He loves us. For real.

Okay so the intercession blog is coming but I really wanted to share this. This past week I’ve just been receiving this revelation from the Lord that I thought I knew buuuut apparently did not. I guess I should get used to the fact that I’m never gonna fully understand one facet or revelation of God…He’s kinda eternal and all Brittany. Anyways, the other day as I was having my chill time, all the sudden it just really hit me; I don’t have to strive or do anything to earn God’s love. I can just receive it. Freely.

Now, I have heard that truth for about 3 years or so. Having tracked with IHOP for about the same time, that’s one of the foundational messages you’ll hear from there. I’ve heard teachings about it, I’ve sung about it, I’ve talked about it, I’ve read about it, and I definitely have shed quite a few tears already receiving bits and pieces of that truth. But I feel like recently I’ve received it like it was brand new or something, as if I were hearing it for the first time. It’s actually starting to make sense in my head. I slowly began to feel as if this weight was being lifted off of me. The Lord was just highlighting to me how in the past, and even still at moments currently, I’ve had this striving thing with people, either doing things or saying things just to get a response or to feel accepted and loved. I never realized how much energy I’ve put into all that. The Lord, rather simply actually, basically told me that He’s not like that and that I don’t have to do that with Him. I don’t have to say anything, I don’t have to do anything, I don’t have to accomplish X,Y,Z in order for me to receive of His love. I don’t have to do anything! Just because of who He is and who I am to Him, I get ALL His love for free because of the blood of His Son. I still feel like I’m in the middle of this transition of receiving this and the Lord releasing me from a burden I was never meant to carry but it’s bringing so much peace to my heart. Even when I was at IHOP last week I kept getting words from people about the Lord telling me that I don’t have to strive to get His affections and all that. When I would receive that I actually remember thinking something like, “I already know this.” Note to self: stop saying that lol. Noooooow I can see how He was tilling the ground for my heart to receive this truth in a fresh way. Thank You Lord for being so patient with me!

I’m constantly blown away at the way the Lord loves and what that means about the way He relates to me and how He desires me to relate to Him. He does the total opposite of everything that hurt me in the past. He always accepts me, always includes me, always desires me, is always excited when He thinks about me, and will never let me go. He’s not indifferent or passive and He never holds His love back from me. Even before I loved Him, He gave what was most precious to Him.

I remember talking to a friend of mine a while back about the way the Lord loves us. I think she was talking about how the Lord is love and all. I can’t remember the exact phrase that she said but it was something like, “Because of who He is, He couldn’t help but love you.” I just love that. He can’t help Himself and will do whatever it takes for us to truly believe and receive that. He can not deny Himself.

So no more striving . Just sit there and let Him enjoy you.

“…that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:7-9)

A Rejoicing Artist!

Guess what I fouuunddd ?!

I had a feeling this was going to happen. After figuring out that the drawings definitely had to be somewhere in my room I just kept asking Holy Spirit where they were. I found myself walking over to a shelf with a journal I had on it and thought, “Hmm, maybe I threw them in something.” And lo and behold there they were! All four of my drawings and then some. I was so happy that I did a little “thank Yaa” dance.

I have no idea why I decided to put those in the back pocket of this journal but I’m just happy that I have them now . With that I know what it means a little more personally now when Jesus talks about the other end of the parable of the lost coin.

Luke 15:8 – “And when she has found it [the lost coin] she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

This is our Papa. Jesus said “likewise.” That means that like the woman, The FATHER called together all the heavenly hosts that stand before His presence and said REJOICE WITH ME. He celebrated us! And continues to each day. Over one. Over an individual. This isn’t just some general “party for the people who just came into the kingdom today! Wooh!” The Father desires to have a celebration for that specific individual because they  are so significant to His heart. That’s so amazing. So He had a “Brittany Zampella” celebration. I mean, even if you kinda think about it, no kid likes to share their birthday party with someone really. I know I never was really a fan of that growing up. I wanted my own special day. And yeah, maybe there was some selfishness in that lol but I still think there’s a truth there. It’s the truth that we all desire to be solely celebrated, to be the center of attention. That desire in and of itself is not wrong. What’s wrong is when we cling to the eyes of man to meet that and bank on the opinion of man for validation. That desire is supposed to drive us headlong into our heavenly Father. Because the truth is, we are the center of Someone’s attention. We are celebrated. And not by some nobody, this is the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE we’re talking about here. That fact that we still value the opinion of man more than that reality shows us how far we are from really understanding who He is. And I’m speaking to myself here too. The Lord has brought a mighty transformation in my heart concerning this issue, but there are still little remnants of the belief that the opinions and words of man matter more. But I know from experience that as we take the word, the scriptures that talk about who we are to Him and how He has set His love on us and meditate on them, sing them, read them, whatever, they WILL get formed into a reality in our hearts. We come to a place where one day we’re like, “Wait a minute…I actually believe this.” It’s my testimony. Don’t get me wrong, it is a process. Whether it’s a couple hour process or couple month process, a process is still a process so patience with ourselves is key. But we can find comfort in what David said here:

Psalm 51:6 – Behold, YOU desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You WILL make me no wisdom.

He wants it more than we do and it’s a promise from His word that He WILL make us know it deep on the inside

Weeelll, sorry if this post seems kinda all over the place, didn’t expect to get off here. This is definitely stuff I wanna be thinking on more. And as for my drawings? They are hanging up in my room so they will now be ever before me

Psalm 41:12 – As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, and set me before Your face forever.

I Have An Active Father!

Lately I’ve been kinda feeling like a lot of areas in my life are gonna start to get interesting from this point on. One of those areas being my finances. Most people who looked at my situation would probably be anxious for me. Circumstances don’t look ideal to everyone else but praise the Lord I just have so much peace about it. What’s so cool to me too is that a big reason that I have peace is because I’m beginning to practice this whole giving extravagantly reality. I feel like I would be more worried if I wasn’t going to be giving extravagantly. It’s hilarious to me, the ways of the kingdom and all. Today while I was in my car and talking to the Lord about all this, I remembered how I was going to be giving and it gave me such security and peace in my heart. What would seem “normal” is if I had thought, “It’s going to be okay because I have X amount of money saved up.” But how it really went down was, “Oh yeah! I’m going to be giving though so I’ll be okay!” Haha I love it.

As I continued to talk to the Lord I just started to confess His goodness over my life. When I said, “You’re a good Father, You’re a good Father” the Lord began to touch my heart, tears came a-flowin’, all that jazz and then this phrase comes out of my mouth, “You’re an active Father.” And I just started to laugh with joy. Nothing crazy but it just made me so happy. And I just got this revelation that He’s doesn’t just feel like a Father, He acts like one!

There are certain emotions that are entailed in a father’s heart. Most of us all are aware of that. The fact that God is our loving Father means that He’s compassionate, tender, and the list goes on for eternity. But, there are also certain actions that are specificialy related to fathers. Fathers are usually the ones that take care of us, give us things, bless us, etc. They “bring home the bacon” so to speak. Point being, they provide. As I kept confessing that He is an active Father it released such contentment and peace in my heart, just knowing that my Father is one who acts on my behalf. He’s not just sitting on His throne loving me, He actually MOVES and does things for me =D! He makes stuff happen. This get’s me excited about what’s going to happen the next couple months now. What is He going to do? How’s He gonna make it happen? I remember when I was praying for the provision to do FITN I would tell Him all the time, “You gotta do Your thing, go ahead and show off .”

He’s an active Father. He moves when we ask Him. Man, there’s so much that I have floating around in me related to this now but I think if I try and spill it all out it’ll just be all over the place. Hopefully I can blog about this some more then. I really want this revelation to encourage whoever might be reading this. I mean, even as I write this I feel so much peace in my spirit knowing that I have a Dad who’s going to take care of me, that I don’t have to father myself. He’s my Dad, that’s His job

Psalm 77: 13- “Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does wonders…”

God Likes My Haircuts?

Last night I had the IHOP-U Awakening on and this girl Vanessa was giving this testimony about how she encountered the love of the Father. The whole thing is awesome but there was this one part in particular that just really did something to me. She was explaining how one of her friends who was praying for her started to prophesy over her and speak from the heart of the Father. One of the things He said was something like, “I was there all those years and was excited to see the woman that you would become, I was even excited for every haircut you had.” Now, her whole testimony my heart’s getting touched but when I heard that I was like, “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat????” He was excited even about every haircut she got. For real?!

It’s kind of funny too because lately I’ve been thinking about how I need to get my hair cut and what I’d want to do and for some reason I didn’t think God really cared about that. I almost like, felt bad that I wanted to get a haircut a little. I thought that ya know, because that wasn’t something that had some sort of “eternal purpose” that my Father was just kind of indifferent towards it. I didn’t think that He thought it was wrong but I just pictured Him I guess with this kind of, “whatever, that doesn’t really matter and isn’t really important” expression on His face. But when she said that I realized that there was a side of the Father that I really didn’t know yet. The delight that He has even in the little things in my life. He actually cares.

I started to think about how earthly parents get super excited about little stuff like that too. I mean, I know that when my daughter gets her hair cut or picks out certain clothes she likes or whatever, I’m definitely going to be excited about it because it’s like celebrating her beautiful uniqueness. And if earthly parents feel that way, how much more does our perfect Father?

Hearing that testimony has made me wonder what other seeming seemingly small things my Father treasure about me. I’m still kind of like, “Really though? You really were excited about every haircut?” It’s the fact that He cares about that stuff that unlocks something in me. I just need revelation of my Father who treasures.

Vanessa’s testimony: