Assignments for this course take the form of written summaries, research, and analysis. They are designed to help us work through the course objectives, while keeping a focus on our spiritual growth through conceptual learning.

For each assignment, please develop a document and submit it to me in either Microsoft Word or HTML format (your word processing software should permit you to do a "save as" and choose either of those formats).

D.  Course Work

Comments: 

Foundations-Philosophy of Instruction 

As an introduction to instruction, I believe we must first lay a strong foundation regarding creativity, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.  When I think of these characteristics, the first thing I do is reflect on and seek the Lord who created humanity and everything else - the Master Artist (Jesus Christ).   

As creative beings, we must always search for ways to express God’s own creativity through us to make His presence known to the world and to help humanity see the reality of a God who loves them, who was willing to pay the ultimate price for their redemption so that they could have a relationship with Him.  God is capable of meeting us right where we are at in our lives and the creative arts can express this reality.  How wonderful it is for us to be used of God to bring forth His message through the creative arts because the creative arts have a way of directly speaking to and touching the heart in ways that other forms of communication do not.  Therefore, what better Person to be connected to than the very Creator (Master Artist) Himself.  In Him is all knowledge and understanding for He is the very Author of life.   

The Lord is the Master Artist.  The Word of God provides much information regarding creativity, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and relationship.  Therefore, our foundation for this course will be centered on the foundation for life – God’s Word (the Bible). 

God has made us to be creative! 

God, the Creator of the universe, has “made man after His own image,” a powerful phrase, especially in the Hebrew text.  God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul.  Even though God created us like Himself, God never intended that we operate as autonomous individuals.  Man was always to be part of something larger than himself.  We were to be a ‘branch grafted into a Vine, a temple that contained Another.’  We were to allow the life of God who made us to flow through us.  In this way, we would release the full creativity of God into the world in which we lived.  We were not to use our creativity ourselves, but rather, we were to yield it to Almighty God.  Man is commanded to be “filled with the Spirit of God” and “to walk in the Spirit.”  Man is to be found “in Christ,” not “in himself.” 

The creativity of our dependence in God, will be far greater than the creativity we release by only looking to the creativity of our own spirit.  Not only will we release the creativity of our God-given spirit; we will go far beyond this, releasing the creativity of God, the Creator of the universe, as we look to God and tune to the spontaneity of the flow of the Holy Spirit.  We are the very instruments and vessels of God’s own creativity!! 

Assignment #1:

The Church should not only seek to be relevant to local culture, but also an agent of transformation.  This often requires creativity, risk-taking.  For the modern church, creativity seems to be a ‘stumbling block’.  According to Barry Liesch, “If one were to ask an unbiased observer to name that institution in our society which clearly espouses creativity, we can be sure that he would not name our twentieth-century church. This is an indictment of how we Christians feel about the mandate God has given us for being creative...We do not embrace creativity as a way of life...We do not see it as having much to do with Biblical living....” Just as "performance" is a troublesome term, so is creativity. Artists value this term, and often feel the churches have an inadequate understanding of it, and will not allow much of it.

How is creativity used in our society today? How is it used in Scripture? Can Biblical criteria for calling something creative be discerned? Has the term changed over time? Do various scholars view it differently? Are we "workers" or "creators," "imitators" or "imagers"? In probing these questions, we hope to correct misperceptions, offer perspective, provide avenues for our creative development, and put us more in touch with part artistic climate of our modern culture.

Application: 

Read the article, “Creativity in the Bible” by Barry Liesch (click on title link to read the article).  You are welcome to print it out if you choose to highlight key areas in the article.  It will provide a great foundation for this course as well seek the Lord about creativity and our role as creative beings in God’s Kingdom.  Having a deep, intimate relationship with the true and living God is the only thing that will satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts; therefore, learning to hear directly from Him is the key to revelation knowledge and thus experiencing our true creative nature.  After you have completed “Creativity in the Bible,” write a review of the article and how you perceive creativity.  I realize that many of you may have had different experiences with respect to the teaching you have received so far regarding human creativity and God’s nature as Creator; therefore, I pray that you will discover a new joy in knowing God’s plan for you as creative being.  We were made in God’s image and bearing His image involves to the ability to create and allow ourselves to be instruments and vessels for God’s very own creativity.  

Assignment #2: 

Most of us have misconceptions on what it means to be creative.  We think of Einstein as a great creative genius, which he was, but most people have do not realize that he spent a good portion of his time working in a Swiss patent office.  What a great place to receive stimulation by the thinking and creativity of others!  We also think of Dale Carnegie as a man who created ideas that have enabled millions of people to live happier, more successful and productive lives.  However, Carnegie summarized his creativity this way:

“The ideas I stand for are not mine.  I borrowed them from Socrates.  I swiped them from Chesterfield.  I stole them from Jesus.  And I put them in a book.  If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?”

The motivation to create is much more essential than any natural creative genius which one may possess.  Increasing age is more likely to be a facilitator than a determent to the creative flow within humanity.  Essentially, the more we use our creative abilities, the better they become. 

Spirit-born creativity is no accident; it requires purposeful activity.  We are designed to know that the creativity of God can flow through us continuously in ways of which we may have only imagined.  Once we are in flow with the Spirit of God, our only limits lie within God Himself (which is limitless).  This is why Jesus said “all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27, NIV).  As a result, in God, we will discover ourselves doing and being more that we had ever dreamed possible.  Praise God!! 

Text:  Read Introduction-Who? Me? Creative?!!! (Introduction section includes Chapters 1, 2, and 3) 

Application: Seek the Lord regarding these concepts:

Ø  There is no such thing as ‘secular things.’ All of life is sacred and ‘set apart for God.’

Ø  God’s definition of creativity is quite different than man’s definition.

Ø  God desires to yield to His Spirit which allows the full creative potential we have as his creative beings.

PART I: 

In Chapter 2 (Overview of the Five Senses of Man’s Spirit and How God Desires to Fill Them) of your text, there are two personal application journaling exercises (from pp. 11-14).  Seek the Lord regarding these personal applications and record your responses accordingly.  When completed with your journal entries, send an MS Word or HTML attachment to me so I can give you credit for the exercise. 

PART II: 

In Chapter 3 (Preparation for Receiving God’s Creative Ideas), complete the personal application journal exercise regarding the Four Emotions that Disrupt Peace of Mind.  When completed with your journal entries, send an MS Word or HTML attachment to me so I can give you credit for the exercise. I look forward to hearing what God is revealing to you! 

Assignment #3: 

When the angel Gabriel approached Mary regarding God’s call on her life he said, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and you will conceive” (Luke 1: 35, 31).  Even though this story refers directly to the conception of Jesus, it also spiritually refers the conception of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the Spirit-born believer.  It is God alone who creates and brings forth life. 

Spirit-born creativity begins and ends with the supernatural movement of God.  God initiates heart faith by sending forth His Spirit into our hearts, and God culminates His spoken word through the mighty movement of His Spirit, bringing forth supernatural fulfillment of His promises.  Therefore, Spirit born creativity both begins and ends with God, yet there are several ways in which we participate.  First and foremost, we participate by becoming still and listening.  As we then hear His Word, we incubate His Word within our hearts and wait upon Him to supernaturally fulfill it. 

Text:  Read Stage One-Conception (Stage One includes Chapter 4 and Chapter 5) 

Application:  Seek the Lord regarding these concepts:

Ø  God’s voice in our hearts often sounds like a flow of spontaneous thoughts.  Therefore, when you tune to God, you tune to spontaneity.

Ø  You must learn to still your own thoughts and emotions, so you can sense God’s flow of thoughts and emotions within you.

Ø  As you pray, you fix the eyes of your heart upon Jesus, seeing in the spirit the dreams and visions of Almighty God.

Ø  Journaling, the writing out of your prayers and God’s answers, provides a great new freedom in hearing God’s voice.

PART I:

 In Chapter 4 (Filling the First Sense of Man’s Spirit by Hearing the Voice of God) of your text, complete the Goal-setting Through Journaling exercise along with the Intensive Journaling Worksheet on pages 35-41.  Seek the Lord regarding these personal applications and record your responses accordingly.  When completed with your journal entry exercises, send an MS Word or HTML attachment to me so I can give you credit for the exercise.

PART II: 

In Chapter 5 (Filling the Second Sense of Man’s Spirit by Seeing the Vision of God), complete the Goal-setting Through Recording God’s Visions exercise along with the Intensive Journaling Worksheet for Recording Vision on pages 59-65.  Seek the Lord regarding these personal applications and record your responses accordingly.  When completed with your journal entry exercises, send an MS Word or HTML attachment to me so I can give you credit for the exercise. 

Assignment #4: 

Once we have received the purposes of God within our heart through the primary channels of rhema and vision, then we must begin incubating what we have seen and heard, allowing it to go around and around, filling every part of our heart.  Our hearts have a mind, will and emotions which must all be saturated with the dream and vision of God.  God has created us so that both our spirits (hearts) and our souls, have mind, will, and emotions.  Mind, will and emotions of the spirit are deeper, and have more substance than the mind, will and emotions of the soul. 

God wants us to incubate His dreams, visions, and rhemas within our hearts.  He wants our inner minds to be filled with nothing but His revelation to us.  If we abide in Him, and His rhema (Greek for “word”) abides in us, we can ask whatever we wish (John 15:7).  God wants us to constantly live in Him, and His spoken words to live in us, so that our hearts’ desires can be fully met. 

Text:  Read Stage Two-Incubation (Stage Two includes Chapters 6, 7, and 8)

Application:  Seek the Lord regarding this concept:

Ø  To come to heart faith we must be transformed out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light.  We must be able to recognize and destroy the working of satan while recognizing and cultivating the working of the Holy Spirit. 

In Chapter 6 (Filling the Third Sense of Man’s Spirit by Pondering God’s Voice and Vision), Chapter 7 (Filling the Fourth Sense of Man’s Spirit by Confessing God’s Rhema and Vision) and Chapter 8 (Filling the Fifth Sense of Man’s Spirit by Acting in Faith) complete any journal exercise of your choice from each chapter. Seek the Lord regarding these personal applications and record your responses accordingly.  When completed with your journal entry exercises, send an MS Word or HTML attachment to me so I can give you credit for the exercise. 

Assignment #5

Finally, we come near the end of the development of heart faith (spirit born creativity). However, before we actually receive the promise of God, we often go through the experience of death of a vision.  After the death of a vision, comes the supernatural fulfillment of the vision, if we continue to seek God and obey Him during the period of darkness.  Not only did Abraham have to die to his vision once, but a second time God called him to offer up the vision.  God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on the altar.  By this time, Abraham had grown wise in the ways of God.  He knew that as the vision died within him, God could and would bring supernatural fulfillment out of it.  There is no need to fear this because God will ask us to give up the vision to Him over and over, so that we know that it is His vision and not ours, Him and not us, that He may be glorified in all things. 

Text:  Read Stage Three-Birth (Stage Three includes Chapters 9, 10, and 11)

 Application: 

 PART I: 

In Chapter 9 (Death and Resurrection of the Vision), Chapter 10 (Birthing the Rhema and Vision of Almighty God) and Chapter 11 (Giving ALL the Glory to God) again, like for assignment #4, complete any journal exercise of your choice from each chapter. Seek the Lord regarding these personal applications and record your responses accordingly.  When completed with your journal entry exercises, send an MS Word or HTML attachment to me so I can give you credit for the exercise.

PART II:   

From the journal exercises that you completed in PART I of this assignment, choose one other journal exercise. Seek the Lord regarding these personal applications and record your responses accordingly.  When completed with your journal entry exercises, send an MS Word or HTML attachment to me so I can give you credit for the exercise. I look forward to hearing what God is revealing to you! 

For review on MLA writing standards, go to the following link:

MLA FORMATTING AND STYLE GUIDE (From Purdue University) 

Assignments that MUST BE SUBMITTED to Your Instructor for Grading

YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A GRADE FOR THE COURSE OR BE CREDITED AS COMPLETING THE COURSE UNTIL ALL OF THESE ASSIGNMENTS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED AND GRADED BY YOUR INSTRUCTOR: 

Assignment #1

Assignment #2

Assignment #3

Assignment #4

Assignment #5