Reconciled Love

The Ministry of Reconciliation 

Christine Nichols

Reconciled Love has the longest working history to date of more than one hundred paintings the Lord has given me. It was created in stages over a span of three years. The first stage was completed by prepping a 2 x 3' piece of plywood and painting layers of mint green, soft lavender, and iridescent gold then moving my hand with a large putty knife diagonally across the board like gentle waves rippling on the sea. I waited for more instructions, none came, but the Lord spoke the words, "Sea of Glass" over the painting. I was surprised by His words as I've always found that name in the Book of Revelation intriguing, but I never envisioned it like the abstract I had just done.

The second stage of the painting happened two years later, at an art workshop hosted by First Love in Le Sueur, Minnesota. The Holy Spirit had prompted me to take the "Sea of Glass" painting to the workshop. Before beginning to paint again, I prayed over the painting and sought the Lord's guidance on how to proceed. The Holy Spirit lead me to draw a heart and then added the swirly lines in hues of dark crimson, gold, purple and white directly from small paint bottles. Applying paint to piece in this manner was a first for me. It sort of had a Jackson Pollock look to it, but more refined than his famous abstract style.

Sea-of-glass-heart-swirly painting

Although the painting had multiple layers, a background, foreground and showed motion, it still didn't seem done to me and so I waited upon the Lord again. In the interim, God lead me to Digital Art as a new medium for the prophetic art. Just as in acrylic painting with a canvas and a brush, the Holy Spirit guides me through creative steps on the computer to achieve artwork that glorifies God and sends forth a message of His love. In fact, the Lord has been combining the acrylic art with digital to create new or finished pieces of art. Reconciled Love is a classic example of this collaborative media.

The last step began shortly after the art workshop with a supernatural yearning for the colors of rose magenta, crimson and vermilion. The color combination touched something deep within me and would not let me go! The color obsession mystery was solved several months later when the Holy Spirit lead me to digitally enhance a photograph of the sea-of-glass-heart-swirly painting. (That's a mouthful!) I could hardly believe my eyes when the green, purple and gold hues changed to the very colors I craved for months! The Lord showed me the name for the painting by leading me to Romans 5:1-11 and 2 Corinthians 5:11-21, both of which deals with God's love through reconciliation in Christ Jesus. Reconciled Love.

Reconciled Love - Christine Nichols, 2013

Scriptures for Reconciled Love

The Ministry of Reconciliation: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God! 21 God made Him who had no sin to be sin[or be a sin offering] for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 

Romans 5:5-11

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 

All my paintings begin with prayer. I ask for the Holy Spirit's guidance from beginning to end - from choosing the canvas and paint colors to the last brush stroke. I pray that the Lord's message would go forth through the art and that Father God would be glorified. 

I believe all prophetic art has a message, but what the Holy Spirit speaks to me about a specific piece of art, may be different than what the Spirit says to you. Seek Him for a personal interpretation.

You can find more Christian Abstract paintings that the Lord has given me on my Facebook page, Christine Nichols-Art, in a Photo Album called FOR HIS GLORY. If you've enjoyed the art, you're invited to LIKE and SHARE my art Facebook page: STEEN ART.

ART: Simply Love

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Jesus said, “A new command I give you: 

Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” 

John 13:34-35

Video of painting stages and Scripture for prophetic art, 

"Simply Love."

Painting Stages:

The painting began with splotches of purple and blue on the canvas followed by vertical and horizontal brush strokes. Then symbols of a bird, heart, circle, an "X" or a cross on it's side with a squiggle showing the horizon, and Hebrew letters: Alef, Dalet (backwards) and Yod were added in gold.

Hebrew Letters
Since Hey is formed from Dalet and Yod, it can also be a picture of returning to God by means of the transforming power of the Spirit. Dalet stands for brokenness, and Yod stands for a hand. Opening the door of the heart then is a picture of the Spirit of God indwelling the believer, and this image also coheres with the idea that part of Aleph (God) is joined with Dalet to form the Hey. The number 11 could be written as Yod-Alef, Alef-Yod, Heh-Vav, Dalet-Dalet-Gimmel or many other combinations of letters. 

We love each other because He loved us first. 

1 John 4:19

The gold was spread across the canvas with horizontal brush strokes. Gold represents the divine nature of God., His GLORY! The Bible also takes about being "refined as gold." Blue means faithfulness, Heaven and the Holy Spirit. Purple represents royalty. Jesus is the King of Glory and King of Kings!

Red painted was sprayed over the canvas. Red represents the precious and powerful blood of Jesus, It is His ransom for our sins. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow."   Isaiah 1:18

We all know that hearts mean love. Believers of Christ Jesus are to love one another as He loves us to show the world that we are His followers. This is NOT a suggestion or request. It is a NEW COMMAND FROM JESUS!

Horizontal brush strokes blur the lines of individual hearts. Where does one begin and another end? "Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other." Romans 12:4-5

The Holy Spirit lead me to place plastic wrap over the painting and then lift it off. This technique of lifting off wet paint created the effect you see below.

The finished painting is an abstract with compelling eyes (do you see them?) reminding us to SIMPLY LOVE as the Lord loves us. This prophetic art was inspired and lead by the Holy Spirit. I believe there is a specific message that He wants me to tell. There is also an individual message from God to you. Pause and ask Him for your personal interpretation and insight.

WHAT IS LOVE?

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7,13

Love means doing what God has commanded us, and He has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.  

2 John 1:6

How is Prophetic Art Created?

I believe Prophetic Art is created by the Holy Spirit as a believer of Jesus Christ submits to His lordship in their lives and in the arts. The Christian artist seeks not their own will in creating art but the will of Father God. The Holy Spirit, who knows the heart of God and man, may then give a vision or dream according to the Father's Will, or may alert the artist that's time to paint and lead them through the creative process. Music can also be used for God's glory in prophetic painting. More and more churches are now including Worship Art as part of the praise service. Whichever supernatural way God chooses, the Holy Spirit is ever present as He inspires and creates the prophetic art. The process is essentially a partnership with the Holy Spirit and believers to create works of art that will glory God and send forth His message. 

What's Your Story, Christine?

I've been doing prophetic art since the Lord called me to paint for Him in 2009. When called, I understood that God wanted me to paint but the "prophetic" part was new to me, and if truth be told, kinda scared me. I thought, "who am I to speak for God?!" Then He began giving me visions of paintings. I dragged my feet for about a month because I didn't really know how to begin. Then on one sunny, but crisp Autumn day, Jesus told me, "If you don't paint now, I'll give the paintings to someone else!" That really motivated me to step out in faith. 

I have been creative for as long as I can remember but the only formal art education I've received is two Community Education classes on watercolors. Since 1995, I've dabbled in watercolors doing mostly landscapes and contemporary art cut-outs with a watercolor insert or backing. One genre that I've always been drawn to is abstract art but I never tried it on my own, other than mimicking other abstract artists' works.

Where To Begin?

The first time I went shopping for art supplies, I asked God to guide my purchases. To my surprise, instead of watercolor paints and paper, He directed me to acrylics, canvases, larger brushes and palette knives, and a sturdy art easel. Again, I've always dreamed of painting on canvas with an easel like a real artist, but never had the courage to try given the expense involved.

"My love for You." ©Christine Nichols, 2009

The first prophetic painting started with an intense leading of the Holy Spirit that it was time to paint. Obeying, I assembled the supplies on the dining room table and asked in prayer that God would guide my mind and move my hand. I prayed that His message would go forth and that He would be glorified. Then I simply took a leap of faith and submitted to Him. The Holy Spirit lead me to the table and directed my eyes to the supplies He wanted me to use for the painting. He gave knowledge of brush strokes and art techniques I had never known. There have been times when I actually felt Christ's hand on mine moving the brush or splattering paint on the canvas with more force than I could muster on my own. 

More than seventy paintings later, each new piece of art begins with the same leading from the Holy Spirit and a similar prayer asking for guidance and glorifying God. Most of the time, I don't know what I'll paint but the Lord has never failed to lead the creative process from choosing the colors to the last brush stroke. Early on in starting the Prophetic Art ministry, Jesus gave a Scripture verse for the collection of art that would follow: 
Because Your love is better than life itself, my lips will glorify You! Psalm 63:3 Along with a simple but powerful mission statement: "It's all about My love."