Leon Fontaine - Building Your Inner Dreams
Today, I wanna jump into a topic about building your inner dreams. There's a stunning verse in Acts 2:17, that most of us have misunderstood but it is the key to you changing the life that you're in. You know most people they just put up with the life that they've got. Now, the life that you've got right now it marinates you until you owned it. It becomes your inner image. Your inner image becomes what life has done to you. The Bible even does that.
You know, Bartimaeus wanted to get healed and they called him blind Bartimaeus. Basically, he had been crippled and that was his whole identity. Your identity to you becomes literally the unhappiness, the success. But whatever is going on in your life, good or bad. It becomes your inner dream, your inner vision. Now, when Jesus died on the cross something powerful happened. And here it says in Acts 2:17, "'In the last days, God says, I'm gonna pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters are gonna prophesy". And I thought, I grew up thinking prophesy when someone stood up in church and said, "Thus saith the Lord unto thee. Thou shalt, therefore, that thou mayest". And it's actually what it means here. It's talking about you declaring your future and causing it to come to be.
Then it says, "Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions," Now, here everyone thinks that you're gonna be walking along, "Bam, God's gonna knock you out. You're getting a vision. I've never had one my whole life. I don't think that's what, I mean, He can do that. But that's not really what it means. Then it says, "Your old men are gonna dream dreams". Now, God can give you visions. God can give you dreams the Bible says that. And yes, there are times when God will give you a Word for somebody else and say, "God wants you to know something". And you can really help a friend or somebody that you know. But it is literally showing us here. It says, "Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy".
The words that you speak everyday are prophesying your future. You are a self-fulling prophet and you will be talking from the dream and from the inner image that you have right now. If you are a person who's unhappy, depressed. If that's been left there long enough or maybe your whole life. It will literally become who you are. You will identify with that and you will get more of it. The only way to breakout of something that you don't like, whether it's a financial issue, whether it's a physical healing, whether it's a mental, whether it's relational. The only way to change something that you are stuck in and you can't seem to ever breakout is to begin to develop a new inner dream. If you can and the Bible has given us incredible ability and it shows us how to do that.
Now, in John 14:12-14, we have a picture of what your life can be like. It says, "Very truly I tell you, Jesus speaking, whoever believes in Me will do the works I've been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask Me anything in My name, and I will do it". So many people believed that God is in control of their life and that whatever He wants it's gonna happen. It's not about what God wants in your life. We already know what God wants in your life.
The Bible says in John 10:10, Jesus, I have come at you to have life and more abundantly. You gonna ride upon the high places. Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world. You can do all things through Christ. We already know what God's will is for your life. The issue is what area isn't it happening and what area have you accepted. When you roll out of bed, you just decide right now. Don't say, "I wonder what kind". You say, "This is gonna be a great day today. I'm gonna be happy. I'm gonna blessed. The presence of God is gonna be on me and God's favor is gonna be in my life".
What are you putting up with? What have you just kind of going, "Shucks, golly, gee. It's allergies and I can't play with my kids outside because I get all snuff up and my eyes bulge. Hey, life's not for". Stop. Jesus is the author and the finisher. Why we've only gotten partial miracles and never pushed right through to complete health. Why do we, "Well, you know, I love to have some more money and take my kids on holiday. We can't afford it. So, you know, we just kind of stay home and I understand that God made beautiful beaches and He made nice mountains. We'll never see them because, you know, we can't complain. I mean, we're doing".
Hey, again. You have settled in. You are accepting something that you don't have, and if you want to go ahead. But you don't have to. But you're gonna find the only way to go to a new place in some area, maybe it's your relationship, you know. "My marriage is okay. But I can't complain because I got the best spouse around. It's okay. I mean, I don't want to -". Stop. You can have a marriage that is so full of joy and friendship and romance and joy, looking at the future. But if you settle in, you'll just make all these stupid excuses. And in the Word, it's very clear that if you wanna change your life out here, you have to change the inner image in here of what your life looks like. And you'd gotta get a little bit irritated and go, "No, I'm not gonna sit here and put up with relationship that are half-baked and finances that barely get me by. A health that everyone else is got everything and I just sitting here and I can't walk right. I can't do this, you know. But, you know".
Stop. That little kind of, "Oh, well". That's wimpyness. That's just cowardice. Get up and decide. God's made away for us to live life to the full, to have an adventure, a dream, to get up and live the way Jesus says you can do whatever I've done. So, let's look at how do we change this inner image. We're to go to a verse in 2 Corinthians 5:7, it says here, "For we live by faith and not by sight". This is an extremely hard verse to do on your own because we all lived by what's going on around us. You have a good day if good things are happening. You have a bad day if bad things are happening. You have hope if there's a good industry that you're working in. But if they're shutting down every plant that you, your kind of area that you're working for. You kind of go, "Waa, waa".
To live by faith is to go against what everything is saying and looking like out here and going, "No. Absolutely not. I will walk in the blessing. I will walk in health. I will prosper and be blessed. God is no respecter of persons. Why am I putting up with this"? You need to be a little bit ticked off. Otherwise you'll just settle in and you become poor Perry or you become sick Sandra or you become, you know, unhappy Ursula. We just, we begin to accept and we begin to identify with the problems and the issues and we make excuses. God is telling us that we can change. We need to learn to live by faith.
Now, in 2 Corinthians 4:18, listen to this one. It says, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal". You need to begin to see on the inside something different. This is taught all the way back into the Old Testament. You'll find this ability and it uses the word meditation which is a synonym of imagination. It's been under attack by a lot of the denominational churches as though, "Well, you can't just use your imagination. That's just, that's modern mysticism. That's just new age". No, it's not. It's all through the Bible uses meditation. Meditation in its, and there's lots of meditation all these different countries and religions, is basically it is shutting yourself down and focusing on the desired end that you want and as you focus on it, it fills you. You become more filled with this dream than you do with what's going on around you.
Great men and women have always done that. Whether it's, even secular people. We don't know if they know Jesus. But take a look at Microsoft, take a look at Apple. They will see something inside nobody sees, their staff doesn't see it, their spouse might not see it, their kids might not see it. But there's something that they see that they want. And every time they're meditating and go by themselves, they'll thinking and they're building this on the inside. You need to do that on purpose or Satan will marinate you in your problems and give you a stronger image of what you've got.
It says in Mark 4:24, that the measure of thought and study you give to truth, determines how much virtue and power comes your way. But if you don't, it says, you gotta get more of what you've got. In other words, what your problems are become deeper and deeper in trenched until they become so fixed that you feel trapped. You feel caged. You feel like the area that you don't like is never gonna change. And that's because you've got allow Holy Spirit to help you go to work on changing what's in your heart. Because what's goes on in your heart begins to connect you to your future and your destiny.
And your mouth is a powerful precursor to what's gonna go on. Your mouth the Bible says in James is hard to control. It's like a flame. It's like a fire. You can't put out. 'Cause you just, want to say something negative. Everybody just, wants to tell you how I really feel. And when you do that, you're just saying and getting more of what you've got. The Bible says in Mark 11:23, that you can have whatsoever you say and you believe, you must believe that you have received, Mark 11.
So, our words weren't just use for communication. Our words are to be use for prophecy and you need to practice prophesying every day. When you roll out of bed, you just decide right now. Don't say, "I wonder what kind". You say, "This is gonna be a great day today. I'm gonna be happy. I'm gonna blessed. The presence of God is gonna be on me and God's favor is gonna be in my life. I'm walking in health. I'm walking in prosperity in the name of Jesus". You get up and you practice saying that every morning of your life because your words have power.
I remember watching TV one time and they had one of the worst storm in history and a helicopter or a plane was up looking at ships and they had this huge ship. It must have been hundreds like football fields long, three or four or five of them and it's huge. But it looked like a little twig at the bottom of the trough of this wave and you kind of go, "Oh, I would hate to be on that ship". I mean you're on the board biggest ship in the world looking up in the mountain of water. You go, "What in the world"? But yet, the Bible says the storm does not tell that ship where it's going. The rudder on the back of that ship determines where that ship is going even in a storm.
James is powerful at telling you and I, you are gonna have storms and if you do not control the rudder by yourself, those waves are gonna push you. Sickness is gonna push you where you don't wanna go. Poverty is gonna push you where you don't wanna go. Poor relationships are gonna push you where you don't wanna go. And you can get analytical and counseling, everything you want. But until you changed what's in here and go, "This is what kind of marriage I'm gonna have. This is the kind of health I'm gonna have. This is what I'm gonna have financially. This is what I'm gonna have for career. This is how I'm gonna live my life. Because you'll stop seeing it on the inside as this, "Well, I guess this is way it's always gonna be".
It will be if you don't change. The words are the first thing that begins to change the inner image, change the words. Now, you're not gonna change your inner image the first day. You gotta get up in the morning and you got 40, 50 years of saying, "Ehh, life sucks". Then you gonna say, "This is the day the Lord has made. I'm gonna rejoice and be glad in it". And it feels phony when you do it. And you go, "Oh, it felt like it didn't even get pass the roof". I'm blessed. I'm blessed. I'm really, really, really blessed. See, when you first start to speak the Word of God. It's not because it's gonna cause change yet. It's because it's gonna plant the Word in your heart.
Mark 4 is all about the changing of your heart and getting new harvest. Instead of poverty, prosperity. Instead of sickness, health and healing. Instead of unhappiness and anger and emotional to being distraught. Joy, peace, and sparkle in your eye, dance in your step. All of these things first come from a mouth that begins to declare the Word of God. As you speak the Word of God, every word that you speak forms a picture. See, most people think the Bible is powerful like a magical spell. And if I just say, "Greater is He who's in me than he who is in the world". There I said it. Okay, but what vision did that word causing you? What do you mean greater is He who's in me than he who is in the world?
Well, the Bible says vain repetition profits nothing. When you speak the promises of God, it must create within you a picture. So, if right now I'm seeing a doctor and he says, "These diseases got a hold of your body". And I walked out of that office and I declared, "Greater is He who is in me. He who's in the world". What am I seeing? I'm seeing a doctor going, "I don't understand that disease is gone". I'm seeing X-ray that say that bone is healed. I'm seeing X-ray that say this is completely gone. I'm seeing myself laughing and jumping, healthy and whole. Why? Because the promise should bring a picture. The promise should build the vision. The spoken Word of God should build the dream. And if you're not building a dream on purpose, the devil is feeding you one that you don't like but you're settling in for it.
There's three things that your words should be. Number one, they should be present tense. Wherever I speak the Word of God, it's not one day I'm gonna have enough money to look after my family. Well no, because tomorrow you can say that one day is gonna be the next day. And when you say that the third day, one day is gonna be the fourth day. It's always in your future. Faith according to Hebrews 11 is always present tense. I have it and it's mine. When I've got money in the bank. You know, you stop a place to buy something and they only take cash. All you got is cards. You kind of go, "Well, I don't have it". Yes, you do. You just don't have it in your hand. You got it on your bank account. So to say I've got the money. You do.
So when you begin to say, "No, I'm healed in Jesus name". If Jesus is in you, then healing is there. If Jesus is in you, the prosperity is there. If Jesus is in you, then everything you need is there. But now what you're doing is you're taking the Word and you're planting it in your heart. It needs to be present tense. I have it. I am healed. I am joyful. I am. I don't always wake up, in fact, its' pretty rare that I just wake up automatically feeling happy, good, and look my weight in alley cats. I get up and I speak to myself, because if I don't the devil will and he'll tell me all the stupid stuff. That get me ticked off and angry and down, upset and depressed, and everything else. I get up and say, "No, I'm blessed highly favored of God. The presence of God is upon my home, my family, my marriage, my finances. The favor of God follows me wherever I go. I'm the head and not the tail".
I just start speaking the Scriptures that I've learned just speaking them. This is the way it is. So be present tense. Be positive when you speak the Word. Don't say it sarcastically. You know, like, "Well, I'm healed. I'm doing it. You told me to say it". You don't understand. Your attitude has got, you've got to make a decision. Do I believe God's Word or not? Can I change my circumstances or not? Is it up to me or is it God in control of my life? "Well, Leon. I'm just putting my trust in Him". It sounds good but it sounds lazy. The Bible says when you've done all in Ephesian 6, stand. What do you supposed to do? Speak the Word and put a new vision on the inside. Nothing can stop this new dream.
The Bible says Holy Spirit's gonna help you to speak, prophesying new words, have new dreams, have new visions, and go out and live the life He's called you to have. The call of God on your life is to live for what Jesus died for you. He died for sickness, disease, poverty, unhappiness, spiritual death. He died for us to get up and have a life. "Well, Leon. How good could it be"? Well, Jesus taught us to pray. Thy will be done on earth as it, the whole world knows that prayer. We ignore that one line. What's His will on this planet, as it is in heaven? What area? Prayer is not begging and pleading. Prayer is declaring the promises of God.
And the Bible says in Mark chapter 4 that it's your attention to the Word that plants the seed. One seed was on the path and the birds came and ate it. One seed was in a shallow ground and it got choked out by the sunshine. And the other ones were in the ground with lots of weeds and they-, Did you know that the Bible is telling us in Mark chapter 4, that if you want to change and have harvest that are beautiful in your life. You need to pay attention to God's Word until it's driven deep enough in your heart to take proper root. That means you listen to me just once, and you're thinking, "Where I'm gonna go for coffee"? You are not focusing on the Word enough to drive it deep enough into your heart to take root and bear. You need to listen. Then go home and take these notes and go over and you begin to speak it each day.
Are you, are these just a bunch of works? No, you are laboring to get your heart establish in a new promise. Get your heart establish in a new dream about you in what you can have, what you can do, who you are. If you begin to confess God's Word until this Word gets established. All of a sudden, you're gonna begin to sense something changing in you, energy, life, prosperity, blessing, a twinkle in your eye, a passion to do something you've never had before. All of these things come from a new dream, a new vision on the inside of you. And if you're not careful, life has a way of marinating you in average nothingness.
The devil doesn't even have to try to destroy you. He just doesn't want you doing anything new. Don't do anything great. Don't rise up and do anything that's gonna help Him finance the kingdom or be a leader that can influence thousands of people or be a mom that can raise incredible kids. He just wants you to, "Waa, waa". So it needs to be present tense. It needs to be positive and it needs to be personal. I found those three things are crucial in the Word of God. Your brain, it needs to be renewed to what are you saying. So say it about yourself. Don't say about somebody else. You declare the promises over your world.