Unlocking The Heart Of The ArtistPrøve

# Roadblocks To Your Creative Expression Over the years, I have encountered many artists, musicians, craftsmen and other creative ones who have, for one reason or another, become stuck. The ‘stuckness’ originates from many different places – woundedness, fear, control, unbelief, religious barriers – and creates a frustration in their life that becomes unbearable. Many artists, unable to understand what is really going on, either run headlong into ‘creativity for creativities sake’ or turn to unhealthy alternatives in order to numb or overcome the pain they are feeling. Many more simply give up, hide the gift by stuffing it down under ‘Christian work ethic’ and just try to go on with life as usual. As a creative person with a calling in artistic expression, my ability to feel and sense things has always been a major part of my life. That is the way God designed all of us – to sense and respond to His Spirit in order to flow with Him in the Kingdom. For most of my life, this ability to sense and feel deeply was a double-edged sword because of areas of deep woundedness in my own life. Instead of operating out of a healthy place, sensing the Spirit of God and His flow, I was ruled by negative emotions – shame, fear, guilt, control – until it paralyzed my ability to function. Shut down by this storm of emotions, I created an “alter-ego” that everyone loved (performance was the name of the game) but was unable to maintain for long. My life continued to roll along in this performance-oriented posture until over a period of a few months it all came crashing down around me. On the outside, I was this perfect guy – talented, happy, creative, successful – everything that seemed “too good to be true.” In reality, I was a hurt young boy on the inside, fighting for my life with the only tools I had ever learned – secrecy, addiction and control. Slowly, my creative ability and intuition was withering away to nothing. I used to be energetic, focused and able to sense the anointing as I led others in worship; now I just faked it and performed. Very few knew the difference, but inside I was dying. The grace to continue under these contrived circumstances was quickly evaporating. See, the enemy loves to take the very thing that God has gifted us with and turn it around on us in order to kill us. The Bible is very clear in John 10:10 that the enemy seeks nothing else but to steal from, kill and destroy everything that we are. If the enemy can attack you at your core and win, then he has destroyed the very essence of who you were created to be. Look at King David, for example. A man described by God as “after His own heart” – full of passion, desire and love, yet because of the unhealed places in His heart, the enemy was able to twist his heart and redirect His focus into lust, war, control and performance. Whatever your flavor of ‘stuckness’, the Father wants you to be fully released to walk in His abundance, worship Him through your creative expression and co-labor with Him. God’s desire is that nothing hold you back from creative destiny for your life – not even yourself. Take time as you meditate on these scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any hurt, broken or wounded places in your own life. He wants to see you whole! In the next devotion, we’ll be talking about how to ask the Father to heal those places and restore your heart.