Leon Fontaine - A New Way to Pray
I want to talk about learning to pray. Because if you don't learn to pray, you have all these rights and privileges that you don't know how to access. And so prayer is about our fellowship with God. But it's also about enforcing the covenant that Jesus gave His life for. And so if you're still reading old covenant stories and you don't know how to take them through the cross. Then you are begging and bugging and pleading with God. And that's horrible unbelief in prayer. I would get together with different groups as I would speak places around the world. They'd have prayer meetings and things. I'd get up and leave some of them.
I just couldn't handle the incredible unbelief that some prayer meetings are about. If we just get three people praying for us. Let's get the churches in Canada praying for us. Let's get the churches all across the world praying for us. That God's got to do it. What in the world kind of doctrine is that? Get the prayer tower, the player basement. We get the prayer closet. We get the prayer team. We'll get that the, we'll get the prayer people. Okay, we should all be praying, of course. But people do not understand prayer.
Now prayer has been different down through the ages. Prayer was different in the Old Testament. Prayer was different when Jesus taught it before His death. Prayer is different after His death. And Jesus spent chapters teaching prayer so that people would know how to pray the prayer life of the kingdom of God. And so today I want to talk a little bit about it. I want to make sure you understand. That if you don't love prayer, if you don't get excited because you're learning number one, to fellowship with God. This prayer of fellowshipping and talking and getting into His Word and just fellowshipping with Holy Spirit. And as you learn the Word, you begin to have a new identity. And until your identity is established by grace in your heart, you'll just be a vain repetition prayer. And so I pray that you'll understand and have a passion for this thing called prayer.
You see, in the Old Testament they believed in different things about prayer than we do now. I'll give an example. Anybody in the Old Testament that had to have faith and prayer, they got a word from God. Moses got a burning bush. Abraham got a visit from an angel. Joshua got a visit from an... You just find men and women who did great things for God. In the Old Testament God spoke with them directly, and a word from an angel. God would use a burning bush. He'd have Abraham count the stars. Those are going to be your kids. He would do different things. And then they would rise up and they would go forth in the word that God gave them. And if they didn't, God would have to find someone else. Moses was supposed to take them into the promised land. He blew it. Read the story. And he had to raise Joshua to do it.
In the New Testament, they didn't, what they put their faith in there as we follow 12 apostles and Jesus, was they put their faith in what Jesus said to do. Jesus said, "We're going to the other side". Jesus said, "We're going to feed this multitude. Go find Me some food". And they listened and obeyed Jesus. If they couldn't get the other side and the boat in the storm. Jesus would walk on the water. Peter got up and walked on the water. We all remember him sinking but Jesus pulled him back to his feet and didn't do the fireman-carry back to the boat. Peter walked with Him back to the... Jesus would say things and the disciples got their marching orders. In the New Testament, once Jesus died and rose again. And once Jesus had taken your and my place and gave us His life, His authority. You have to understand that prayer changed again. And Jesus teaches a lot about prayer but people just mix it up. They grab a little bit about prayer from Jesus and a little bit of prayer from Abraham and a little bit of prayer from Ezekiel.
Let's grab some, a little bit from Jeremiah. Let's throw it all together. Let's mix it up. And oh, it's going to be good prayer. You know, ladies don't cook that way. You don't say, "What do I got in my kitchen? Throw a little bit on the bowl over here and a little bit over there. You know, and throw it together. It's going to taste good". We don't go to sporting events and go, "Hey, look at the basketball guy. He just going to touchdown. And look good, that the guy. Oh, they're fighting in the corner like hockey and it's basket..." No. There's different guidelines for different sports. And so it is true for prayer. One person said to me after I did a teaching on prayer. "You know, you make this too hard. And, you know, God knows our heart and everything is simple". I'm going, "No, that's not true".
All through the Word, there's scriptures that say move on from the elementary things. Come on! God once winked at your ignorance. Now He want you to know His Word. To not know His Word is to not wear the armor because each piece is a revelation of a different doctrine in the Word. To not begin to rise up and know what your authority is. And so Jesus began to teach what prayer would be like when He rose again. And He said for the first time in thousands of years, there was going to be a new way to pray. And this new way to pray had never been used before. And it was when you pray, use My name. Never been used before. Nowhere in the Old Testament, of all the books in the Bible, never was the name used in prayer. And then He begin to teach us how to pray. He begin to teach us how to use the spoken word. And not even pray, just use authority. For example, speaks to mountains and they will obey you if you don't doubt in your heart. He doesn't even talk about prayer. He's talking about the release of words.
Jesus taught a new way to bring authority into the planet. And so the church was commissioned to pray this way. And the church is considered the greatest group that ever will walk the planet. It wasn't the house of Israel. It wasn't the Israelites in an old covenant. Thank God for how God begin to use the precious Israelites to start there with them. And even they were to take this to the world. And so this progression from the Book of Genesis on, is to have a people of God on this planet. Who not only knew God and followed God but had His presence on the inside. They had their sins forgiven. They had things going on that made them potent on the planet. But instead, we seem to have in so many cases kind of a mealy-mouthed, shallow, diabetic crowd of people who just feed on candy. And just, just bless me with a, you know, something really easy. Like, tell me Jesus loves me and things are good. Huh, I'll go do another week. Why don't we just teach you how to get and have authority? Why don't we teach you how to get up and walk through the problems and take on the mountains?
You see, God has given you and I an inheritance. Okay? But the inheritance and the agreement isn't between you and God. Did you know that when you read in Galatians 3:16, how that God made promises to Abraham. And one of the promises that Paul was teaching in Galatians was that God would have an agreement with His seed. Not plural, singular. What are you saying pastor? I'm saying that the human race has an agreement with God. The human race. And the person who represents the human race is Jesus Christ. Do you understand that in heaven, there's only one human body. Right now as I speak, only one human body is in heaven. Every person that we loved and has died, their bodies are buried, cremated, buried at sea, disappeared in a bush, or someplace. But their bodies do not go to heaven.
And you'll get, they'll get a new body one day. But in heaven at the right hand of the Father is Jesus Christ in His crucified body. The Bible's very clear. You'll see the nail holes in His hands. You'll see the spear hole in His side. You'll see the marks on His head. Why is that? Because you and I aren't going to have any scars on our new body in heaven. It's because of His intercessory place.
Some Christians will go, "Well, Jesus is interceding for me. I don't even need to pray". Read your Bible. It doesn't say He's up there praying for you. It says He is your intercessory, your mediary. He is standing there at the right hand of the Father. And anything you use the name of Jesus for, and if any demon from hell was try to challenge and in the, in the, in the courtroom of heaven. That they have no right. There's Jesus standing nail holes still in His hands. He took your sin. He took your death. He rose again and gave you new life. And so you and I if we had to go to court, we would want it signed, or we would want witnesses. That you gave your word. But in the, in heaven at the right hand of the Father is the guarantee of the covenant for the church, there stands Jesus. And the marks on His body means He died in your place. He suffered in your place, went to hell in your place, took the curse in your place. So that you could rise up and you could walk in the power and the blessing of God.
Because Jesus went to the cross, the apostle Paul and Peter and Luke and some of these men who wrote the New Testament begin to bring a new way of praying that stuns people and it made all of the religious people in Jesus' day. It was the stumbling block that they stumbled over. They couldn't get this faith righteousness. That I'm righteous because of Jesus. I'm righteous through Jesus. When these disciples were walking around, and raising the dead, and healing the sick, they, that they weren't perfect. Okay? It's not like they never had a bad thought, never had a dirty thought, never had a temptation, never got mad. No. I'm sure if they were giving people the finger back then, they were tempted, too. These were not perfect men. These were men who were born again and the perfection of the ability to pray comes because of Jesus in your spirit.
Now your mind, your emotions, and your body they as well can change and grow. But that's for the benefit of the person you're sitting beside. But between you and God. Christ established that. That's why in the Old Testament every promise has an if. And I hear this quoted all the time. If my people who humble themselves and pray, I'll heal their land. Maybe get a new covenant and find out that there's no if on that promise. That God, He'll turn a city upside down with one guy. Philip goes to a city. The entire city turns to Christ. One man. The apostle Paul took out the then known world of the Roman Empire, brought the gospel everywhere, change the then known world. And it is now changed our world with over two billion people who in some way or form say that they are Christian.
That Jesus is Lord and Saviour whatever degree that they find and they are committed to Him. That's the kind of difference He made. Never traveled more than a hundred miles from his home. Never had any title in the nation at that time of any greatness. He never wrote a book. He never, no one's got, "Oh, Jesus wrote this out and handed it to me. I still got it 2000 years later". You can't find... What made this man great was the presence and the power of God and the message whose time was here and that was, "I will build my church". And so you are an heir. And according to 2 Corinthians 1:20, "That yes, to all of God's promises is in Christ".
Now in the Old Testament, the yes had to come from you. The believing, the sacrificing of an animal. You'd better be under the old covenant with the blood of bulls and goats so that you could walk out that Old Testament kind of prayer. But in the New Testament, this is such a done deal that people struggle with this. And I'm going to challenge you. I don't care if you've been born again for 40 years or, or you're a former missionary, or preacher, whatever. Get into the Word and learn to pray the new covenant prayer. Jesus died so that you and I could get up and every prayer should be answered. Oh, Leon, what if it was wrong prayer? Well, that's understandable. That when you take His Word and His spirit. You know, to those who are really great faith people and love the Word. This is crucial because to not know the Word leaves you in a place where the enemy can play with your head and your emotion so much because you're not anchored in the Word. But even once you're anchored in the Word, Jude 20 says building yourselves up on your most holy faith, which you got through the Word, praying in the Holy Spirit.
When you have a relationship with Holy Spirit, and you feed on God's Word. When these two come together, you are in an incredible ability to walk in confidence. You can sense the presence of God on people who know the Word and the Holy Spirit. It's not just bravado. It's just not great public speaking. It's not just this look like I got it together. No. It follows on day in and day out, when you talk, when you laugh, when you love, when you play. And every area of your life there is this... They could just say the disciples had been with Jesus. When you understand like Galatians 3:13 that says Christ took away the curse of the law that was put on us. He changed places with us and He became your curse, my curse. If you're sitting here and you think that the disease you've got is because of a former sin. You've been lied to. If you think that you're here and the condition you have as a DNA situation that has come to the generations of your family name. You have been lied to.
The curse as written in Deuteronomy 28:16 and on, all of those curses Jesus took them all. Item by item, line upon line. And He died and He took the curse of the law, even went to hell in your place. So as a believer, you're an heir. You have inherited the blessing. When did you inherit the blessing and the promises of God? Well, even before you were born. Because 2000 years ago, every person that would ever be born on this planet as a human being could call upon the name of Jesus, believe in Him, and become a part of Jesus' body. His group called the church. The church has been so watered down because when we say, "Hey, the church". We think of the building on 1st Street, and building on 3rd Street, and the building over there, and, and, and. No, no. The church is not a building. The church is the ecclesia. It's the called out to send forth ones. And any church that sits in four walls is not a part of the church of Jesus Christ. To sit and do nothing as your country changes in any area.
Politics, education, healthcare, to do nothing. You can't be a part of the church because the church is the salt and the light to everything on this planet. We bring incredible creativity to arts and entertainment. We bring stunning wisdom and strength to politics and business where others might cheat or lie. The church of Jesus Christ can stand in a place and, and lead in a way that this world is changed. He didn't say, "Pray". I mean, I won't answer 90 percent of them. But it's good to pray. Jesus taught, "You speak to the Father in My name and I'll give it to you". He said, "You speak to a mountain". You don't even ask me about the mountain. Just speak to them. What would that mountain represent? The problem. What problem? Any curse of the law that comes into your life. You command it to go.
And as the Word begins to build in you and the spirit of God begins to come upon you. Both are up to you. Both are up to you. If you're tired of having to run around finding somebody with a little faith, then get some. If you're tired of running around trying to find a prophet to give you a word so you get some direction, just hear for yourself. What makes the church of Jesus Christ so stunning? Is that for the first time in the history of the planet. There was a group of people that had, they were a royal priesthood and a holy nation. They were both kings and priests. In the Old Testament a priest would go into the holy of holies and communicate with God on behalf of the people. You are a priest and you get to walk into the holy of holies in your prayer time and chat with Him yourself. And in the name of Jesus, any of your inconsistencies, any of your weaknesses, any of the things you struggle with, that makes you feel God would never talk to you. You're right.
So don't use your name. Don't go, "Yeah, I'm here in the name of Leon, God". It's going to like, "I'm here in the name of Jesus". I thought you'd never come, Leon. So glad you're taking advantage. You know that God is like this father that just can't wait to see you make use of all the promises. He's not holding all the promises in a basket going, "Well, I hope I don't get asked too much today. Well, all right. That boy, we'll give one of them some healing. Okay, prosper one of them". No. He's just going, "I just can't wait till my kids take advantage of what my Son died for, and just walk in this new life, walk in the blessing". Just rise up and go do it.
The Word of God talks a lot about suffering. And people get that messed up, too. You see, suffering and sickness and poverty and depression and unhappiness. No, no. He's not talking about suffering with the curse. The curse was taken care of. The suffering that we share in with Christ is that there is a world out there where Satan is the God of this world, Corinthians 4:4. And they don't like it. They like it the church if you stay in your four walls and just be stupid. Stay dumb till He comes. But if you rise up and begin to bring the life of Jesus into the public square. If you rise up and bring the life of Jesus into TV stations and to channels and governments, you know. It's just like all of a sudden everybody's mad and unhappy.
And so they were Jesus said, "They didn't like me. They won't like you. But don't worry about it. I've overcome them all". It doesn't mean that we act stupid. It doesn't mean that we bring religiosity into the market place, or into the government, or into education. No, no, no, no. It's not what I'm talking about. But if we stand up, people will have a few things to say.
It bugged me when I was younger pastor, get all these death threats and all these people. And finally I realized Jesus said don't worry about it. Just keep going. Then I started looking at really great people. Do football players suffer? Talk to one. I remember our coach taping one broken finger to the next and get back out there. I remember having my ankle so twisted that turkey would have this freeze spray. Tape it and all bound and get back on the field. Today professional football watch basketball. Who's that, they're famous for having the IV bag inserted at the break because they're sick. But when you get 20 million to play every year it's... but the church. I want things that are really easy and really good. And then there's just nothing going on and no one will say anything negative about me. I might stand up. Good Lord. Your country, it'll be too late. Your city, it'll be too late.
If people without Christ can handle the backstabbing and the betrayal of the positions they're holding. Why can't the church of Jesus Christ get up and recognize, "Yeah, I'm going to be hated and lied about and talked about and backstab". And, you know what, he'll be all over you and you'll go like that football player who's walking to the locker room, got his broken finger taped. He's got his jaw a little bit loose because the helmet got taken off. And his hips a little bit out because he got tackled about 6 feet in the air, landed on his head. And he's walking back to them, "We won. This is the greatest game of my life!!"! But he's so hurt. He's injured. He's broken. He's gasping. He's doing a guppy. They don't even look at that. It's worth it all for them to play the game they love. That's the kind of church we need. That's the kind of church we need. Men who stand up for honor and integrity. Women who stand up for honor and integrity saying, "This is what we need".
Father, touch every one of us. Help us to know that the perfection of Jesus. You, You made it possible for us to enter the holy of holies. We're co-heirs. And Father, I pray that across our churches, across this land and around this world. The church will rise up as salt and light. Not arrogant, not condescending but to reach all of the lost sheep, the people that you love. And Father, I pray that we won't worry about who's going to blog about us, and lie about us. But we'll get up confident knowing You've overcome them all. I'm going to take the place that You've put me in. The gifts You've placed within me. I'm going to do everything I can in our lives, Father, to advance Your kingdom. Father, I pray this over this place, over Springs, over every person listening around this planet. That Your church, Father, will rise up with the power that You intended it to.
Every head bowed for just a moment. For those that are here that would say, "Leon, I'm not sure that I am a believer. I'm not sure that I'm born again". That I'm going to lead all of you in a powerful prayer. In fact, we are all going to pray together out loud. This prayer that many of us have prayed. Let's all pray with these amazing folks. It goes like this. Just say:
Dear God. Thank You for sending Jesus, who died in my place. Paid the price for my life, my sin. So Jesus, I accept Your gift of a new life. Come into my heart. I'm following You for the rest of my days with the ability that You bring. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.