3 Ways Prayer Can Unlock Your Rewarding Creative Process

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Is prayer really important? I mean, if you are a faith focused, Christian creative I know that sounded crazy to even mention. Of course prayer is important, right? But have you prioritized it in your creative life? Have you put it as a permanent and important part of your daily routine, not just for devotionals, but as part of your creative workflow?

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I'm going to explain why this is a radical step that may totally transform your creative life and how it can actually start to work practically in your creative workflow on this Creative Checkup episode at the God and Gigs show. Give me just a moment to welcome those of you who are new to our platform and then we'll get right into this important conversation. But hello and welcome to our show. Thank you so much for making this podcast a part of your creative day. If you're new to our show, thank you so much for giving me a chance.

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My name is Allen, and this is where we help you to transform your creative life from the inside out by applying timeless spiritual principles to temporary creative problems so that you can become a totally confident creative and ditch any of that self doubt that you've been feeling in that God given calling that you have. Well, my friend, if you are calling on God for help in any of these creative areas, whether it be you're trying to sell, trying to create, staying inspired, if you are praying about that, you're not alone. Creatives, we are always in need of something. Let's just be honest. We are in need of help with connections.

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We're in need and help of figuring out what to make next. We are in need of help of kind of navigating this secular, sacred divide that we feel that we're stuck in sometimes. So prayer is us communicating with God, and it's something that, of course, if you are a believer, you know, should be part of your everyday life. But there's a little bit of a change here, a little bit of something that doesn't kind of fit when it comes to praying as a part of your creative process. And what I'm trying to explain here is that communicating with God, praying, devotionals, like our devotional, your art, God's heart, praying is a part of your day, but sometimes we don't think of it as part of our creativity.

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And what I mean by that is we have a tendency to rely on ourselves and our own thoughts and gifts and really just, I guess what you would call the grind or the hustle to get things done. And that's a natural part of being a creative. We kind of just get into this thing where, yeah, I need to do this, I need to do that. I have a list, I have a thing, I have something to build, I need to do it. And it's very easy, as people say about ego, to edge God out and it doesn't mean you do it intentionally.

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It just means that you don't prioritize it. And therefore, when it comes to sitting down to practice, when it comes down to writing that next blog, when it comes down to writing that next book, it can sometimes be a little bit of a shift away from relying on the Holy Spirit in God and then more relying on ourselves. So how do we combat this? How do we make creativity part of our everyday walk and prayer a part of our everyday creative practice? Well, first I think we have to begin this habit of making sure to check in with God at every moment of the day.

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I think check ins with God are those little moments where we stop and pause and ask Him, are we on the right path? Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? What do you think about this? And it doesn't become super spiritual where you have to drop to your knees and pray every single minute of the day. But I think developing that habit of checking in with God will provide you that moment of pause to say, and as I create, I want to invite you into this moment as well.

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As Matt Tommy says, we've had an episode with him. He is the best at explaining this cocreating with the Holy Spirit. And I believe that what you have to do before you start cocreating with the Holy Spirit is that you need to start reminding yourself that he's with you at every moment as a Christian creative. Now, as I'm speaking to you right now, you already know because my audience is not those of us who are scared of working outside the church. We literally make our livings in the mainstream arts entertainment.

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We appear on stages where people might be doing things that look totally unholy or are totally unholy. We perform music or write books or do things or work on TV shows where not all the content is Christian. However, that does not mean that God does not follow you internally into those spaces. If God was with Daniel in Lions Den in Babylon, and God was with Moses in Pharaoh's Court and any other place that you show up where you have to do a job, but you also carry the Holy Spirit with you, god is actually being invited into that space to help you navigate it. So don't be afraid to check in with God before the show, before the concert, before that performance, where you don't even know if he's really going to be honored in that performance.

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Because your job is not to give everyone in the world a message of preaching of why God is the Savior, why Jesus is the Savior. That's not your job right there. Your job is to shine a light. And wherever that light shines, it will evidently pour out or show people who the God in you really is. So that's really the first part is to make sure you're checking in with God at every moment, at every day and making that a habit.

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The second step is inviting God into the literal creative process as you create. One of the things I really love about performing and playing is there is kind of like the synergy between spirit and soul and body, where if you're performing and singing, everybody knows this thing. It's called the zone. Everyone feels it. Some people say it's a vibe.

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That's a new thing. They call it the vibe. So when you're in the vibe and you feel it like you know there's something happening, time starts to stand still and you know that in some way, shape or form, pleasure. God says that his but His Word says that all good things come from Him. All good gifts come from the Father of life.

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So if this is really good, a good feeling, it's from God. Now, that doesn't mean that every single song you perform and every single thing you do when you feel good is always God. Because God can definitely be absent from things that feel good at the time. But what it does mean is that you have tapped into something where if you invite Him in, he directs that feeling. He helps you in that feeling.

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He enjoys you as you enjoy that feeling. So if you are creating, if you are making something, you are practicing, learn to invite God into that space. And again, for many of us, it is a difficult thing to think of God inhabiting a space when we are not necessarily doing what we think is a Christian ministry thing. That's exactly my point. You should be willing to let God in.

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And if there is a moment that God is kind of say, hey, not a good idea. Don't sing that lyric. Not a good idea. You shouldn't probably do this. That's okay, because that's why we need Him at all these areas of our creative lives.

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If you're not dealing with some kind of tension there, you're probably not really checking in with God. There should always be a healthy respect and fear for how we conduct ourselves. And again, because I'm speaking to you who already probably work in some intersection of mainstream and ministry, that means you have to be aware and look for God's guidance and direction in the midst of the creative process. And this also includes when you're not in performance, when you're not in public, when you're in private, when you're just starting to work on something and you can really start to hone in on what is God saying about this at this particular moment? And how would he direct me to sing, play, write, paint?

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How does this work as I do this gig lifestyle? So that's the second step, is to ask God to step into the creative process literally, as it happens. Now, the last part is, of course, if you can notice our theme here before, during, and then there's the after. And so after you do the creative process, how have you asked God to bless or to look over or to approve of or to give you hints or suggestions on what you just made, what you just did? Are you willing to say, okay, God, here it is.

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What do you think? Because you know what we mostly do? We mostly look for others to validate our work. We mostly say, hey, did anybody like it on Instagram when I posted it? Did anybody download it on Spotify?

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And we use the external metrics and the external response to determine whether or not something is approved by God himself. That doesn't sound like scriptural wisdom to me. The last time I checked, it says that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. So God is looking at the heart of what you made, and if he's happy with it, does it really matter how many people liked it? And yes, this is tough because I know God does not usually rain down fire and show approval through some kind of sign and wonder where we know God is happy with what we made.

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But I'm going to challenge you to do that. Ask God at the end of this pocket. I'm going to literally do this at the end of this podcast. God, are you happy with what I just shared? Am I allowing my perfectionism and my desire to be noticed to override and overshadow the fact that you're good with what I just made?

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And if you were willing to say to God, hey, if you don't like this, I'll erase it right now and just get rid of it and toss it out the side and give it truly back to Him, and again, this implies every kind of art. I want to make sure, because even though I'm speaking to you, you may still be saying, well, how does this apply to things that aren't Christian? How does this apply if it's not a worship song? How does this apply if this is just a work for a client? If it's just something that literally has nothing to do with God and it's just to make them happy, well, guess what?

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God wants your work to be excellent. And if God is encouraging you to go out into the fields and to work in those areas to present excellent work, well, then he would be the best quality control manager you could ever have. So I would ask and challenge you to ask God in prayer after you finish something. God, what do you think of this? Is this acceptable to you?

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Not just morally? And if it's something that again, we're not doing the X out everything that doesn't have Jesus in it. We're not doing that because you are not a creative that is only in this sacred atmosphere. But you can ask God for his opinion. You can ask God, what do you think?

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Is there anything I missed? Could I make it better? Could I massage this somehow? Is there something that I can do? Is there another way to present this?

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Is there a creative idea I missed? And if you pray that prayer in sincerity, the Bible says if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God and he will give to you. Liberally. I am convinced, and I got some theologians, I'm sure they can check me on this, that there's only two prayers God never says no to, salvation and wisdom. Those are the two I found when I read my Bible that he said he, I will never not answer that prayer with a yes.

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So if you lack wisdom in how to kind of turn the gears and get that creative thing out into the world after you've finished or after you finished a song or however, don't look for man's approval. Don't look for the likes. Don't look for how many people liked it on Instagram. Don't wait for people to say, this is good or bad. Don't show it to your husband or your wife.

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I do the same thing. I show it to the person that's climirs. I got to get like that instant approval. Please make me feel good about what I just made. Please make me feel good about the song.

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I'm feeling insecure now. What if instead of asking for man's approval right away, you asked for God's approval right away, and that was your go to. And immediately you could kind of feel that sense of, you know what? God accepted this. This was my best work.

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This was what I could offer at this time. God has accepted it, and if there's something I can do better, he's going to show me how to do it better, and I'm going to come back next time and play a better song, play a better gig, make less mistakes, fix this, fix that, whatever. But God has, as the Bible says this very clearly already accepted your works. So be confident in putting that prayer habit inside your creative process, the before, the during, and the after. And I believe you're going to find a whole new level of spiritual fulfillment and creative fulfillment as you walk through this life as a faith focused, Christian creative working in the intersection of the mainstream and the ministry.

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Well, God bless you. Thank you so much for listening and following along and watching this podcast. If you're interested in more like this, the easiest way to get in touch with us and stay connected with us is our newsletter. We're now going to be putting out our newsletter every Wednesday. So whenever you're listening to this podcast on a Wednesday coming up, you're going to see a great newsletter with all the new ideas, new things that we're doing at God and gigs.

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You can find that@godandgigs.com info, godandgiggs.com info, or just tap the link in the description on the app that you're using right now. All right, god bless you. Thank you so much for being a part of our show today. Until next time, make sure that you become the creative that you were created to be. God bless.

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See you next episode.

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Thanks for joining us here at the God and Gigs show. Please leave us a review on itunes, like our Facebook page, or visit godandgigs.com and tell us what you thought of this show. We'll be back soon. In the meantime, go create something amazing.