exactly that is it's like you know so that is that is also the power of music and
and that is part of my motivation when i do music is just to help people to
because music helps people to be more awake art help people to see colors that
new colors if i ask you to think about a color that you've never seen before can you do that
no right but but with god god helps us to see more stuff that we can ever imagine when i write
song i know my capacity my capacity is just like this but sometimes i write songs that is
way way way way way way above above my capacity and above my understanding and that that is crazy
and sometimes i'm like wow this it's so humbling and and it's it's so beautiful when people
when it's ministering to people um but yeah anyway um it's just that is my motivation
that is my motivation what i do is just to help people it's just because music it really helps
people to be more awake um arts help people to be more awake and to see other other things um
and also um
you know we cannot enter or leave the presence of god i think that we cannot we cannot say
let's enter the presence of god or like this is just everywhere it's just everywhere
there's no place we can hide from him there's no place we cannot so even in the even in the
most worst place ever you can imagine there's beauty there because god is there and and and
the david understood that david understood that and and even in his in darkest place
he knew god is there with him and he knew that that that it's okay it's safe to express it's
safe to express whatever inside of him he might swear whatever curse or whatever
but he knew god he is real he's he's like i can hide it but you will know it anyway
so what's the point i can i can pretend to look nice outside but you will know it anyway
so what's the point why not being real we can just be real and and god can use it god can use
that you know sometimes we are tempted to look so perfect to look you know awesome all the time
especially as a for me as a as a professional artist like here in my country and i know it's
not only here but you are tempted to always look great but then the enemy is always looking great
also he only he only shows his best side and when you are tempted then to tempt you you know he
always shows his best side so if we only show our best side and we're just like him but our difference
is that we are people real people we are not spiritual being and the flesh is not a disease
disease that needs to be cured it is a blessing flesh is a blessing our body is a blessing
everything we see you know i believe that god created all those things for us to
to enjoy and i am i have a have a little i have a little boy he's still little but
if i work or if i do something if i buy something for him it's for him to celebrate if i make his
room pretty it's for him to see it it's for him to enjoy it's for him to feel good and i believe that
God is similar. I mean, if he made this world beautiful, it's for us to be satisfied, it's for us to be, you know, to enjoy it, to...
And the simple things becomes worship when it is, when we do it in the presence of the divine.
Every simple thing. And in our daily life we miss a lot of simple but yet important, very important thing that help us connect and be more awake, help us to connect with God and be more awake in his presence.
So, yeah, I guess my motivation is that to help people to be more awake, my intention is to help people to be more awake and my motivation is that music is powerful, art is powerful to facilitate that, to make people feel, to make people think, to make them be present in the now, right now, right here.
And be with God in their anger, in their sadness, in their, you know, in every season of life, in every season of life he is with us.
Even when we just fall, he is there, he is not shocked, it's not a surprise, it's not a surprise to him, he knows exactly what's gonna happen tomorrow, he knows exactly.
And in the middle of all those things, I cry out, thank you for your mercy and thank you for, because you see, you see, you see, you know, when you look at me, you see much greater thing than, I'm actually, you know, much more awesome than I think, more, you know,
because God is crazy good, man, God is crazy good, man, he made us like this, can you even imagine to exist, you know, to breathe, to see, to be able to see, to hear, it's crazy, it's a normal thing, it's simple, but it's crazy if you think about it, it's crazy if you stop and you think,
to drink water, when you drink water or when you eat, your tongue tests a lot, a lot of tests, like, it's crazy, and it's those small things help us to connect with him, if, you know, to, if we do it in the presence of the divine, in the awareness that he is with us, while we drink this water and then we feel the water go slowly in our throat and then our belly, it's like, ah, thank you, Lord.
So that is, that is normal thing outside art, but that is worship, that is also, I'm saying a lot of things here.
So good. I love it. Like, I love how you're tapping into the honesty of our humanity, and the, the joy and the beauty and the tenderness of our human story, and how the Psalm 139 reality that where can I go from God, if I make my bed in the lowest of low the darkest
of dark, if I have the most incredible blessing, and I'm in the heights of heaven, like, there's nowhere you can go that God is, you don't have to just welcome him or enter in.
He's always with us. And there is, there is something to be said about being intentional to say, God, you're always on the inside of me and you're always around but God when you walk into the room and there's a tangible manifestation of that presence or that interaction
of like, it's kind of like almost thinking, like, when you're a parent, it's like, it's almost like you've conceived this child and the child is always with you in your heart but when the child is with you in the room, or in your arms, it's a different experience
of the closeness, but, or your wife or your spouse it's like they're always with you because you are one, and you're connected, but then when they're in the room with you, or when they're in your arms with you, it's a different experience of that presence and
that connection and I think sometimes that's, that's one of the ways I like to think about when I'm welcoming Jesus I'm like you're already on the inside of me, but I want to feel your embrace I want to feel your breath on my face I want to hear your
your voice, not just out there but it's up close and personal you know but I also just love how you were talking about embracing our humanity and in the fragility of it in the tenderness in the vulnerability
of our humanity, it's not to be despised,
but that it is to be celebrated
and that we're not to hate or be down on our flesh.
And we're actually meant to celebrate it as a gift
because every fiber of our being can host his presence
and can know, and yet we want art to be real,
to give language to people in the struggle of humanity,
that it's not all just unicorns and rainbows and lollipops.
There are real struggles, there are real tensions,
there are real battles, and yet God is there
in the depth of the valley of the shadow of death
or the struggle and the temptations we face
or whatever it is, but he's there.
And so Zylan, I would love to hear what you have to say
with that, but just language to that.
Yeah, I think what she said is so profound.
And like you said, celebrating our humanity, right?
When the beauty of Christianity is,
I mean, the real mystery of Christianity
is the word became flesh, you know?
That's the good news, that's the whole deal, you know?
It is the incarnation of the divine.
It is Jesus, you know?
It is our humanity.
It should be celebrated, you know?
Because we come in from this Western idea
of like flying from here to somewhere out there, you know?
And that thing made us to be very responsible
and we actually despise our humanity, right?
Just being real, you know?
And I'm observing that a new generation of people
are coming up and they just wanna be real, you know?
It's so beautiful, it's so beautiful.
And even I was actually preparing a sermon, you know?
This season, God is still teaching me the same thing,
what Fi and Dana said, you know?
It's Psalms 139, it says,
where can I flee from your presence, you know?
I mean, if I ascend to the heaven, you are there.
If I ascend to the shield, you are there.
You are there.
And my favorite theologian, Richard Rhodes said
that you cannot manufacture the presence of God.
The only thing that you're lacking
is the awareness of it, you know?
And that changed my whole idea of leading worship.
You know, I was that guy who wants to sing like a few,
like upbeat song and then some minor songs
and make people emotional and just bring the heavens down
and, you know, kind of thing.
And I feel that, you know, during that minor songs,
that slow meditative kind of song,
God will come down and, you know, minister to people.
The whole time I was actually fooling myself,
now I know that I should not,
I don't need to like close my eyes, you know?
Because where can I flee from his presence?
You know, like I'm already in the presence of God
and that's the crazy reality that God is, you know,
we are in him, he is in us.
And whatever we do is spiritual, you know?
Whatever we do is meaningful.
And whatever we create is God creating with us, you know?
I mean, that's like, that's like crazy.
I mean, and, you know, when God is actually being real,
when in my, like Fee said, in my weakest, darkest time,
you know, when I'm really real and in my brokenness,
in my crazy, stupid humanity, he's with me, you know?
And whatever I do is, it's me and him doing.
I mean, that's beautiful.
And wow, I was actually literally engrossed
because both of you guys just shared that thing, you know,
because that's the thing I'm actually tripping,
you know, these days, it's like, you know, just, you know,
it's literally changing my idea of being a Christian,
you know?
That's beautiful.
Oh, it's so good.
It's just, just what you said, the word became flesh.
It's Emmanuel, it's God with us.
And it just flips the switch with every other religion,
it's man trying to get to God.
But Christianity is the only one where God came down to us
and he is continuing to come and find us.
us. Even if we're Christians and we've been Christians for 40 years, he is constantly pursuing
everything that happens in life is initiated by God. And we are just in this response. We're in
this constant response to the revelation of art, his voice, his presence. He's just constantly
revealing to us. Now we can accelerate that by our own decisions and our own free will
and our own desire to hunger and to thirst after him. Just like if you're married in relationship,
it's like, yep, you know, we're married, we're in relationship, but you can intentionally
pursue your spouse and get to know them and unveil the mystery of who they are.
The same thing with God. I mean, we're in this constant divine dance of this. Isn't just about
a whole bunch of things to do or accomplish or things to tick off the box. Like I used to think
like that. It was so off religious and like a task master. Like I literally looked at Jesus
as like the CEO of heaven. And I would like come and be like, Hey, what do I do? And my whole
sense of wellbeing was in it. Like, I just want to serve you. And I just want to do all these things.
And it came from a beautiful, like actual desire to love him. But when you actually get broken
off of that and you just go, this is all about love. It's all about relationship. It is actually
all about this divine exchange of knowing one another intimate, knowing everything has God in
it. Every everything becomes a moment of encounter everything. This, as we say, the lowest of low,
when you hit rock bottom and like 50 degrees below rock bottom, you're just like, Oh my God.
Or if you're in the highest of heights or whatever it is you're experiencing,
it is a moment to taste the divine. It is a moment to experience God.
So I'm loving what you guys are sharing. I just love these chats with you guys,
Carol. I saw that your hand was up. Did you mean to put your hand up? Would you like to say
something? We'd love to share it. If you have a question or something you want to add to the
conversation. You know, I am so in awe, to be honest, this is a divine appointment. There is
no doubt that everything you guys are saying, God has already written, but then there was this
moment where he said, pick up the pen. You're adding another stanza to this poetry about
intention, right? Everything you guys said went in very quickly for the other stanza. It's like,
and I didn't know how I've never been here. So I didn't know if it would be appropriate
because what you're saying, what that guy said, you know, that chariots of fire,
where you know, never before in life, at 60 years old, I realized he can talk back and I'm like,
what? Why did I wait so long? And understand, you know, that in my older years, I'm not done.
I'm not done galloping with children anymore, but I can now be creative in what he's feeding me.
And honestly, the downloads, it's this like connection with the maker and keeper of
everything. There is no way I ever want to go back to the way it was. Oh, come on.
Right. But I want to know if it's okay. I was charging my phone a minute ago, but can I switch
here? Ken, it's not too long, but I really want, I don't know if this is appropriate. Can I share
these four stanzas? Would love that. Please do. Would love to hear it.
Okay. So intention. So when, as soon as I heard the word intention, I'm like,
wow, clue in, right? Intention is a word that is often tossed lightly around. It is like the word
belief, but it has no definite sound. Yet living life on purpose and directing your deliberate
mind can lead you to serve others being so loving and so kind. The intention to be curious,
to open your exploring heart, learning all that you possibly can is just the expanding start.
Intention now indirect is a helpful habit built over time. No longer a thoughtless commitment,
but a Christ Jesus state of mind. Now here's where you guys come in.
Intention to awaken God's loving light, to experience the pleasure of God,
not for an act for self importance, but to serve for God, to applaud, to yield my servants honed
in heart, creating from that purposeful place to nourish the hurting human heart, to feel his breath
on my face and to feel his joy in our embrace.
Tension has influential power in what you successfully achieve,
to commit to carrying out plans that you cooperatively
perceive.
Letting life not haphazardly happen to seize your busy day.
Now more than a lonely existence,
life becomes God's beautiful ballet.
Wow.
Carol, that is so beautiful.
I tell you, knowing God like this
is like no other thing.
Like, I don't know how to explain it.
I wasn't even going to come on here today
and look at what God did.
It just blows my mind.
To be present, oh, and that song that you first said to look up.
So in the beginning, I went ahead and looked it up.
He was immediately all over me.
I was like, wow.
Right?
And I didn't even hear but one word.
And he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is me.
I'm so glad for this connection.
Wow.
Carol, thank you so much for sharing that with us.
That was so beautiful.
And I wanted to burst into tears.
I was, at the same time, just holding it all in.
I was just like, the reality of what you just said of,
I didn't know he could talk back.
And experiencing that divine exchange.
There is literally nothing like feeling the presence of God
and hearing his voice.
You're just home.
There's this divine connection.
It's like, that's the very thing.
How do we put into words?
How do we express this to humanity?
Of all the things you could do, experience,
there is nothing like this connection and communion.
And so this is the greatest thing that we can hear.
This is what lights me up.
This is why I love doing these things,
is seeing beautiful people like yourself be like,
this has caused me to come alive and feel love.
Because we're just wanting to host space for God to come in
and love on his people.
For God to come in and just release expansion
and upgrade and revelation.
And to feel alive and to feel like, oh my gosh!
My life has a divine purpose.
And that's the thing too, in every season of the soul,
it doesn't matter how old we are,
what we've been through, where we've gone,
what has happened in our life.
Every day is a new day of mercy.
Every day is limitless potential,
limitless ability in what we can do.
The God, Ephesians 3.20,
to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly
more than we could think, hope, dream, or imagine.
That is one of my life verses,
because I can feel limited
because of a thousand different things.
And I'm like, well, stuff that.
That's not the heart of heaven.
And that's not the kingdom.
And that's not heaven.
Like literally anything is possible in any age,
in any stage of life.
It doesn't matter your financial, relational condition
of who you're connected with or not,
what gift you have with God, anything is possible.
And when we just get into that sweet spot of intimacy
and divine connection,
woo, that's where the magic happens, right?
Like literally his anointing comes in,
his presence comes in,
and it's the God factor of my loaves and fishes.
And then boom, he's feeding the 5,000.
Boom, he's bringing like fruit
that would nurture and awaken people,
just as Zilan and Fi were saying
that it's this honest awakening, this liberation,
this fulfillment, this enrichment of like,
I am experiencing heaven on earth.
I'm, you know, the lion, the witch,
and the wardrobe of C.S. Lewis.
I'm opening the wardrobe and I'm coming into Narnia.
Like, oh my gosh, there's a whole nother world here
that we're experiencing.
So good to hear your heart, Carol.
Thank you for sharing that with us.
Is there anyone else that wants to just say hi
or share something that impacted you
or something that you want to add to the conversation
or a revelation that you have or a question you have?
We would love to just take, you know, the next 10 minutes
and just hear anything that someone has to share.
There's no pressure to,
but we always just love the time to engage with one another
and hear questions, hear input.
Zoe, please share with us.
Hi, it's been wonderful.
Also, the one thing I wanted to add was, I think it's all about rest, that when you enter into a
creative space, you enter into an intimate rest, and rest can be very active, like the runner,
and it doesn't mean you're sitting down and doing nothing, that would be anaesthetic, wouldn't it?
Yeah. But it's all about where teaching the world, really, how to enter into the rest,
the finished work of God, the seventh day, everything being good and restful. So that
just was something that came to mind, that it's just that energy of rest,
which is that intimacy, really, isn't it? So that's all I wanted to say.
That's so good. It's so true. It reminds me of John 15, of just abide in the vine,
that you can do nothing apart from me, but if you abide in the vine,
you will bear much fruit. And so it is that thing of going, and I think rest looks different for all
of us, based on our personality, and based on our gifts and our wiring. Some of us have a really
hard time just sitting still, even though sitting still can be really like, be still and know that
I'm God, but stillness, and rest, and connection, and the fruit of that rest, it just looks different
for each of us. So I love what you just said about the runner, like his rest, his running.
And there's things that, to some people, rest might look like going for a walk in the woods,
or by the ocean, or it might be going for a hike, or it might be restful for someone to
spend hours in the kitchen cooking, because that's rejuvenating for them, or it might be
going skiing, or it might be walking around a museum, or it might be, I mean, gosh,
it might be anything, it's something that actually, whatever it is, like for one of my mentors, he
says, when he gets on his motorcycle, that's his place of rest, you know, he's getting away from
people, he's actively on a motorcycle, there's adventure, there's invigoration for him,
but he's able to tap into his soul, he's able to tap into that space with God. And I think that's
it, it's finding the unique way that you find that pleasure, and joy, and connection with God.
I think it's where your spirit, soul, and body come into oneness.
Yes.
So that is the rest, where every part of you is united together in that. So, you know,
your whole physicality, maybe as a painter, you know, maybe that you're physically engaging with
the colors, and the paint, and whatever, but your soul is happy, and your spirit is happy, and so
it's like that one, becoming one, really.
I love that. Zoe, that's so good. I'm so glad that you brought that up. That is just so good.
I think it's something that we're constantly learning, too, and even in Hebrews, it says,
strive to enter into the rest of God. And I, like, know for me, rest has been a battle for a lot of
my life, because I can, it's been this thing that God's constantly leading me out of performance,
and striving, and leading me into divine rest, thinking that out of performance and striving,
I'm going to bear more fruit. But it's actually when I step back, and I get into that divine
rhythm, like, you know, that cadence of heaven's heartbeat with you, and it's different for each of
us, like, our capacity is all different, our normal is all different, what we can handle is all
different. And so when we find that, that routine, that rhythm, that divine kind of rhythm of our life
and God, it's, oh, and you find that sweet spot, you know, the sweet spot is so different for us
all. But when you find it, whoo, that's where, like, the goodness starts happening, you know?
Yeah, and it's different every day.
It is. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. And that's where we live, and we move, and we have our being in him.
You know, that's where it is just like, there's, there's some things of discipline and order and
structure to our life. And then there's other things where Holy Spirit might nudge you or
whisper, hey, let's go do this today. Or, hey, our time of devotion might look different. Or,
or there's just something in your heart that you're like, I just want to go do this today.
And like, oh, but no, I should be going and doing this. But it's like, but I could go and experience
and encounter God and be full of rest and, you know, experiences.
Yeah, the whole thing is your body is full of different organs that all play a part.
Yeah, and our soul has different parts to it. And you have to nurture all of them, for them to
come into unity. And so I think that sometimes it's just a part of you has been neglected and needs
that kind of
like you say, that day off or that rest in a different way,
or you need a day where you're creating
so that you can be the responsible parent
or whatever in other parts of the week.
So yeah, it's just honoring, actually, every part of you.
Yeah.
Oh, that's so good.
Thank you for sharing, Zoe, that's so nice.
You're very welcome.
I've got to dish out dinner now, so I've got to go.
Okay.
Lots of love.
See you next time.
Is there anyone else that would like to share a thought,
an input, a question?
Probably go for a few more minutes.
Beautiful people.
I want to thank you again for this time.
I'm just soaking in it.
I'm coming alive just listening to you.
Yeah, I'll be taking this and just playing it over
because it's just feeding my soul, it really is.
Oh, I love it.
Oh, that's so encouraging.
How are you doing with your writing?
Well, okay, interesting.
I write the book quite easily
because it all came from the well of life inside of me
that God had been wanting to express for a long time.
And so it just came out on the page
and it just wasn't hard at all to write.
But the publishing journey has been quite different
because I've found it difficult finding the right people
to help me express the story,
what God's wanting to produce
in a way that's going to serve the right people
in a way that's going to invite them
into what God wants to minister to them
rather than just me sharing my story
because a lot of it comes from my own walk with Lord
as well as revelations he's given me about the kingdom.
But making it relatable in a way that invites people in
is a real skill.
And so I've just found an editor here in New Zealand
who has worked with people similar to myself.
We've all got a creative story
and we've all got something that God wants to produce
through us into this world on some capacity.
And I'm really just learning all that through this journey.
And so this one person who I've just found
is going to help me not rewrite the whole thing
but just tweak it a bit to make it more helpful.
Like you've often said, serve more people.
Make it relatable so they can experience
what God wants them to experience
through what you're offering them
so that it's not about you, it's about the kingdom
and it's about what you're inviting them into,
what God wants to invite them into to encounter him.
And so this is what I've been hearing
right through this whole thing today
is the invitation of the heart of God to come and know me.
You know, and be more connected in your own heart
with my story so that it can become your story
so that we can become more one
and we can enjoy and celebrate one another.
And so just listening to this,
it's just a balm to my soul.
And like last time was as well,
it's helping me to connect to that creative part of me
that I've actually never really celebrated.
And it's been shut down in the church, I can tell you that.
So I really know now that there's wounding there.
Yeah.
So I'm in that journey of actually going through
a bit of healing at the moment.
So, and being able to be more creative
and everything you've shared about religion,
shutting down the life of God,
because I'm a very prophetic person
and the church has got a very regimented way
of how you are prophetic.
And yet I know and believe with all my heart
that every single one of us is,
and yet it's been shut down.
The creative expression of what it means
to be a prophetic person has been shut down.
And so anything, even like your conversation
on the expressions of who each one of you is,
is bringing us alive and into that experience
and that reality of being that full prophetic person
that God sees that we are.
So I'm going through that journey myself.
Thank you for sharing that.
And I just wanna just, yeah, on behalf of the church
and leaders and individuals that have misunderstood you
and that have wrongly judged or where they've shut you down,
I just wanna say on behalf.
of the church, would you forgive us? Would you forgive us of not seeing the beauty of who you
are and the prophetic gift on your life and the creative anointing that you carry? I just
I want to ask on behalf of ones that have hurt you, would you forgive and would you
would you release us from our own blindness and from our own inability to see the gift of God on
you and where there's been religion that has motivated to shut that down. I just want to say
we're so sorry. I'm so sorry on behalf of leaders that haven't seen the treasure that you are. I'm
so sorry that you weren't validated. I'm so sorry that there wasn't a rejoicing and people opening
space for you to learn and to grow and to be celebrated and I just want to say like
our heart here is to pray and to ask that God would come and heal every aspect of your heart
and your story and that there would be encounter after encounter and wave after wave of his healing
that is tangible and that is personal and that is like for every area that you've known pain and
misunderstanding that you would know great celebration and favor and abundance and open
door and that God would redeem time and that you wouldn't be marked by wounding but you would be
marked by healing and celebration and the favor and the goodness of God and the days to come you
would see God's ability to bring full restitution you would see God's ability to bring full open
doors and to do more than you could think hope dream or imagine and to see that gift of God and
you flourish and blossom and fully come alive and so I was going to be praying that for you
and thank you and just so want to honor the yeah the journey that you're on and and I'm so grateful
that you are finding connections and cues that are unlocking you and being connected to whoever
it is that you're connected to that you're rewriting the script you're getting it out there
um so yeah I just want to bless that bless that in you yeah yes and I want to bring that to other
people too something I've done over the years has run soaking retreats and it's all about helping
our hearts be connected to God's heart so that we're laying down ourselves our physical body
and just receiving from God and commuting with him and I'm just seeing people's hearts unlocked
and then we often do have some creative expression in that as well so and yet I'm the one that needs
to be unlocked as much as anyone else so and that's it right I think that's the journey of
us as leaders is we never arrive and the more you experience God and understand healing more places
of wounding or triggers or misunderstanding and the beautiful thing one thing that Graham Cook says
is he says you don't have a right to stay wounded you have a right to be healed
in Jesus and I when I heard that I was like oh because sometimes we can hold on to our pain or
how we were mistreated or abused or had pain and I know I have a long list of that and I go
it's not my right to hold on to that it's my right to be healed it's my right and my privilege and my
honor to be liberated and and I get to be as honest and real about where I've been mistreated or
shut down or any of that but man in the hands of Jesus he takes every trigger he takes every
wounding and turns it into treasure he turns it into gold he takes ashes and turns it into beauty
and mourning into joy and heaviness he gives me a garment of praise and it doesn't it doesn't negate
any of it it doesn't mean that there's a quick turnaround like oh just get over your pain
it's like no sometimes we need the comforter to come in and sit with us just as we weep and there's
no pressure to get healed in a timeline like healing isn't linear and healing doesn't just
follow a timeline healing is a process and the beautiful thing I think as well um of God's heart
in healing is that it's relational that God could just we could go down a prayer line and be like
bop bop bop bop and it's just like heal heal heal heal heal and sometimes that does happen physically
and it sometimes does happen with a deliverance or something but there's something beautiful I
found in my journey of healing is that he wins my heart he romances my heart he he convinces me
about how deeply I'm treasured and cared for because he's walking with me in the moment by
moment and sometimes I wish that it could be
be just an overnight thing, but I'm realizing you're, you're slow in some things because
you're wooing my heart. You're, you're communicating the depth of your nature and character to
me and how intentional you are. You know, we think we're intentional and we've got motivation
with our art. It's us discovering his intention. It's us discovering his motivation. It's not
just that we're used by God. It's that we're known and we experienced God, you know, so
many times we're like, God just use me, but we don't want to be spiritual prostitutes.
So just use me, God. It's like, and I know it comes from a good place. Use me, use my
life. I want to be a vessel of honor. I want to be a son and a daughter that is used for
noble purposes. I want my life to matter. I want my life to count, but it's like, I
don't want to just do life for God. I want to do life with God and doing life with God
is a whole, it's a journey. It's a marathon. It's a marriage, right? It's a long covenant.
It's a covenant that starts now. And it's not even just to the end of my life. Eternity
is now like the divine eternal life starts now. And so he's not in a rush. So when we
take that pressure off of ourselves to arrive and to come to this place and just to know
it is a constant unveiling of his heart, and it's a constant unveiling of our own heart
and story and that I don't have to quickly get it all together and become this perfect
version of myself so I can be used by God. Oh my gosh, it changes everything. Right?
So it's so good to hear your heart and story. And, um, I love that you've come on again
and it's just, yeah, we just love you and we so bless you and we bless the journey that
you're on. And I know probably so many other people listening, um, would feel and they
can identify themselves with their own journey of their identity, their story, their places
of pain where they felt shut down or misunderstood, or they haven't been fully given the space
to be who they are. And I think we can all relate to that. And so we're all coming into
a greater revelation that we are seen and known by our father in heaven. And when we
can feel liberated in that space, then we're not looking for the validation of leaders
or institutions. We're actually carrying our own bubble of freedom. So, ah, so good.
I'd like to give this whole conversation to several people that are just coming to mind
right now that would really benefit from, from hearing this. We're just unlocked their soul.
I can think of three of them right now and I'll just go now, but I just want to finish saying
that I met with a friend of mine who's also writing her first book at the moment, and she
can see the need to do what I'm doing. And that is to get a good editor who loves your story,
loves you and wants to present it in a God honouring way that will really invite people
into his story for them. And she's actually feeling the same now after our conversation
yesterday. And she sowed into my ministry, you know, a substantial amount of money so I can get
more work done. So that just happened yesterday. So celebrate with me. That exciting. Yeah, I love it.
Yeah, so good. Yeah, let the yeah, let it all flow. Let the blessing flow. Yeah.
Okay, well, I think, yeah, we're just gonna, I just realised that we're at the two hour and 11
minute mark. So we are going to bring this in for a landing. Yeah, it's just so good to hear
all of your hearts and your stories. It really is so enriching.
Is there anybody that would want to just pray, just take 30 seconds and just pray over this
time and end our time together? If there's someone that just feels in their heart, yeah,
I just want to take 30 seconds and just pray and just end our time. Just why don't you unmute
yourself? And you can just pray for us. Thank you, Father. Father, God, you are so glorious,
and you're so loving and so kind to us to invite us into an encounter and experience with you God.
We're just so privileged to know that as we walk about intentionally, only motivated by your love,
sharing your light that you honour that you undergird us and you shadow us with your wings.
Lord God, thank you for Dana. Thank you for all the people that poured in today, Lord, that
whole thing was totally God. And I just love you so much.
and the joy that you bring to me,
as I know that I'm meeting with the maker
and keeper of everything,
and that's just unbelievable to me,
but you planned it that way.
Thank you, God, for helping us create in this world
to shine you, in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Oh, that's so good.
Thank you, Carol.
Thank you for praying.
Bless you.
Bless you so much.
Well, beautiful people, I do just wanna pray, too,
that I just wanna declare this over you,
that the God of abundance and the God of provision
would go before you and be providing
his favor with God and favor with man,
that you would have divine appointments,
divine strategic opportunities,
there would be gifts and surprises,
there would be finances and resources,
there would be dreams and revelations,
there would be awakening,
there would be these moments of inspiration
where you just have to grab the pen and start writing.
When you go for walks, when you're in the shower,
when you're in your car, when you're making food,
I just pray that you would feel,
just wave after wave, of his pleasure,
of his joy and his delight in you doing
what you were made to do.
I pray that you would experience,
that Ephesians 3, really, how high, how long,
how deep, how wide is the love of God,
the love of Christ,
that you would just be walking in increasing measures
of his joy, of his delight and his love.
And you would experience the father
that holds nothing back to providing
for you to come into the fullness of your calling,
of your purpose, of your destiny,
of your dreams and desires.
I pray that dreams and desires
and different aspects of who you've been divinely
created to be would be awakened in you.
Those seeds of destiny, those seeds of purpose,
those seeds, I just pray that there would be an awakening,
there would be like, it's almost springtime here,
I pray that there would be a blossoming and a blooming
and a fragrance and a color
and a sprouting up from the ground.
There would be just a creative explosion within you
and that you would have that John 15 reality
of abiding in the vine and that you would bear much fruit.
And then there would just be this ease and this flow
and the smoothness of just this divine exchange
of living and moving and having your being in God.
And you would be amazed at what comes out.
And that when you come on this next month
and we see you in April, it's like, oh my gosh,
there's just the testimonies of God's goodness
and his provision would be abundant.
So I pray that I declare that over you in Jesus name.
Love you guys so much.
Thank you.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for being part of the Raising Royalty Tribe.
Thank you for being part of the Kingdom Creatives.
We're so grateful.
I know that Zion and Fee just love you guys so much.
If you guys wanna say anything, Zion, Fee.
Thank you so much, guys.
So, so beautiful to be here.
And thank you, Dana and Fee
and all the beautiful people here.
I just wanna let you guys know
that if those who missed this Zoom call,
we'll be having a recorded live on our Facebook group
and we have a guide Kingdom Creative and you can see it.
And also we have a platform coming up,
raisingroyalty.com and we'll be posting the same
recorded live there as well.
You can catch up and every month we're gonna
have this Zoom call with different different topics.
We will be having dialogues and conversations.
And so looking forward to next month and stay connected.
Yes, you guys are beautiful.
And may the world see how beautiful you guys are.
And just be fully alive, just be fully alive.
There's a place for you at the table of the Father.
You are fully welcome.
Everything about you, everything that is you,
that really everything that is you is welcome.
So love you guys and bless you guys.
Love you all.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Look forward to seeing you next time.
Bye.