I once saw a sparrow eating a chip on the ground, and I think that it is true the Father leads the bird to find food. Speaking from my own experience, the Father does provide for His children. So don’t worry and give your life to the Lord and trust Him to guide you and provide for you. He does not just help us to make a living, He also has good plans for us, so we can serve Him with the shape that He has given us. If He has created you to be a bird, then serve Him like a bird. If He has created you to be a bird, then serve Him like a rabbit.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The Lord inspired me to do a prophetic painting for Japan, and He asked me what came to my mind when I thought of Japan? I immediately thought of sashimi, meaning raw fish.. The Lord inspired me to paint some fish swimming towards the sun in a sea with roaring waves. In the article about China, we learned that the Lord is the sun and the shield. In the gospel, Jesus said to his disciples that He would make them fisherman of men. This means his disciples will draw lost people (fish) to the Lord. Tamilla says that the 311 tsunami in Fukushima and the 2008 financial tsunami can actually cause the fish to turn to God. So they are no longer tossed back and forth by the waves. People do not usually turn to the Lord when the sun is shining in a blue sky. They only turn to the Lord in a crisis. May more fish turn to God and cry out to Him during our current economic crisis.
Ephesians 4:14-16
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
‘China takes off towards the sun’ is a prophetic painting. God often asks his people to make a painting or act out a drama to foretell what will happen in the future. In Ezekiel 4,, God told the prophet Ezekiel to act out a drama to foretell His judgement against the Israelites who will be attacked by their enemies. Why? The Israelites forsook God and worshiped other Gods and acted wickedly. In the other two paintings ‘Tamilla, la vie en rose’ and ‘Japan, Sunrise, SonRise’, I mentioned that God is the Sun and the shield. The map of China is like an eagle. In the painting, China was soaring towards the sun, that is God. In the bible, God is also an eagle. His people, the Israelites and Christians also eagles that soar with Him.
Deuteronomy 32:10-12
10 In a desert land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye, 11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them aloft. 12 The LORD alone led him;
no foreign god was with him.
Isaiah 40:30-31
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
The Lord reminded me that Chaoyang district in Beijing actually means towards the sun. Also, there is a bird’s nest , the stadium for Olympics 2008. I thought wow, this is realyl prophetic. China is taking off towards the sun from the bird’s nest. China actually means the kingdom in the middle. I think China’s destiny is to soar towards the sun, that is fixing her eyes on Jesus and have a place in Jerusalem, the center of the earth.
China means refined clay in English. China is the clay and God is the potter, molding the Chinese into His image, and China will be ready to do good works which God has prepared in advance for her to do.
Isaiah 64:8
8 Yet you, LORD, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Tamilla Palmer Perera, my dear friend from the US started an art workshop in Noah’s Ark, Hong Kong. Like-minded Christian artists soaked in God’ presence during worship time, spent an hour painting, and interpreted each others’ paintings. We often created prophetic art paintings. The prophetic gift is used to encourage and edify the body of Christ(1 Corinthians 4:4). In other cases, it is used to foretell what God will do in the future.
I just want to say a big thank you to Tamilla who helped ignite my artistic gift to worship God, to express His love for us, to evangelize and to speak prophetically in a situation. And of course, I thank the Lord for giving inspiration and interpretation for all my art work, and even the title of this blog, L’ Atelier’. Atelier is a French word for studio. I hope that the artwork from my atelier will light up your world and open up your eyes to see God’s love and His longing to draw you back to a personal relationship with Him. He longs to give you an abundant life
Interpretation of the painting – La Vie en Rose
In a previous session, Tamilla painted a huge golden butterfly. I saw that the butterfly was Tamilla. We are often full of ourselves in our own cocoon, and it often takes hardship to refine us. All the dross like selfish ambition falls off and our faith comes forth as gold.
Job 10 But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold
The gold and precious stones on the butterfly describe Tamilla’s destiny. She will have a place in the New Jerusalem that is covered with pure gold when Jesus dwells with the church, His bride, forever. The gems are the precious stones on the walls of the New Jerusalem. (Revelation 21)
In Psalm 84:11, God is described as the sun bestowing favor on His children. In Psalm 19:4-5, the sun is like a bridegroom (Jesus) coming out of his chamber to run it course. Jesus has no favorite people to love, just like the sun brings light and warmth to the whole world
Psalm 84:11 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
from those whose walk is blameless.
Psalm 19:4-5
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
In the New Testament, Jesus is the bridegroom and the church is the bride. The Song of Solomon is a book about the intimate relationship between a bridegroom and his bride. This book also describes the love relationship between Jesus, the bridegroom, and the church, the bride. The bridegroom sees his bride as the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys (a symbol of resurrection). The rose and lily (Christians) are blossoming under the sun.
1 I am a rose[b] of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.
The colors purple, orange, pink and gold, red are warm colors. I used these colors to express the immense love that Jesus has for His church. Jesus is passionately in love with the church that has an abundant life. Tamilla, my dear golden butterfly has been released to spread the pollens from one flower to another. She is really a butterfly that goes here and there to do her ministry. This symbolizes Tamilla spreading the gospel in many countries. Many more roses and lilies will blossom because she carries the pollens to here and there This is the destiny of Tamilla, the butterfly soaring towards the sun (Jesus)
You may say, hey Cindy, what has this painting got to do with me ? It is all about Jesus and Tamilla. Today you may feel unloved and desperately looking for love. Or you may feel that you are living a meaningless and empty life. Open up like the roses and lilies and receive the love of Jesus (the Sun and the bridegroom and the abundant life that is in store for you. Just say a short prayer, ‘Lord Jesus, I’d like to receive your love and your good plans for me. Let me receive your Holy Spirit. May you help me focus on You and my eternal destiny in the New Jerusalem.’ May the song ‘The Heart of Worship by Matt Redman, an English Christian worship leader help me to know and to love Jesus more day by day. They lyric goes like this: ‘I am coming back to the Heart of Worship, it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.’
