In Like a Flood

In Like a Flood

“When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”
or – remembering there were NO commas in the original manuscripts
“When the enemy comes in, like a flood The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” [Isaiah 59:19]

This painting represents the Holy Spirit intervening in the storm and creating a barrier between the deluge and the earth. It is a word of encouragement, that even in the worst of “no matter what”s, the Spirit is with you and for you. It’s a matter of perspective!

This piece is a 2-3 song speed/worship painting done as a demonstration in a Prophetic Art Workshop. Little details in the 15-min process were as prophetic as the words the class drew out of the painting.

Firstly, I painted on a borrowed piece of ‘Op Shop’ canvas, which turned out to be the vinyl material often used in cheap printing. Two lessons for the class herein: 1. If in future you intend to sell your work, you must use quality canvas, always. There are no two ways about it. 2. The surface of vinyl, even gessoed, is unforgiving and won’t absorb or hold diluted paint. The word we received was: “What you do matters”, learn to value every part of your process.

Secondly, I began with my usual fast application of paint to fully cover the canvas using wet hands over blobs of paint, and because it was vinyl, not canvas, the water was sliding off the work. The word we received was: The “flood” does not stay, it recedes.

The class interpreted the image forming during the painting (in a demo, I stop and discuss techniques) as well as after the painting. Amongst several perceived meanings, we concluded that I had painted a ‘word’ over the recent floods. The word was “perspective”. From different perspectives in the room, the sandy section was a safe secret place, the dark shadow was a cyclone that had been thwarted, and the rain was ‘rolled away’. The image was both dark and light, it was not ‘rainbows and cupcakes’ (that might be an in-joke) meaning it wasn’t making the circumstance trivial, but taking seriously the depth of the Spirit “coming in like a flood”.

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