I hope you're having a wonderful day today! :) I was asking the Lord what to blog about next, and I strongly feel that I need to share the detailed version of the story of my first SOLD painting! This is a beautiful story of God's faithfulness.
Here's a little back-drop...
A year ago May 10th, 2014, I was with my team here in Nashville doing a massive outreach downtown. Many churches and ministries collaborated for twelve hours of non-stop worship at a public amphitheater while smaller teams broke off to do street evangelism on Broadway. Since we love to incorporate our creativity with our ministry here at Provision International & Thunder School, there were visual artists assigned to draw or paint each hour by the stage at the amphitheater.
Here's where I come in!
A few weeks before this big outreach, I had talked to the art coordinator, Maddie, about wanting to do prophetic art. However, I had since forgotten about mentioning that to here, and was quite astonished when I saw that I was scheduled to paint for the first hour of the day! At first I was a little scared not knowing what on earth I was going to paint. Then the Holy Spirit reminded me of a sketch I had saved of a vision He gave me a few months earlier for a time like this.
So here I am at the outreach excited by definitely nervous. I didn't have a completed concept of what to paint, just an outline and the Holy Spirit to guide me. I consecrated my hands to Him and asked the Holy Spirit to paint through me. I painted it in about an hour (miracle), completely letting go of perfectionism and my own preconceived ideas of what it should look like (miracle). Even the wind knocked my painting into my palate making a mark on it. However, I knew I wasn't supposed to fix it; I was suppose to let it be and go with the flow. And that I did, with supernatural grace. My whole being was completely surrendered to and in sync with Him. It was an AMAZING experience! Why was it a miracle, you ask? Because it was TOTALLY abnormal to my natural tendencies. It was supernatural.
Next thing I know, Maddie asks if I want to sell it if someone is interested. The concept of the possibility of selling it was the farthest thing from my mind, but I happily agreed and asked her how much I should charge. I mean, what do I know about selling paintings?! She suggested $75, so that it was! I honestly didn't expect anything to come of it, but I did have a spark of hope flickering in my soul.
A couple hours later, Maddie tells me that people have been asking about it. Just then a guy inquires about it. He asks if I have seen “Father of Lights” film (which I have) and says he is in film school making a documentary similar to that. He was actually holding had a heavy-duty camera that he was using to film the outreach that day. Then, he says he had just recently asked the Lord for a picture to use for his album artwork. I tell him the price and he says he'll get back to me. Some time went by, but he didn't get back to me. I felt strongly that the Lord wanted him to have this painting, so I approach him a few hours later and say that if money is an issue, I'll take whatever donation he can give. I mean, after all, it costed me nothing to create the painting - canvas and paint were provided - and even if I get $20, that's $20 I didn't have before! We exchanged numbers and he said he would contact me.
That night he texted me saying he had money he forgot about, and that he wanted to buy the painting. I WAS SO EXCITED! Someone wanted to buy my painting. My first EVER prophetic painting. Wow.
Two days later my friend, Ahriel, and I met him at Starbucks. I had named the painting “Poured Out,” but all weekend I couldn't get away from the title “The Father's Heart Poured Out” even though it's such a long title. I added “The Father's Heart” in front of “Poured Out” right there in the coffee house and that's when he said the title of his film is: “The Father's Heart.” He then hands me a wad of $20 bills and said that God told him to give me a double portion. Um... Excuse me, WHAT??!?! I opened it later to count the bills and it was $140!
This is such a testimony to God's grace because He told me that He would pay for my rent in a different way that month than in previous months. This amount was not only what I needed, but even more!
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20 NKJV
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