How to Interpret Your Art

I’ve written much about what prophetic art is and how God wants to speak to you and create with you to bring life, love and hope to others, but we haven’t yet explored how to interpret what He is saying through our work. Much like we humans communicate with colours and symbols (think of the connotations of a red rose), God also uses colours and symbols to speak to us.

Prophecy

There are three parts to a prophetic word:

1. The revelation – This is the symbolic part. It is the picture, vision, dream, sound, word we receive when God is speaking. In the context of art, this is your art piece.

2. The interpretation – This is the meaning of the revelation (or in this case, your art) in plain language and without symbolism.

3. The application – This is what the receiver needs to do with the word. This part is up to the receiver and God. You don’t need to think about it unless God gives you some direction on it.

The interpretation is what we want to unpack in this journal entry, and I want to start by removing the pressure to have the interpretation all figured out before you give the word. There are absolutely times when it is appropriate to have the interpretation figured out such as when you are giving a word to a congregation. But sometimes the interpretation of a word could lie with you, or it could lie with the receiver, or maybe both of you together. You may think you have some meaning for a piece, but the receiver might be getting something completely different from Holy Spirit.

Typically, when I give a word to someone, I first ask if the revelation I got means anything to them. Sometimes it’s yes, sometimes it’s no. A yes can give you a clue to what Holy Spirit is trying to communicate. If it’s a no, I share what I feel it means. Either way, I pay attention to what He is saying as I go.

Let me give you an example. Many years ago, I was making prophetic art in a coffee shop. I had a picture of a pond with a waterfall pouring into it, but I didn’t really have an interpretation for it. The Lord pointing out a guy and I approached him and asked if the drawing meant anything to him. It didn’t. At that point, the Lord gave me a name for the drawing. I asked, “Does ‘The Well’ mean anything to you?” The guy’s face lit up. The Well had some serious meaning for him and was confirmation for the next steps God had asked him to take. As we were talking, God gave me the rest of the interpretation, and I got to prophesy into the journey the Lord had put him on!

The fact that the interpretation could lie with the receiver does not give us permission to be lazy about it. We always ask the Lord for an interpretation before we present. Sometimes He might only give you a bit and you just have to trust Him to give you the rest as you go.

An important note:

When we are giving a prophetic word, we need to check it against some key verses in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 14:3 gives a very good description of prophecy, but there is some more context we need in order to understand what Paul is getting at. I encourage you to take a few minutes and read chapter 12-14:4. In chapter 12, Paul describes spiritual gifts and unity of the body to a people who had become divided because they argued about which gifts were superior. He goes on in chapter 14 to describe how some of these gifts should be used. But sandwiched in between these chapters, is chapter 13 – The Way of Love.

Paul writes about how, without love, all of his gifts, efforts, and actions would be worthless. The Corinthians needed each other and they needed each other’s gifts, but they weren’t doing a very good job loving one another. Love is the foundation of prophecy. If it isn’t done in love or doesn’t sound loving, it’s worthless. 1 Corinthians 14:3 says that prophecy is supposed to strengthen, encourage, and comfort. God is good, and when He speaks, it is good. It is to build us up and draw us closer to Him. So, when we partner with God in our gifts, it is an encounter with His love. With that in mind, whenever you give a prophetic word, you need to check it against love. Is the word good, is it loving, does it build up, does it encourage? If it is not something you’d want to receive yourself, take a step back and evaluate it.

Keys to Interpretation

There are five main sources we can draw from to interpret a piece:

1. The Bible. This should be your first source. Sometimes the Lord may give you a verse to go from, sometimes you may have to search through your concordance. There are many verses about lions in the Bible and many different meanings between those verses. How do you tell which is the right one? Faith. Which one stands out to you? Which one rings in your spirit? Trust that that’s the one the Lord wants to use.

2. Nature. God created the universe, so we can use it to derive meanings. Maybe nothing about lions is standing out to you in your Bible, what are some key characteristics about lions? Do any of those stand out? There are also many things in nature that aren’t in the Bible. Penguins, giraffes, blueberry bushes, auroras… the list goes on. So, the things we’d need to explore about these are (1) what characteristics it has, and (2) how it interacts with its environment.

3. Form or function. Cars do not appear in the Bible and they are not natural. So, we’d need to explore the form or function of a car and ask the Lord to point out the unique characteristic He wants to draw our attention to.

4. Personal experience or meaning. God will use things that have specific meaning to you.

5. An experienced and trusted person or source. If we have absolutely no idea how to interpret something and we don’t feel like we’re hearing the Lord clearly, speaking to someone we trust with more experience can be helpful.

Colour

I have written a list of colour meanings below. We can derive meanings for colour using the same sources as above. This list gets its meanings mostly from the Bible and from nature. It is by no means an exhaustive list and there can be many meanings for one colour. The key again is to pay attention to what stands out to you. That will likely be the meaning the Lord wants to use. Sometimes a colour might mean something specific to you that isn’t listed below, that’s ok. If God is using it to speak to you, listen to Him. He might use a colour because it’s your favourite or it has another meaning we associate with it (like how a red rose represents romance). There is a blue that shows up in every one of my paintings; not only is it my favourite colour, but it also represents open Heaven. While the blue may not represent open Heaven a specific word for a specific painting, the fact that it shows up in all of my paintings speaks to my anointing for my art to bring people into an encounter with God and the heavenly realms.

I hope this post has given you some confidence to interpret your artwork. If you have any questions at all, feel free to reach out.

Be blessed!

Colour Meanings

• Rainbow

  • Biblical or natural occurrence: the rainbow God showed Noah after the flood

    • Promises

• Black

  • Biblical or natural occurrence: Dark, night

    • Mysteriousness, mysteries of God, depths of God, secrets

    • Can also represent sin or the demonic realm

• Blue

  • The curtains and ropes for the Tabernacle, rivers, water, the sky

    • Open Heaven, revelation from God, prophecy, Heaven, knowledge, life-giving flow of Holy Spirit, washing, thirst-quenching

• Brown

  • Dirt, humans made from dust

    • Humility, sowing, seed, humanity

• Burgundy

  • Red wine, God talks about new wine a lot in the New Testament, Communion

    • Holy Spirit, the infilling of Holy Spirit, new covenant, cup of the covenant, communion

• Gold

  • Used a lot in the Tabernacle and Temple, shekinah glory of God (shimmering cloud that looked like gold dust)

    • Glory of God

• Green

  • Plants

    • Healing, life, new beginnings, growth, restoration

• Grey

  • Grey hair when we get older, clouds, smoke from fire

    • Wisdom, experience, glory of God

• Iridescent (Pearly) White

  • Pearly gates, mystery

    • Heaven, angelic presence, multi-facetedness of God

• Orange

  • Fire, sunset, autumn

    • Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit, power, passion, harvest

• Pink

  • Pink doesn’t really occur anywhere in the Bible, and while it occurs naturally, there isn’t something specific we tend to associate it with. The meanings below are ones that have been accepted over the years in the prophetic art world.

    • Anything to do with the heart/soul, intimacy, friendship, joy, deep place of the heart

• Purple

  • The curtains and ropes for the Tabernacle, royal clothing during Biblical times

    • Royalty, kingship, identity, richness, abundance, inheritance, sonship

• Red

  • The blood of Jesus, the curtains and ropes for the Tabernacle

    • Atonement, forgiveness, sacrifice, love

• Silver

  • Used in the Tabernacle and Temple, metals, armour

    • Strength, glory, armour of God, protection, malleability, willing to be shaped by God, humility

• White

  • Jesus’ hair, snow

    • Purity, holiness, peace, righteousness, cleanliness

• Yellow

  • Sunlight

    • Hope, joy, light, glory of God