Sid Roth - How to Unleash Your God-Given Creativity
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. You're going to love my next guest. My guest says every believer is given supernatural DNA to have creativity. And you say, but I can't carry a tune. I can't paint. It doesn't matter. And she has the gifting to release your creativity, and she says when you use your creativity it becomes a point of contact for miracles. Are you ready for a miracle? I'm here with Theresa Dedmon and Teresa has a degree in psychology and she's the head of Prophetic Arts at a Bible school, many of you are familiar with them in Redding, California, Bethel. But her approach to the supernatural is so different that I can't recall anyone, anywhere telling me about this approach. Tell me about it.
Theresa Dedmon: I feel like there is something that changes when we see who we are created to be and then we look scripturally at different experiences that you have all the way from Moses all the way to Revelation and John, God used creativity to transform and to tell his message. And in Genesis 1, God is created and if he's created in Genesis 1:27, we are made in his image, that means that as believers we have the same power of creativity because Christ is in us, the hope of Glory, and we just haven't accessed it. So we believe, but we haven't accessed the fact that our creativity was meant to be supernatural as you love.
Sid Roth: Well you know, a lot of people think the devil is involved in creativity and Bible believers would say pox on you.
Theresa Dedmon: Because the enemy cannot create. He can only intimidate.
Sid Roth: You know, you're right. That's why he does it to us.
Theresa Dedmon: And know and that's why he makes people feel afraid to transform culture to do things outside of the box because he's afraid that people will get this out there and transform history.
Sid Roth: Well you know what I'm thinking that when television came along they said that's of the devil. We believers aren't going to have anything to do with it? So what happened? We got a late start in television. Computers, same thing, we got a late start in computers. But the truth in the matter is we're supposed to be the head and not the tail. And speaking about that, give me an example from the Bible, you mentioned Moses, in creativity.
Theresa Dedmon: I'd like to.
Sid Roth: And the thing that I'm thinking is it's not just creativity to say look at this great painting. It has a supernatural quality that will cause people to be healed. Tell me about Moshe Rabbeinu, Rabbi Moses.
Theresa Dedmon: I'll tell you about Mo. Moses was a man who as we know traveled and he took the children throughout all of the wilderness in order to get to the Promised Land. And as you know, with a million people you might have problems. And he asked God what to do, and God said, "I want you to create a bronze serpent so that when people look at that they will be healed and they will not die". And so when Moses created that he held it up, and when they looked at it they were healed and all of the snakes disappeared. So creativity brought about a transformation supernaturally to transform people that were traveling through and that were back-biting. So it's crazy how creativity can transform and shift the atmosphere.
Sid Roth: What I think is so wonderful is the miracles that are happening and it's not happening from the best artists in the world. It's happening from people like you, people like me that didn't now they were gifted. They haven't opened up their gifting yet. Tell me about someone healed of cancer from creativity.
Theresa Dedmon: I would love to. So there was a woman that was painting and she painted just a simple piece of art that said the word "Help". And a woman who had stage 4 cancer, she had two weeks left to live, she looked at that painting. The supernatural power went through her body and the tumor oozed out of her ear, and she was completely healed. The next Sunday, Benny Johnson, she showed that picture out to the whole audience and a man who was bi-polar, he looked at this painting, he had been on medication for 13 years, he was completely healed and now is a prophetic artist, and he has been healed for the last four or five years.
Sid Roth: You know, Theresa, before we went on the air, started a painting, but it's not a normal painting. It's a painting with a word from God and I believe that when, by the time this show is over, the painting will be completed and Theresa will release this word, and it's going to cause miracles to erupt in your life. The thing that intrigues me so much is I don't have a singing voice. I'm not an artist. Tell me someone that has never created, got a hold of your teaching, and what happened with that homeless person.
Theresa Dedmon: There was a man and he was ready to go into the shelter. And I had a teen that was going out into the shelter just to touch people, and she had never done art before in regards to art and healing through supernatural ways. And so she sat down and she began to draw his actual face, and as she's drawing his face she asked the Holy Spirit for a word. She took a risk. And she said, "Holy Spirit, what should I create"? And she said that she had heard to draw a natural smile and this man was not happy at all. And as he began to look at this painting he realized that this was different than what he had ever, ever seen before. And she showed him the painting, and she said, "This is the way that God sees you just the way you are, and loves you". And he told her how he had done drugs, how he had done, he was alcoholic, he had done so many things that would have prevented him from feeling or knowing that God loved him. And she said it three times. And then she left not knowing the power because once we create, the supernatural element comes. So that Sunday we picked him up, because we feel the homeless on Sunday at Bethel, and he pulls out that picture, and he goes, "I have a terrible cold. Do you think God can heal me"? And so he then, the worship time, he has his eyes closed and he said, "Jesus, will you heal me". And he opens up his eyes and he was blind in one eye and he could see perfectly.
Sid Roth: My goodness.
Theresa Dedmon: I know.
Sid Roth: But do you realize if that person hadn't taken the risk, he'd still have a blind eye. He'd probably still have a cold.
Theresa Dedmon: That's right. Well he ended up, they began to scream and he was healed. His ear got healed as well and so did his hand that he couldn't use, that also got healed, and it all linked back to that picture. So after I talked to him, and I said, "Sir, I know that you're the healed in service when you had that painting drawn beforehand". I said, "Do you still have that painting"? And he goes, "Yes, I carry it wherever I go because once I was blind, but now I see". And see, that's the power of supernatural art is it opens up people's eyes to see who God is, not just through a traditional way, but through a creative way of partnering with the presence, so that people's eyes open up and they get to see who God truly is, because we take a risk and show who he truly is.
Sid Roth: Now when people hear creativity they think of playing an instrument, they think of singing, they think of art. But you've expanded it way beyond that.
Theresa Dedmon: Yes I have.
Sid Roth: Explain.
Theresa Dedmon: If you have an original thought, you are creative because you're made in the image of God. And the creativity of what you have a passion to fulfill will come out in any kind of field. Some people love food, like I love food.
Sid Roth: Me, too.
Theresa Dedmon: And it can come out in food. It can come out in all different kinds of ways. So we have seen people get healed through food, through art, through fashion, through all different kinds of ways, and we've seen businesses actually grow because they hear from the Holy Spirit and they're releasing themselves supernaturally in creative ways.
Sid Roth: I even read about you, some of your students would just create only stick figure valentines and they touched people's hearts.
Theresa Dedmon: Yes. One of my interns, Caleb, he said that he had a degree in stick figures.
Sid Roth: Now you can do that. How would you like a PhD in stick figures?
Theresa Dedmon: So he knew that Valentine's was around the corner and he knew that he needed to take a risk. So he just drew a simple valentine that God loved them. And he went to the store and he saw this woman that was highlighted to him. And he goes up to her and he goes, "Hey, I have a valentine for you". And she said, "I'm sorry, but I'm profoundly deaf. I can't hear". So he gets right close to her and he screams, "I have a valentine" reads that god loves her. And then he said, "Could I pray for healing for you"? And she said yes. And so he prayed and her ears completely opened up. And then he said, "My goodness, this is your day. Your ears opened up". And she said, "No son, I've been a Christian my whole life and I never understood that God loved me. And when you created this valentine for me it changed the way I feel. And I'm going to put this up on my mantle and I'm going to look at this every day because now I understand that God loves me". And here he had a degree in stick figures. I love it.
Sid Roth: But there's so, you have opened up my understanding to so many things of creativity. For instance, remember the runner in that movie, Eric Liddell. Tell me about him.
Theresa Dedmon: Eric Liddell was a man that was involved in the Olympics and he was a missionary, and he thought that his call was so important, but he had a love for running, and nobody understood that except some people. So he trained, was in the Olympics and ran, and won the Gold. And he said, "When I run I feel God's pleasure".
Sid Roth: I bet when you create you feel God's pleasure.
Theresa Dedmon: I do. I think when we create for his Glory, I think this is the key, Sid. If I create a piece of art and know that God has a supernatural anointing on that, if I create a song, if I create food, if I create any kind of thing that I know is anointed because I'm in God's presence, I know that God is going to use that to transform others, and it calls me, it beacons me to move forward, not only to touch the church, but to touch people that don't know Jesus like that homeless man.
Sid Roth: Theresa, this is very important. I believe that everyone watching can have a launching pad into the creative supernatural through a new phenomenon called adult coloring books. Tell me about the science, the healing that's connected with that.
Theresa Dedmon: One of the things that I've done in my art and healing degree is I've studied the way that trauma and different things plague people, and when they start to create through art, all of a sudden, things just shift and change, and they're able to see their pain outside of what they're doing, and it becomes something. It's like a therapeutic release and that's why it's all the rage everywhere. It's because the tapped into a kingdom principle that as we create we're releasing things.
Sid Roth: There's two things. Number one, science has actually found that you release stress. Now when you go to a doctor and he can't figure out what's wrong with you, the doctor says stress, and I say, no doctor, I'm not under stress, but you don't understand. Good things can be stress just as well as bad things.
Theresa Dedmon: That's right.
Sid Roth: And when you do this coloring it relieves your stress, and actually the healing of God can flow. And so when you do the coloring book you'll notice that all of these books, they're perforated. You just tear it out of the book and you've chosen the colors. You haven't done the art, just coloring. But you have chosen the colors. And I believe there will be a supernatural quality on those colors. You have an anointing to awake creativity. When we come back I'm going to have her pray to awake creativity in you and you're going to get some thoughts. And my recommendation is take a risk and do them. But the painting, you're still working on that painting.
Theresa Dedmon: Yes I am.
Sid Roth: We'll view the word it right now. And that painting has a word in it that I believe is dramatically going to change your life. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: I told Theresa during the break that the anointing is so awesome on this set. Theresa, I want you to briefly tell me how in the world did you get into teaching creativity? I mean, that's not something you wake up and say, you planned as a little girl, I want to teach creativity in a church. How did you do that?
Theresa Dedmon: I grew up loving the church, loving God and I also loved art, and I loved all different kinds of forms of creativity. And then when I moved up to Redding, I was there for the first Sunday, and Earl Johnson was preaching, our Senior Pastor, and as he's preaching, I had an open vision. And in the vision I saw myself painting in the back of our sanctuary, and I was spilling the paint. I was making a huge mess and I felt so embarrassed, and I'm going, I can't take away from the man of God. And here I was involved as a pastor for 20 years. And what I realized that, fast forward, when I was asked to head up the Creative Arts at Bethel, I realize that that was a vision that was so significant because I thought the pastoring was important to God, but that my gift and my passion was not significant to God.
Sid Roth: You had it backwards.
Theresa Dedmon: I did. I had it totally backwards.
Sid Roth: I wonder how many of you have it backwards.
Theresa Dedmon: And I think so many people in the church, they think that this is the only significant ministry. But guess what? You are called to transform the marketplace. You are called to transform your neighbors and the people around you. And what happened, as you start to dialogue about Holy Spirit, what can I use in my creative passion to transform others.
Sid Roth: You are involved in transforming nations.
Theresa Dedmon: I am.
Sid Roth: Let's take a nation that's in the news all the time, Iraq, what are you doing there?
Theresa Dedmon: Okay. This is crazy. God has gotten me into Rwanda with the genocide orphans to teach them about the power of healing through creativity. Just last, I think it was in Easter, we sent a team to Iraq and we got in because of art, and it was at this refugee camp. And they had been there for a year and a half because of ISIS, and nobody could touch them. Nobody could help them to really work with their pain inside. So we came in and we began to teach them how to do art themselves and tell their stories, and bring in Jesus. And as they did, they began to weep and cry, and the interpreters are going, this has never happened before. And the whole refugee camp, the Muslims that ran it, they go, could you teach us about this and you could teach the other refugee camps about this, because this works. I don't care if this is about Yeshua, we need this. And so now this is going all over Iraq.
Sid Roth: I'll tell you what, God is has such a master plan and all we have to do is follow it. Are you convinced that every Bible believer has created DNA in them? Are you really convinced?
Theresa Dedmon: I am so absolutely convinced. And I just want to say, I felt prompted to tell somebody out there this. But if you do not display who God has created you to be, there will be a part of your God Is that will never be seen. And so you represent inside of you a part of who Jesus is, Christ in you, the hope of Glory. And if you try to compare yourself with somebody else, if you try and think, well I can't do that, you will limit who God has created you to be. And I'm so glad that Paul didn't think that way. But he is all things so that people could understand the Gospel. Well art is such a viable way that people understand principles. It's like the modern day tense language, where people, I could talk about art. I could talk about different types of creativity and people will relate to it because art is something that everybody has in every culture.
Sid Roth: Okay. Tell me about the painting you've been working on.
Theresa Dedmon: I would love to.
Sid Roth: Tell me what it is and release the word.
Theresa Dedmon: I would love to. The painting that I was doing, I felt prompted that there were people out there that had some sort of trauma. And I feel like it's a trauma that's affected your head and the things that you think about. And I saw this angelic-like wing over your head, and I feel that God is bringing and releasing healing, and I think it has to do with headaches. It has to do with mind problems like bi-polar or situations where you feel like you can't cope with life. And even people that deal with stress and they get pressure right here in their temples, I feel like when you look at this painting, God is going to release you, and I saw the word "freedom" and "healing" for you. And so that is for you.
Sid Roth: Theresa, by the way, you may say, well I don't have a trauma right now. But you know what, if you've lived as a human long enough, you take that word. You've had a trauma, and if you will pray right now for creativity to be released and awakened.
Theresa Dedmon: I would love to. I would love to just speak to everyone out there just to tune out anything else that you're doing and begin to ask Holy Spirit what he loves about you and how he's created you to be. And I want you to forget about any other voice in your life and look at how God has created you. And right now I bless the way that God looks at you right now, how he's created you to be. I bless the dreams that you have and I say, Father, activate them in creative ways beyond what they could ever imagine. Release the books. Release the things that they're going to be doing. Lord, as they start to partner with you, I pray that there would be a release from everything that has limited them to think that their life is ordinary and I pray that it would be transformational and there would be a supernatural grace to now take a risk, start to open up your heart and give away what you've been given from God.
Sid Roth: And I say in the Messiah of Israel's name, Yeshua Ha'Mashiach, creativity awake.