“ Paint Unto The Lord ” -  

Testimony Sharing by Brother Tommy Chen at FGB Jaya One Chapter 

I was amazed at the FGB meeting two weeks ago to find out that the speaker brother Tan Take Huat had accepted Christ on the same date that I did. Initially, I thought choosing one’s god was like answering a multiple choice question, and I decided to choose Jesus. However, shortly after, God spoke to me through a Bible verse that it is He who chose me. Crying, I thanked God that it was He who chose me.

Before Christ, I was purposeless, a nobody. The Lord gave me a vision of a candle that was abandoned in a drawer, never lighted before. Now the Lord said to me “Now you are lighted up to shine. I will light up your life so people will see Jesus Christ through you. Later I found the verse in the Bible that we are to be the light of the world, and the salt of the earth.

I was also greatly touched by the words of Mother Theresa who said “I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world”. One day, while driving in a bad jam to a prayer meeting in DUMC, the Holy Spirit spoke to me “Tommy, my child, you are a brush, dip me into the Color of Life to paint colors into people’s lives. I prayed “Lord, give me wisdom. I will use your verses for sharing in my paintings”. Before I became a Christian, providence would have it that brother Jason Tan (the FGB Jaya One Chapter host and president) commissioned me to produce a Koi painting, asking me to put in a Bible verse ( Mark 10:8 ). It was a seed that was being planted in my life, being the first time I was incorporating Scripture into my painting.

Under my old method of selling, I named my paintings “Prelude – the fresh water series”. My main incentives for painting then was for money and self-glorification and used to stress on “Feng Shui” elements to get customers to buy my paintings. I had heard from my Senior Pastor’s teaching that “Feng Shui” was related to the occult, and asked him what I should do. He said “we are all sinners, seek the Master’s will. Pray and let God shows you the way.”

In 2003, praying while I was painting, I heard God ask me “My child, do you find joy in painting. Put away the Feng Shui elements, seek My Father’s face”. I meditated on the word “waters” which I had always used. A Word came to me “Don’t call it fresh water, call it Living Water. I was only about a 1 year Christian then, and I shared this with my Senior Pastor and he gave me a verse from Nehemiah 8:10 “The joy of the Lord is your strength”.

From then on, I began to put God’s Word in my paintings to be displayed in the marketplace. Once, I was due to show a painting to a particular collector who was a rich man but with no real purpose in life. The painting was worth RM4,000 but I told the Lord that as my purpose now was spread His Word I would accept whatever price the man offered and he offered RM2,500. Although artists normally would never allow such a huge discount, I accepted it as a commitment to the Lord. If you seek to hear God’s voice, He will guide you.

I installed the painting for the man and asked if I could pray a blessing for the painting and for him. I prayed “I worship You, Lord, with this painting. It is for your glory. I stand in the gap even for this man. Holy Spirit come and fill this place”. Amazingly, the man started crying and I told him “Brother, your tears are tears of joy not sadness.” Being a young Christian, I was already happy and thought I had done my job, although looking back, I realized I missed a great opportunity to lead the man to Christ.

Come 2007, the Lord spoke to me again saying “Child of God, I give you blessing and abundant life. Title the name of your next series “Abundant Life”. So I obeyed and continue to use “ The Abundant Life Series” for all my paintings since year 2007 until now.

Year 2009 -2011 , I was working for a landscape  sculpture company, and I had begun to share the gospel in the office although my boss did not like me bringing religious activity there. He saw me praying for customers and I began to face persecution from him. In that time, Psalm 45:10 spoke to me “Be still and know that I am God”. I learned that being still was not just literally being still but having a submissive posture towards the Master, to hear His gentle voice. When we don’t pray and seek God, we drift far from His Presence. But God is the same yesterday, today and forever more. He will not leave us.

After much persecution and crying out to God, I received another Word from him to “cast your nets into the deep sea”. God was telling to leave my stable job and go out into the business world myself. I was fearful and trembling but 2 Corinthians 12:9 strengthened me  “ My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness ”. I asked for a confirmation that it was time to leave, and prayed as I often did “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening ”. I was overwhelmed when I came to the verse  “ I have kept my faith, it is now time for my departure ”.

Now my boss dabbled in some of the occult, and he could do certain things. Many staff who tried to resign inexplicably found themselves withdrawing the letter after a short talk with the boss. I prayed “Holy Spirit, speak through my tongue”, and though my boss tried to convince me for 3 hours, he finally agreed to accept my resignation.

Once that was over, I asked God “What next?” Unknown to me, God had already prepared something great for me earlier. Even before we jump off a cliff, God has already prepared the steps for us to walk.

A couple of months earlier in October 2011, a friend of mine and I had put in application for a 2-man art exhibition. Normally, the standard of invitees was very high, with paintings charging as high as RM100,000 per piece. From an earthly perspective, it was not possible, but with God, all things are possible. I asked God for a sign, and He showed me a banner for a golf tournament, with the words “For the glory”. I claimed it for myself, exclaiming “For God’s glory” and we miraculously got the place.

Now, there was a new problem for the two of us. Although we got the place, we did not have enough art pieces to exhibit. However, we decided that first of all, we would pledge 10% of the proceeds to the Lord. Dividing the work between us, we realized that we needed 22 pieces each, and I only had 4 available. Normally, I can only complete one painting a month at most. So 18 pieces would take typically 1 and a half years. However, we only had  2 ½ months left. At that time, I was also involved in the stage design for DUMC Christmas drama production and spending a lot of time on it. I resolved to put God first despite the great urgency of time. To make matters worse, I fell sick, and even on a sick day, God gave me the strength to go to church and work on the stage design.

The church work was completed on 16th December 2011 but the exhibition was already due on 3rd January 2012 and I needed to do my 18 pieces. As was my custom, I closed the door in my room and prayed, crying to the Lord to help me. The Lord told me “I will empower you”, and I felt heat on my hands. Amazingly, I found myself able to supernaturally complete all those paintings, even ahead of time.

As was customary, I included Scripture in my paintings, and a friend voiced his concern that I was narrowing my market to only Christians. At the exhibition, I laid hands on each of the painting and asked the Holy Spirit to fill this place and release His power on the 22 paintings on the wall. The exhibition was a great success, and almost 50% the paintings were sold. Even more amazing was that some people bought my paintings crying. One lady from Sao Paolo, a poet, who was a Catholic  told me as she was crying “I found Jesus in this place”.

Besides painting, I also asked God for many gifts, and the Lord in His grace enabled me to at times exercise the gifts of healing and prophecy. Most amazing of all was the incident when He raised my brother-in-law back to life. Stricken by a rare disease, my brother-in-law had gone through unsuccessful brain operations and in 2005 was declared clinically dead by the physicians. In great distress, I poured out my grief to God and the Lord led me to John 5:21-26  “Just as the Father raises the dead and makes them alive, so too the Son makes alive anyone he wants. The Father does not judge anyone but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever fails to honor the Son is not honoring the Father who sent him. Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever hears what I am saying and trusts the One who sent me has eternal life — that is, he will not come up for judgment but has already crossed over from death to life! Yes, indeed! I tell you that there is coming a time — in fact, it’s already here — when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will come to life. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son life to have in himself.” Four hours later, the hospital called up, saying that it was a miracle, that my brother-in-law had come back to life.

My life is wonderful. I have learnt that if you have everything and have no Jesus, you have nothing but if you have nothing, but have Jesus, you have everything. Cry to Jesus for He will hear your cries. I like 1 Peter 5:7 very much. It tells us, “Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you”. Having a close relationship with God is the most important thing in our life as we will be transformed into Christ-likeness as we spend time in intimacy with our Master.