Renewed
Acrylic on canvas. 40"x30". Completed in 2017. Original sold.
Meaning
This painting is taken out of Joel 3:18 where it says, “In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house and will water the Valley of the Acacias.” The Valley of the Acacias, also called the Valley of Shittim, was known to be a dry, barren and fruitless land. The last verses in Joel 3 are about the Lord’s unwillingness to leave Israel as a wasteland and how He promises to renew and restore to her. Joel 3:18 is a promise about new beginnings. That's what this painting is about. The circles represent the never ending, unfailing promises of God and there are eight of them to represent new beginnings.
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God is faithful and He will never go back on His promises. I feel like the Lord is saying, “Those areas where you feel hopeless, the areas that are dry and lifeless, I'm going to renew. I’m going to bring restoration and hope. I will pour out my Spirit and where there was death, I'll bring life. Where it was barren, I'll bring prosperity. I’ll give hope for hopelessness and love for fear. No longer will you despair but instead you will be filled with laughter.”
Story
This is one of several paintings of mine that had recurring themes of eagles and mountains. Many times as prophetic artists, we'll see recurring themes in our paintings, and sometimes across multiple artists, because we're tapping into either a broader word the Lord has for ourselves, or a broader prophetic word or season that the Lord has for the corporate body (the church). This painting encompasses both of those.
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The eagles were a prominent theme in many prophetic artworks and words within our church body back when this painting was complete. To be honest, I was sick of painting them, haha! But the Lord was adamant that an eagle was going in this piece too. Eagles represent many things in the Bible, and at the time of this painting, the Lord was using eagles to speak into apostolic and prophetic anointing being released in our church. I had four paintings with eagles in them during this period, my aunt also had a few, and I think they showed up in a couple of our other artists' work as well.
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The mountains I'm not fully certain of as I'm not finished all the paintings that have mountains yet. I have five completed and a sixth in the works (I'm also currently working on my His Name is a Melody series, so these mountain paintings have taken a back seat). Mountains have all sorts of meanings in the Bible, one of which being the dwelling place of the Lord which seems to be what they represent in all of these paintings. As I've been working on them over a period of six years, and I haven't really seen them appear in other paintings or artworks within our church, I think the Lord is speaking to me specifically rather than the corporate church. I'm excited to find out what the Lord is saying through it all!