THE BLANK CANVAS Paul Taylor

THE BLANK CANVAS

Paul Taylor 

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation : old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” II Corinthians 5:17

I was in prayer the other day and I heard the Lord say, “Just bring me a blank canvas!”  I questioned Him as to what He meant?  The Lord began to explain His desire for each of us is to come to Him with a blank canvas.  No previous design, color, or agenda, just a clean blank canvas.

“Paul,” He said, “You always have a preconceived design of how I am going to work.  You have already decided what My picture is going to look like.  You have chosen the colors, characters and criterion for the painting that I am about to paint.  It is time for that to stop!”  “When you do that you greatly reduce my ability to create what is in My Father’s heart for you.  You cause Me to conform to your desires, not because I have too, but because you create it through the power of your thoughts.  In reality you are painting the picture the way you see it in your mind, but it is not at all what I have desired.”

I have done this all my life.  I would often lie in bed and envision running a winning touchdown or pitching a shutout baseball game and then go out and do it.  I envisioned many of the things that have happened in my life from who I would marry, to how many children we would have.  

There is amazing power in our preconceived thoughts and ideas.  Your picture holds you captive to what you think to be true, even when it is not the truth at all.  I even heard the Lord say, “I don’t paint by numbers either!”  I often have reduced my future in God to a painting that I have already painted, or at least I have picked out the colors and know the number system.  How pathetic!  Then I tell God how much I love and trust Him!  When my life starts to stray from what I have already painted in my mind, I get pretty angry with God!  This is called American Christianity.  It is nothing more than being held captive in your own prison of fantasy.  

Not only do we do this as individuals, but the church is trying to dictate to God how He will fulfill His promises to us.  We have already painted a picture of revival.  We are convinced that it has to look like the past.  So we study past revivals and what previous generations did to get God to move.  We are convinced that it must look a certain way, so we paint our picture and people come running believing surely this is going to be the way!  This only causes more confusion as we slowly realize that God seems to have another way, though we continue to be prisoners to our own imagination.

There is no way to break free from that prison in your mind unless you trust God enough to bring Him a blank canvas so that He can start to paint you out of your corner.  We all know what it means to be painted into a corner.  Well, God wants to paint us out of one.  That can only happen as you turn your brush, paint, and canvas over to Him.  

I hear the Master calling, “Return to your first love!  I have seen all your works, but all I want is you!  The question is do you want ME?  Am I all you really want or is it more important for you to have a big ministry, church, respect of your peers or even a pay check?  What is it you really want?”

God is speaking to the heart of His people.  He is stripping His people of every thing that causes them to paint their own picture.  Little by little I am seeing more clearly.  God wants me to be a part of what He is doing only after I have come to the place of wanting Him and not what He is doing!  Revival is the result of a life surrendered to Him!  I am realizing that I am the color of the paint for His painting and I can only be used after I have surrendered to His plan.  It isn’t about what the picture is going to look like.  More important it is about being used to paint the image of the Father’s heart!  Now the master artist can begin to draw upon my mind, things I have never imagined or dreamed of.  

What an amazing picture of the brilliance of His Kingdom and it all started with a blank canvas!  Once yielded to Him the image is revealed and my destiny is realized!  The picture was there all the time quite different from what I imagined!

#JSalum

#ASONE