Unlocking Prophetic Creativity with Codye Reystead: Art, Obedience & Destiny

In this episode of Hope Unlocked, host Kristin Kurtz welcomes prophetic artist Codye Reystead to share her journey of unlocking creativity through partnership with the Holy Spirit. From childhood encounters with God’s voice to painting live at Red Rocks Amphitheater before 10,000 people, Codye reveals how obedience, solitude, and prophetic vision fueled her artistry. Discover how painting on black canvas, trusting without a map, and creating with the Holy Spirit transformed her calling—and why your yes can too. Tune in and be stirred to boldly walk in your God-given destiny.

Codye's contact info:

Website - www.codyereystead.com/shop-art

Paintings mentioned on the show:

Vessels of Reformation and Revival 

Anointing of the Archers

Head to 75Whole.com to learn more and use discount code HOPEUNLOCKED to save 10% off!

Chapters

• 0:16 Welcome to Hope Unlocked
• 1:30 Meeting Cody: Creative for the Father
• 4:28 Hearing God's Voice at Eight Years Old
• 8:20 Darkness in Art School
• 16:43 God's Wooing Back to Art
• 25:17 Called to Paint Live
• 36:42 Training with the Master Artist
• 46:29 The Dove and Eagle Revelation
• 57:43 The Anointing of the Archers
• 1:05:30 Words of Encouragement and Closing Prayer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm your host, kristen Kurtz, and I'm also the founder of New Wings Coaching. I help and empower wildhearted and adventurous women of faith feeling caged and stuck, unlock their true purpose and potential, break free from limitations and thrive with confidence, courage and hope. If you're curious to learn more about coaching with me, head to newwingscoachingnet and be sure to explore the show notes for ways to connect with me further. Get ready to dive in as we uncover empowering keys and insights in this episode. So tune in and let's unlock hope together. Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me.

Speaker 1: 0:56

Welcome Cody Reisted to the show. I am so thrilled to have her here with us today. It has been a long time coming and I truly just love everything about her. We had some time to chat before we got started and we're definitely kindred spirits. I guess you could say you know sisters in Christ who have so much in common and yet so many differences. So, cody, would you be open to sharing a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 2: 1:28

Well, I am a creative. For my father, to put it simply, I've been called to create, to paint, to be an artisan in his kingdom, and that's my love. That's what I do, that's my passion. I'm a mom, I have two daughters and I'm married been married almost 25 years. I live in Colorado. I'm a transplant though, as I was telling Kristen before this, born in California and raised in Texas. So if you hear a little bit of clang along the way, that's why. But I love what I do and I'm just grateful to be here and to get to do this today.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Well, thank you for coming on. I would love to hear. You know, many people would say, well, I can't create and, honestly, like if I were to say like that, I was like an artistic creative, I would say no, but I know that it's in everybody. But you know, some are absolutely anointed to be painters and artists and artisans, such as yourself. So what did that process look like for you to step into your calling?

Speaker 2: 2:49

to step into your calling. That's quite the story. I heard the audible voice of God when I was about eight years old. I've never I say that because even my creativity and my gift of artistry kind of what I would call it, the ability to paint and draw with a whole lot of ease happened. I do not know what it's like to not be able to do that. I've been able to do that since childhood. And so when I heard the voice of the Lord, you know, at the young age of eight years old, I very much associate that. You know, he was the creator of the universe to me, he was my creator. He's a master artisan, and so I responded to that call.

Speaker 2: 3:30

And you know, at that point, even at that young age, you know, I was going to live with the one who created with, you know, created me. I was going to live for him. I wanted to live in a relationship with him and I didn't really grow up knowing any difference than that A very personal relationship with the artist, the master artist, and but from that relationship I also knew that the gift of creativity and the ease to create like I can was a gift of God, and so there was always a weightiness to it that I remember, you know, in my teen years, you know, growing up with that, why, why did God give me this gift? There is a reason. I know that there is a reason, there has to be a reason. Gift there is a reason. I know that there is a reason, there has to be a reason. And it really developed into almost a holy restlessness by the time I was, you know, a teenager and young adult.

Speaker 2: 4:37

I majored in art, you know, as an artist in the fine arts, and to college for it and all kinds of things. I only lasted a semester and changed my major, the art that I came in contact with at the college that I went to, and I won't mention it. But the college that I went to was very dark, the atmosphere was dark, the, what we were asked to create, was waiting with with darkness. I could not. I had walked with the Lord a long time at that point already, but I did not have a heading or an understanding of you know what I was encountering um, as you know, kind of a prophetic person or a um spirit led person. I didn't understand. Um, you know why I would walk out of class and my hands, just like I felt dirty.

Speaker 2: 5:45

I felt like I had misused and not even more than misused a holy gift. I've always seen the gift that I have it's not of me, it's something I have received from my maker and I felt almost that it was, you know, looking back, it was like a feeling of abuse and misuse for sure, and so I only outlasted a semester, I thought that, you know, going into college and everything, I thought that, yeah, that's, you know, I have this gift. God wants me to use it. I don't really know what else to do right now, so I'm really going to hone it. I'm going to, you know, really take a lot of drawing classes, et cetera, and really hone my you know, ie, god-given talent to then be able to use it, however he leads me to use it. So it was a major.

Speaker 2: 6:50

It was an upheaval, you know, within myself when this happened, because it was almost like a, you know, an aborting of a plan that I thought that you know was of the Lord and that I had. And to, you know, to hone my creativity, to hone my artistry, and it did a number on me. It went really deep. Creatives, artists, musicians, writers were interesting people.

Speaker 2: 7:18

We're very much people of solitude. We live very deeply. Things affect us greatly and we don't always process outwardly, and so it cut very deep. The spiritual atmosphere was just so much and I'll just say it again, there's so much darkness that I, you know it just grieved my spirit and I couldn't even find the vocabulary and I didn't have the understanding even of what or why. You know, I was, I was experiencing and feeling what I was feeling at that point. So I changed my major as a lack of I didn't know what to do. Now, you know, I was like I don't know what to do. Now, you know, I I was like I don't know what to do. Now. My plan just got, you know, just blew up from the center. Um, I don't want to have anything to do with this. If this is what the art world is like, I cannot have anything to do with this do with this.

Speaker 2: 8:22

So I changed my major. I did not pick up a paintbrush, which in my world, for me, was very unusual. I did not pick up a paintbrush for probably over three years. I completely walked away from it and God was so patient. You know we still connected in other ways and you know that that relationship, you know, remained there.

Speaker 2: 8:52

Um, and he, when I transferred to a different school cause, I was just like I need to get out of here, I need to start over, and so I changed my major, I transferred to a different school and went a while and it was basically my last semester of college and I just had a few hours left that I needed to get and I had an elective that I needed to fill and there was an art class and it was actually a watercolor class in Palo Duro Canyon, and I was, you know, my artist in me was itching to do it again. You know, to do that again. But my mind and my heart were in two different places. My heart wanted to, you know, engage with the Father that way and to create again and to paint again, but my head was like you can't do this. You know, it was just such a bad experience, and you know we're not, you can't do this. And it was really interesting because the Lord came to me one day.

Speaker 2: 9:57

I was walking on this new campus it's a beautiful campus and I was walking along and, you know, really trying to kind of decide. I'm like I've got to fill this hour and you know I need to fill this elective and you know, I could just, like you know, what can I take and not take this art class? And God was just like he's just like, why don't you come over to the Fine arts building? So, just, you know, just go in, just let's just go in and just take a look, and it can't hurt, you know.

Speaker 2: 10:31

And he's just wooing me back and, um, so I went ahead and, you know, went in and it was in between classes, there wasn't a whole lot going on, it was just an afternoon and and we walked, um, I mean, cause it literally felt like Jesus came and he was just walking with me, but I've just, I've kind of had the privilege to always get to live like that, um, with him very near, and so he went with me, you know, and and said it can't hurt, you know, we'll just, we'll just go look around and I remember walking in the fine arts building and they had a kind of gallery set up over to the side. They had several rooms that just were full of paintings. And this particular college was a little bit more righteous, I guess I really don't know how to put this, but the area that it's in is a little bit more Bible Belt, you know. So it was less offensive, we'll put it that way. The artwork on the walls was a lot of, you know, beautiful landscapes, floral, a lot of you know God's beauty.

Speaker 2: 11:46

It was like yes, joyful, you know, light filled art. And I remember walking along and I just started like silent tears, I just started crying and I realized like my soul had missed. I realized like my soul had missed, had missed the beauty that art can create, that brings to us. You know, I missed, you know, in the art world, yes, I missed the textures, I missed the lines, I missed the painting, I missed the gallery. But in the spiritual realm, I missed that relationship of closeness with the creator, of creating with him and creating things of beauty and light. And my soul just was drinking it in and I was just crying and God just came to me and he was just, I was just crying and God just came to me and he was, you know, so sweet and so kind and he was like you know, you can do this, I want you to take this class, it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay.

Speaker 2: 12:58

And you know, this was just about taking a class or not. At that point, nothing bigger than that. But at that point, and so I went ahead, you know, I took the class and and it was like in a moment, you know that walk through the gallery, he just healed everything and redeemed, you know so much, and my and I was able to engage in that class and create things of beauty, create things of light, and without all the yuck dark things. Because art is very powerful, it cuts to the soul of man and it can be very, very dark. It can carry so much yuck stuff as we have all encountered, especially in this day and age, you know, we really have, um, the eyes are the windows of the soul and so what you see seeps into your whole being and we need to be really careful about what we see.

Speaker 2: 14:05

But in that class, in that way, in that art, fine arts building even it was very, you know, they created things of beauty, they created things of light, they created things of hope, they created things, you know, things, that would reflect the father's nature, and the darkness was not there. So it felt like coming home. I had silenced that part of myself and really cut off breath, you know, for three years, and it was like something inside of me came alive again that had not gotten to breathe for a long time.

Speaker 1: 14:46

Well, the enemy sure tried to steal, kill and destroy your, your calling right.

Speaker 2: 14:53

Yeah, definitely he has several times, several times. There's been things now that that have definitely definitely tried to derail, that have definitely definitely tried to derail.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Well, I have to ask, like do you remember because I'm imagining, I'm such a visual as people are talking, like I'm literally seeing you? Do you remember your first painting that you?

Speaker 2: 15:17

I do. Well, I don't necessarily remember it, but my mom and it was actually of a like a pioneer wagon horse yes, I know horses and a wagon and pioneer times and I was like three years old, I think is what she said, three or four, and she said she took it to the pediatrician, you know cause. She was like is this normal? And um, and he's like, no, it's not, it's not normal. So yeah, that was, but I don't remember that. That would just be you know what I've gotten blessed to hear from my mom?

Speaker 1: 15:57

The first thing that I drew and how about painting when you like, stepped into that class. What?

Speaker 2: 16:30

was the first painting you released. Well, that class is more like just stepping back into what I've always done. I took art classes when I was younger, you know, in school and everything. I was actually very blessed. We moved quite a bit but I was always blessed to have this incredible art teacher, like at every school I went to. And so I got to, you know, experiment with all kinds of different media. I got so much encouragement as a child from various art teachers and, looking back, I know, you know, I know that that was God, um, really feeding my confidence in that gifting and just solidifying, um, what I sensed inside of you know, this is this is a gift from him and I am, I want to steward it and I want to figure out how he wants me to use it. So I was very blessed in that way when I was growing up.

Speaker 1: 17:27

Yeah, that's incredible because I mean, I don't know about you, but I feel like a lot of people who are walking out. You know, pioneering callings right, going back to the pioneering, the season's all about launching pioneers and really highlighting people who are doing things different to you know, have this beautiful calling that the Lord's put on their life and I I just I feel like there's too many that don't have somebody in their corner who are supporting them, like you had to kind of bolster you as you're walking this out, right? So, being you mentioned earlier, you know, artists, artists, creatives maybe are a little bit more introverted. Do you find that people in that space have others who are like coming alongside and supporting them, or is it kind of a singular journey? And for the believers, of course they have, you know the lord, so it's not just a singular journey, but do you know what I'm saying? Do they have community that's coming alongside them?

Speaker 2: 18:27

Well, I think it's very vital and important to have community of, you know, like-minded pioneers around you. Mine was not an immediate thing and when I started painting live, I was actually called into it. The father asked me to paint live and I had never even seen it done. I especially hadn't seen it done in a church setting or event setting, that kind of worship setting. I had never seen that. I was raised Baptist and, you know, had strong understanding and, you know, teaching of scripture and things you know, definitely, but that was not part of the environment. And so when God asked me to, you know, paint live in front of people it was actually in 2007 was my first live painting with a father and it was for my daughter's dedication and I wanted this song played for her, but I cannot sing and my mom was actually the one that came to me and said you know, honey, why don't you paint to it? And I had no grid for that. Like I said, really she didn't either. I think it was a Holy Spirit, you know, thought, implanted in my beloved mom's head, and so she, you know she suggested it and so I went ahead and did it and there was probably it was a small country church and there might've been, you know, 20, 25 people there to see that first live painting. And it was a mess, it was a birthy mess. I don't even know where that painting is now, but there was a missionary at that painting and he was a guest that day and he actually asked me to come and do a painting, to sell and auction permissions. And then that one paint, you know, it just led, it completely opened the door.

Speaker 2: 20:51

Um, that initial first painting for the father was in November and by May of that same year, um, I was painting at a Graham cook conference, um, in front of about 3000 people. Oh, my gosh, so like six months later, yes, um, and I had no clue, I had never, you know, when it first kind of started rumbling and I did that first live painting and literally, when I stepped up to the canvas, I had never heard the voice of God that clear and that directive until that moment. It literally was like I had stepped into his space and it was incredible. My bones just started burning and I knew that.

Speaker 2: 21:37

I knew I couldn't define what was happening, but I knew that. I knew that this, this was one of my, this is a purpose in life that you know. This was the purpose for the creativity, for the artistry that he had given me. Um, it took flight. I guess you could say I had no idea how to man it, no idea what I was doing, um, no idea what would come next, but I knew that I had touched destiny and I could not let go.

Speaker 1: 22:11

Yeah. I have to go back for a second, because one of the one of my most favorite things I love to hear is I didn't know what I was doing and I what was the thing you said right after that?

Speaker 2: 22:23

Well, basically, I couldn't not do it. You know, I knew I had touched destiny, I I had, I had to do it yeah, yeah, wow.

Speaker 1: 22:32

So your yes in like like flung open the doors and oh yeah, I'm curious, the first painting, like what was your first painting when you did the live painting?

Speaker 2: 22:44

It was actually Jesus sitting on a hillside, like in Jerusalem, and he was in kind of a quiet. You know all the scriptures where he. There's so many scriptures, if you go and just read the story of Jesus, that convey and reveal him as a man. You know how did he live and operate, what did he do, and there's so many scriptures where he, he pulled back and you know he pulled away for solitude with his father. And I've always found that you know a touchable, I guess you could say just touchable. I want that, I need that, and so that was the first painting was one of those moments of solitude where Jesus had pulled up to the hillside just to be with his father.

Speaker 1: 23:44

Well, thank you for sharing that process with us. With this first time you went live, it's so beautiful how our guests can just usher in all these doors, right. What was the experience like going? So you went from a group of 25 people or so to a group of 3000. Like, what was that? Like you know, I guess I want to know. Like going up on a stage um, how was that for you? Like is it?

Speaker 2: 24:18

comfortable. Yeah, no, uh, no, by all means, no, um, but it was for God. So, you know, I was in and I had told him I was in and there's no backing up. But no, he, the Lord, came and basically flipped my world upside down, like as an artist, meaning that after that first painting, he had me, he had me hook, line and sinker and you know, my heart burned, like I said, my bones burned. It was unlike anything I had ever encountered, but yet like something finally landed in my life and it was where it was destined to be.

Speaker 2: 25:05

You know, I knew that I couldn't move from the hot seat, but at that moment the Lord moved in and decided. You know, he said OK, you're going to paint on black instead of white, or even you know other colors, but you're going to paint on black and you're going to paint big um, four foot by four foot canvases, and you're going to do these live, and you're going to do, in front of people, um and create. You know, in the now, and I, uh, you know I, I was like, oh, my gosh, because he took away every, everything that was familiar to me artistically. Um, in the physical, he flipped, uh, to paint on white and then to paint on black, um, you know, photographers, artists, they probably will understand this more, but it's almost like flipping your brain upside down. You have to see entirely different, you have to create entirely different. It's like upside down. So he, you know, we did that, I used to create. It would take me days, weeks, you know, to create something that was, you know, maybe 16 by 20. And all of a sudden we're going 48 by 48.

Speaker 2: 26:28

I was very, you know, I did this in private and God says, no, we're going to do it in front of thousands, you know. So it was very much like having to be exposed, you know, I don't really know another word for that. It was, um, having to be exposed, my inner life even. Um, because what artists kind of create, what musicians create, you know, we experience first what we create. The hands and the heart are connected and the Lord works through the heart first, and then you express those things and the conversations that you have, you know, the, the life experiences that you have, the encounters that you have with the Lord, they end up being, you know, they filter through the mind, the heart, and then they come out of the hands and that's a very sensitive, private, or it can be process, and so there was a very sense of exposure that I had never encountered, you know, but knew that, you know, once again, I was like I can't not do this and I don't have a clue what I'm doing.

Speaker 2: 27:52

God, how do I do this? I even went to you know, pioneering kind of something new. I was like, okay, well, how do I educate myself? You know, kind of the typical thing we do, you know, let me go look and see. Are there other painters out there? You know worship painters, for lack of a better word. You know, what are they doing? How are they doing this? What media are they using? You know, like, can I go to school for this?

Speaker 2: 28:18

My mind raced with all those normal thoughts, I think. And God just came to me very clearly and I never will forget it. And he's like came to me very clearly and I never will forget it. And he was like, don't expect a map and I don't want this to look like anything that you've ever seen before. That's why, you know he birthed this ministry and what I do, um, trained me. Um, on a farm and ranch that is actually 60 miles from like a grocery store, um out in seclusion and isolation. I believe isolation is key for destiny to actually happen. Isolating, at least with the Lord, may not be a physical thing, but seclusion and pulling oneself away, as Jesus did, to be with the Father and to turn off all other inputs, I guess you could say I think it's vital, I don't know that you could walk in your destiny and you can walk in your calling and actually execute your mission from heaven without intentionality towards solitude with the Lord.

Speaker 1: 29:38

I really catch that. I think that is a huge key for somebody today, especially in this time that we're living in, where it is so noisy right.

Speaker 2: 29:47

It's so noisy, yeah, you've got to cut off everything. And I think that God used I don't think I know he used the isolation and the solitude to pull me away and crash course. In that solitude and isolation and isolation he was able to crash course, tutor me as a rabbi, artist and rabbi you know, creator, how to even do this. I had always enjoyed working with I mean, it was right down to like the media. I had always enjoyed working with oil because, oh, they give you plenty of time and they blend and, you know, in the artist's world, you know pencil, pen, I mean all these other things. I kind of have like a disdain for acrylic, and that's exactly what he called me to. And acrylic, you know, he said, okay, acrylic dries quickly, it's cheap, it can cover a lot of area and, once again, it dries quickly. You're going to need all of these things to paint live. This is what you need to do and I know you don't like it, but I need to train you in this media and I need to train you how to paint on black, because when you get in front of people and it's on the lights and things that this is actually going to benefit, you don't have to fill in as much. You know. There's just all kinds of things that I had to learn to trust him that would go against my IE natural gifting and my comfort, what I was comfortable with, you know, when I was creating. He went against everything that was comfortable and he took a crash course and as I was preparing for the Graham Cook conference this is the one that you know it was like first painting in November and then Graham Cook was in May, and I mean crazy story of like how they found me and asked me to come. I don't even really actually know the track of how that happened, I'm not even for sure and but I got this wild call. You know, will you come? And I'm like I'm sitting there on the phone going, oh my gosh, this is huge, you know, and I'm terrified, but I can't not do this. I've prayed this in. This is what I've asked for all these years. It's like God, I want to use this how you want me to use it. It's supposed to be used in a specific way and this is that. And so I have to say yes to this, but you are so going to have to help me because I don't have a clue what I'm doing. You know I have no way to prepare. I have no idea how to prepare. I have no one to call.

Speaker 2: 32:44

There was no community at that time. For me, community came much later, when actually I was the one that was like teaching and helping from experiences that I had had. You know, um, now you can look around and there's a lot of creative communities, uh, kingdom creative communities. It's beautiful. Um, when I began, when I started out, especially in the fine arts and the artistry, uh, that was pretty non-existent. So it was just the Lord and I and he took me to boot camp to prepare for this conference and he woke me up my girls were little at the time and he woke me up at 4 am every morning for three weeks and to go into the studio we're going to go paint, let's go paint, let's go paint. And it was like. It was like the Holy Spirit, with all this energy standing beside my bed saying let's go paint, let's go paint at 4 am.

Speaker 2: 33:33

You know, I didn't need an alarm clock for three weeks and he took me out to the studio and trained me. He taught me the logistics you know we're talking very tactile logistics in the natural realm of how to use acrylic paint, what to mix with it so that it would blend more, what you know what brushes to use. I mean all the ins and outs that I had. I had no idea it was all new to me, you know. Yes, I had a God-given talent, but this was unlike anything I had ever done before. And he took me to school and I did seven live paintings in three days, seven, seven. He crash-coursed me into. It was like a graduate program that was a few months long, I mean, it was boot camp and it was literally like a dunking.

Speaker 2: 34:42

But looking back, there's multiple times in my life especially with you know what I do that, um, you say yes and or I say yes to him and God just dunks me. He, he just crashed course quick, all right, you know, here we go. You said yes, let's run. And you know he doesn't work with her, he works with everyone differently. Um, but I kind of laugh because there has been times. It's like, you know, it's time to jump off a cliff. That's how he and I work.

Speaker 2: 35:16

The first painting he came to me I was so nervous, so nervous and but I was like I'm gonna do this. Lord, you know, I said yes to this, I'm gonna do this, I have to do this. I can't explain why, but I got to do this. And it was like God came to me and he was like, are you ready to fly? And I just had this vision of like running off on the cliff with the trust level of he's going to catch me. You know, because creating in front of people is terrifying, but creating in front of people takes a lot when you're working with the Lord takes a lot of trust that he will show up. You know that you have created a space and laid out the supplies necessary, not just in the natural realm, but in in like, within yourself, um, for him to come and invade that space and for him to that he's going to show up. Because if he doesn't show up, when you're painting in front of 3000 people of vision you have never painted, um, it can really end badly.

Speaker 1: 36:32

So when you went up to the canvas, did you like, did you have any idea of what you'd be painting? Or did he like kind of withhold that until you were standing there?

Speaker 2: 36:43

He works differently.

Speaker 2: 36:44

I've noticed now I've had the privilege and and blessing to, you know, get to meet other you know IE worship artists and, um, he works differently. I've noticed with all of us, um, with me, from the get-go mine was very much of like a uh, corporate, um focus, and so I would engage with the Lord. I still do. You know, what vision do you have for your people? What, what do you want on this canvas for your people? So mine is very much a corporate conversation, I guess, with the Lord, and it happens beforehand and it always has. As I was preparing, you know, those seven canvases, um, I knew what I was. He would show me, uh, specifically what you know, what each painting was going to be, um, the colors, um, you know we had it's kind of interesting because it's like I meet him halfway he gives me half of the information and the other half I don't get until I'm actually jumping off the cliff with him, so meaning that he will give me the list of colors he'll give me. You know we work out. What I do is paint black on black and so I use two different colors of black and I'll work out the vision on canvas at home and I can see those lines. So that way everything the perspective is correct, the um I pray excellence of artwork is correct, so that when people look at it there's no hangups that could almost kind of prohibit them from like traveling further into that piece of art. And so those things are worked out at home with this black on black that he's taught me. He taught me how to do that and we do the you know plan, all the colors. We have all the colors packed, the paints packed, the brushes packed, everything is like packed for the journey, I guess you could say. Then, when I show up at the event, then we apply all the color and there's times that you know he'll even creating these and prepping them at home.

Speaker 2: 39:14

You know, doing the black on black, he'll show me the greater, you know, the greater vision of it, but he'll leave out some details and he'll even like there'll be kind of a space and I don't know. I'm like, okay, lord, what goes here? And he's like, oh, you'll find out later. You know, I'll put some, don't worry about that. You know, right now, and literally he won't tell me until we get there in front of people and I'm actually executing his vision on canvas and painting it, that he will show up and, and at times he's even shown up in the paintings that there were like I had no grid for what he was going to do.

Speaker 2: 39:57

You know, he'll put things in the paintings that I he didn't even tell me about. I love it and those are, oh, it's fascinating, it's absolutely fascinating and at first it was, you know, pretty scary Part of the process of working with him. Now, now it's my joy, I love that. You know I'm like, oh boy, that's going to be like, you know, a treasure in the dark. You know, treasure found later that I didn't know about, you know, and, and even now it's like, you know, I've learned to enjoy that factor of our relationship. As you know, painter and rabbi artist so much that you know, one day, I know that he's going to disclose to me, you know, things that he put in the strokes or conversations that he was having with people during that painting that I have no idea about. I'll get to hear those things, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 40:59

So beautiful. Thank you for you know walking us through that process and you know that process and you know the back end of you know your beautiful artwork with the Lord, because it truly is. I love that you talked about jumping off a cliff with a backpack because you know, like I said, we have a lot of similarities and we have differences and I've had moments where, you know, in my life where the Lord's called me to do something that I would call very stretching, and if it's just say yes and it's like that is so outside of my comfort zone, but when you say yes, there's such a a piece over it but yet there still is an element, maybe if you're stepping into something that is like so outside of you, right, that is, you know there is going to be, you know there is going to be. You know he says do not fear how many different times in the Bible, because he knows that we will experience some of that Right. But when I left the job like in 2021, I actually he said, go Right. And it was so outside of what would make sense in the natural and I I literally imagined to myself like jumping off a cliff with a backpack and knowing that there would be a parachute in it, but I I didn't get a chance to even see the parachute and, trusting in that, you know, free fall, right, it truly is a free fall. There's freedom in just jumping with him, right, um. So you like experience that as well, I've.

Speaker 1: 42:32

I've talked to some other people who've taken some big steps and they've also had those, uh, you know, moments of feeling like they're jumping off a cliff. So we're, we're part of the same club, but we've done it in different ways. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so, yeah, so good um, so I wanted you to share, if you're open to it, um, can you share, like, maybe one of your favorite um paintings and what like? Why it's has impacted you so significantly? Which one is your favorite, can you say? Can you narrow it down? See, I'm not a painter.

Speaker 2: 43:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 43:13

Well actually I probably can In 2000,. I guess 17 or so, I'm not even completely sure, but I think it was 2017. I got an invitation to paint at at Red Rocks Amphitheater and in front of it it was 10,000 people. And, yeah, just when you think you get comfortable and you know what you're doing, God moves again. And just make sure that you know you stay humble in the process.

Speaker 2: 43:50

And so, anyhow, I got you know, I had the incredible experience and opportunity to prep two paintings to do kind of right beside each other on the same night at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, which is absolutely stunning. The scenery is just stunning, it's outside and everything. It's amazing worship leaders and things. It was an incredible invitation, no-transcript, and because I have found that in order for an artist to release something from the inside you know, an experience, an encounter, we have to digest it and take it in and carry it, even for a period of time and really sit with it. Um, for the anointing to come onto it to release it, and especially in a situation where there's, you know, 10,000 people.

Speaker 1: 45:24

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:25

Yeah, and so the Lord took a lot of time. Um, it didn't. You know, that part didn't surprise me because it was the largest audience that we had painted for. And so I sat with these two paintings and both of them are kind of my favorites, but one of them just literally undid me because I was prepping it, you know, by myself, and doing the black on black, and God had shown me, and it's actually vessels of restitution, or let's see, vessels of restitution and revival, I believe, and a reformation, I'm sorry, vessels of reformation and revival. There's so many R's floating around in the spiritual realm right now, but anyhow, he had, you know, given me that vision. I'd sat with a long time and kind of came to the point that, okay, now it's time to get it on, prep the canvas, and so I started laying it out. It's very complicated, it has five ships in it.

Speaker 2: 46:23

The Lord has always done things very symmetrically and, you know, in a square. There's a whole lot of reasons that he has me do it this way. Some of what he does and how he creates through me is that to keep all doorways open, even things being out of balance, can inhibit his spirit from like getting to flow as freely as he would like. You know, if things are done, if it, if the vision is done with artistic excellence, then it provides even a greater tool for him to use. I guess is what I'm saying, cause you know how it is. We've all like walked past something and even if you're not an artist, but you notice it and you're like something's off in that painting, you get stuck. You know you get stuck there. So part of what I do with him is remove those things. And so the symmetrical part, you know is is pretty big, with the, with the paintings that are done, live and things. He likes the balance and so this one has five paintings.

Speaker 2: 47:35

The flag, I mean five ships. The flagship in the middle is literally, you know, like right in the middle. And so, as we were doing the ships, you know I'm like, okay, lord, this flagship, what do you want on the helm? You know the wood, what do you want there? And what I saw in my spirit was a dove and like with the head down and the wings going out, you know where it's actually carved into the wood, and but a dove. So I started drawing that. You know I could feel him on it. It's like, yes, you know.

Speaker 2: 48:14

And so I start drawing that, as I'm, you know, seeing it in my spirit and, you know, step back and I'm like, okay, that's, you know, in my natural realm, going okay, that looks pretty good, you know. And getting it laid out on the canvas. And I kind of sat back a minute and God was like I could, I could feel Jesus almost walk into the room and he's like look again. You know, like he had a surprise or something. He's like look again. And I'm like, okay. So I'm like looking at it again and I'm like I see a dove, you know, there's a dove, you know. And so I sat there a minute Cause I'm like I don't, I don't understand you know what. Why do I feel this like electric happy in the atmosphere? You know, like you're about to get me in a good way and surprise me. And he's like look again. And so I like, leaned in, you know, I'm on my little stool and I leaned in and I'm like looking at my own lines. I mean, you have to keep in mind, I drew these, you know, and I'm looking at my own lines and suddenly the dove is also. It's like a vision on. A vision is also an eagle looking upwards with its mouth open with its mouth open.

Speaker 2: 49:36

I so did not intend like it was not even in my grid of artistry to to do that. It was brilliant, it was so brilliant, but it was something I could, like I did not come up with. I take no credit for that brilliancy. It was incredible and it was so shocking that at first I like like took my breath back and kind of laugh, like you know, and then I just started crying Because I was like the magnitude of the master artist literally had taken my hands over in my quiet little studio, with just him and I, and created something so far beyond myself, you know, so far beyond the natural. Yeah, you know, it was like, and he's like, yeah, and there's so much to be taught from that. You know, one day I'm sure he'll do that. Um, that he revealed to me, you know, as.

Speaker 2: 50:35

And so then, as I started like prepping it and sitting with him and all of this and and looking at it and just going, oh my gosh, I'm not touching it. I'm not touching it and I'm working on everything around it, but I'm not touching that. You know, it is done, it's ready, and um, and God was just like. You know you come to us. He said I want my children to come to me in a position of such humility you know it's like a dove before me and and and they're bowed before me and graced with humility and, but in that humility is power and that they may see, and even their. You know the people around them in the earthly realm are going to look at them and see them as kind of lowly and humble. You know it's the scriptures that we have to that refer to this bow low and you will be lifted high, you know, and they may see that version of that person. But from heaven's perspective, this is what I see the fierce eagle that has their mouth wide open and is screeching for my sake, and the power that's on the eagle. That's how heaven sees the humble and that's the anointing that can come when you place your heart in the position of humility like that. The anointing looks like this and I was like. I mean it was just by the time, god's done with me. You know, with this, with that one, I'm just sitting down there sobbing. You know it's just like.

Speaker 2: 52:24

And that encounter with the Lord, that memorable conversations over that painting, I was just like God, I can't get this one, I can't give this one up. You know I can't give this one up. And he was so sweet and kind and he's like, he's like you don't have to, this one's yours. You know, you get to keep this one, it's yours. And so that one, because of the level of artistic excellence that did not actually come from me, it's just him moving through me, unbeknownst to me. I, you know, I treasure that image, I treasure that canvas and I think that in a degree, I think that in a level, he does as well, because it was almost like his gift to me. You know that was over a decade into what we do. You know him and I painting together and so yeah, but that would be my favorite one.

Speaker 1: 53:22

Such a visual of you know, we haven't. You know we've talked a little bit back and forth on social media and, like I know you through social media and I've talked to you before this and you know just, I just see it as such a visual representation of how he sees you and it's so beautiful. You know the, the power, the Holy spirit, power and the powerful Eagle, like, oh my gosh, I, is this something that you're able to share with us, to be able to see, like I want to see it? Maybe you can just show me.

Speaker 2: 53:53

Oh yeah, I don't, it's actually kind of in storage right now.

Speaker 2: 53:57

I'm in between studios and things. My life's a little interesting right now, but it is in my possession. But I can, definitely I can send you the link. Is that something people can purchase? Yes, yeah, you can purchase the prints. The original it's mine, but the prints, yes, definitely do. Yeah, there's prints. He actually. The revelation that goes with this painting corporately is like seven pages long.

Speaker 2: 54:35

My website, I have multiple collections. If I get to create everything that God has put in my spirit to create in this lifetime, I need to live, to be about 300. Spirit to create in this lifetime, I need to live to be about 300. It's, you know, it's amazing. We paint and I, we paint my dreams. I paint my sleep constantly.

Speaker 2: 55:00

You know creativity, but there's several. You know I have abstracts. I kind of have all water levels, I guess you could say, of encountering the Lord through the artwork that he and I do. This particular painting is like you know you walked in and there's nothing under. You know you walked into the ocean and you're way out there and there's no land in sight. That's what the treasury collection is. It's the heavy, prophetic, revelatory deeper waters collection and it's. They were created live and this painting was is one of those, and so they all have. Every painting that I do has scripture associated with it on the website, but these have scriptures and have revelatory writing to go with it, and this one is like seven pages long. If you type it out, do you, do I? What Do?

Speaker 1: 56:13

you have books in you.

Speaker 2: 56:16

I've already written two books. One of them isn't on the website. I actually wrote it in 2016. I'm really sitting with the Lord on what to do with that book. I have copies and everything of it, but it's it's just interesting. It's a and, but it is written from a painting called the journey of destiny, so it's more like a photography revelatory book. It's very, very, very different book. It's very, very, very different. Again, no map for that he's working on. There's a painting on that I have done. That's called the sword of inspiration, and that one as well has had a very long revelatory prophetic piece to go with it. And so the God, god is wanting me something. I'm kind of'm kind of praying for time to open up and even mental space to write and to formulate books from some of these pains, because they carry so much within them.

Speaker 1: 57:29

Yeah, I was seeing that for for you, so definitely press in with him um, I, I was gonna share, um, you know, definitely follow cody on on social media. Um, I don't even remember how I came across you. I just have this love prophetic painting and, um, I again, I don't know how I found you, but when I did I was like, oh my gosh, everything here, um, but I have a story behind one of the paintings that I picked up I think it was last year and it's the anointing of the archers, and I won't get into the story behind it, um, for sake of time, but, um, it does hold such a deep significance for me and the prophetic word associated with it it just resonated so deeply.

Speaker 1: 58:15

I don't know, if you have it on hand. But I'll definitely post in the show notes a link to that painting. That really just it was very timely, let's put it that way. But I'd love to hear, like the heart, a little bit of the heart behind that specific painting, um, and the why behind creating it, if you're open to sharing that one was done um for a worship event, um, in longmont, color, colorado.

Speaker 2: 58:49

It was ongoing for quite a few years called Resound and the Lord. Really, he favored the atmosphere, his presence. He just thoroughly enjoyed the gathering of creatives and worshipers at this event. So it was a very open, open atmosphere for creativity and for his presence and, um, it was just wonderful. So I always enjoyed like prepping and getting to um, go to that event and that was one of the paintings.

Speaker 2: 59:22

One year um was the archer and the anointing of the archers and at that time sometimes God speaks things ahead of time and sometimes I have found his deepest words of revelation carry, no, they transcend time and they move from generation to generation. And I guess that's, you know, one of the privileges of what I get to do is at times I feel like I do get to touch eternity and transcend time with what he wants to put on canvas and what he wants to write. And that was one of them. There was a generation there that year that the anointing of the archer spoke to, but I knew, creating it, that it would happen again. I guess you could say again and again, and that there was, you know, women warriors, but men, warriors as well, that carried, that God was training up to carry the word of the Lord, both prophetically, through scripture, you know, simply hearing his voice, with decisiveness, clarity, a people of great focus on his heart, a people of great honor, kind of like the people of great honor, kind of like the times of the archers of old. They worked for the king, they would honor the king, everything they did was for the king and it kind of carries that, almost like renaissance of the Lord being the King and you're carrying, you're fighting for him, you are warring for him, you're living under his authority, you're operating from his authority.

Speaker 2: 1:01:22

And as a prophetic voice you know to live and operate in that place and that space. And but that there was a generation rising up that he was very much training and adoring to know that they are the beloved. They do hear his voice and he sees that they want to release his voice in the proper way, in the proper timing and directly from his heart, untainted. And the skills of the archer. So what is true in the supernatural is true in the natural. And the skills of the archer are very much they're able to.

Speaker 2: 1:02:08

You know, as a prophetic voice, he's training others, to be as the archers and very much able to tune out distraction, tune out other voices.

Speaker 2: 1:02:20

Actually, you know, turn inward and hear your own breath and hear your own breath with God and hear the breath of God. I don't know if you've ever my husband, you know I have shot a bow and arrow and the stillness that you have to find physically is extraordinary. And so the Lord, in that process of seeing his prophetic voices rise up as archers in his kingdom, so much overlaid with the skills of the archer and the natural, targeted, they come in stealth, almost Quiet, timely, timely, both in the natural it must be timely and to deliver the word of the Lord at the proper hour, at His beckoning, timely manner. To be that sensitive and that able to turn inward that you hear the heartbeat of the Father and tune everything else out. To be that focused you know, the eyes of your heart, that focused to release that word and to release that word where it's supposed to go, like an arrow. So it carries a lot as well.

Speaker 1: 1:03:59

That painting carries a lot as well so beautiful and it even, you know, whenever I I've had a lot that I've shared with women over time in relation to an archery, and it's that pulling back right, kind of like Jesus did, um, that representation of, of the pulling back so that we can be released, so we can, you know, hit the mark like we were talking, or you can't, you know, step into something. You know there's, there's just so many people that are just caught up in so much noise and if they're so caught up it's so hard to aim, can't even aim. You're just, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 1:04:40

It's, it's just yeah yeah, no, the world is spinning and you have to be able to, um, you have to be able to turn inward and, almost, in essence, lock out the world.

Speaker 1: 1:04:55

Yeah well, I would love to hear more like maybe I'll have you on another time.

Speaker 1: 1:05:00

You know we'll have to, okay yeah thank you so much for sharing everything you've shared. Um, one of the things I do at the end of every episode is I always ask if you would be open to sharing with the one that is listening in today, because he called me to do this for the one, and I would love for you to think of that person and to share any words of encouragement or wisdom you might feel led to speak over them, and then would you mind praying us out, yeah?

Speaker 2: 1:05:30

No, I would just say, if you, you don't have to know what you're doing when you say yes to the Lord, and in fact it is far more powerful If you die to your own agenda, die to your own knowledge, or what you call knowledge, and literally choose to surrender completely and say yes when he's asking you to do something that is so beyond you. That's how you know it's God. And I would also say, just, you know, once you find what that is, because we all have, we all have a destiny Jeremiah 29, 11. We all have plans that he has placed on us. We all have a purpose that he has placed on us. And when you discover that because he will bring it to you if your heart wants it, when you discover that and your spirit and heart recognize it your mind may not, but don't let go. And even if you don't have the support and you probably won't of those around you or the, you know, spiritual grid or the understanding, however you want to put it, of those around you, you know, don't let go. Do him the honor of not letting go and see what he will do with it, because when you show up one day before him, you will be known as in heaven, that you did not let go, that you walked into your purpose, your calling, inner destiny, and you, you did what he has asked you to do and you did it in faith, and there's no greater thing that we can give him. Is that our yes and amen and our trust. There's no greater thing that we can give him. Is that our yes and amen and our trust. There's no greater thing that we can give him.

Speaker 2: 1:07:36

So I'll go ahead and pray, abba, father, I just pray that you enrich the spirits of everyone who hears this Lord, that you highlight that which needs to be highlighted and that you disclose that which needs to be disclosed. And that, father, you just unleash your voice, that you unlock places within hearts and unlock dreams, and that you set their sails, father, into their journeys of destiny. Father, bring them the confidence that only heaven and your company can bring. Bring them, father, the resolution within their spirits that only you can bring. Father, I pray that you bless your pioneers, bless the savers out there, bless the people that are going into the unknown and willing to go into the unknown with you, father.

Speaker 2: 1:08:32

You're the most courageous being that ever walked the planet and you walk with them into the unknown. It's destination? Unknown, except it's the Father's heart. So, lord, I just bless the dreams. I bless the waves of creativity that you have placed within every soul you ever created. I bless, father, their eyes to see in ways they have never seen, and I bless their ears to hear the voice of their creator in ways they have never heard you before. May their night hours be full of the presence of heaven. In Jesus name, I pray Amen.

Speaker 1: 1:09:21

And Cody, oh my gosh, thank you so much. Oh, I just felt his heart for so many that are listening in today. How can listeners contact you? And I'll have all your information in the show notes, of course.

Speaker 2: 1:09:35

Probably the best way is just simply the contact form on my website and it's Cody C-O-D-Y-E Riestead R-E-Y-S-T-E-A-Dcom. Yeah, that's pretty well the best way. I'm not. I'm on social media, but I actually have a young lady that kind of does it for me. So if you want to reach me directly, it would be email through the contact page on my website.

Speaker 1: 1:10:06

Sounds good and again, I'll have this all in the contact or the show notes, but I would love to have you back again. I feel like you're just such a wealth of um, just beauty and knowledge and joy. You just like burst forth Holy spirit. So, um, I'm going to close. It's a God of hope. Fill you with all joy and peace and believing so the by the God of hope. Fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. And that's Romans 15 13. So, Cody, thank you for being a brave voice. Who's setting so many free? And thank you again for being here today. I will be back with another episode next week. Thank you, listeners.