About Stan Smith

I’ve been writing about prophetic inspiration in the arts for more than a year — the articles in the archives are proof of it — but someone’s bound to wonder, “Who does this guy think he is, writing so much to artists?”

I’ll be honest about it:  I’m not much of an artist. I wanted to be an artist of one kind or another, but God called me into ministry instead.  So I gave up my music, gave up my writing, gave up all thoughts of puttering around with the visual arts.  It seemed to be the thing to do thirty to forty years ago when I became a Christian and got into the ministry.  It fit the vision of the church in those days.

But I often had to pick up my guitar and lead worship; later, after breaking countless guitar strings I moved to piano and later to keyboard. And when the church I pastored started having small groups, I wrote weekly study notes.  Before long I needed to use my layout skills to make the study notes attractive; later it would be a webpage.  So even though I had given up the arts, I found the call of God forced me to use them at least a little.  And it was a relief to get to do so.

Meanwhile, my ministry was increasingly prophetic.  I live for the lifestyle of getting still in God’s presence and listening for His voice, and then following through with action.  I found this lifestyle overflowed from my preaching to the ministry that happens between meetings, and soon it spilled over into music and writing and graphics.

Then in the last ten years, I’ve been hearing more and more about prophetic arts.  I’ve been in meetings with spontaneous prophetic worship, and artists would bring their paints and paper or canvas and create then and there.  I’ve met professional graphic artists who get their main concepts for a project while worshiping, then go to the computer to flesh it out.  I’ve heard musicians play to an international audience and unwittingly use a scale that was random to the guitarist and classical to the audience.  As Daniel said, “There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets,” and He I have learned that He can and will reveal them to artists.

I first thought of writing about prophetic arts when I made a CD of prophetic song.  I couldn’t aford to hire someone to make a cover for me, so I created my own.  I’ve written about the process elsewhere, but for now it’s enough to say God surprised my with two surrealistic images of Jesus in what I thought was merely a landscape.  On my end it was an accident; on His end, it was as though He left his fingerprint in my design.

As I have talked to prophetic artists, I find that most of us are still producing for a Christian audience.  This is good; it is a ministry.  Many Christians hunger for art that reflects their values and that will breathe inspiration into their daily lives.

As I have tried to listen to God, I have become gripped with the idea that God wants to drop culture-shaping ideas into the minds of artists.  It may be something as simple as a one-liner printed on a t-shirt, but surely God will interject words and images of light into a world darkened by sin.  It can be a poem or a song or a dance or a painting or a movie — the medium doesn’t matter.

So I can’t claim to know all there is to know about the arts.  I know almost nothing about many media and techniques; I won’t even try to write about them.  But I know more than my share about prophetic inspiration from scripture, from personal experience, and from the testimonies of others.  From time to time I’ll include my own testimonies of how prophetic inspiration has fired my own work; though I can’t claim extraordinary talent or giftedness in the arts, I can claim that God has helped me rise to a higher level than I could have by talent alone.

This spark of inspiration is available to every child of God who will take time to listen.  So I’m writing about the prophetic spark, and with childlike faith trust that your accomplishments will far outshine my own as God works through you.