Have you ever been asked by God to create something for His kingdom? I have. And I freaked out! When I heard the voice of God asking me to create a Christian ministry dedicated to helping alleviate suicide among women globally by sharing hope in Christ and teach women how to create a joyful life by embracing God’s word as it relates to the six pillars of joyful living – faith, food, fitness, finances, felicity, and fortitude – I resented God’s calling because I felt unqualified and inexperienced. Can you relate? But you see, God is the creator who created me and blessed me with creativity so that I also can create. This Biblical devotional “I am creative” shares my journey toward discovering, accepting, embracing, and diligently using God’s gift of sacred creativity in me.

Introduction

God asked me to do big things. I didn’t have the skills or experiences. But I had God, His spirit in me, and, through it, access to God’s creativity, infinite intelligence, and sacred wisdom. I just needed to understand this truth. I needed to embrace it, and not only as a concept in general but also as the truth in my personal daily life. I am creative, and I had a hard time accepting this because growing up, I was told that I wasn’t. You can read about my childhood trauma in an essay called “Getting To Know Anna Szabo.” Today, when I’m writing this devotional, is December 31st, 2020. It’s been exactly three years since God called me to ministry, and I can’t tell you how blessed I am to report on the fruit of God’s gift of creativity. I will first start with some of the letters from my blog readers, YouTube viewers, and podcast listeners.

In the last three years, I birthed 177 spiritual poems and shared all of them for free on my poetry page. I wrote 52 Biblical devotionals and gave them all for free to my Christian community in a form of an ebook. I created 95 shirts, sweatshirts, baseball raglans, and other types of encouraging Christian merch on Amazon. I personally wrote 1083000 words of helpful scriptures-based content on this blog, and 83610 people read it across 208 countries. I produced almost 300 YouTube videos, and they’ve been watched 223946 times worldwide. My Christian podcast The Anna Szabo Show has been downloaded tens of thousands of times globally across 18 different syndication platforms. I produced 22 paintings, each with a spiritual tale, and built a Christin store of Etsy. I created 232 designs of Christian apparel for women on TeeSpring to encourage and empower Christian women with the word of God.

This all has only been possible because I accepted, embraced, and diligently used the gift of God’s creativity in me. God began talking to me every day starting on March 6th, 2017. I remember how He woke me up at 4 am every day and gave me new spiritual poems and Biblical devotionals to write.
I remember one day in particular when He asked me to do something I had never done before, had no idea how to do, and felt unequipped doing. It was midnight when God called me out of bed to create, unlike the usual early morning. It was such a unique experience, I still have goosebumps thinking about it. That night, God told me: “Create Biblical canvases.” What? How? Which canvases? Where do I go to do that? I started battling God, as I’ve done so many times. But of course, He won. My Etsy store now offers canvas wall art for Christian homes.

Creativity

You see, I was asking so many questions when God called me to create canvases with Biblical affirmations – why, how, when, why me, am qualified, is now the right time – all because I didn’t feel creative. I thought creating Biblical canvases would require a very creative talent. I didn’t believe that I had such creativity and talent. It was a late night. I was going to bed. I brushed my long black hair. I put my nightgown on. I settled comfortably in my California king size bed, and then I heard the voice of God: “Make Biblical canvases.”

When God speaks to you and you’re battling His calling, you’ll toss and turn, you’ll be so unsettled, you’ll have no peace, you won’t be able to rest. You just can’t feel settled if you’re rejecting the will of God. How do I know?
I was rejecting the will of God. I was not listening to the Holy Spirit. I was unsettled. I had no peace. I couldn’t rest. There was like a grip in the back of my neck pulling me up so that I could work on God’s creative project. I got up. I said: “Ok, God, I don’t think I can do this because I don’t have the creativity it takes, but you lead me and guide me. Show me the way!” I walked into my dining room, made a cup of hot Russian tea with honey and ginger, opened my laptop, and was ready to create those Biblical canvases.
The rivers of living water started flowing!

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

John 7:38

I believed in Jesus, and He gave me the rivers of living water. They started flowing from deep within me. It refers to the Holy Spirit in me. The Holy Spirit gave me all the creative ability I needed in order to design Biblical canvases as God asked me to. From the design software and design colors to the production logistics and a good vendor – God did it all through me. That night, the Biblical canvases were created and sent to production. A few days later, I received the first order. As I held it in my hands, I cried. And I had my first customer already. That night when God pulled me out of bed to create for Him, I didn’t sleep but I did feel rested and peaceful after the canvases were sent to production. I knew that I was in the will of God. God’s plan prevails. I am creative!

Creator

God created us from nothingness. He made us out of the dust. We call God “creator” because He created everything everywhere. To create the earth and the heavens took a lot of creativity. And as God’s heirs, we have His creativity as an inheritance. It’s in our spiritual DNA. But just like all aspects of the DNA, they can be switched on and off. That’s why it’s up to us to use our creativity diligently for God if we want this aspect of our DNA to be switched on and bear fruit.

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Genesis 2:7

God created us in His image. We are like God.

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

Our creator created us in His image and blessed us with creativity so that we can also create. We inherited our creator’s creativity. If we don’t know it, it doesn’t make us less creative. Not knowing about our creativity doesn’t make our creativity less. I didn’t know or understand this. I didn’t know only because I never gave it any thought. I didn’t understand because I wanted there to be a logical explanation for my sudden creativity. I thought I knew my abilities. I thought I only had the abilities I knew about. But God is bigger than what we know or understand! He is the creative creator who created us with so much creativity, it blows my mind to literally write this blog post and share with you what I was able to create for God, thanks to the gift of His divine creativity in me. There’s a whole lifetime to discover all aspects of my creativity.

Creative

I’ve learned that I am creative. Creativity is like a gift. Have you ever walked into a room with a beautiful Christmas tree there, seeing clearly the gift wrapped beautifully and marked with your name? And then you got distracted and left, forgetting your gift… The gift was already yours. It had your name on it. It belonged to you. It was assigned to you so you can have it. Its purpose was for you to enjoy it. The only reason why you still didn’t have the gift was that you didn’t accept it. You didn’t take the gift that was already yours, so you couldn’t enjoy having your gift. Not having the gift meant you didn’t use it but it was still yours, waiting for you to accept it, take it, and use it.

I found out from studying the Bible that I inherited from God His divine creativity, so it was already mine. I was given the gift of God’s creativity. The only reason why I did not have that gift before was that I never reached out for the gift to take it and use the gift diligently. Once I understood where my creativity came from, I reached out for God’s gift, which was already mine, and I began to use my newly-discovered creativity diligently to glorify God.

For nothing will be impossible with God.

Luke 1:37

Creation

You are creative. What is it that God has called you to create for His kingdom? You can do it if you just accept the gift of creativity from your creator. It’s already yours. Your creation process should flow. The flowing of the rivers of living water happens from the place where God’s spirit dwells in you: your deepest being. You may not have the skills or prior experience but through the Holy Spirit in you, you can tap into God’s infinite intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, and creativity. That is where you should focus your attention. Don’t worry about the logic or the bottom line or the logistics. Simply do what GGod called you to do. Create for God, and you will see how His good plan unfolds right before your eyes, blessing you for your faithfulness and diligence.

and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills – to make artistic designs for work

Exodus 35:31-32

That’s how God created you! He gave you “all kinds of skills to make artistic designs.” Your creation process already has a solid foundation. All you need to do is to follow God’s calling with faithful and diligent action. You need to create whatever it is that God put on your heart. Don’t fight God. Follow His lead and He will make your path straight. At first, I felt insecure about creating for God. Then, I decided to stop judging my creativity by my worldly standards and just do the divine work God anointed me to do. I had to let go and let God.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.

Colossians 3:23

I became very diligent in my pursuits of God’s creativity. I know it’s a gift from heaven. It was given to me so that I could glorify God. I know I’m anointed with this creativity to help God’s kingdom. I have confidence that my creativity was given to me to help women create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. In moments of doubt and overwhelm, I stay rooted in my identity in Christ.

Who God says I am kept me going through the valley of the shadow of death, which was my suicidal depression while I was married to Satan himself. The experience is described in my essay called “How Satan Came at Me Looking Saint.”

I got out of it healthy and whole, and God used that season to promote my creativity and turn this into a story of His amazing glory. Today I’m committed to helping women discover and embrace identity in Christ, including scared creativity. Who God says you are is so much more important than what you think about yourself. God says you are creative! His divine creativity is in your spiritual DNA. I know I’m creative only because I can do anything through Christ. I am able to create beautiful things in God’s kingdom for His purpose because God says so. And you can, too! Do you believe that your creator created you in His image with His creativity as a part of your DNA so that you can create great things for His purpose? If you believe this truth, memorize the Biblical affirmation I created for you below and practice it often to diligently pursue God’s gift of divine creativity in you.

I Am Creative

I am Creative #52Devotionals

I'm creative, knowledgeable, and intelligent. 
Skillful, I have been blessed by God.
In my creative pursuits, I am diligent,
Using the special gifts I from Heaven got.