5 Signs YOUR Creative Breakthrough is Closer Than You Think

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Have you ever felt like nothing is working anymore? The things that used to bring momentum seem to have dried up. Old fears and insecurities suddenly get louder. Everything feels harder than it should. You’re exhausted, discouraged, and maybe even wondering if your best creative years are behind you.

I've been there. After moving from Asheville, NC to East Texas, I went through one of the most difficult seasons of my life. What I thought were signs of failure turned out to be something entirely different. Looking back now, I can clearly see five signs that God was preparing me for breakthrough—even though I couldn't see it at the time.

In this episode, I'll share those 5 signs your breakthrough is coming and help you recognize what God may be doing in your own life so you don't mistake His preparation for failure and quit in the middle of a breakthrough season.

Transcript

When Success Suddenly Stops

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A few years ago, I thought my best years as an artist were behind me. And there were days I honestly wondered if I just completely missed God's plan for my life and my art. But looking back now, God showed me that the very things I thought were signs of failure were actually signs that breakthrough was a whole lot closer than I realized. And so today I want to show you those five signs so that you don't mistake God's preparation for failure and quit in the middle of your breakthrough

The Move That Triggered A Spiral

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season. So if you've been around the channel for a while, you know that recently, within the last four years, my wife and I moved from Asheville, North Carolina, where we've been for many years, a real season of favor and increase and joy and fulfillment. We took a big, big leap of faith and moved out here to East Texas to be closer to family. And listen, the whole way while we were making that decision, we were praying about it and seeking, you know, prophetic confirmation, all the stuff, right? And we just felt a huge yes in our heart. And so we, you know, finally decided to take a big step of faith and move out here. And honestly, after 15 years of just incredible favor and growth and opportunity and fruitfulness in Asheville, I really just kind of assumed that Texas would simply be the next chapter of that story. But unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we'll see what happened next in my life. Kind of threw me through a loop because instead of things really going great, I just felt like everything stopped. I felt restless. I was feeling like nothing that I was doing was working. I was frustrated all the time. I was angry. I was discouraged. I was trying to keep up a good face. Bless my heart, I even, you know, was stuffing all my emotions and gained 60 pounds in the process. Thank God I've lost it now. But I mean, listen, if you've ever gone through a season like that, you know how easy it is to start interpreting everything you see through the lens of disappointment. You assume that something's got to be wrong, right? Something you failed some way, God's mad at you, you know, God's forgotten you. I was 100% going down a spiral despite my best efforts, and I had no clue how to get out. But listen, looking back, I can see something now that I didn't see then. God wasn't abandoning me in that season. He was using it to prepare me. And when I look back on that season, I can see clearly five things that were happening that I completely misunderstood at the time. I thought they were evidence that something was was wrong in my life, but now I realize they were actually signposts that were pointing toward breakthrough.

Sign One Old Methods Fail

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So the first sign I completely misunderstood was this. What used to work just stopped working. Now, listen, at the time, I don't know that I would have called it that. I would have just said I was plain old, frustrated, right? Confused. I was feeling disappointment, maybe, maybe even a little or maybe a lot, just angry at the situation, right? Because honestly, after moving to Texas, it felt like somebody just absolutely turned the faucet off. The favor was gone, right? The things that had worked for years suddenly did not work anymore. The the momentum that I'd experienced for over a decade seemed to just disappear. The things that I had relied on in my life and my art and my business just seemed to no longer produce the same results. And that is what made the beginning of this season so confusing and frustrating because I kept trying to solve the problem that I was feeling using the same old things that had worked before. But you know, looking back, I now realized something, you know, incredibly important. You know, God was not abandoning me, you know, even though it felt like it at times. He was actually in a process of transitioning me into what was next. It it kind of reminds me now of that story of Elijah in 1 Kings 17. You you probably know that story where, you know, God sends Elijah out to the brook cherith, and you know, the ravens feed him and the brook provides water, and everything is working exactly as God intended. Elijah is happy, you know, and then one day, without warning, what? The brook dries up. Now imagine Elijah just standing there looking at a dry stream bed, like, what in the world is going on? Right. He could have concluded that God had abandoned him. He could have concluded that God's provision had just stopped, but but neither was true. Listen, this is true for him and it's true for us. God wasn't ending the provision, he was changing the assignment, he was changing the flow because the next season of provision wasn't at Cherith where he was. It was at Zarephath. And listen, if the brook had never dried up, you know as well as I do, Elijah probably would have never left. He was comfortable. And listen, friends, sometimes you know as well as I do, God allows what used to work to stop working, not because he doesn't love you, but because he's preparing you for a new season, a season of deeper dependence, a greater level of trust, a new assignment, maybe a new expression of your creative calling. But here's what I learned in the middle of that. See, the enemy loves to exploit these moments, right? He whispers and sometimes yells, you know, something's wrong. You've missed God, your best days are behind you because you did that. This screwed everything up, you know, nothing's ever gonna change. This is your new normal. And this is where I've learned something that has helped me over and over and over again. See, when the when the enemy pushes in one direction and drives you in one direction, the kingdom response is often found coming in the opposite spirit. See, when the enemy says panic, you got to choose trust. When the enemy says God's left you, you got to choose faith. When the when the enemy says it's over, you got to choose to believe that God is still leading you, even when you can't see where he's taking you in the moment. Because what I couldn't see was that God was already preparing me for one of the most important breakthroughs of my life. It just didn't feel like it. And once that brook dried up, something else started happening in my life as well that, again, completely caught me off guard.

Sign Two Lies Get Louder

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See, the second sign I completely misunderstood was that old lies started getting louder than ever before. I mean, have you have you ever noticed that in your life? The moment you start sensing that God is stirring something new in your life, suddenly all those old fears that you've struggled with over the years start rushing back into your head, right? Who do you think you are? And you're, you know, you're not talented enough. Nobody cares about what you do creatively, or or you're too old, or you missed your chance, or you're disqualified because of this or that, or you start, you know, should have started this this years ago. You're behind. Listen, honestly, during that season, those voices seemed louder in my life than they had ever been in in years. I thought I had dealt with all that, right? I teach on that all the time. I found my things questioning. I thought I'd settled a long time ago, right? I mean, my calling, my purpose, who I was in Christ, questioning whether, you know, what I'd built it even mattered anymore. And at the time, I really thought those thoughts meant something was wrong with me, that I was completely off course. I thought that maybe I'd I'd lost confidence, maybe I'd lost faith, maybe God had lost faith in me. Maybe the lies were true. But looking back, again, I can see it differently now because God wasn't exposing weakness. He was exposing false beliefs that have been hiding beneath the surface of my heart for years. See, see, when everything's working in your life, when everything's going great, it's easy to overlook unhealthy beliefs. It's easy to fool yourself into thinking that you've you've dealt with everything in your own heart. But listen, I've learned as great as it is, as great as success is, it has a way of covering up those kind of things. And this is huge. Breakthrough seasons often reveal or expose what God wants to heal in your heart. And one thing I've learned is this the enemy always comes in at that point. He always uses those moments to attack identity. See, in other words, but before God does something new in your life, the enemy wants to convince you that you're unqualified for it. Not because he's a he's afraid of who you are, it's because he's afraid of who you'll become when you finally agree with God about what he says about you and what you're called to. Friend, don't be surprised when the lies get louder in your life. Sometimes that's not evidence you're you're moving backwards. Rarely it is. It's it's evidence that God is bringing things into the light so that they can finally be healed. And that's what happened next for me. See, because after the lies came something

Sign Three Resistance Builds Capacity

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even harder. Everything started getting harder than it should. And I did not like it. Now, this was probably the sign that confused me the most, right? Because after moving to Texas, it was like I was just feeling like I was walking through mud, which again, I had not been my experience for the last 15 years. And so it really took me off guard. Nothing was working. Things that used to just come naturally and easily all of a sudden felt difficult in my life, opportunity slowed down, momentum that I felt disappeared. Everywhere I turn, it just seemed to be closed door, closed door, resistance, resistance. And I kept asking the same question, Lord, if this is you, if we're here, like if you brought us here, why in the world is this so hard? And maybe you've asked that question too in your life. I mean, if God is leading me, why are there so many doggone obstacles that I'm feeling? If I'm on the right path, why does it feel like everything is fighting against me? And listen, at the time, I thought that resistance meant that I had missed God in some way. I thought that the difficulty that I was feeling was meaning that I was off track. But looking back, now I see that God was doing something so much deeper inside my heart. He was exposing things in my own heart that that couldn't support the next season of my life, the blessings and benefits that he had for me. He was he was slowing me down enough to transform me from the inside out because God cares much more about who you're becoming than how quickly you're getting there or where you're going. And listen, I'm gonna say that again. God cares much more about who you're becoming than how quickly you're getting to where you're going. Friend, listen, resistance isn't always evidence that you're outside God's will. Sometimes resistance is a part of the process that God is using to do what? To increase your capacity, to deepen your trust, to strengthen your character and your inner tenacity in order to prepare you for what he's got for you next.

The Temptation To Quit

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And eventually, after enough resistance, I reached a place that that a lot of artists, maybe you, you know, know all too well. I just wanted to quit. And this is where the battle for me became really, really difficult and really personal because the thing that I once loved, you know, creating art, helping others, inspiring, doing this kind of stuff, it just all felt so, so heavy. The dreams that I had in my heart, they just felt really, really distanced. And it all just felt exhausting. And and honestly, there were just moments that that I didn't want a solution. I just wanted an exit. I just wanted to figure out how to make this stop, how to get some relief. I just wanted somebody to tell me it was okay, like just quit trying. And maybe you've been there, maybe you're there right now. Listen, it is not fun. Maybe, maybe you've prayed and maybe you've believed, and maybe you're you've you've tried to show up the best you can, but you're tired. And listen, at the time, I thought that those feelings meant that I was done. I thought that maybe the dream that God had given me had just run its course, right? Maybe my season was over, maybe, maybe God's finished with me. That's it. But but listen, looking back, I realized something really, really important. See, the enemy doesn't have to defeat you if he can convince you to quit. All he has to do is get you to agree that your story is over. And honestly, this is where things could have gone in a very, very different direction for me because there were days, again, like I said, I just wanted to check out. I just wanted to quit. I mean, I mean, I just didn't see the point, right? I was I was so worn down by the struggle. And then this day that that kind of changed everything

Get Back To Creating Again

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for me happened. Cameron, my my son, came into the studio and basically said, Dad, listen, I don't know what's going on with you, but you look like crap. You you do not look happy. And he could see it, right? The the frustration, the discouragement, the the disconnect. And and then he said something to me that I will never forget. He told me, he said, Dad, you got to get back to your roots. He meant, you know, getting back to making and creating again, back to the thing that God had had wired me to do. And honestly, at first I kind of resented it a little bit and it didn't make much sense, but but you know, I was looking at it and I'm like, well, why not? I mean, nothing else is changing and the problems are still there, uncertainty is still there, the questions are still there. But even in the middle of all that, I just decided, well, what do I got to lose? And I just started just decided to start creating anyway. Again, not because I had all the answers or thought I'd it would fix everything, not even because I felt inspired or I suddenly understood what God was doing. I was I was just making a step to start making again. And listen, as I did, something really surprising started happening. God used a creative process to start bringing me back to life again. It started giving me focus and room to breathe. It got my attention off everything that wasn't working and kind of back into the things that I could see God was doing in the moment with me. It gave me time to think and pray and listen and to dream again. And right in the middle of that, God started birthing an entirely new direction, not only for my artwork, but for my life. Something that I never saw coming, something that felt joyful and fresh again, something that eventually became one of the most life-giving seasons of creativity that I've walked through in a lot of years. And, you know, looking back, I realize now that getting into the studio wasn't the result of breakthrough. It was a part of the breakthrough, part of the path that led me to the breakthrough that God had for me. And maybe that's exactly what you need to hear today. Listen, as much as you might want it, and I want it for you, you know, you you truly do not need to have all the answers or the five-year plan. You don't need to understand everything that God is doing right now in the moment. You just need enough yes inside of you. Just a little whimper of a yes to take the next step. And for me, that meant getting back in the studio. And for you, it might be, you know, I don't know, picking up the paintbrush again or writing that first page of a book that's been on your heart, or opening your sketchbook, or sitting at the piano, or showing up one more time, whatever it is, because breakthrough doesn't usually happen all at once. It often begins with these little simple acts of obedience. See, that's why I believe Galatians 6 9 says, let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the right time we will reap a harvest if we don't give up. See, notice the condition. If we don't give up. Friend, don't make like I try to do, don't make permanent decisions in temporary seasons. The moment that you feel the most tempted to quit may actually be the moment the breakthrough is closer than you realize.

Sign Five Pruning Makes Room

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And looking back, I realized that there was one final thing that happened beneath the surface that I couldn't quite see at the time. And again, this was a sign that I completely misunderstood because at the time it really felt like a loss, a really deep loss. It felt like things were falling apart for me. It felt like God was taking things away. Like I was just standing there, you know, kind of naked and afraid, if you will. But I couldn't see what God was doing at the time. But now I know he was actually pruning me. He was exposing things that I had unknowingly depended on. My my comfort, my my routines, my expectations, my my need for things to work in a certain way for me to feel good about it. My my tendency to find security and results and momentum instead of him. Remember in John 15, Jesus said that every branch that bears fruit gets pruned. Why? Not to kill it, but so it can bear more fruit. Not less fruit, more fruit. See, pruning, although it's uncomfortable for us, it isn't punishment. Pruning is what? It's preparation. See, the problem is that when you're living through it, pruning absolutely 100%, it feels like a loss, right? It feels confusing. It feels painful, it can feel unfair. But when you look back, when you look through the lens of God's word and relationship with him as one who loves you, you realize that God wasn't taking things from you. He's trying to make room for something greater. And friend, that's exactly what he was doing in my life. You know, and I look back on that season now, I can clearly see all those five signs, right? The the stirring, the barrage of lies, the resistance I was feeling, the temptation to quit, the pruning season that felt like he was taking things away. All of that at the time, I thought 100% were signs of failure. But now I realize, and hopefully you're realizing today, those are signposts that God was preparing me for breakthrough. And he wants to do the same thing for you. Maybe that's exactly what he's doing in in your life right now. Maybe the thing that you've been calling a setback is actually preparation. Maybe the thing that you've been calling delay is actually development. Maybe the thing that you've been calling failure is actually God forming you into the person that he's called you to be. Listen, all of that can be seen and accepted in your heart when you see God through the eyes of a loving father, one who created you with a purpose, one who loves you and has called you for more, one who's not trying to destroy you, but one who's trying to invite you into maturity and into the life that he created for you. Friend, wherever you are on the journey today, don't lose heart. Keep showing up, right? Keep trusting, keep 100%, keep creating. Because breakthrough rarely looks like breakthrough when you're walking

Reframe The Season And Next Steps

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through it. And listen, if you'd like some help navigating your creative journey right now, especially if you're walking through this kind of thing, with a community of artists who really understand what you're walking through, who love Jesus, I'd love to invite you to check out the Thriving Christian Artist Pathway and Coaching Community. God is using it to transform the lives of artists all over the world. And so if you're serious about becoming the artist that God created you to be, it is definitely for you. I'll put a link right here below uh in the description with all the details. And I really hope we see you there. Listen, friend, I love you so much. Thank you for being here with me today. Of course, be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss an episode of the great content that I'm creating for artists just like you who love Jesus and want to become the artist that God's created him to be. And remember, till next time, you were created to thrive. Bye.