I’m a full believer in change.

I’m a full believer in going to the nations and doing all the things that God has called us to. I believe that God doesn’t just want to do things through us, He also wants to do things in us.

But a lot of times, creatives neglect the part which is so incredibly important – the inner man, the person that’s on the inside.

Your creative expression will be applauded, your content creation will be praised. But some of us know that what you are getting – and your anointing – is often not dependent on your character.

You will continue to serve people, the needs of the congregation, the nations – but the person inside is who God desires and cares a lot about.

As creative people, we must never neglect our inner life.

If we want to be a true creative, it is not about the legacy we have at the end of our lives. It is not about how many paintings we have put up or what people have said about us.

If we want to be wholehearted godly creatives, we must make room for the inner man daily, not just for the outward expression.

I say this not because I have it all together, I say this because I have been in the scene of doing creative work since young and there were many times when I let go of my inner man – and it has cost me so much, even to this day.

For some of us, some of our desires to do things for God are even greater than our love for God.

You have to check yourself every time you don’t get success, or every time a dream for God fails – and you hate God and hate life. We have to reflect.

Serving the nations

Since I was 17, I have always wanted to serve the poor. I wanted to come up with creative solutions to be able to serve the poor, but I never took it on fully.

Three years ago, the Lord spoke to me while I was at the gym, on the bench. He told me He wanted me to start my organisation and that He would bless me as I went into the nonprofit space.

The coolest part was that a friend I met a couple of years ago contacted me right then, at the bench, without any prompting or message. A few years ago, I had told him my belief that the day I started a nonprofit organisation, he would be a part of it. 

That friend’s text message to me read, “Hey Isaac, I feel that I need to leave my company and I need to join your organisation. Are you doing something?”

So what we are doing right now is Colours Global, and we will be launching a family centre in the Philippines in May. My heart is to go into several nations.

The first thing is to help vulnerable communities by partnering with local organisations. But the other 50% of the work is how we mobilise the next generation, and all generations, in fact, because fundamentally a life best lived is one laid down for someone else.

…some of our desires to do things for God are even greater than our love for God.

For me, this is what my creative output looks like. But even as I do all this, it is so important for me to make sure I’m in that secret place every single day. I don’t want to be caught up with being busy.

I want to please the Lord and I don’t want to miss the point. I want to make sure that my inner life and inner man are something and somebody that pleases God’s heart.

As early as Genesis 3:4, we can already see how humanity thought that we were the main event. Adam and Eve decided they wanted to be like God; it is in our inclination and behaviour to do sinful things.

But the beauty of it is that the Lord sent His Son to die on the cross for us so that we can go before Him and daily repent and say, “God, would You help me? Would You save me even from myself?”

As a creative, it is easy to miss the point because creatives have a platform. Creatives have some sort of influence, authority and leadership.

That makes it easy to overlook God because culture and environment amplify our work and ability to do something for the Church and the world.

Daily we need to present ourselves to Him. Only then will we be the creative community that God desires, and a community that truly supports one another.

Sometimes there is so much competition within the Church because it is already so difficult to “make it”. But it shouldn’t be so!

We have a cheat code, we have the Bible and we know what this life is about. Yet, why do we keep missing the point?

How do we get out of the way and tell God that He is the main event? I have three points to share so that we can ensure that God is the main event.

3 reminders on how not to be the main event

1. Behold His love

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

This verse is incredibly beautiful. When we hear it, we tend to think about how precious we are.

But I encourage you to also think about how great His love is – even though we were enemies of God because of sin and rebellion, His love is still so big.

God looks at you and welcomes you, as an enemy, as a sinner. This verse is not just about being a precious child of God, it is not just about how God loves me.

So, I invite you to also think about the goodness and grandeur of His love. Because we shouldn’t be loved – we should be cancelled!

The very person who has the right to cancel everybody is not cancelling everybody. Instead, we are the ones cancelling everybody!

Luke 6:32-35 highlights how incredible it is that we have a God who loves us even when we were His enemies.

Let us behold His love every day. Let us go to God daily, telling Him how amazing and beautiful He is.

2. Be a donkey (to bring the King in)

“As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet:

“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” (Matthew 21:1-5)

Being a donkey means being a vehicle, something ready to be used by God.

In today’s context, a donkey is considered a low-class animal. But in the times of the Old Testament, the donkey was actually what the king sat on, whereas a conqueror sat on a horse.

When the Lord sat on the donkey, it was as if to say: “I’m a man of peace and the king. I did not come as a warring conqueror.”

Sometimes, in carrying the things of God, it feels nicer to be a horse instead of a donkey.

We focus on how amazing our strategy is, our painting strokes, our video that raised so much money.

But we need to be more like donkeys.

Wherever we are in life, we should be asking God what He wants to do in our lives. We must not take away from the main thing – we are merely donkeys bringing the King in!

And yet, even the donkey can sometimes get a bit ahead of himself. We are so successful in carrying God’s message, we don’t see that He has already moved on.

As creatives, we must watch ourselves so that we don’t lose the heart and vision of what we are called to do.

Wherever the King goes, we are there to serve. The donkey must always remember that he is a donkey.

3. Be faithful

Galatians talks about the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). 

I have been in the youth ministry for a long time, and sometimes we get so caught up with the fruits of the ministry that we don’t really work on the fruits of the Spirit.

We are so focused on all of the fruits and products we need to produce, we don’t think about the person inside.

In my 20s, I was a person of so much anger and hate. But the Lord saved me and put a stop to it. He said, “Isaac, I need to work on your inner man.”

One of the things I’m passionate about when I meet young people is not so much about what ministry they can serve in or what they can do.

While those things are great, I think it’s also important to focus on how we can help others be the person God is calling us to be.

If you’re getting busy with a lot of things, don’t be afraid to pull back and hold back. As you wait on Jesus, you will bear much fruit.

We have the opportunity to not just display successful work and share stories of God’s goodness, but to be a creative community filled with humility and love – one that cares about the inner man and the fruit of the Spirit more than just the work that we do.

When we hand off the baton to the next generation, we don’t just hand off a platform, a company, an organisation, an idea or a blueprint.

Ideas will fade, strategies will fade and social media platforms will change. But the presence we carry, the stories we tell about God and the people we are – leaving a legacy of love is one of the best things we can do in discipling the next generation.

That is what God desires.

We must create a space for daily repentance, humility and surrender. We must, because as creatives we can amplify stories – and we don’t want to miss the point.

We must, because we have a platform that can lie to us and confuse us that we are doing a good work when we look at the numbers of the people who are being impacted.

But to be a godly creative, we must truly know who our Creator and King is. So hold all things lightly, even your artistry. We are only here for God’s absolute glory.