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.

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 -- a 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.

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 a while for me to realize that this joyful discovery of creative journaling was to be the content. VISUAL ENCOUNTERS: Meeting God Through Creative Journaling became the discipline through which much integration of the visual (non-verbal) and the verbal happened for me.

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.

I am finding myself to be merely God’s handmaiden, His canvas, His worshipping paintbrush and His voice. My greatest delight is to be a display of His splendor. I perceive my life’s value in being a picture of a God who keeps His promises, a God who relentlessly and compassionately delivers, a God who is totally capable of bringing about the destiny of one’s life and His ultimate design for this planet.

— Priscilla Williams, author of Visual Encounters: Meeting God through Creative Journaling

For more information on Priscilla's creative arts background, visit the links below:
Priscilla's Paintings
Workshops & Retreats
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See Priscilla's Video

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Copyright 2006, Priscilla Williams, Tree of Life Ministries/Visual Encounters With God. All rights reserved.
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