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If you're just waiting for everything to line up perfectly in your life, you could spend years missing the creative life that God's inviting you into right now.
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And so today I want to show you how to recognize when waiting has accidentally become passivity and also how to start moving forward with God using what He's already put in your hands.
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So let's get started.
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Now, as we get going today, I want you to know waiting on God is absolutely biblical.
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And there's seasons, right, when God wants us to wait.
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He says wait.
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So I'm not talking about running ahead of God or forcing doors open or trying to manufacture something in your own strength.
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I'm talking about the difference between waiting with God and simply doing nothing while you're hoping your circumstances are eventually going to change.
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You know, after more than 30 years as a working artist, I can tell you this 100%.
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I've never had a season where everything lined up perfectly.
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I mean, there was always something.
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You probably say the same thing, right?
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Times you feel like you didn't have enough money or didn't have enough time.
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And listen, if I waited until all of that uncertainty disappeared, I probably would have never built much or created much of anything.
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And listen, that's why I love the story of Noah so much, because in Hebrews 11:7, it says that Noah was warned by God about things that he couldn't yet see.
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And by faith, he built the ark.
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See, I love that because even though the rain hadn't come in Noah's story, he started building.
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And that's really the first principle I want you to get in your heart today.
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Faith prepares for what it sees in its heart, right?
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What it sees and believes.
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You know, for years I've taught that kingdom living often looks like this see and agree, decree and proceed.
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That is, you you see what God's doing, you you agree with it in your heart and mind, you you speak in alignment with it, and then you just start walking toward it by faith, especially when you can't see.
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Not because you you see the whole outcome, but but because you trust the one who spoke, who showed it to you, right?
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And as you move, you you watch for things like confirmation of provision and opportunities, you know, divine appointments, ideas that God gives you.
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Listen, that's not striving on your own.
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That's not running ahead of God.
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That's what cooperation looks like.
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See, see, Noah couldn't make the rain come, right?
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That was God's part, but he could build the boat.
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He could get his tools together, he could get his sons and daughters to help, right?
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That was his part.
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And honestly, I've seen the same principle play out over and over and over again in my own creative life.
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I mean, God has rarely ever handed me the entire plan, right?
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Usually it's it's been more like, okay, Matt, here's the next step.
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Now, walk with me a little bit, right?
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And as I moved, things begin showing up along the way.
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Which really leads me to the second thing I want you to see today, and that's this faith stewards what's already in your hand.
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You know, sometimes we're so focused on what we don't have, what we think we need, right, that we completely miss what God has already given us.
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You know, Jesus talks about this really clearly in the parable of the talents in in Matthew 25, one of my favorite verses.
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You know, you know, in that story, everybody didn't get the same thing, right?
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But everybody was responsible for what they have been given by the master.
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See, see, that's stewardship.
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And if you're praying something like, God, I want you to open doors for my heart and you give me this dream that's on my heart, listen, that's awesome.
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But but what's your part, right?
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Are you making the work?
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Are you showing up in your creative space or are you putting your work out there where people can actually see it?
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Are you are you learning how to connect with people that want to buy your work and learning how to sell your work?
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See, all of that is one of the big, big differences I see between the artists who keep trying to piece this whole thing together through random YouTube videos and my students inside the Thriving Christian Artist Pathway course and community.
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One group keeps just collecting information and kind of making it up as they go, thinking that that's the best way for them, thinking, you know, I'm saving money, I'm saving time.
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And the other, though, is actually implementing a proven system day by day with support and accountability and community around them.
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Load full transcript
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And you know what?
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That's where momentum starts to happen in the lives of artists.
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Listen, if you're tired of trying to figure this whole thing out by yourself and would like to implement a proven system that works regardless of your age, experience, or creative medium, I want you to know that's exactly why the Thriving Christian Artist Pathway course uh exists and what it's designed to do.
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You can check out the you know, all the information about there, the link below this video in the description.
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But here's the bigger point all of those practical things, right?
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The learning, the building, the connecting, the selling, the making the work, all the stuff, they're not less spiritual than praying.
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They're part of stewardship.
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See, God gave you creativity, he gave you relationships, he gave you the ability to learn and grow.
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So using those things is not a lack of faith.
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It's actually faithfulness.
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And after mentoring artists for a lot of years, I can tell you again, 100%, one of the biggest shifts that happens is when people stop asking, when is God gonna make all this happen?
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I need a breakthrough, all that.
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When they stop all that and just start asking, Lord, what can I faithfully do right now with what you've placed in my hands?
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And trust me, that is a completely different question.
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Because one keeps waiting on the circumstances to change, and the other one gets to cooperating with God and starts walking on the path that He's got for you.
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And that kind of leads me to the third thing that I want you to see today.
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Faith moves without demanding certainty.
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See, a lot of times what we call waiting on the Lord really means, well, I don't want to move or step out until I know it's gonna work, right?
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Well, listen, welcome to faith, right?
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That that's the point.
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You're probably not gonna know how it's gonna work out or how it's all gonna go perfectly.
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And I think sometimes we're asking God for certainty when he's actually inviting us to trust him as we walk along the journey with him.
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We say things, well, you know, God, if you'll just show me exactly what to do, how this will all turn out, I'll step out on faith, I'll do it.
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Listen, that ain't faith.
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When we say those kind of things, I think God just kind of chuckles a little bit and says, Oh, okay, man, I love you.
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Can you just walk with me a little bit?
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See, that's that's a different way of living.
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And that's where fear and and uncertainty can really start to sound spiritual, right?
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And we say things like, Well, I'm just waiting on the peace of the Lord, I'm just waiting on confirmation.
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Matt, the timing's not right, the season's not right.
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Listen, discernment matters and confirmation matters, right?
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I look for those things, but fear and discernment are not the same thing.
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There's a difference between the Holy Spirit saying clearly, Matt, wait, and fear saying, don't move until you can guarantee every outcome.
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See, the truth is you may not know who's gonna buy your work.
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You may not know which opportunity is gonna open up.
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You may, you may not know exactly how God's gonna provide for this opportunity that he's opened up for you.
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But here's the thing I do know you don't have to be perfectly certain about every direction and every decision if you trust the one who's walking with you.
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And for most people, especially for us as artists, that's a huge shift.
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Because faith isn't ultimately confidence in your ability to hear God perfectly, it's the confidence in the Father who loves you and knows how to lead you well, especially when he can't see.
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Again, your job isn't to somehow become incapable of making a mistake.
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Don't put their that on you.
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Your job is to walk with him.
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And honestly, that's been the story of my whole creative life.
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I've rarely known how everything is going to work out.
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I've just learned to see what God is doing and agree with him and start speaking it out of my mouth by faith and start walking toward it.
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And then I watch, right?
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I keep my eyes open, my spiritual ears open.
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I'm I'm watching for relationships or ideas or for the provision that comes out of nowhere or for the next door to open.
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Listen, that's how you learn to live and to walk with God, not by controlling every outcome and not by endlessly second guessing yourself either.
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That's just torture, but by trusting the one who's walking with you.
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And friend, I really want to speak to those of you that that feel like, well, Matt, I'm way too far down the journey.
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I've lost a lot of time.
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I feel like I've spent all these years raising my family, building a career, taking care of everybody else.
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And somewhere along the way, my art just got lost, right?
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Maybe your art's been always been the thing that just kind of gets pushed to the side, but now you're realizing in this season of your life, hey, that thing's still there.
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Maybe your creative desire is even louder than ever.
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Well, listen, here's what I don't want you to do.
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I don't want you to take this message and turn it into a bunch of shame, saying, look at all the time I wasted and I messed it up and all that.
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Listen, that's not my heart and that's not the father's heart.
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What I'm saying is look at what's possible from here.
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You can't change when you started, you can't change those decisions along the way, but you can decide what faithfulness looks like today.
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And that's why I don't want you spending another year waiting on some imaginary season when everything finally gets easy, everything finally lines up because listen, chances are it's not gonna happen like that.
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There's always gonna be something.
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But you know what?
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God's always gonna be there too.
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And so will your get your gift, your creative gift.
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And that's enough.
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So listen, I want I want to give you three really simple questions as as we wrap this up today.
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The first one I want you to ask is listen, what am I actually waiting on?
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Just name it.
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Like, what's the thing that you've decided has to happen before you can really move forward with pursuing your art?
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And then secondly, ask, hey, did God actually ask me to wait for that?
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Or did I just decide somewhere along the way that I needed that first?
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And then third, what's the one faithful step that I can take right now with what God has already put in my hands?
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Not 10 steps, not all the prerequisite, just one step, right?
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Maybe it, maybe it's actually making your artwork consistently, showing up in your creative space.
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Maybe it's doing something you've been avoiding.
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Maybe it's finally putting your work in in front of people, maybe it's joining us inside the pathway course and and community.
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Listen, whatever it is, I just want to encourage you, take the step and then look and listen and take another step.
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Remember, you're not trying to manufacture your future on your own.
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You're learning to cooperate with God in the present.
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And listen, that's really what I want you to walk away with today.
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Don't spend another year waiting for some perfect season to become the artist that God's created you to be, called you to be.
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Trust the Father who's walking with you right now, who's in you right now, and take the next faithful step.
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And also, of course, let me know in the comments what that is and if you're doing it.
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And listen, if you're sitting there thinking, well, Matt, that's exactly where I get stuck, right?
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I keep second guessing where whether or not I'm hearing God or if this is just me, my desires, or his desires.
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Listen, I got another video I want you to watch right now called Stop Second Guessing What You're Hearing from God and actually move forward with your art.
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Because listen, once you stop demanding perfect certainty from yourself and start actually trusting God's ability to lead you on the journey, everything we've talked about today gets a whole lot easier to live out.
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All right.
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So hey, click that video right here and watch it next.
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All right.
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I'll see you over there.
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I love you, friend.
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And remember, till next time, you were created to thrive.
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Bye.