Leon Fontaine - Energize Yourself
Hey, everybody! It is so good to have you with me today. We've got to deal with something really powerful today that's just been on my heart. And that is helping you to live in this way of being energized, excited, moving forward. Too many times as we get taught in God's Word, it's always on defense. The enemy's attacking us so bad, how to stay and how to make it through storm. Those are all important teachings. But you understand that the best way to do life is on offense, not on defense. And so what are we supposed to do? We are to be building the kingdom of God. We're to be living our lives with the promises of God. And so that the world sees the blessing, the favour of God on us. And the Bible says blessed means happy, fortunate, and to be envied. The way the gospel works is that we rise up in the blessing and the favour of God.
And people see how real God is, not just because we have to perform a miracle but that is absolutely a part of it. But this incredible supernatural favour on our lives that people look at us and go, "Whoa! How in the world are you seemed to be so lucky etcetera, etcetera". And so what stops so many people is that they have not renewed their mind. They don't walk in this constantly renewed fresh attitude and fresh mental excitement and passion. That they're just trying to exist and get through. Now, they'll quote everything I teach and say, "Yeah, the Word says. The Word says. The Word says". But what I'm looking for is that fire in the eye and that passion to get up and do something with excitement. That ability to see all that's going on around you, and to get up and just know God's going to see me through and not just see me through. I'm going to continue to build and to live out the call of God on my life to do this.
So let's dive into this. You know, when you talk about this, years ago I was doing a leadership conference and had a number of Navy Seals come out to it. They took me out for lunch afterwards and, you know, we just started talking about so many things. I mean, if you've watched documentaries on the Navy Seals, you'll know as well that they test out your mental toughness. They only accept a small percentage of all the trained, you know, people that come to them. And they want to know what will make you quit, what will make you turn, what will make your mind to give up, and it's crucial. Well, the same is true for the body of Christ. But we have an unfair advantage. It's just that we see ourselves as monks and religious men walking around saying peace, God bless you, rather than men and women who will rise up and build leaders of nations, generals of armies.
I mean, men and women in every sphere of life so energized, so driven by the vision on the inside of them. That no one wants to be a Christian and in many cases because they don't want to be that lukewarm, vanilla, apathetic, barely get by kind of life. People want to live with excitement and that's no wonder that even the kids, our kids and grandkids. They're not going to stick to Jesus and church if we just show them some tepid, lukewarm. God understands how crucial this is and He says, "Your lukewarm, I'll spits you out of my mouth". He needs us red hot, passionate, excited, rising up with zeal, living our lives in a way that people go, "Oh, my. Where did you get the energy? Where do you get the vision? Where did you get all this luck"? They think it is. And it's because we're constantly.
We can be constantly refreshed in the renewing of our mind. This spirit of our mind. And that's where so many Christians, they know the teaching. They just don't, oh, they don't know the teaching. They can parrot a few verses but they don't actually live this out. And so the Bible teaches us further on in Ephesians 4, that you must lay aside the old self. It says put off the old self, put on the new. Now, I believe as I see scripture, this is going on all the time. That has Holy Spirit is in your spirit. And as a born again believer. And the Bible says He searches your heart. What's He doing? He is looking for things that need to be moved out so that you will realize function and walk in the will of God. Not the will of your mom, your dad, your background. Not the wrong beliefs, the misbeliefs, not the things that cause fear and cowardice.
Holy Spirit with the Word of God and praying in the Spirit, something powerful takes place as the entrance of His Word brings light. And you begin to put off these areas in you, and then you put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You put on His Word. You literally putting on God's way of thinking. You literally putting on, "This is the way God thinks. This is the way God made you and what God thinks is fine with me". And you live at an amazing place. Another incredible portion of scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:34, it says, "Awake to righteousness". We, so many people see this because it goes on talk about your sin and do not sin. It says, "For some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame".
Now, what does it mean to awake to righteousness? Well, absolutely you realize the finished work of Jesus means nothing you've done in the past is going to be haunting you because you're a brand new creation. And when you awake to righteousness, sin has no more dominion over you. You know who you are, how powerful you are, you know desires. You see the value, the beauty, the love that's within you, that to get up and live for God. But it even goes in another direction beyond that. To awake to righteousness is to know who you are, who's you are, what Jesus has done. And so you better get up and live a life. Get up and get a life. Get up and live out the promises of God. God needs His children to live out the promises of God. Not as some holy man sitting in a cave with your legs crossed trying to find peace. You're walking in peace, walking in joy.
Now the family, your career, your marriage, you know, your emotions. Just walking into a room, they can just see the confidence. Your brain is not, you know, just trying to find some kind of peace and do I fit in here. And all these crazy emotions and beliefs that just control so many people. No. We are to awake to righteousness. I'm righteous. I'm right with God. And I'm right with God so I can get up and be amazing. I can be like God. I am to act like God. I'm to imitate God. I'm to get up and live out an amazing future. I'm to believe and to dream and take every promise in the Word and live that out. The Bible says you've been blessed to be a blessing. The Bible teaches you and I get up and prosper. Get up in health. Get up with great relationships. Get up and lead people. Get up with such rejoicing and excitement. This is the day the Lord hath made. I will rejoice. You need to awake to righteousness.
Ephesians 4:23, it talks there about this constantly being renewed in the spirit of your mind. Here is where so many people fail because they do things to try to get God to move. Now listen. God's already moved and He's already given you all things that pertain to life and Godliness. So this work that you should be doing is not to earn anything from Him. It's been given. Holy Spirit is in your reborn spirit. And so now, you've got to recognize that as you renew your mind. The work here is involved in renewing your mind, meditating in the Word, putting off the old you, putting on the new. And Holy Spirit, that's what He works with you on. Holy Spirit is your helper.
And as you meditate in God's Word, as you begin to just absorb what He thinks, you begin to put off because you realize who you are, who's you are, what you can do, what your mind is for, your will is for. What your body is for? What your spirit is for? Where your heart fits in? You begin to rise up and understand yourself so well. That, you know, how to stay motivated, energized. You know how to stay healthy. You know how to make relationships work. The Bible is the most stunning, amazing book. If you're downloading it, meditating in it. If God's thinking is changing you. And so make sure, Romans 8 says it this way. "The carnal mind is enmity against God". God, I mean, "For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be".
Okey, does carnal mind the old way of thinking? And by the way your thinking is always around your five senses, what you see. So if you see unhappy people, then, you know, if you see results, if you don't feel results, if you don't hear, if you don't taste it. Our five senses, they're just king of our lives and they can't be. We have to believe God's Word. We must be spiritually intuitive. We must rise up and believe that we don't live by what we see and what we sense. We live by what God is communicating to our spirit and by what the Word of God is saying. And so if you don't deal with this carnal mind of yours, you're going to get whipped every day of your life. You're going to get up with no energy. Get up believing your marriage is just wah, wah. Get up believing, "Well, we're not going to be able to deal with this". You get up believing that the politicians are the most powerful.
How are we ever going to stop it? You get up believing like the armies of Israel. Look at Goliath, he's too big. And then David comes out of spending time with God, worshipping, meditating, and says, "Oh, man! I'm taking him out". Believers must spend time in the presence of God in God's Word, or you will not get up and lead in this planet. You'll just go along with the flow. You'll just be one of the citizens and one of the people at work because your carnal mind is continually just keeping you there.
If you don't renew your mind. If you do not think the way God thinks, meditate in His Word. Pray in the Spirit. Let Holy Spirit go to work. And as He searches your heart, He will find the beliefs your mom put in there that are wrong. The beliefs your dad put in there that are wrong. The beliefs you put in there because of hurts and heartaches and brokenness and failures and just your reasoning. And we must let the revelation power of God just come in and all of a sudden, I'm going to do incredible things, great things. I'm going to make my mark on the planet for Jesus Christ. I don't care what goes on financially and what goes on around me. I will walk in favour and blessing, A thousand fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand. It's not coming near me. That's what the Word says.
So the Bible is precious to me. I spend time in it and I listen to other teachers. And when there's truth, I meditate on that, so that I don't live in this carnal mind. Which is always fighting the promises of God. What God is trying to do through my life, my mind will just keep fighting against it because what God wants is greater, further. It's huge. It's big. It's amazing. It says in Philippians 2:12-13, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure". All right. Here's where majority people are going nowhere as Christians. Here's where they fail. Ah, they fail right here. Because first of all, the voice says, "It is God energizing you". And we need to recognize that.
Now, when it talks about that you've got to work out your own salvation. Now we know you can't work out your own salvation as far as you getting saved and trying to get God to move. He's moved. It's the finished work of Jesus on the cross, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension to the right hand of God. Man, you need to study the epistles and realize that. Now, what is your work? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You are going to have fear and trembling one way or the other. You're going to look at the world and you're going to go, "Gosh, golly, gee. How do we ever rise up with, oh, that everything's going the wrong direction. Look at the politics. Look at what's going on in our kids. Look at our universities".
You can just kind of give up, okay? But then as you begin to recognize if I am in awe of God and His Word, then, because oh, yeah, God hasn't moved. God's movement is through you. God's looking for someone to move quickly on their behalf. His eyes are roaming to and fro over the planet. I mean, He had an entire army of Israel and He couldn't get one person to step forward. So David did. He finally found one. I believe God would do a lot more if God would find somebody who would work out their own salvation. He can't use you in leadership if you're not going to renew your mind, work out your salvation, make your body a living sacrifice, and get energized. Get all the wrong beliefs out of that heart by allowing Holy Spirit to search your heart, pray in the spirit, meditate in the Word. You just never will be ready.
And so it is, it says here for it says, "Work out your own salvation". But then it says, "For it is God which worketh in you". Well, which is it? Is it me working, or is it God working? Yes, it's both. When you go to work with renewing your mind. When you begin to meditate in the Word. When you hang out with Holy Spirit. When you pray in the Spirit. You begin to by your own will move towards God, while then God goes to work on the inside of you. And here's what's exciting. That He begins to cause your will to begin to change to His. If your will is to be and do things that that wasn't even His plan for you. Someone else put that desire in there, or maybe you thought it was cute. Maybe, I just want to be famous or, you know. But as you begin to work out your own salvation and follow Jesus, something in you changes. And this will, you begin to desire and will powerfully to follow Him to do great things.
The Bible is amazing but it won't show you individually what your destiny and the plan of God is for your specific life. That Holy Spirit has to show you. And so as you begin to do this work of being in awe. I mean, you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and you begin to pursue Him and His Word. And then as you go into your everyday life, your relationships, raising kids, your career. The things you desire. You begin to leave your mark on this planet in a stunning way because as you choose God, God begins to work in you, to will and to do of His good pleasure. Now, I've met people who've been Christians for decades. And when I speak with them and I've known them for years. And there's no drive. There's no Word of God in them. They don't really do anything for God. So then you can't judge them. I'm looking at their actions.
I watch what they could be doing and their own words have judged them. And you kind of go, "What in the world is going on"? Well, you say, "Why isn't God at work in them"? Well, first of all, there are two things here. It's you are to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling until you get this incredible awe of God, of Holy Spirit, of what He wants to do in you, until you begin to be in awe of His church. Now, maybe you're a part of a church is dead. Well, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about real life giving churches that Jesus is building. You better be in awe with fear and trembling about how amazing God is. And so then as you begin to get into His Word, you're just in awe that of who He is and what He's doing within you. And then God is at work in you.
I try often when people talk to me, "And oh, I've been praying and nothing's happening here and nothing's happening there". And their prayer is begging, bugging, and pleading. And I try to move them into being in awe of God and begin to work out your own salvation, renew your mind, fellowship with Holy Spirit, pray in the Spirit. Go to church, worship. Get involved in a church. Like wake up the mighty men. If that's not in you, then God's not working in you. Oh, what do you mean He's not working in me? Well, it says here it takes you working out your own salvation, and then it is God who is working within you. Holy Spirit is your helper. Holy Spirit is here to help you. It's a stunning thing that you are to follow the leading of Holy Spirit. He helps you by being that guide out in front, you know, knowing where you should go. He'll just lead you. But then at the same time, He's also your helper.
And so as you turn to the Word of God, as you choose to build a relationship with Holy Spirit, you know, something within you changes. Your will changes, instead of this will you're always fighting with this being tempted to go on in all these crazy areas. Your will begins to want God, His Word and something happens. And then you begin to do it. Now, this energy, this miraculous power of God is working with you. Holy Spirit is helping you and you begin to walk out this amazing life. Wake up the mighty men. What is going on in so many people's lives? With what is going on today around the world, where is the church like we should be? Wake up the mighty men.
You know, in Hebrews 13:20-21, it says here in the second verse, "Working in you. God is working in you. Which is, that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ". Did you know that as you begin to focus on Him and His Word and spend time every day, to begin your day with that. That you begin to be well-pleasing. Now, some people think that's just being good. Let me talk to you parents. So you've got kids and the most important thing to you is they behave. They got to behave. They got to be good. They got to behave. They got to be good. And as they grow up, you notice that all they do is behave and be good. Now, you're going to get worried. Why? Where's their drive to do something with their life?
Now that they're older and they're in their teens and they're behaving you. Yes, Mama. Yes, Papa. Okay, can I help you today? And it's like this passive mannerly thing that, you know, they're well-pleasing and that's how you see. No, no. If you're pleased with them and you're excited, it's because of the drive in them to get up and do something with their life, to find a spouse to share it with as passionate as they are, and in love with God. And then to raise kids and launch them like arrows. This drive if it's not in there, you're going to get really worried. Well, Father God's really worried about you. Where is that drive? Where is that get up and build the kingdom?
Where is that go into the world, in your world and share Jesus. Build His local church. Jesus is building His church. It is absent from so many Christians. But you know what, those who choose to do this, you just get to live an amazing life. And, you know, the ones who won't, they kind of go, "Well, I wish I was as blessed as you. You must be God's favourite on that". Everybody's God's favourite. But until you choose to get, to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, renew your mind, spend time with Him, which begins to get this momentum on the inside going. You'll be in the same place years from today anyway.
Now, in Colossians 1:9-12, it says, "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might". This prayer in Colossians 1:19-12 prayed it out loud over yourself and your family every day because this strengthening takes place every day. This work, any work that you do. Whether it's business work. Whether it's finding a home, raising your kids, making your relationship go to a new place. Whatever it is in your heart. He wants you to bear fruit. The word bear fruit means you get results.
You want to get results? My person don't get results. That's not the Word says. Start praying this prayer. I'm telling you. I just want to light a fire under some of you and get going because you can have a life so amazing at whatever age you are. I decided this as a teenager. I'm far from perfect and I haven't always known exactly what to do. But this bit about follow Jesus and live with passion. Get up and live, being in awe of God. That is what all the great men and women in the Bible. You show me somebody who did great things for God and they were in awe of God. And the more time they spent with Him and His Word, the more they were in awe. And they had this fear. No, I don't mean that they were terrified of God. I mean, this overwhelming awe. They goes, "Just the fact He notices me and wants me is stunning. And if I let Him into my life, nothing can stop me. Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world".
Would you please get a hold of this message. Listen to it every day for a week until you start rising up and wake up the mighty person on the inside of you. And never stop renewing your mind. Never stop in your getting energized. Never stop getting to know Holy Spirit, and let Him work with you to renew your mind and establish your heart and grace. And get up and be one of these stunning men and women of God. Your kids need to see it. Your grandkids need to see it. Your neighbors need to see it. The church needs you that way. And let's see God do incredible things all around us. If you're watching me today and you say, "Man, that's not how I've looked at Christians and church". Well, this is way you should have seen it. If you want to accept this Jesus I'm talking about. You just make a decision right now wherever you are to say:
Jesus, come into my heart. I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Jesus come into my heart. I accept You. I want to follow You the rest of my life. Guide me, show me, in Jesus' name, amen.
Now make sure you find an alive church that is awake to the Word of God. Make sure that keep following us and you will grow and learn. And you'll be able to find and pick out a church where you can grow and flow and become who you were called to be. And let's get up. If we as the church will rise up and know who we are, awake to righteousness. Man, this world will want to be who we are, and they're going to recognize, how did you get there? It's through Jesus. And we won't be fighting so many fights in our countries and families and churches if people would just rise up and awaken to righteousness, who they are and all the ability of God. Well, tune in again. We love to have you and my prayers is in Jesus' name. Something is getting birth on the inside of you this one message alone. God bless you. We love you.