King of Glory

KING OF GLORY!

King of Glory - Christine Nichols, 2009

Psalm 24 is one of my favorites Scriptures. God knew my heart and graciously, most generously, gave me a painting entitled, "King of Glory." The Holy Spirit guided my mind and my hands to create this acrylic painting in 2009. It was the first time that I used a palette knife for an entire piece of art.

When I finished the painting and stepped back, I saw Christ's face. Tears ran my face as I gazed at His. A Picasso-like abstract perhaps, but the face of my Savior and Lord, nonetheless. This was accomplished by following the Holy Spirit's lead. I did not intentionally paint the form of any image. I'm a novice painter - no lofty art school for this Minnesota Mom, but I was called by the Lord to paint for Him and it is He that I seek during the creative process for I know that without Him, I can do nothing! John 5:15

Studying the painting further, I saw a lamb and lion combined in one - depending on the angle of your view. Jesus is the Lamb of God and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. He is the Savior of the world for all who believe that He died for their sins and God raised Him from the dead. He is the triumphant King of Glory who is coming soon!

In Psalm 24, David asks a good question, "Who is this King of Glory?" and answers it at the end of the psalm.

 

Psalm 24 NIV

Of David. A psalm.

¹ The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it;
² for He founded it on the seas
    and established it on the waters.

³ Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
    Who may stand in His holy place?
⁴ The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not trust in an idol
    or swear by a false god.

⁵ They will receive blessing from the Lord
    and vindication from God their Savior.
⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek Him,
    who seek Your face, God of Jacob.

King of Glory close-up

⁷ Lift up your heads, you gates;
    be lifted up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.

⁸ Who is this King of glory?
    The Lord strong and mighty,
    the Lord mighty in battle.
⁹ Lift up your heads, you gates;
    lift them up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
¹⁰ Who is He, this King of glory?
    The Lord Almighty—
    He is the King of glory.

The answer to David's question: "The Lord Almighty—He is the King of glory." In Revelation 1:8 Jesus declared that He is the King of Glory when He said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."  

The King of Glory is the Almighty, 

and Jesus is the Almighty, 

so then you can easily deduct that 

Jesus is the King of Glory!

 In the videos below you will view the creative stages of the painting,

King of Glory, and the song by Third Day with the same name.

King of Glory - Christine Nichols, 2009

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, I invite you to LIKE and SHARE my art Facebook page: STEEN ART. Thanks!

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.

Refiner's Fire

Refiner's Fire

Refiner's Fire

When a goldsmith purifies metals, the process includes fire to heat the metal to a liquid state and then remove dross which is solid impurities floating on a molten metal. Scripture speaks of the same type of process God uses to purify His people through trials and hardships. Peter, the disciple and apostle of Jesus puts it this way: "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." 1 Peter 1:6-7

But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a REFINER'S FIRE or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a REFINER and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and REFINE them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.

Malachi 3:2-4

"This third I will put into the FIRE;

I will REFINE them like silver

and test them like gold.

They will call on My Name

and I will answer them;

I will say, ‘They are My people,’

and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.” Zechariah 13:9

This painting went through a process of refinement as well including multiple paint layers, a covering, a dousing, and the final top layer of paint which is how the tie-dye effect was achieved on a 2'x4' canvas. Here's photographs of the creative process...

Refiner's Fire - Christine Nichols, 2009

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:3-9

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.

 

Rise First - The Rapture

Rise First - The Rapture!

"Rise First"

Scripture tells us that when the disciples witnessed Christ ascend into heaven forty days after His resurrection, they stood staring at the sky even after clouds hid Christ from their view. Then two men in white robes appeared and told the disciples that Jesus would return in the same manner. (Read Luke 24-Acts 1:11)

This painting depicts that glorious event, commonly known as the Rapture, when Christ returns to gather His Bride, the Church, unto Himself. Here's how I see the painting:

• The violet purple is the earth. 
• The two golden strips in the lower half of the painting represents the graves of people who have died believing in Christ to save them and are being raise to life in the Rapture. The title for the painting comes from 1 Thessalonians 4:16. "The dead in Christ will rise first."
• The risen dead together with those alive at Christ's return will be changed in an instant with a new glorious body like Christ's - transformed from corruptible to incorruptible. 
• The upper center gold, which looks like a golden bowl with steam rising from it, represents all believers with their new bodies being "caught up" and rising from the purple earth to the blue sky to meet Christ in the air!    

SCRIPTURE TEXT FOR PAINTING

The Comfort of Christ’s Return

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. ¹⁵ For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18

The Resurrection of the Dead

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— ⁵² in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (transformed) ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”^{[Isaiah 25:8]}

⁵⁵ “O Death, where is your sting?^{[Hosea 13:14]}
O Death, where is your victory?”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:51-58

"Rise First" - Christine Nichols, 2010

As I photographed the painting, "Rise First,"
I changed the light setting and this was the result.
Ooo those luscious blues!

The Rapture! by Christine Nichols, 2010


He who testifies to these things says,
“Yes, I am coming soon!”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
Revelation 22:20-21

Many people have questions about Christ's Return - the Rapture, the Second Coming of Christ, and the End Times Tribulation. I have found that gotquestions.org is a reliable source of Biblical truth. 

Questions: 

"What is the Rapture of the church?"

"What is the difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming?"

"When is the Rapture going to occur in relation to the Tribulation?"

How does the Bible describe the glorified bodies we will possess in Heaven?

More questions about End Times 

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.

 

Temple Curtain

As I was painting this large 2'x4' canvas in 2009, the Holy Spirit told me to pause and take a photograph. The result is an artwork entitled, "Temple Curtain" taken from Exodus 26:1 where God is giving instructions for the Tabernacle.

“Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker." 
  

Biblical color meanings:

Linen (white): Holy, pure, God

Blue: Holy Spirit, Heaven

Purple: Royalty, majesty, kingship

Scarlet (red): blood, sacrifice, sin, redemption

Gold: God's glory, His presence

Temple Curtain - Christine Nichols, 2009

 

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"