The Miracle Of Art In Christ – A Word by Darren Canning

I was in Korea a couple of years ago. In ten days, I painted 105 paintings. This was a difficult feat. I slept about 2-3 hours per night during this time. I preached 15 or more times in 9 days and I prophesied and prayed for over 1000 people. So, during the times that I wasn’t ministering I was painting or trying to get an hour’s sleep.

On day 7 of this trip, I had a dream. In it an angel appeared to me and said, “paint three big paintings.” I could see what size these were to be. They were 36” by 48” or just over 100cm by 150cm. I had never painted such big paintings in Korea before and in the natural thought it was crazy because I was told Koreans don’t have a lot of space for art. I told my handler about the dream and he thought it was crazy too but because of my insistence we went to the art store to buy supplies.

In downtown Seoul in a wonderful alleyway there was the best art store I had ever been to. I bought enough supplies for 25 paintings including three large ones. I only had three days to paint these but that had become normal. The problem that I had was if they did not sell, I would have to find a way to store them. I could not carry them with me on the plane.

Another thing you need to know is that I was painting these for a church I had never been to before. I had some difficult moments in Korea on that trip because one of the pastors got very angry with me when I brought art into her church. That is another story that I won’t go into here, except to say that she was so hard on me that I had to pray for the trauma to come off. After that, every time I went to a church with my art, I was fearful. But God gave me the dream and I trusted Him, so I painted these three large paintings.

Another dynamic occurred in those meetings. I thought I had 8 hours to paint before the meetings would begin. In that amount of time, I could paint 10 or 12 paintings and then overnight after the first meeting I could paint 10 more. But it turned out that I only had two hours before the meeting began to paint. I had no art with me because all the paintings had sold in the previous church. We sold 37 paintings in that previous church in two days.

And I learned that the meetings were going to be over in less than 24 hours. I had to preach 4 times in that period and prayed for 350 people prophetically. In the natural there was no way I could paint 25 paintings but let me tell you what happened.
In the first two meetings in that church, I sold one painting. I was crushed. I had the dream of the large paintings but none of those sold in that first night. I now only had two meetings left in that church and they were scheduled for the morning. I had 10 paintings out on the floor because I found time to paint between the first and second meeting also. I painted those paintings in rapid time. It is hard to communicate with you the mind of one who hears the voice of God and responds. I knew I had heard God about the three large paintings, but when they did not sell that night, I was fatiqued.  I had painted for 8 days and hardly had any sleep, so there was a temptation just to lie down and sleep for the rest of the night.

That is when I started to talk to God even more. I said, “I thought I heard you God.” He said, “Why are you painting?” The money that I was making on my art was very good. In the first 8 days I had made thousands of dollars. I have always worked hard when money is to be made. God was saying to me in that moment, “are you painting for money or are you painting for me?” I said to the Lord, “The money is good God, but that is not why I am painting. I paint because you told me to paint.  Whether I make money or not does not matter. I believe that each of these paintings that I am doing had a divine destiny and that wherever they hang they will represent the gospel in a fresh and interesting way.”He said to me, “Well if that is the case continue to paint.”

It was hard. I painted one and then I painted another. I was praying in tongues as I painted. I started painting at midnight and the hours passed quietly and quickly.  It was 6 am before I stopped. I had painted 12 paintings through the night. My handler came to me in the morning and said the pastor wants you to come to breakfast. I hadn’t slept and wasn’t hungry and tried to skip but he would not let me.

It was a beautiful morning in Korea. There were a couple of hundred people outside waiting for the meeting to begin. It seemed like all of them said hello to me. I could see them like sheep, hungry for the word of God. Hungry for healing and prophesy. In fact, during breakfast I was going to have to prophesy over 35 of the pastor’s leadership team before the first meeting.
During breakfast one of the lady pastors came into the dining room. She was excitedly talking to the main pastor but in Korean, so I had no idea what they were talking about. I knew she was talking about me, so I asked my handler what was happening. He said it is about the paintings. He said, “I think some of them have sold during the night.”

I had painted the three big paintings and they were in the front of the church along with 8 or 9 smaller ones. The lady said, “You have to paint more. They are all sold.”  I was confused. I had only sold one before bedtime but now in the morning all the paintings were sold, and I had orders for 25 more. I had only 24 hours to paint them also, so it was going to be a crazy day. The three big ones sold, and I was asked to paint three other big ones.

We went back to the store in Seoul and bought a lot more supplies. The people at the store were surprised to see me again so soon. I made some good money too – around $14000.00 – enough that I paid my handler a tidy sum and bought him a new suit. It was worth the lack of sleep. God is good. He will bless the work of your hands. I stepped out by faith trusting that the dream was from God and learned that I could do more than I thought was possible on that trip.

I pray for you today and ask God to give you visions that He will bless. May you prosper even as your soul prospers for the glory of God.

Darren Canning