Your creative capacity and your fruitfulness in this life and beyond are prepared by your Papa. You have something to say! Don’t let Insecurity, Perfectionism, Pride, or Shame prevent you.
TRANSCRIPT
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The creative life, I think, is not for the faint hearted. It does require that we face a lot of our fears that we stand up against kind of prevailing mindsets. Not and I’m not even talking about the mindsets of other people. I’m talking about our own mindsets. It’s very easy. And I think the greatest danger that kills creativity is a settling for the norm. You know, really just that that kind of passive acceptance of mediocrity and mediocrity.
00:00:42.830]
Again, it’s I’m not measuring that by the world’s standards. I’m not looking out of the window and saying, OK, X amount is poor at this amount is mediocre. And this amount is like means you’re awesome because all of those measures really are quite arbitrary and foolish ones to follow. Yeah, I’m talking about not settling in ourselves where we really allow ourselves to be stuffed into normal mode and like that just the shape of normal and take the shape of normality.
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Yeah. And don’t question the status quo in our own life that we we fail to question really and to envisage what we can become. Because I can assure you, God has a wonderfully glorious, satisfying vision of who you are and why he made you and why he planted you in the generation that you now live in. And I think the propensity of creative people to question, to push the bounds, to stretch beyond what’s considered possible or probable, you know, these revolutionary tendencies, often the world wants to crush them.
00:02:23.320]
Yeah. That they even and dare I say, the educational systems that we go through as children and the kind of conformity that we are encouraged to embrace in the marketplace, all of those things seek to dampen that kind of wild, creative fire that burns inside of people. I was going to say God’s people, but I think it’s just inherent in the nature of mankind to express the nature of the one in his image. They are made, even if they’re not saved, even if they don’t know him, even if they deny him.
00:03:11.170]
It’s undeniable that there is a kind of a volume as volatile, untameable creativity that rages within the soul of mankind. And you know, how much more for Jesus people. You know, these holy, happy, crazy, creative folk who’ve shaken the shackles of the world, who’ve embraced the idea, the truth, that there is a plan and a purpose bigger than themselves, that they believe that the light of the world sits on the throne of their heart, illuminating their future, dispelling impossibility.
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How much more should the expression of creative innovation, entrepreneurship, delight in beauty and wonder how much more should that be flowing from the church? The Bible speaks in Romans 12:2 and says do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, perfect will of God. This is right here. This is where the lines of the battle are drawn. It is in our mind that we would be transformed by the renewing of our thinking.
00:04:46.090]
The message version, which which really I would consider a paraphrase, says don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking instead. Fix your attention on God and you’ll be changed from the inside out. Don’t be so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. And I think for me, I certainly the the biggest danger and the way that we become indoctrinated, if you like, where we become well adjusted to a culture.
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Yeah. Is where we are immersed in it to the point where we’re no longer aware that we exist in that ecosystem and that there are other truths and other realities that are just as real and just as vibrant, just as just as present for some other people outside of our world. And the online world, particularly the creative world, is just like this. We tend to be bombarded with the and I put this in inverted collar and inverted commas, the relevant messages on a consistent basis to the point where we believe that everyone thinks like that and that everyone is seeing the same thing that we are.
00:06:19.360]
But they’re not they’re not the whole system, their online system particularly, is designed to feed you what you want to hear and not just feed it to you. It’s designed to sell it to you. And so just like take this advice, don’t become so well adjusted to the culture that you fit into it without even thinking. And I thought that will lead to freedom or they’ll tend to bondage. We will embrace the idea of limitation or the glorious reality of liberation.
00:07:02.380]
You know, and really, I think that on the opposing side to the victory that we seek, there are some notable adversaries to our creativity that I just want to highlight today. Number one, insecurity and insecurity is a formidable enemy, you know, and she fears that our efforts with derision, you know, who are we to even attempt to bring something of worth to the world? She’ll ask. And then, you know, her growling brother then stands right beside her and then he begins perfectionism.
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Yeah. You know, if if Sister Insecurity can’t convince you that you are defective, then perfectionism will set in and will step in and he’ll try and tell you that, well, maybe you are not defective, but what you create, what you make is defective. It’s not good enough and never will be. And these are very loud voices for a lot of people. And to whatever degree, a volume for pretty much all of us, I think, in the creative sphere.
00:08:17.140]
And then there’s the twins that then turn up. Yeah. And there’s there’s there’s like awful family. Yeah. Of pride and shame. The comparison twins, I call them, you know, this double whammy. These twins come in and they they’re really have been responsible for toppling some very formidable warriors in the creative space. Comparison comes in, you know, and on one side there’s pride and on the other side, shame. And they’re both greedy for attention, you know?
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And so we we create something. We may even have some level of victory in what we set out to do. And Pride steps in and tells us just how incredible we are and how much better than others we are and how clever and how wise or whatever. And like we can just fall for this stuff like hook, line and sinker. And then once were kind of stood on a pedestal. He sends in his twin of shame and like the twin, puts boots on and kicks us off our pedestal and makes us feel like we’re not even worthy to be rubbed off the bottom of someone’s boots.
00:09:32.920]
It’s just and I think their masterstroke really here, the key to their success is that they aim to keep us as the centre of our own world. You know, as long as we are the hub of our universe, we will be subject to some of these adversaries, you know, and the more that we realise, the more we pull away from. The more we recognise that we are here to serve others, I think the more the less likely we are to fall for their their lies, you know, and God is not a help left us helpless.
00:10:15.870]
You know, he’s equipped us not just to survive, but to conquer and prosper, even in the confusion that sometimes surrounds like our push towards creativity and bringing value to others. You know, we have this helmet that we’ve been given, this helmet of salvation, a sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The helmet of salvation covers our thoughts. It’s like headgear. We’re no longer like an orphan seeking approval, you know, so we can chase insecurity out of the ring.
00:10:51.150]
And, you know, we may have been broken once, but now, even with the bruises to kind of tell our past history, we’ve been made perfect in him, not by our own works, but by the work of Christ. We’re a new creation and old things have passed away. You know, the scriptures say in John, behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God. If any man is in Christ, he’s a new creature.
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Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have been made new. You know, the promise that we have is that the works of our hand will be blessed, that what we put our hand to will prosper, we have the affirmation of the spirit both towards us, upon us, within us. He is he is there cheering us on. He is there to inspire. He is there to celebrate. He is there to console. There is not one second in any day where the Holy Spirit is not ready and willing to be all that we need to continue in this incredible journey that we’ve been invited into.
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Listen to this from Deuteronomy 28, verse eight, The Lord will command the blessing on you and your storehouses and in all to which you put your hand. He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. And so whatever realm you’re stepping into, whatever area of influence you have been called to impact, here we have that. Whatever the land into which the Lord, your God is sending you the land, the Lord your God is giving you, he will bless you in that place.
00:12:45.680]
Don’t try and be someone else. Don’t try and step into someone else’s boots or someone else’s call. Learn to increasingly step in to your own unique place in the world and in the kingdom and bring all that you can to help other people. You know, we don’t want to be subject to these adversaries. We don’t want to continue to kind of grapple our way through the confusion that they cause. And I think the only way to do that is to lean hard on the truths that we find in the scripture.
00:13:28.340]
John 530 says, I can have myself do nothing. Jesus said he is the vine and we are the branches. If we want to bear fruit, we’ve got to remain vitally connected to him. You know, we got to stay close to him. We’ve got to disallow. And the Bible calls it binding cut to tie up and throw into a deep ocean somewhere, throw them off the bridge, man, all of the insecurity, the shame, the fear.
00:14:05.910]
The pride, you know, it’s all got to go. It’s all got to be like chained and drowned. And we need to instead of immersing ourself in our own estimation of ourself, allow the estimation of God, allow the estimation of our father to shape how we feel about ourselves. And here we are, like in our in our fathers presence in Poppa’s presence. We’re ready to believe, ready to create, you know, we’re ready and we cannot be beaten.
00:14:46.160]
You know, the loser isn’t the one he tries and fails. The loser really is the one who doesn’t try at all. Because unless we try unless we step out, unless we allow our faith some room to breathe, we’ll never see the kind of breakthroughs that we’re looking for. You know, if I fall down six times and I get up seven, I’m I’m the victor, you know, and your creative capacity and you’re fruitfulness in this life is really a pathway prepared by your father for you to walk in.
00:15:20.450]
You do have something to say. And so I just encourage you today, don’t let insecurity, perfectionism, pride and shame prevent you from taking your next step. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today, if you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.Com. Have a great day.
