All posts filed under: Creative Motivations

Fire Through The Window: The Season of Preparation

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  The Fall By Candice Coates, written September 28, 2015 The world looked like fire from the view of her bedroom window. The leaves on the trees had been set ablaze by the match called Fall. Life as she had known it, of thin layers and barefoot days, was slowly burning to smoke, leaving behind ashes of leather boots, sweaters and the scent of earth in the air. “I love the fall,” she said. “There is something lovely about it. It reminds me of the perfect kiss; sweet and intimate, zestful with the shock of chilled lips that slowly ebb into a warmth that leaves you hypnotized, never wanting to let go.” She closed her eyes to the warm caress of the sun’s rays sliding over her eyelids like the softest silk before she pushed away from the window. She wrapped herself within her own arms and smiled brightly. No one was there with her, no one except God, the One who had created the Fall with her in mind and heart. The Beginning. THE BLESSING …

Start with Confidence: Start Here pt 3

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Several years ago, I had the pleasure of reading an article that introduced the concept of ‘dual idealism.’ Now, because it was so long ago I can’t quite remember which publication it was that I read nor if the phrase they used was ‘idea-ism’ or ‘idealism’, but for the sake of this moment, I am going to fly with ‘idealism.’ What the author of the article was addressing was the anxiety that many authors of fiction face when they have come up with a completely organic and original idea for a story plot, only to find out that someone else, on the other side of the world has been working on a project that sounds similar if not exact! What the author of the article wanted to drive home was that even though there may be similarity in thought that personal design makes each interpretation solely unique. When we are given an idea or vision from God and we embark on our faith journey to see it made manifest we too can find ourselves facing …

What It Takes: A Message For Success

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“It takes time to be a success, but time is all it takes.” ~UNKNOWN What we desire in this life, what we aim to achieve if it is truly a worthy and honest endeavor it is worth the time it will take to make it manifest. Don’t allow the progress of others to discourage you in your journey. You are in a race against only one person; yourself. The prize at the end of this race is having achieved your highest potential. This crown only fits your head. The choice is yours. Time is in your hands. Determine to take one step at a time. *Revised from November 6, 2015 *Photo by Leon Macapagal on Unsplash

Start with Fire: Start Here pt 2

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“We are on fire. Act now.” ~UKNOWN I saw an image of an activist with a sign that read, “We are on fire. Act now.” Instantly, the thought of the words of the Savior flickered into a flame in my heart. The scripture is Mark 9:35-38, which reads: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” What the Lord began to reveal to my heart in light of the sign and then the reminder of the scripture was twofold. ONE: The Lord was saying and is saying to all of us who know Him, that the people in the world are ready, right now, to hear about Him. They are thirsty for the …

Start with a Seed: Start Here pt 1

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“…Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” -MATTHEW 20:17b When a person sets out to give life to their dream or vision, or even to undertake a project that is relevant for that season of their life, one thing they do without fail is to take stock of what they have in hand. Our Master and Savior, the King Creator, actually instructs us in His Word that a wise man takes inventory of what he has before he begins, lest when he starts he finds he is unable to finish (LUKE 14:28-29). The one thing that many of us find paralyzing about this is that when we do actually take inventory of what we have, we tend to lean on our own understanding, often stifling the voice of the Lord that is telling us to begin, in favor of believing what our eyes and logic …

It’s Worth the Mess: 3 Reasons to Keep Creating

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Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly . . . until you can learn to do it well.” ~Zig Ziglar I have always been a believer that anything worth having is definitely worth fighting for. Having healthy relationships? Worth fighting for. Having security? Worth fighting for. Having victory in maintaining faith? Worth fighting for. I could go on and I am sure that you could add several things to the ‘worth fighting for’ list. But one thing I have often lost the fight in (because I didn’t show up) was in learning new avenues of creating. Why? Because more times than not I was afraid of failure. I wonder if you can relate. The thing about being a creative person–the thing about being human–is that the beginnings of all of our successes begin in a mess. We don’t begin walking with elegant or confident gaits. We fall and we scuff our hands and knees. The same is true for each and every creative venture that we embark upon. Our first drafts will likely be, well, garbage …

Start Here: Starting Right From the Heart Series Intro

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Do you have a vision? Do you have an ember of hope for something different burning inside you? Have you found yourself frustrated with the predictability of the ‘usual’ and often slip into the imaginative world created by the dream in you? That is fantastic! Christ has given us all seeds or ‘talents’ to work with, but oftentimes we find ourselves lost in the fog of ‘how’. How do we get from where we are to where we dream we can be doing the very thing that Christ has branded in our hearts to do? We start. And we start here, right where we are. This new series, Start Here, will explore what it means to take the first step of faith to go toward your vision, dream, call, or destiny. Sometimes you have to start in the dark, sometimes the mess, but the glory is starting in faith, right where you are. It begins with the heart and the matters that lie within and go to places beyond our imagining. Join us for this …

A Merry Heart: The Gift of Laughter

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*Revised from May 20, 2016 “The most wasted of all days is the one without laughter.” ~E.E CUMMINGS Laughter, like food, is the one other universal language that every person on this planet not only enjoys but needs to survive. Laughter is the music that is never out of tune. It is the one song that we all can sing, and find ourselves singing along with even if we can’t explain why. Laughter is a gift, a precious gift given to us from Christ Jesus and one that we can give to others. It is a fire that burns nothing but calories! And who doesn’t like that? Laughter is priceless. Be sure to treasure it and share it with those around you. No day or heart is complete without it. “A merry heart does good like medicine…” ~PROVERBS 17:22 ~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER!

Prophetic Word of Promise by Candice Coates: My Favorite Read

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“My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.” ~PSLAM 89:34 During the Passover, Ressurection, Easter Season, the Lord gave me a prophetic word of promise for His children. This summer, as we draw into the season of harvest, the Lord has prompted me to reshare this word, as His covenant He will not change and His promises are yes and amen in Christ. The word is titled: TAKE YOUR PROMISE This word is for any who will receive, who will step out in faith, lift their hands and faces to the heavens, and ask for what He has placed upon their hearts to ask. He has already purchased everything we need for life and Godliness. He has truly finished everything. Anything we need is available. We need only believe, ask, and receive. And He is calling us to ask BIG! The Heaven’s are still open! See TAKE YOUR PROMISE, and release the promises of the Lord in your life today! ~Dream. Imagine. Believe. Do. CONQUER! 

Achieving the Greatest Expression: The Gift of Transformation

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*Revised from July 1, 2016 “For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” ~CYNTHIA OCCELLI Isn’t this the exact description of what happened to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ when He submitted to the death on the cross for our sins, was first brutally beaten and undone before buried in the grave? To anyone looking in from the outside, and even those who’d walked with Him during His three-year ministry of preparing the soil for the Church to be planted and born, it would appear that all of His work was for naught. He was crucified and pronounced dead after all. Nothing but destruction was left. Christ and His work had been completely undone.  But in fact, it was finished! “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” ~I COR. 15:20 From the ‘undoing’ and destruction of Christ’s body on the cross, …