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Behind the paintings
The journey to becoming a revelatory painter, and a description of the receiving and painting process, by Priscilla Williams
My father’s death when I was twelve sparked a prolonged spiritual conflict for me that endured until I was twenty-six years old. At its essence it was a struggle over surrender and trust. I wanted to fully give my life to God, but I had trouble putting my serious doubts about His trustworthiness to rest. In 1982, in the course of serving in a very challenging pastoral ministry, I discovered a personal interaction with the third person of the Holy Trinity, Holy Spirit. At this time a new dimension of my faith journey opened up and the Lord did a lot of restructuring of my inner life.
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Another such remodeling came as I left the ordained pastoral ministry of the United Methodist Church, after twenty-five years, in order to follow my Master down a path less traveled -- the path of my ‘promised land’. It was on this path that I came to realize that my primary language is non-verbal –- so different from all of the verbal articulation required of me as a pastor. I pressed all the more into the visual language to gain greater articulation there. I would sit alone with the Lord for hours and receive the visual language -- colors, impressions, and images that brought greater understandings which eventually became available for verbalization.
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Priscilla Williams
I recorded these experiences in my journal -- impressions, colors, textures, shapes, and full images/visions –- but I didn’t simply keep these experiences to myself. I shared them with others and I discovered a deeper connection with myself, God, and others as I did so. This increased until it dawned on me that there was a growing desire in the hearts of others for me to share these revelations with them. Others wanted copies of my journal pages and they wanted to be able to receive from God in the same manner.
I knew God wanted to write a book through me long before this. It just took awhile for me to realize that this joyful discovery of creative journaling was to be the content. ‘VISUAL ENCOUNTERS: Meeting God Through Creative Journaling’
( available here) became the discipline through which much integration of the visual (non-verbal) and the verbal happened for me.
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By God’s faithful, relentless grace my identity is coming down to only who I am IN Christ Jesus. I can only get to that true identity through intimacy with Him, as my true self is securely hidden in Him. He is freeing me to do only that which is authentic. I am learning that this carries the destiny authority that produces great effectiveness.
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Priscilla worshiping in House of Prayer in Jerusalem
Before I was called to pastoral ministry I was called to express God’s heart through paintings. I did not know how to do this. I tried many venues. I was not as good at hearing God in those days. I had no real focus or sense of vision of how to express God’s heart through paintings and to share them with others.
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It was only after twenty-five years of pastoral experience that the vision for this came. Now with creative journaling, music, Scripture meditation, in-depth friendships, rich worship experiences, and extended periods of time alone with God, I receive images that are full of God’s messages to us.
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Priscilla with a momentary live gift from God
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Paintings most often come to me in a slow developmental way. I liken the process to that of human conception, development within the womb, and birthing. I get the seed revelation. I carry it in my ‘spirit-womb’ by attending to it and nurturing it with Scripture, prayer, and related revelation. I let it impact my life. I make room in my life for the revelation -- allowing it to change the way I think and live. I let it make me larger as it grows in me. I wait with longing for its birth so I can share it with others and see it from their perspective. The pressure of carrying it grows greater over time. Most paintings take six to seven months unless God puts a quickening spirit on it (a quicker development means more intensely rough struggles in my life as I get expanded much more radically).
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The birthing process is one of worship. It is not always easy, however. I must face very strong fears of failure and inadequacy. I am always called to paint beyond what I know I am capable of doing. I paint out of my weakness and beyond my understanding. It is a time of full surrender in the same way a mother must lay her life down to birth her child. The mother could die in such a place of vulnerability when she is birthing. I can only break through my fears and strong aversions to my inadequacies by focusing on who God is and worshipping who He is. This is the only way I can deliver accurately and safely.
Priscilla in her studio
God revealed to me that He would be giving me paintings that will carry the authority to be life-giving and fruit-bearing. The Enemy of God does not want this birthing to happen. Only humble worship can bring them into being so that His Word will not return to Him void. God sets the significance. God makes things happen through the paintings. These are God’s pieces. Each time before I start to paint each session I am anointed with oil and blow the Shofar and find that portal through which I can release the revelation God is calling forth.
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I go out to groups of gathered people, often in the context of worship, to share these paintings. Sometimes folks make appointments to come to me. I set up a space and ambiance that helps them to focus. I play music and intercede for them as they gaze and hear God through these paintings. For those who enter into these depths, sweet portals open up to them. It is so amazing.
Not everyone receives from these paintings. There often needs to be a certain amount of preparation. This is where creative journaling can help. Opening up to the visual language, developing the discipline of being still and focusing, learning how to follow the spirit on a journey through the revelation allows you to come with a questing, a very hungry and desperate heart.
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Priscilla drawing inspiration in Israel
Additional Background
Bachelor of Science Degree in Art Education, Kutztown University, Kutztown,PA.
Masters of Divinity Degree, Moravian Theological Seminary, Bethlehem, PA.
Ordained a Deacon and an Elder and served as a pastor in the United Methodist Church for 25 years.
Established an art department and taught art education at the West Fallowfield Christian Elementary and Middle School for 6 years.
Founded Glory Gazing Ministries in 2006.
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