In the last post, "BUT THE CRAFTSMEN," we started to unpack Zechariah's prophetic vision of the craftsmen coming to terrify and throw down the demonic… ultimately releasing revival fire and the glory of God over a people and a whole place (Zechariah 1:18-21 and 2:1-5).
We’re in a war. Not against humans, but against the (already defeated) powers of hell. Spiritual fights require spiritual strategies. God often has some pretty unusual battle plans. In this season, I believe that He is raising up an army of creatives — especially artists — to dismantle the darkness with the weapon of creativity!
I once heard Brooke Ligertwood share a true story about the country of Colombia and a man maned Jose Miguel Sokoloff. It goes something like this…
Since 1964, there has been civil war in Colombia. The country has one of the longest standing guerrilla forces in the world. For over 50 years, a rebel group called the “FARC guerrillas” have been in opposition to the Colombian government. These guerrillas have financed their war by kidnapping, extortion, the drug trade, and illegal mining. There has been terrorism. There have been bombings. And this war has resulted in a displaced population of 5.7 million, which is one of the biggest displaced populations in the world. Tragically, this conflict has cost over 220,000 lives.
Jose Miguel Sokoloff is an advertising executive in Colombia, and in 2005, he had the most demanding assignment of his career. His client was the government of Colombia. His assignment was to convince the FARC guerrillas to demobilize — to quit the rebel army and come home.
Right in the middle of a bloody conflict over 50 decades old, Sokoloff and his team were tasked to create a campaign that would invite as many rebels as possible to surrender in a peaceful way.
Sokoloff first started to interview former guerillas, gathering stories about the things they had seen. These were compelling, true, and often traumatic stories. The team picked three stories and made each one into a 30 second TV ad since many guerrilla camps had TVs to watch football. The ads were professional and polished. In this first approach, however, Sokoloff confessed they made mistake. The mistake was that they did not use the guerrilla’s voices. They used actors and the guerrillas immediately saw through that and the campaign failed. So they went back to the drawing board. Sokoloff and his team spent more time with the former guerillas and after many, many conversations, they discovered something that would change everything.
Before Sokoloff and his team could find a solution to the problem, they first had to understand the people they were trying to reach. Sokoloff came to find that the guerillas themselves were just as much prisoners of their own organization as the one’s they held hostage. And this revelation changed everything. Having learned a lot from their first failed attempt, Sokoloff and his team came up with an unexpected idea so crazy that it just might work.
In 2010, they decided to hang Christmas lights in the jungle. Huge towering trees with Christmas lights beaming out from their trunks and branches in the middle of the forest highways that the guerrillas traveled. Next to the trees they put a sign that simply read: If Christmas can come to the jungle, anything is possible. You can come home.
The campaign was so successful that 5% of the guerrilla forces demobilized that Christmas. They key to the success of this campaign was simple yet profound. It was a kind of ethereal beauty placed right where you’d least expect it. It was a beauty that had been brought from another world into theirs.
The Christmas lights campaign was so successful that Jose and his team decided to do it again the year after. But this time they sent thousands of light-filled globes down the jungle rivers of Colombia. Inside, they had filled the globes with toys, jewelry, and notes. The message read: Guerilla, follow the light that will lead you to your family and your freedom. They called the campaign: Operation Bethlehem.
Imagine that… walking in the middle of the dark jungle of Colombia and all of the sudden, light-filled globes come floating toward you – literal messages of hope and reconciliation packaged in beauty. They sent over 6,000 messages down the river and this resulted in 1 demobilization every 6 hours.
By the third year of the campaign, they had seen many guerrillas lay down their weapons and come home, but then Sokoloff and his team learned of a new obstacle to peace. Many of the guerrillas feared coming home because they were afraid they would be rejected by their families and friends.
In 2013, Jose and his team asked the mothers of the guerrilla fighters for photos of the rebels when they were just children — a time period that only they would recognize so as to not put their lives in danger. They posted the photos all over the jungle with the message: Before you were a guerrilla, you were my child, so come home. I’m waiting for you.
Prodigals heard the words of their mothers. Over 17,000 guerrillas demobilized. Jose and his team were able to communicate unconditional love. Then, less than 3 years later, a ceasefire was signed. On June 29, 2017, FARC officially ceased to be an armed group. They disarmed themselves and handed over their weapons to the UN. The war was over.
And the miracle is, many of the guerrilla rebels made it home because of the creative beauty deliberately set in their path by Jose Miguel Sokoloff and his team.
When in war, create!
What if we could create such beauty that it called rebel sinners home. What if we, through our words and actions, created such beauty that it drew people to the Savior of their souls.
There’s just something about beauty that reflects Heaven. I love the epic descriptions of the heavenly throne room found in Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, and Revelation 4. Those passages describe sights and sounds that are, quite literally, out of this world. There are the living creatures that are covered in eyes, a throne of blue lapis lazuli, and a circular rainbow like an emerald. There is fire and smoke and the thundering of many voices. In the middle of it all, is the Holy One, the Worthy One, the Lord Almighty. Just thinking about it all leaves me breathless.
When it came to the earth, God could have created a black-and-white, flat, dreary world. But He didn’t. He filled it with creative wonder. Just like Heaven. Because it has to be beautiful. God is a God of beauty. God is a God of color and light and creativity. Numerous times in Scripture, God gives detailed instructions on what something is to look like. He outlines the measurements and the materials. He even specifies the colors of fabrics. Why does it even matter? Because He’s a Creator. Because He infuses it all with purpose and meaning. Because it has to be beautiful. It’s who He is.
Every time there is beauty in the world, it reflects back to God… it’s a glimpse of Him… of who He is and what He does.
Psalm 19:1-2, NLT
1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.
God's craftsmanship announces who He is! And so does our craftsmanship. 1 Kings 10 records the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon. At this time, King Solomon had succeeded in building the Temple (1 Kings 6) and royal palace (1 Kings 7). Both were constructed with the finest materials and the most excellent craftsmanship. Scripture provides a description of each, but we can only imagine the grand splendor and majesty displayed by these creations.
When the Queen of Sheba saw what Solomon had built, she was overwhelmed. She marveled at everything from the food on the table to the clothing of the servants. Ultimately, the great beauty she was surrounded by caused her to praise the Lord! (1 Kings 10:9)
The beauty of creativity stirs hearts to give God praise!
1 Chronicles 16:29, NKJV
Give to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!
Now let’s go a little deeper. You know where beauty begins? In holiness.
Long before a beautiful brushstroke or a moving melody, there must be a heart living in holiness. Bringing beauty to the world starts by living a holy life. Creation will always reflect its creator. If our creativity is going to point people to Jesus, our lives must first look like Him. If our creativity is going to win spiritual wars, our lives must first be holy.
Religion defines “holiness” by what you cannot do. Many times, it becomes a ridged list of rules and regulations void of intimate relationship with the Lord. Now, don’t misunderstand me — there should be a clear line between right and wrong, what we do and don’t do. But “holiness” isn’t an old-school, religious concept. It is the heart of God for us today and the key to living a life that reflects, and creates, His beauty.
As the Apostle Peter writes, “So then, prepare your hearts and minds for action! Stay alert and fix your hope firmly on the marvelous grace that is coming to you. For when Jesus Christ is unveiled, a greater measure of grace will be released to you. As God’s obedient children, never again shape your lives by the desires that you followed when you didn’t know better. Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you. For Scripture says: ‘You are to be holy, because I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:13-16, TPT).
In the original Greek, the word “holy” literally means “set apart” and “different from the world [to be] like the Lord.” You weren’t made to fit in. You were created to be different, set apart for God. That’s means you can’t talk like or act like everyone else. You talk like and act like God, the One who made you.
Honoring the Lord by living a holy life isn’t just about a long list of “nos.” It’s really about having a big YES for Him. When you know what you are saying “yes” to, it becomes much easier to say “no” to all the other things.
Guard your purity. Live in holiness. Be set apart. His Spirit and His grace have already equipped and empowered you to do it. This is our secret weapon in this spiritual war. This is the difference between just creating beautiful things and creating beauty that points people to Jesus.
When in war, create.
When in war, stay holy.
In Bill Johnson's book, Mind of God, he recounts the following...
In his book “Beauty Will Save the World,” author Brian Zahnd recounts an important story from Church history. A thousand years ago, Prince Vladimir the Great from Russia was looking for a new religion that might unite his people. Although he was a heathen, he recognized that spirituality might bring his people together in a common bond. He sent delegations into the neighboring countries to examine their religions and the effect of those religions on their lives. The envoy sent to examine Christianity went to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Below is his response to what he found:
“Then we went to Constantinople and they led us to the place where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or earth, for on earth there is no such vision nor beauty, and we do not know how to describe it; we only know that God dwells among men. We cannot forget that beauty.”
This is a testimony to the power of beauty. The words of these delegates were in response to the Christians’ worship of God, and to the aesthetic beauty of the surroundings that they created in which to honor God. This beauty won the envoy’s heart. Heathens were drawn to God because this generation was given the liberty to create beauty wherever they had influence. This gift of creative expression represents the nature of God. As such, it reveals Him and has an effect on people’s awareness of His heart.
We are in a war, create.
Every time you express His beauty to the world, it's like hanging Christmas lights in the jungle, calling someone home... on behalf of their Father.