Stephen Bennett is an author, musician, songwriter, singer, speaker. Yes, he is what we call a multi-creative, yet his most significant role is as a prophet. I would add to that, a mentor of prophetic creatives. A few years back, Awesome City TV was a channel that inspired thousands of Christian musicians. This week I invited Stephen to be my ‘guest blogger’ and write from his heart on his source of creativity.
PROPHETIC ARTS
By Stephen Bennett
Our world runs on creativity. If you take creativity out of the world and the Church, it will be in a cultural deficit. The root source of all creating, is God the Divine Artist, the Creator. Your artistic gifts and propensities, and the ultimate ownership of it as an artist, really originates with Him. The arts and creating, can inform, educate, entertain, and profoundly frame and fabricate our world on many levels.
If you have a relationship with God, you will find, ’The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy’. [1] The nature of God Himself – is prophetic. Creativity and the arts are prophetic, as many artists know. Why? It is inherent from the character of its author – God. It’s the reason why many artists throughout history are prophets, or prophetic to some degree. The spirit of prophecy is intrinsic within the whole nature of the world. Creative artistic endeavour, is prophetic at its core.
Oscar Wilde said, in his 1889 essay, The Decay of Lying that, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”. When art from within us is birthed and inspired by God’s Spirit, it carries tangible power to affect life and lives. This is the greatest of adventures, and has its bedrock and foundation in your faith in Jesus Christ. He is the thyra (Greek word for door);the ultimate doorway to tapping into an eternal never ending river of creative inspiration.
The epicentre of the creation of music, art, dance, film, whatever it may be, and the reasons for its existence, is Jesus Christ the Son. ‘For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.’ [2] The existence and the ultimate purposes of the arts are for Jesus Christ. It’s greatest effect, is when it’s created, formed, composed, and consists of His power, by the presence of God’s Spirit. When Christ is in the centre of it all, the prophetic river is very powerful, and just flows right through it into whatever your art form.
Artists and their art have influenced society and culture right down through history. Many have been 10, 20, 50, or even hundreds of years before their time of optimum impact on world society. When that optimum time comes, their art is considered the highest of levels of quality and sold for millions of dollars. Their artistic voice speaks down through the corridors of the ages, visual arts or music whatever it may be. The fullness of purpose for their existence may not necessarily be in their era. In history, the influence explosion is often saved for a future time when the framing of the world or culture will benefit the most. The arts have great power, and today we see a more rapid influence over the past few decades, with global access online and many influencers reaching millions of people instantly; what a time for opportunity.
In recent years worship music in the Church has exponentially increased and touched the world profoundly with its prophetic spirit and power. Visual arts on many levels has also proliferated, along with film, dance, theatre, writing, creative technologies, and many other forms of creativity. The Church needs the arts and their artists, it’s not just meant only for the consumption of the world; remember, its ultimate purposes in the bigger picture of human endeavour, is for God. However many artists have struggled to know where they fit in Church and the world. But in this period 2020 onward we will see an ‘Arts Renaissance’ of some of the greatest creative endeavours from believers, despite all the craziness of the pestilence and troubles we are experiencing on earth. I have seen this growth in the arts in the Church over four decades, from a being a young Christian to now, and have been fortunate enough to be involved in many areas of creativity.
I encourage you to know God as an artist. Ultimately that is what He is; the Creator. Love personified in a creative God. He gave you a gift that is irrevocable in you. Commit that gift to Him, and His Spirit will give you ideas, melodies, paintings, scripts, artistic solutions you will never think of on your own. The embedded artistic gifts in you can come up with a plethora of your own ideas, but it’s the plans that flow from God’s River of Spirit, that you will need to tap into to prophetically create. King David received all his plans to build and create by the Spirit (1 Chronicles 28:10-14,19).
There is nothing more exciting than when you have a song, sound, theme, painting come to you like a poem, and you know it’s from God. Poetry is like watching a movie, it’s also like a river you can’t stop, it just comes, and the pen, the brush, the instrument, has to be ready in the writers hand, to craft what you see. Don’t be satisfied with mediocrity, but always strive to do your excellent best for God wherever you are. Even the spontaneous has to be crafted to communicate what the Spirit is saying.
The Divine Artist owns me; He bought us with His sacrifice on the cross. Know where your ownership is. I find the prophetic river just keeps on flowing, no matter my age. It is a river, and God is never dry. The prophetic artist is to create environments and change the atmosphere. Through our art we can prophesy into what is lacking, as we paint, compose, and write through the heart and eyes of Jesus. The prophetic arts reveal God and His Son Jesus; it is inherent in the work, and can be felt, seen, heard and discerned by those who are touched by it.
God created out of nothing with His invisible substance; His words, His power. It all belongs to Him, the whole palate of life on earth will always ultimately serve his purposes. As we minister in the arts we should be producing consistently as a natural outworking of our relationship with God – expression that will ultimately have its heart in God’s inventive intent. Like a garden that continually grows, our God moves, broods, and creates constantly in the living water of life of His Spirit that is within you. Tap into it organically by faith everyday as you live your life. He has a purpose for it, regardless of how you feel in your fluctuating artistic sensibilities. Trust in Him and He will give you the desires of your heart. [3] “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” [4], and you certainly will be prophetic in the arts.
Stephen Bennett is the Author of:
The Divine Artist,
The Poetry Packages,
Singers Musicians Artist – Prepare and Arise – It’s Time for the Nations,
Prophet Musician – As I Have Called You, (Released mid 2020).
Orders within Australia and New Zealand you can email
stephenbennettbooks@gmail.com
Available on various platforms: Amazon or author publisher page.
[1] Revelation 19:10b.
[2] Colossians 1:16-17.
[3] Psalm 37:5-7
[4] John 7:38
