We are 60 miles from a McDonald’s. We’re 60 miles from milk and we raise wheat. We don’t do cows much, but we don’t do, you know, I do not have a cow. If people ask me, why don’t you just get a cow? I’m like, No. But anyways, we live out in the middle of nowhere.

And God found me. You know so I just, a part of this story I believe too is God wants to encourage others, that if your heart is seeking Him wholeheartedly, like, you know, Jeremiah 29:11. Sometimes we don’t read on through 13: “if you seek Me with your whole heart, you will find Me.” And when I went into that place of seeking Him with my whole heart and giving that gift back to Him, that’s when all of this just poured out from heaven.

You know, this is your assignment. This is what I created you to do. This is, this is the partnership I have with you on this earth. To release My heart to My people. And it’s an honor to get to partner with God in that way.

And so what I feel like God’s kind of put on me to tell my story of the last 10 years of like, I got rocked, and you know, everything’s out of your control. And so I think that’s where God’s going is because He wants to encourage people. We’re all experiencing that right now. People know me as a painter. They know me as a creative author, things like that. I’ve done this for God for probably about 14 years, now that I think about it.

I heard the audible voice of God when I was eight years old. So my story is a little bit different maybe than some other stories, because God has just always been there. He’s just, He’s, His presence–I’ve always felt Him. I’ve always heard His whisper. Growing up artistically, a lot of people ask me, you know, have you always had this gift? Or have you always painted? That’s a very common question. And, and yes, it was a gift that God, you know, He gave, wove into my DNA, to be a painter to be, you know, creative. I grew up not knowing what I was supposed to do with that. There was always a holy restlessness that existed, I would read the Bible and I would like, see visions and see, you know, pictures and paintings and things that went with it. But, you know, I never knew what to do with that. For many years, I never knew what to do with that. I just couldn’t shake: God made me this way for a reason. He made me where I could create so easily, paint so easily. I mean, it’s just like breathing to me. Finally, um, you know, I went to college and got married, had, you know, two small kiddos running around.

And my youngest daughter was going to be–Oh, that day, we were going to do her dedication. And so she was barely walking. And there was a song that I just really, really wanted played at her dedication. And I could see an image of Jesus when I heard this song. And then, you know, my mom actually was the one who was like, “Codye, why don’t you just paint it? You know, if that’s what you’re seeing. It’s a small group, so why don’t you just paint it?” And I was like, Oh, I don’t know, you know, and I thought, well, okay, it’s for my daughter. I can’t sing very well, but I can paint. So I wanted to gift her with that. And so the pastor, he went with it, he’s like, okay, and, you know, this was, like I said, a small country church and none of us had been exposed to live prophetic painting. I didn’t even know that existed at that time. So I did that painting. There was a missionary that was actually a guest that morning that was there. He asked me to come and do another painting to auction off for missions. I thought well, that’s great. You know that that feels, that resonates. You know, I’m getting to give back to God, what I believe He gave to me in the first place. My gift is not mine. It’s His. And so I went and did that one. And turns out all this kind of happened in November, and by May of that same year, I was at a Grant Cook conference painting in front of 2000 people and did seven paintings in three days.

God did a crash course–boot camp, hardcore, you know, you’re gonna paint for Me, and my bones came alive. I just, you know, when you’re, when you find your calling, and it’s going to feel bigger than anything that you can do by yourself, that’s how you know it’s your calling that’s how you know it’s God. That’s how you know it’s your assignment in life is when you feel there’s a bit of impossibility upon it. But during all of this, that would be the painter story a little bit. But what the pieces that, you know, there’s quite a few people that have, you know, they’ve heard that, it’s on my website, things like that. But the part that people have not heard is the fight to create behind it.

In 2010, just a few years into, you know, getting to paint for the Father, my health completely fell apart. And I mean, it radically, radically fell apart. I woke up one night and I was in so much pain that, you know, I had never really experienced that level of pain and I’ve had two kiddos. I lost, you know, probably 15-20 pounds within three weeks.

I couldn’t eat anything, hardly. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t. I mean, it was like, my world turned upside down. The part that actually bothered me the most was that my passion had always been listening to God’s voice. It will always be…His voice is my lifeline. And I was in so much physical pain that mentally I could not block that out, to hear Him and to be with Him like I had always been. And so that season in my life, like the physical came and just stole my intimacy with Jesus and my intimacy with the Father, and it just wrecked me. Because it was out of my control.

There was nothing that I could do.

In February of 2011, I was diagnosed with chronic, multiple, multiple chronic diseases, so that at least the answers came, then you know about what I was fighting. It helps to have a face to your giant.

What I deal with, the chronic disease that I deal with, is a blood-born disease. So you don’t know what organs it might show up in next. You know, medically, I have now sat in front of doctors that are like, they are astonished because they’re like, Codye, you know, your blood work, you should have had heart disease. You should have had, you could have had a heart attack by now. You could have had seizures by now. You could have had a stroke by now. You could be in a wheelchair. I mean, you know, it’s literally floored the medically, you know, medical doctors. And I get to say, I get to stand in that space, I’m like, no, that’s not God’s plan for me. There was a point in my life or in this story where I had to say, God, I want the greater story. I want the glory story.

I want the story that will bring more people into the kingdom. And if my life can be more powerful by you choosing to leave this disease, because I know You can heal it anytime You want to. You can take it in a breath. But if my life could be more powerful and more people could come to know You, then I give you permission to do what You need to do, Father. I came to that point of like, I’m sold out, God. If this is my story, and it’s more powerful to walk on this planet and walk through the desert of disease, then then so be it. You know, I even had a vision of like, I’m walking barefoot in the desert, no water, no supplies, you know, nothing. And I’m trying to avoid a minefield of disease.

And, but here’s some things you know, and I actually had these conversations like God, how do I partner with You to get through this? How do I live daily? You know, the only way you’re going to make it through this with any legacy behind you is to keep following Him and not, you know, not get distracted. And so you shift from praying “God, you know, give me strength to get through this,” instead, He is your strength, He is your peace. You know, because you are in a place where you are completely out of your control, you’re completely out of your element, you’ve got nothing. You’ve been stripped raw. It’s a complete yielding and surrendering and, and death to self.

Every masterpiece starts on a raw canvas, you know, every sculpture starts from getting your hands dirty and forming the dirt. And you know, that’s how man was created, was in the mess. And, you know, so there’s beauty in the ashes. There’s beauty in the desert, but there’s much to be had. And I think that’s where God’s taking His people is learning how to walk in the unknown. And the being shaken and and you know everything out of your control and actually putting the rubber to the road. There’s a holy well of resource in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit that I believe God is bringing so many into through all of this chaos right now, to learn how to tap into, it’s like, because I’ve heard people say, I don’t have the strength to get through this. I don’t, I’m just not a courageous person or whatever. I’m like, No, no, you have the most courageous Being to ever walk the planet living within you. You have a well of courage. You have a well of strength, you have a well of wisdom. Now you’re learning how to–when you’re sacked out and you’ve got nothing, that’s when you realize that you have this well of reserve, you know, to tap into, and that’s where I believe the supernatural power of living a kingdom-focused lifestyle, you know, comes from is when, when we learn how to flip our mindsets and actually live in Jesus.

You know, there comes a point where when you wake up in pain, you wake up to a disease that, you know can put you in a wheelchair, medically. You know, can give you a stroke. You know can, you know, literally cause you to have a heart attack. And when you’re walking not only as a mama, you know, just in life and things like that, but you’re walking as a creative, your very calling is being challenged on a daily basis. I’ve had to trust God when I’m standing at the canvas, and I can’t feel my hands.

So, you know, it started out that I would trust Him just to show up because I didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of a whole lot of people, you know, at the beginning of this. But that trust level is like now, when I painted in front of 10,000 people, I have to have the depth of trust that He’s going to literally show up in my hands, like, not only my heart, my soul, everything in me, but literally, physically in my hands. Because there are times, you know, with what I thought that it could very well affect what I physically do in front of people. You know, but because I’m painting His visions and His heart, and we’ve come into this beautiful partnership. In Worship on the Rocks, which is the Red Rocks, the 10,000 people gathering and, and God, just as I was preparing, I was down in my studio and just, you know, getting into that place with God to do what I do, to do what we do. And He, He came to me. He was, you know, and He’s like, Do you trust Me? Do you really? Do you really trust Me? I’m like, Yeah, Lord, you know? Yeah, we’ve done this for years now. Yes, Lord. Yeah, I do.” And He’s like, no; He said, Would you trust Me for you to paint with your eyes closed? If I asked you to shut your eyes would you still do it? Would you still get up there in front of 10,000 people you know, if I instruct You while you’re painting to shut your eyes? And I was like, well that’s a new one, you know, and because He does. When we paint together He gives very, very specific instructions, and very specific and, but this was a new one. And, you know, it’s like wow, okay God, you know just another level of holy dependency and yielding and surrender. It’s just another level, you know, really I shouldn’t be surprised. This is a big thing, okay, Lord, I’m like okay, God, I have no idea what I’m saying yes to, not really, and I know it. But I say yes, you know.

Well, we got to Worship on the Rocks and everything. I get up there. He never asked. I didn’t hear Him ask me. You know, shut your eyes and paint. I did not hear that while I was paint, while I was painting. Instead I heard directions, the lights were going crazy. You know, you’ve got a full worship set going on and I’m looking down and the lights are saying that the paint is green, but God is telling me, “No, Codye that paint is gold,” you know? So, I mean it was really it was not you know, that wasn’t on the radar. I thought okay, so I got done and the next day on the social media accounts, there was a picture and I was with my eyes shut at the canvas and my paintbrush was on the canvas, you know, I was painting with my eyes shut. And I just hit the floor in a puddle. You know, a good holy puddle. Because God did it. And I didn’t even know it.

And it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a, it’s been a fight to create. That would be the backstory of what’s behind them. There’s so much more because every stroke at times–some of those paintings have been a fight to create.