What Is Prophetic Art?

Art Born from Worship and Prayer

For me, prophetic art begins in the presence of God.

It begins long before I pick up a brush or stand before a canvas. It begins in worship and prayer—in drawing near to the Lord, listening for His voice, meditating on His Word, and becoming attentive to what He is revealing.

Sometimes a painting begins with a Scripture that has lived in my heart for years. Sometimes it is born during a season of prayer or intercession. At other times, I see an image in my spirit while worshipping—something that carries a message or an invitation I know I am meant to paint.

And sometimes, I simply begin.

I may not understand everything I am painting when I first put brush to canvas. The revelation can unfold as I create.

Over the years, I have come to treasure this as one of the beautiful mysteries of creating with God.

What Makes Art Prophetic?

Prophetic art is more than Christian art with a biblical subject. It is more than illustrating a Scripture or creating something beautiful with spiritual meaning.

I believe prophetic art is born from relationship with God. It is a response to something He is revealing—through His Word, through worship and prayer, through an impression or image, or through something He has placed deeply within the heart of the artist.

Throughout Scripture, God communicated with His people in wonderfully creative ways. He spoke through words, poetry and song. He gave dreams and visions. He used symbols, colors, objects and prophetic acts. At times, the prophets were asked not only to speak the message of the Lord, but to make something unseen visible.

I believe visual art can become such a language.

A painting may carry an invitation to draw nearer to God. It may awaken worship, stir intercession, bring hope or healing, reveal something of the Father's heart, or remind us of His covenant faithfulness and the truth of His Word.

The power is not in the paint or the canvas.

And it is not in the title prophetic artist.

The source matters.

For me, that source is Yahweh, Yeshua, Holy Spirit.

Seeing Beyond What My Eyes See

I have been an artist and portrait painter for many years. The skills developed over a lifetime are very much a part of how I create. But prophetic art has taught me that there is another kind of seeing.

Often I begin with something tangible—a photograph, a face, a landscape, a moment I have witnessed. But I am not necessarily trying to reproduce what my natural eyes have seen.

I use my portrait skills to create the face that I see in my spirit.

The photograph may give me the form, the posture, the light or the human reference. Then, through prayer and the process of painting, I begin reaching for what I am seeing beyond the reference.

I once described it very simply:

The camera captures what my eyes see.
The painting expresses what my heart sees.

Perhaps another way of saying it is that I am attempting to illustrate what I see God say.

There is something about those words that captures the mystery for me. Sometimes what God speaks is not first received as a sentence. It may come as an image, an impression, a Scripture illuminated in a new way, or something that begins to take shape inwardly before I have words to explain it.

The painting becomes my response.

For Such a Time as This

One painting in particular has come to represent this process for me.

In 2007, I photographed a young girl, about fourteen or fifteen years old, portraying Queen Esther at a banquet. It was a beautiful moment, and from that photograph I created a painting in 2010 called Esther Royalty.

Several years later, in 2017, I returned to the image.

But this time, I saw more.

I wasn't simply trying to repaint Esther or make a technically better version of my earlier work. I wanted to paint what I was now seeing in my spirit.

As I worked, Esther became more regal. Her garments changed. Light and gold entered the painting. Her countenance changed. The young girl portraying a queen began to carry something more of what I saw in Esther herself—beauty and dignity, but also purpose, courage and calling.

The painting became For Such a Time as This.

When I place the original photograph, Esther Royalty, and For Such a Time as This beside one another, I see more than the development of an artist.

I see a prophetic picture of my own journey with God.

From Glory to Glory

God is continually fashioning us.

He sees what He created us to be long before we can see it ourselves. Through seasons of joy and seasons of difficulty, through surrender, worship, obedience and simply walking with Him year after year, He continues His work within us.

Looking at the progression of these three images, I see something of that process.

The original was real and beautiful. The first painting was also a true expression of what I could see and create at that time. But it wasn't the end of the story.

There was more yet to be revealed.

And there is something deeply hopeful to me about that.

Scripture says that as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into His image “from glory to glory.” — 2 Corinthians 3:18

I love that it begins with beholding.

We look toward Him.

We remain in His presence.

And He does the transforming.

My own life with God has been a journey of becoming—of discovering more fully what He placed within me, while at the same time realizing that the deepest purpose of transformation is not simply becoming everything I was created to be.

It is becoming more like Him.

One day, fully reflecting His likeness.

Art Born from Worship

This is why worship is inseparable from the way I understand prophetic art.

Worship is not simply music to me, nor something reserved for a church gathering. It is a posture of the heart—a life turned toward God.

From that place, art can become an offering.

There are paintings I have carried in prayer for years. Others have been born in seasons of deep intercession. Some began with an image that came suddenly during worship. Still others unfolded slowly, layer by layer, as I painted and listened.

Through it all, I have learned that the most important question is not simply:

What should I paint?

But:

Lord, what is on Your heart?

That changes the creative process.

Painting becomes another way of listening and responding.

Sometimes it becomes prayer.

Sometimes intercession.

Sometimes proclamation.

And sometimes it is simply worship.

When the Painting Leaves My Hands

The story doesn't end when I finish the painting.

One of my greatest joys through the years has been hearing what others experience when they encounter the artwork.

Sometimes someone sees exactly what I carried while creating it. At other times, a particular detail speaks into a person's life in a way I could never have anticipated. A Scripture becomes alive. Hope awakens. Someone is drawn into worship or prayer. Something of the Father's heart becomes personal.

I don't believe I need to control that encounter.

I can share the Scripture, story, prayer and prophetic inspiration from which a work was created—and then release it.

There is room for the Holy Spirit to speak personally.

Perhaps that is one of the gifts of prophetic art.

It invites us to stop.

To behold.

To listen.

And sometimes, to see something we had not seen before.

Prophetic Art Reflections

This is the heart behind Prophetic Art Reflections.

In the days ahead, I will be sharing more of the stories behind my paintings—the worship, prayer, Scriptures, photographs, journeys and unexpected moments from which they were born.

Some of these stories began many years ago. Their meaning has continued to unfold alongside my own journey with God.

My hope is not simply to tell you about my art.

My hope is that these reflections will invite you to look beyond the painting—to behold the One who is the source of every true and beautiful thing.

And perhaps, as we behold Him together, we will see more clearly what He has been saying all along.

There is another story within these three images that goes beyond the creative process itself.

As I look at them together now—the young girl in the original photograph, the emerging royalty of the first painting, and the mature Esther of For Such a Time as This—I see a journey of preparation, waiting, and appointed time.

The seed of destiny.
The preparation.
The appointed glory.

That story deserves its own reflection.

In my next Prophetic Art Reflection, I want to look more deeply at Esther—not only at the woman who stood courageously in her appointed moment, but at the hidden years and preparation that came before it. There are seasons when destiny seems quiet, when God is forming something within us that has not yet become visible.

Perhaps for such a time as this begins long before the appointed time arrives.

View this piece in the shop →For Such A Time As This