Leon Fontaine - Do Not Doubt
We've been on a topic now for a couple of days about spoken words and the power that they have in all realms. Spiritual, mental, physical, relational. And so, faith is what we're gonna talk about today and Christians are famous for every mile of truth, there's two miles of ditch but we can't ignore the topic of faith and spoken words because if you do, you're gonna live a life that the storms decide where you go. Where everybody else decides where you go. If they're above you or in leadership and that's not what the word teaches so today, I don't care if you've been schooled in faith in every other area.
Take a moment and sit down and let's dive into something here that'll really help you to begin to see results in your life. Changes in your life. Not this matter of just, "God, I need your help to weather to storms of life". No, I am going to declare with the spoken words and I'm gonna decide like the helmsmen and the rudder of a ship. Even in the middle of a storm, I'm deciding where my life is going. Not the storms. Like the bit in a horse's mouth, we talked the other day. Your words affect your body. Your words affect your course in life. Your words affect everything. Now, we're gonna dive in to Hebrews 3:1 where it says, "Therefore, holy brethren," so he's speaking to Christians, "partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession".
It doesn't say of our thinking. It doesn't say of our believing. It doesn't say of our lives. Okay, now, there's still truths there somewhere but it's the high priest of our confession. Within that verse is so many amazing, beautiful teachings and so we need to understand now the confession of the spoken Word. Taking God's Word, speaking it, believing it. There's something here that you need to step by step, line upon line, begin to learn and grow in. Let's go into a story that many have taught from but let's take it apart in a very smart way. In a way that makes sense for so many. Here it says Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple. And after looking around at everything, he left for Bethany with the 12.
So on the next day when they had left Bethany, he became hungry, seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf. He went to see if perhaps he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again". And His disciples were listening. Now, when you go down to Mark 11:20. The next day as they were passing by in the morning, they saw this fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to Him, "Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered". And Jesus answered saying to them, "Have faith in God".
I wanna show you something before we go on into our teaching. Jesus did not swear at the fig tree. He did not say, "I curse you. I curse you". He basically just used words and those words were negatively attached to that tree. He didn't say you're gonna blossom and produce fruit and be amazing. He just said, "No one's gonna eat from you anymore. Those weren't, you know, he didn't scream at it. He didn't bang his head against it. He didn't run around it 14 times and claim it was gonna die. He just spoke to it and the words were, "No one's gonna eat from you anymore". Peter recognized that those words were a curse.
Now let's stop right there and think about this. Do you ever say things about your future? Like nothing ever good's gonna happen with the job I'm in now. Or you know, flu is coming and our kids always get it first. What words do you speak because Peter very clearly said that Jesus cursed the fig tree but all he did was speak about it in a way that it was not functioning. That it wasn't gonna produce. No one was gonna eat from it anymore. And I really wanna get this across because Christians in one ditch or the other, there's one group ditch, doesn't even believe it at all. And then the other ditch has to do intercessory prayer, has to march around it. You gotta sprinkle holy water, holy chalk. You gotta do all these things. But when you stick to the Bible as close as possible, that is where we get into less error, alright.
Jesus is our example. All he did was say, "No one's gonna eat from you anymore". The next day, now, when they said that, nothing appeared different from the tree or they would have noticed it. The tree didn't in one second go and shrivel up. No, it was still there. Jesus simply left and when he came back, it says the fig tree withered from the roots up. Most of the time, in diseases, it comes from the top-down. Now if you were to pull a tree out of the ground and lay it there to look at, you know it would still look green and beautiful for a while, depending on how much sun is on it and the conditions.
So when he spoke to that tree, the roots is what immediately stopped. Did you know that many times when you speak negative things to your marriage, your health, your kids, your church, your future, your career, your finances, to just into a conversation in conversational mode, those words are powerful? Jesus was just speaking in a conversational mode and that curse took effect on the roots of that tree. They didn't see anything right away. But later on they did. You may not see anything right away as you talk negatively about your spouse, as you speak negatively about or let's put it this way. You don't speak in faith. You don't agree with God's Word on things.
When you don't do that, it might not look like things are changing right away but down the road, just a little while, you'll begin to see things hurting, disappearing, fall apart, changing for the negative and most people will give the devil the credit for that or they'll give God not getting involved the credit for that but Jesus is the high priest of your confession. He is here to make sure that when you speak the Word of God and you declare the promises of God that they work. But you also need to know that this world is so full of negativity. It's so full of curses. Things are dying, going down. New viruses, new diseases. I mean all the time. So I want you to notice here the power of just conversational words. The heart is a deeper level of believing and the Bible says as a man thinks in his heart, so his lives. Not in his head.
Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they will be granted you. So you believe it's done and it will happen. One's in the past. The other is in the future. When you begin to declare that this is mine, it is done, I am speaking from a place of ownership. I am speaking from a place of it is mine. When you speak this way and you talk that way, you don't have to get weird or crazy. I mean, if you're believing God for a healing in your body, that healing is yours. You inherited all health. You inherited. Jesus qualified you for all blessings.
So you're not trying to get them. You're coming from a position of ownership and you are declaring that my ownership is gonna stand. I'm not allowing this disease in and to take away my life, my future, my blessing. So when you begin to understand that, even your conversation goes like that. If you have to go talk to a doctor for example and he says, "Hey, let's figure out, let's do some x-rays. Let's just figure out what's going on in your body". And he says, "What symptoms have you been having"? Well, tell him. "I've been having pains here. I've been having this there. This has been going on there". You telling him the symptoms doesn't mean you have given that disease any right to enter your body at all.
So when we speak to bankers and we've been declaring that you know, my home is paid off in the name of Jesus. That our churches are debt-free in the name of Jesus. But then you go speak to a banker to move money around or to figure out what you're gonna do here and there, you look foolish telling them all, "It's paid off because he knows he's not". The banker knows your building is not paid off. So you say, "Oh, our building is paid off". You don't need to convince him of this. These words regularly spoken, conversationally every day. Just you believe and it comes out of your mouth that the presence of God, the blessings of God is ours and we declare that building paid off in the name of Jesus. We know full well that it's going to happen because here it says, "I say to you, therefore, I say to you, all thing for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them". That's past tense. "And they will be granted you".
So we are putting into laws, we're putting into, we're taking the law of the spirit realm, the law of faith, the law of spoken Word, and we're bringing them into this physical world. So even in the midst of health issues, as I begin to declare, thank You, Father, my body is healed because of Jesus Christ. It is whole. No disease. No sickness can touch it. Now you will look at that and go, "But, Leon, when you go look at it from your five senses, the disease is there. You can still see the growth. I still feel the pain. It still registers in blood tests. It still registers in ultrasounds. And so, because the truth in the physical world is it is there, you go, so I can't just say that I am healed". But here, Jesus is teaching you that when you are asking, praying, believe that you have received it and they will be granted you. It will take place.
So, it's not double talk. What it is, it says recognizing the difference between your rights using your authority, what God is already done through Jesus for you that this is mine. If someone was to move into my house and try to take over it and I've paid it off and I've got the title deed and there's gonna be a long court battle for it, and so I don't get it right away. I've gotta get the courts involved. I've gotta, etcetera, etcetera. My entire conversation will never be, "Well, I don't know if it's my house. I sure hope we can get it back". When you talk to me because I have a sense of ownership and I know I've got the title deed to this thing, you know that I'm gonna be talking about it's mine. I want it back. It's mine. I want it back and I'm gonna use the lawyers. I'm gonna use whatever it takes. My house. I know it's my house. There is no, "Yeah, well, I hope it's my house. You know". No. And the saying is true for a sense of ownership.
When you give your life to Jesus Christ, healing is yours. It is a gift. It has been given. It is something Jesus has won. In fact, every promise in the Bible is yours. In the Old Testament, you ever hear someone say, "Well, you gotta qualify for every promise". Because it says if you do this, God will do that. Did you know that Jesus fulfilled all ifs on the promises and in the New Testament, it says that all the promises are yes and they're in him? Amen. All the promises are in him. Yes and amen to the glory of God. So Jesus qualifies us. He did that on the cross. All of sin that sin nature, he took that. Absorbed that so that you and I can be born again. And it's not just saved from hell. Even the word salvation. I got saved, we'll often say.
And people would say, "Well, so you are guaranteed heaven and hell is not in your future after you die". Right. But the word salvation also has an effect on the planet. When you get saved, it affects your spirit placement when you die. I am spiritually gonna go to heaven. But what about your physical placement while you're alive. Does the word salvation affect you? Well, you know you can have a relationship with God. You know you can talk to Him, get to know Him. But actually, when you look at the word salvation and you check out the references in the New Testament, you'll know that it literally means saved from the entire curse of the law which Galatians 3 says. That Christ has redeemed us from hell. No. It says Christ has redeemed us from the entire curse of the law, becoming a curse for us.
So absolutely we're free from hell. It just doesn't stop there and everything that is a curse is written in Deuteronomy 28:15 and on. And all that is a blessing is verses before it, if you're taking notes. So, know who you are. Know what your inheritance is. Know what Jesus has done. And then daily, your conversation, the way you talk to people, you'll notice it'll always be this positive light. When someone talks to you or talks to me about finances or healing, it'll always be, "Well, I'm getting this checked out because I kinda wanna know what this thing is pushing at me. I know that healing is my right. It is something Jesus has won. So I consider myself healed positionally. I consider that I own that healing and that sickness has no right on my body so it's gone". It's gonna leave so fast.
This attitude. It affects your conversation. It doesn't stop you from getting tested, working with a doctor, working with a natural path, a chiropractor, a herbalist, whatever. I like them all and I use them all, all the time to keep me healthy, to work with me, because the devil's not out there designing new sciences to keep people alive longer. He's here to kill, steal, and to destroy. Now here it says, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you," this is Mark 11, "whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart".
Now your head is gonna have all sorts of doubts. My head screams at me all the time. I just keep renewing it with the Word. But the heart is a deeper level of believing. And the Bible says as a man thinks in his heart, so he lives. Not in his head. That's why you can be making a decision in your head. Okay. I'm gonna get in shape. It's January. It's my new year's resolution. I'm getting into shape. I'm gonna workout. I'm changing. You can just be determined and then in a month, you go back to the way you were before. To believe something with your head is almost useless. It's almost, it's just the first step and you must continue to renew your mind with the Word until those beliefs drop deep into your heart. Deep down where your identity is. How we see ourselves is determined by heart beliefs.
And so, the Bible's teaching us don't doubt in your heart. Don't worry when your head messes with you. Your emotions go up and down each day because of good news, bad news, good tests, bad tests, etcetera. Just stick to knowing that God's Word promises this to you. It says, "Don't doubt in your heart but he believes that what he says is going to happen". Okay. With the few minutes we have left, I'll talk about this. Almost nobody, very few people, believe what they say. They just think that speaking is communication. So they can joke around, tease, all that tickle me to death. I'll probably get the disease first. And they're not even doing it because they think they mean it. They're just doing it to joke around etcetera, etcetera. If you don't believe what you say and every word that comes out of your mouth, then by your words, you'll be justified.
We talked about the other day and by your words, you'll be condemned. Your words continually going in a joking manner, just a conversational manner, they still come out of your heart. Because from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Have you ever met somebody who's always joking around sarcastically, always kind of calling you down, comparing themselves to you, teasing you, bugging you, and laughing? Why are they always like that? Well, I'm just joking around. But why does joking around always have to be putting me down? There's a reason. From the abundance of your own beliefs your mouth speaks. It might go sarcastically. It might go jokingly. It might be a little bit negative. But it's coming out of the deepest beliefs of your heart.
Therefore, as you listen to this message today, recognize you need to get into God's Word, you need to learn what happened from the cross to the throne. Jesus believed in his words. He watched his words. He was cautious with his words. I'm very careful with my words. Years ago, Sally and I, has begin to recognize that the words that come out of our mouth, they come from kind of what we're believing and thinking. So, let's begin to control our words and then our words helped us establish our hearts in grace.
Our words helped us believe. Our spoken words helped us renew our mind. Speaking God's Word, I didn't just do it walking around in public. I mean in my prayer time, in my prayer closet, when I'm in the car by myself. I would pray in the spirit, worship God, meditate in the Word, and then I would just begin to, God's Word says and that's mine in Jesus' name. God's Word says and that's mine in Jesus' name. I still do that today. I do it every day of my life. I've always done this and I've found that the beliefs of my heart, that they can be controlled and built upon.
Proverbs 4 teaches us, verse 23 and on, 19 and on, it says that, "Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flows the forces of life". Did you know that the force of prosperity, the force of poverty, the force of sickness, the force of healing, that both can come out the beliefs of your heart. So, let's get our beliefs in line with God's Word. Let's get out mouth in line with the teachings of God's Word, okay, the New Testament, the cross and on, and all Old Testament verses have to come through the cross. Start this. We'll continue to teach on this topic. Join us again tomorrow as we dive in and make beautiful sense out of spoken words. Faith, grace, etcetera. You're gonna love it. We'll see you tomorrow.