Lea encounters Jesus in her job as a graphic designer. Throughout the years, she has received revelation on what it is like to be an artist led by the Holy Spirit, submitted to His leadership, free from perfectionism and yet in pursuit of excellence for King Jesus. ‘’For the first time, I really felt the pleasure of God, but I could also say: I like what I just did.’’
Design and ministry
Having studied graphic design, Lea Fassbinder currently works as an artist, graphic designer, and video/photographer based in Southern Germany. On her own website, she writes: ‘’What I love to do is create art together with Holy Spirit to glorify and point back to my favorite inspiration and supreme designer – Jesus. I like to find myself creating something new with Him all the time, whether that be in a project or just simply worshipping Him on my rooftop.’’
She shares: ‘’I always felt a passion for design and for beautiful things, and I always wanted to do it for God. After doing Bible school, I felt I wanted to be part of something big for the Lord, but I also wanted to do some design things for the Lord.’’ Although she did not expect it, God led her right back to her hometown after Bible school. Now, she has the privilege to be the media director for Awakening Europe and to lead a media team that does graphic design, videography, photography, social media, and marketing.
Challenging the sacred-secular divide
Lea continues to share the importance of dismantling the sacred-secular divide. ‘’Especially in Europe, we are pioneering the idea that you can do something that does not look spiritual, but you can actually do it together with God, in partnership with Him. You can still be part of His story while doing a ‘normal’ job, like a graphic designer.’’
You can still be part of His story while doing a ‘normal’ job.
When struggling to find out whether she should continue in graphic design or go into full time ministry after Bible school, Lea received a prophetic word that said she could combine the two. This was both eye-opening and freeing to her. ‘’I always had the longing for a greater purpose. I felt accomplished doing design in a normal job, but I had this longing to feel more purposeful, and I knew there must be something available.’’
I always had the longing for a greater purpose.
‘’I met some people that were in a ‘normal’ job, and they were so Spirit-filled! They had dreams and visions of color patterns and so on, but they were not on stage or in a typical ministry role. This inspired me so much that I thought: how can we break even religious patterns in Europe, and tap into something that sometimes looks so dry or even separated from God? I knew to be creative before with God and without God, and it became my idol. I fell in love with design, but now doing it with the Holy Spirit is just more alive.’’
The pressure of performance and perfectionism
Working together with the Holy Spirit also lifted the load of perfectionism off of Lea’s shoulders. ‘’I think especially as a creative person and working either as a graphic designer, videographer, filmmaker, or anything creative like that, you have the tendency to strive out of perfectionism. You always can work on something and it never really is finished.’’
Although having an intense passion for design is great, Lea also experienced the downside thereof. ‘’In my school I was always highlighted and one of the best, and I could see that God put favor on me for creating amazing designs. I fell in love with design, but it also put a burden on me at the same time. It had to be perfect and outstanding.’’
‘’Excellence coming from God is so freeing!’’
Lea shares about a special time in her life where things changed as she started to really develop her own personal relationship with God. She shares the moment that she drew a picture of the face of Jesus amidst the tendency of going down another spiral of perfectionism: ‘’I was never really good at creating portraits of people, but I just let my hands go without thinking.’’
‘’I encountered Jesus, and then there was something nice that came out of it. For the first time, I really felt the pleasure of God, but I could also say: I like what I just did. It was so freeing. Excellence coming from God is so freeing!’’
For the first time, I really felt the pleasure of God, but I could also say: I like what I just did!
Working outside of time
Lea also shares openly about the tension between deadlines and working together with the Holy Spirit and creating out of a place of rest. ‘’I would just want everybody to see what I can create if I just have more time, but at the same time, sometimes I even put a sticky note on the clock on my computer. We have access to heavenly places, and we can work outside of time.’’
We have access to heavenly places, and we can work outside of time.
She continues, ‘’You have to find peace in Him in order to create something nice, because otherwise, it’s a product out of a burden of religion. Even if there’s not so much time, I always try to first connect with Him and look at Him. With my team, we seek God every Monday. We pray together, we connect with Him and we ask God for a theme for the week.’’
‘’In the natural realm, you may only have ten minutes to do something, and you can come under this time pressure. One time, I needed to finish a trailer for something, and the facts were that I had only half an hour. But the truth was that I did not have to come under the time pressure. One of my mentors said: Don’t make time your Lord, because you already have a Lord.’’ You can quickly make time your Lord when He wants to be your Lord.
Don’t make time your Lord, because you already have a Lord.
Real success
Lea goes on to share about what she now sees as real success, and how she can differentiate between designs that came out of a place of connection with God, and those that did not. ‘’I can see the difference between for example event shirts or designs that were going really well and things where I wouldn’t be so connected to God or came under time pressure. You can always tell the difference.’’
She recalls a moment from Easter 2024 where she had to post something on a very busy day. ‘’I just spent time with God even longer. Sometimes we think it’s only successful if you are actually working, but real success, I would say, is more if you really do it out of His presence.’’
‘’I spent time with God, and I asked Him to reveal to me more about what I wanted to create. I closed my eyes, I imagined the post in front of me and I already imagined how people would respond to it and who would share it. Doing it so connected with Him was the most life-giving thing. I had a beautiful day with Jesus, creating something beautiful that many pastors would share and that touched many people.’’
