Holy Spirit... (Updated)

(Scroll down for an update on this image...)

I don't work in color a lot yet, but I wanted this one to be in color, the light surrounding the woman had to be blue, to match my vision. 

At a prayer night a few nights ago, we were prompted to pray and reflect on who God is, what he's done in our lives in the past, what he will do in the future, and lastly, on how he is omnipresent, he's always been with us, and will remain with us.

I felt a vision, as though the Holy Spirit was swirling around me in the form of bright blue light as I prayed and reflected on His goodness to me.

I just recently read through John, and John 15 specifically felt connected to my previous post The True Vine.  In the previous chapter (14) and again, later in chapter 15, we are told of our Helper, the Holy Spirit.  These verses were fresh on my mind during prayer night...

John 14: 15-17

15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

John 14: 26

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 

Update: Sunday July 14:

I thought the original intent of this image as I said above, was that the Holy Spirit was swirling around ME as I prayed.

The following morning when I woke up, I was having trouble deciding whether I should go to church services or not. You see, I drive approximately 40 minutes to church, and I was very low on gas, and I didn't have money to put into my tank.

Around 9:30am, I looked at the picture and felt that I needed to go to church and give this to our worship leader.  I felt very strongly, and immediately, that this picture was of her and had a message for her.  It even looked more like her than myself... In fact, I don't even own a green shirt, but I *do* have a recent video clip of her leading worship at our evening baptism ceremony where she is just exuding joy and dancing while singing while wearing a green shirt.

I marked the two scriptures above on the back of the drawing, signed it to her from myself, got myself together and headed to church for our 11am service.

I waited until after the service, sat with her aside and gave her the picture.  I explained to her that I recalled her saying a couple of weeks ago to one of our pastors some comments about how she thought she sometimes struggled with knowing exactly what to say when leading the church in prayer.

I told her to remember that when she prays, the Holy Spirit will come upon her, swirl around her like blue light and tell her exactly what to say.  I reminded her of some prayers she has offered up that have been amazingly and inexplicably perfect for me at the time.

She was very quiet and seemed a bit stunned as tears welled up in her eyes a bit. She told me that during the first service, she was unsure of the prayer that she had led, and was praying with one of our pastors about it during the sermon, to seek guidance to "do it better" at the 11am service I attended.

The time of her prayers with the pastor that morning would have been around 9:30, when I was at home and realized the picture was of her and that she needed it.

We hugged a few times and I headed home.  She headed to the store and bought a frame for the image. She told me it blessed her immensely right away.

Later that afternoon, at home, another of my friends sent me the sermon online that he was watching  as he could not make it to church that day.  He was listening to Dr. Charles Stanley talk about Walking in the Holy Spirit, shown below.  I decided to listen to the sermon while I mowed my lawn. (Side note: I love Charles Stanley's voice and way of teaching.  It is easy to understand, and full of scripture, and I think he voice is so soothing!  If you've never watched him, you are in for a treat.)

I was driving the lawn tractor with my headphones on, and just a few minutes into the sermon when Dr. Stanley mentioned some scriptures referring to the Holy Spirit and His role in our lives...  THE EXACT SAME SCRIPTURES I posted above and that I had written on the back of the drawing.

I immediately stopped the tractor and wrote to my friends, both, to tell them of the news.  Both were overjoyed and amazed to hear of the news.

This was a clear sign to me directly from the Holy Spirit, confirming for me that I am on the right pathway, that I am hearing Him speak to me, and I am acting in the manner He is pleased with.  I still cannot fathom how or why He would choose to be near to me... A "nobody".  The answer I always come back to is LOVE, and I am overwhelmed.

Dear Heavenly Father,

You are so good to me, Lord, though You know that I do not deserve it.  You are generous with your Grace with me every day, and I am humbled to think that the God who made Heaven and Earth made me, and made me for a purpose.

Thank you for the gifts you have given me- especially the previously unknown skills to create art that reaches out and speaks to those around me.  Thank you for showing me how to draw the words I can't find to say to encourage and uplift those in my life that need uplifting.

Thank you, Lord, for speaking to me in wondrous ways; for providing me with the "coincidences too big to be coincidences" that let me feel you are with me and confirm for me that I am hearing your desires for me. 

Please continue to bless my hands to create more works of art that glorify You as I explore different techniques and styles in art.  Please help me to learn to be more bold in my testimony and my ministry as I continue on my path to spiritual maturity.  All Glory and Honor to You, Lord.

Amen.



A final thought - I'll close the update with the new Casting Crowns song (with Matthew West) because it says a lot of what I'm feeling right now.

The True Vine...

Based on the verses in John 15, this drawing depicts Jesus, the living sacrifice, hanging on a tree, and wound in vines, stretching to grow and bear fruit.

I am so pleased with the results of this drawing.  I've been encouraged to share some of my drawings in a public setting where they'd be judged.  This would require me to remove some of the anonymity of the blog and the artwork.  Only a few close Christians in my life know that I make these drawings.

I'll pray on that further before making a decision.

The scripture... John 15: 1-8

The Vine and the Branches

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

A more detailed view:

You are Light...

I've begun reading a bible study book on Ephesians by Joyce Meyer.  

This happened to be the verse of the day recently as well...

I pray that I am light to others, that they may see the miraculous works that He has done in my life, and seek Him out in their life, as well.  There were people I prayed for that I was hoping to display the light toward; relationship struggles are tough.  But there are three people in this world in particular who I pray will see the difference that God has made in my live and will develop a curiosity and later a thirst for His word.

This was one of the first times I used chalks.  I used gray on the tonal paper to darken the shadow around the candle, and white chalk to add a halo of light to the flame and some shading to the candlestick.

Statues...

I pray for my oldest daughter often.  We're in a season of winter right now, but spring is here!  She's visiting fairly regularly and opening up to me quite a bit.  We're finding our way.

These three images were drawn with her during a visit.  We drove to a couple of local large cemeteries and drew the same pictures of some of the architecture and statues.  She was showing me her much looser, more sketchy style, and she we chuckled about my apparent inability to just sketch and let the drawing come quickly.

It was a beautiful day, the weather was amazing, and we just enjoyed each other's company and talked and talked while we decided which memorial to draw next.

I didn't pray while drawing these, I was too caught up in the time I was getting to spend with my beautiful daughter, but I did pray over them as I finished them up at home; specifically, I thanked God for bringing my daughter back to me and for giving me such a lovely weekend doing something together that we both enjoyed.

It was not unnoticed by me that her subject of choice was angel statues.  I believe that she is getting brave enough to wonder what is up with all of the positive changes in my mom's life.  I look forward to the day that I get to minister to her with God's word, and pray that she accepts what I have to tell her.  BUT - that is another prayer for another drawing.

Give Me Vision...

I often pray for God to show me his plan, his vision for me.  We all know that if He wants us to see his vision, He will show us in His good time.

I have been having vision issues - an ultra rare processing disorder.  I drew the eye as a prayer for my own physical vision symptoms. I planned to then draw in the lyrics to God I Look To You around the eye.  (Such a good song!  I'll link it here...)

When the eye was complete, I wasn't feeling the lyrics around it, but felt called to draw the full face instead.  The prayer also changed with the change in design for the drawing.  I added a freckle in the lower portion of the iris, to match the freckle in my daughter's eye.  

My prayer turned from my vision issue to asking God to help my daughter see the amazing things He has done in my life, and to help me be a model of a Christian woman for her.  She seems interested in my faith.  She asks questions occasionally, but as a teenager who has never known God or church, she is still unsure of it all. 

I am giving her time, trying to be a positive model and showing her some of my drawings that I'm really proud of.  I prayed for a long time over this drawing and over my daughter.

She saw this particular drawing when the eye was done, but he face was just being filled it around it.  She said the girl's mouth was wrong, it was too upturned if she was sad and crying.  I told her that she wasn't sad and to look at it again.  She studied the drawing and seemed to understand that the girl was overwhelmed with joy at the sight she was seeing.  I smiled at my beautiful daughter, then drew in the freckle so she could see it match hers.

I don't have a particular verse associated with this drawing chosen, the song says it all.

Here is a detail photo of the eye:

Flowers fall...

On Sunday, I purchased a couple of new, smaller sketch books with toned paper. I also grabbed a kit with an extra set of pencils to travel with, and it had charcoal in it. Someday maybe I’ll try charcoal. Lastly, a can of fixative spray because my precious drawings smudge against each other in their sketchbooks...

This piece was inspired by my YouVersion app. It is today’s verse of the day and it was a fast one! (Speaking in relative terms here, many of my drawings have taken 10-12 or even more hours.). This speedy project took about 2 hours total;  a half hour for the flower, but about 1.5 hours to decide on a font, sketch it out and fill in the letters.

Pencil with ink and white gel roller.

Here’s a detail crop...

One...

Having a discussion with a good friend... It was asked "If you had your pencils out... What would One Flock One Shephard look like to you?"

This is the result.  The world represented, people from all sorts of regions, religions, cultures coming together as one under Jesus.  Note that all of the people are moving TOWARD him, not away - not making disciples, but coming together as one church built on the rock... Some have arms raised high, some have a more withdrawn and humble approach.

A fun and unexpected surprise that everyone picks up as soon as they see it?  God's HAND on us (the world) as believers.  The groups of those seeking Him were supposed to be approaching the cross and converging into one large group.  The hand/fingers effect was completely given to the drawing by Him.

Verse of inspiration:

John 17: 20-21 Jesus Prays for All Believers...

 20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.