Today is the fourth of July. Today we celebrate the freedom we still have in America. Let me emphasize the word STILL. We are free but not as free as we once were. Some freedoms that we thought would never go away are eroding before our very eyes. However, I am still glad to be a Christian who lives in America.

I have a question for you today. Are you a Christian who happens to live in America or are you an American who is a Christian?

You might think there is not a significant difference, but there is. The one that comes first defines where your citizenship is. I am a Christian who happens to live in America. When I became a Christian, I pledged my allegiance first and foremost to Jesus above anything else. I became at that moment a citizen of heaven. I have a future that is secure. As a citizen of heaven, I am under Jesus’ rules, and I am 100% free all the time. No matter what happens in America I will live forever with Jesus, and I have access to every promise Jesus spoke in the Bible and unlike earthly politicians Jesus keeps every single one of his campaign promises. When Jesus speaks, He does not need to be fact checked. When Jesus speaks, He has your best interests in mind all the time!

One more thing, when you become a Christian, you are not only a citizen, but Jesus says you are adopted into His family. You become a royal! You are a prince or a princess as far as God is concerned. What do royals enjoy when they go to any other nation? Diplomatic Immunity. We have that with Jesus!

This means that we really don’t have to worry about what happens in this world. Nothing can affect our future in heaven and God will do things for us on this earth. For example, inflation, I don’t have to worry because Jesus said if I put my trust in Him, I will always be taken care of. That has been the case. I always have enough and many times more than enough even though prices are going through the roof. I can’t explain it, except that Jesus keeps His promises.

Many say well that does not happen for me, and I am a Christian. The question is how you view your citizenship. Are you an American who is a Christian or are you a Christian living in America. I hope it is the second. The second one is what God wants and what God responds to in miraculous ways to bless you!

Why because Jesus loves you, I love you, and you are awesome!

Jesus has over 5300 promises in the Bible for us. Jesus says that we will have an abundant life. Jesus says that we will do greater things than He did. It seems that being a Christian should be amazing all the time. Sadly, many do not feel that, and wonder where this exciting life is as a follower of Jesus.

The problem is in the phrase, "follower of Jesus". Many people claim to follow Jesus. When you follow someone, where are you? You're behind them, not part of the action, and not having a say in what happens. Following gets boring really fast.

Jesus does not want you to just follow Him, He wants you to have a relationship with Him. When you are in a relationship, you face things together side by side (if you are in a good relationship). Now, we don’t like to face things. We want to follow behind where it is safe. I get that, but you are with Jesus. With Jesus, you are safe! Jesus will not let anything happen to you because He is with you. You face everything together. Jesus makes the good even better, and then when the bad comes, you have Romans 8:28 to remind you that it will turn out for your good.

In order to really appreciate Jesus, and have the amazing life you want to have, and the life that quite frankly Jesus wants you to have, you have to walk with Jesus, not behind Him, so that you can experience it all.

The disciples followed Jesus while He was on this earth. Their lives were exciting, but they were scared most of the time. For example, when Jesus calmed the sea while they were in the boat, as noted in Matthew 8:25-27. When Jesus did this great miracle, they should have been rejoicing, but they missed the moment and just had questions. When Jesus left, they were afraid again.  They were hiding in the upper room when the Holy Spriit came into their lives on the day of Pentecost, and everything changed. They were no longer afraid of anything. Their lives became exciting in a way that they looked forward to, and they embraced all that came their way. They lived with anticipation and wonder of what was going to happen next, with a "bring it on" attitude.

What changed? They stopped following Jesus and had a real relationship with Jesus.

Many Christians are content to just follow behind, and you can, but it isn't exciting. If you want to make a difference, see revival, and see miracles, then STOP just following Jesus from behind, and walk with Him in a relationship and watch your life change for the better each and every day! We have access to 5300 promises. That's more than one a day!

Jesus wants you to have an exciting life for two amazing reasons. (1) He wants you to have the time of your life. (2) He wants others to see it and want what you have.

Why? Because Jesus loves you, I love you, and you are awesome!

Does God make my life stressful? That is a good question, because it can sure seem that the Chrisitan life can add a lot of stress. Matthew 10:22 says that we will be hated simply because we believe in Jesus. In John 16:33, Jesus says that we will face trouble in this world. God does allow us to be in situations that could be stressful. Why? Because others go through the same things in their life. They can then relate to what is going on. The key words are "could be" stressful.  It doesn’t have to be stressful for you. God gave us an amazing stress reliever that works every time and can be used whenever we want.

Unfortunately, we often try to handle the stress on our own to show how tough we are as a Christian. I have good news for you.  You don’t have to do that. However, many of us do, and then we get overwhelmed, and God never wanted that for us.

So, what is the greatest stress reliever of all time? One that works every time. The personal gift of tongues, your special prayer language with God. Some will say, are you sure that is for today? The devil would love for you to believe that it isn't, and not access the greatest stress reliever of all time. As we say at New Beginnings Church, don’t knock till you try it.

You may say, "I am not so sure about that". Let me talk about what this gift really is. It is not a public gift. (There is one for in the church, but that is only for certain people.) It is a special language just between you and God. Most couples have certain things only they understand. This is the same thing. Many think it is weird, but it is just between you and God and no one else. So, why would it be weird?

You have control over it when you use it. It will not just come out. Many think they will be walking around it will just happen.  Nope, that will not happen. God gave it to you to use when you want to use it.

It only works if you use it. Many have experienced their personal prayer language and are still stressed out. It is because they don’t use it for its intended purpose.

So, what is it’s intended purpose? It is for when you are in trouble. If you are stressed out, that would be the definition of trouble in your life.

When you are facing a stressful situation you speak in tongues, in private, and God goes to work for you. Jesus says many times in the Bible, where there are 2 or 3 witnesses, what is said will be done. When you pray in tongues, you hear it, the Spirit prays, and God hears. So, it will be done because there are 3 witnesses. It is audible so you know it will be done.

You may wonder why you don’t understand what you are saying. That is probably good. The reason you are coming to God is that you don’t know what to do about the situation, so you really have no idea what to say. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what you need and prays for you for exactly what you need. Pretty cool.

When you use your prayer language in this way, every single time the stress will immediately go away because God now has it, and you are promised that it will be taken care of. It is no longer your problem.  Now that is way cool. The stress is no longer an issue with you.

So how do you get your prayer language? It is pretty simple. Get with God in private and start speaking in something that is a language you do not know. You give God the words and the Holy Spirit gives the words the meaning, and God goes to work. It is really easy.

God gave every Christian this gift because He knew we would need this so we could live stress free. The kicker though, is that you must use it. What do you have to lose? Nothing, but all that stress.

The devil wants us to think this is weird, because the devil knows how important this gift is. This personal gift was given because Jesus said we would face a lot of stressful situations. Jesus wants us to go ahead and use this gift so that the stress will leave, and His comfort can be ours.

It is the greatest stress reliever ever.

If you have any questions about this, feel free to ask. I would love to share with you about this amazing gift available to all Christians.

Remember Jesus loves you; I love you, and you are awesome!

PS - Many people think this gift died out when the apostles died or after the first years of the church being established. However, nowhere in the Bible does God say that it died out. The only place where it is mentioned is in I Corinthians 13:8-10. I agree that when this scripture is fulfilled, we will no longer need a personal prayer language. This passage describes when the perfect has come. Jesus is the perfect one and when He comes back, and He is, then we will not need any gifts of the Spirit because we will be with Him.

Many Christians are told that this gift is not for today, and the devil loves for us to believe that, because the devil wants to pile on the stress. You can stop that stress in your life right now!  Turn to Jesus and talk to Him with your personal prayer language today.

A popular topic people debate about is can you lose your salvation? Many Christians debate this and debate it quite fiercely. When we do, we just cause confusion, and the world looks at us and wonders if we know what we are talking about.

Many come from the point of view that God will never take your salvation away, thus you can’t lose it. I completely agree! God will never take away His gift of salvation. Once He gives it to you. It is your gift forever. You cannot lose it by God taking it back.

Now it is a gift, and like any gift you can give it back. You don’t have to keep it if you don’t want to. God does not want you to give His gift back, but He will allow it, because He loves you. I don’t suggest doing this.

We are in a relationship with Jesus. In that relationship Jesus puts up with a lot from us, because we will still be messy. I John 1:9 was written because God knew we would mess up even after being saved. God gives us great grace and will never stop loving on us.

God does love us, and God does practice what He preaches. When you love someone, you give them the freedom to love you back or not. Love is also completely vulnerable, because the other person can break your heart at any time without your permission. God says He will always love you, and if you make the choice, that you don’t want to love Him anymore, God loves you so much, God respects you so much, that God will allow you to make that choice.

Romans 8:38-39 says that there is nothing in this world that can separate you from the Love of Jesus. It means nothing the world does will cause God to stop loving you. However, in that verse the only thing that is not mentioned or alluded to is you. You are the only one who can make that choice.

If you don’t want to be with Jesus, Jesus will not force you. I bet Jesus would love to, like I would love to force everyone I meet to accept Jesus, but we can’t because then it would not be love. Jesus is love, I John chapter 4 great chapter. He loves you so much that you have the choice.

You don’t lose your salvation, per se, people choose to walk away.

Some will say well they were not saved in the first place. First you have no idea what is in the mind of someone else. Second, remember this is about a relationship. If you are reading this you have had a relationship, family, friend, business, or romantic where at some point things changed and they did not want to be in a relationship with you anymore.  Everyone has experienced that. The point is that at some point they were truly in a relationship with you, all in, not looking to end it. So don’t be so quick to say that that person was not saved in the first place.

The good news with those who do walk away from Jesus, is Jesus still loves them, they still have that past experience with Jesus, and they can always come back no questions asked. Praise the Lord.

So why do people walk away? Why would they give up heaven? Relationships take work. Jesus will always do His part and more for you than you can ever do for him. The key is Jesus important enough to you to work at it and is Jesus still special to you. Those two things are necessary for someone to stay in a relationship.

If you know someone who has walked away from Jesus pray for them. Remember that they came to Jesus for a reason, He was important and special at some point. Then try to help them find that again. The worst thing you can do is get down on them, it will only push them further away.

Jesus still loves them and so should we. Sometimes we think reaching out is only for those who don’t know Jesus. Don’t forget that sometimes people get lost in their relationship with Jesus and need help to. Intentionally look to help them rediscover the spark in their relationship with Jesus.

You want to see revival, I think the world wants to see how we help our own before they give us a chance, and that makes sense. I also think Jesus wonders that too.

Remember Jesus loves you; I love you, and you are awesome!