Leon Fontaine - Every Word
Hey, everybody. It is so good to have you with me today. We're on this exciting topic about spoken words, about faith. Really trying to dig down and find out what is Biblical, because for every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch. For every mile of truth, we got people in both ditches. Some don't even believe it and others had taken it way beyond the Bible which causes hurt. Let's take God's Word. Let's stay close to it. Let's make sure that we know His Word. That we are aware of it and that we practice the Word of God. All right. Here we go. Are you ready? Sit down. Grab a pen or a paper or take some notes but absorb God's Word, because if you're gonna bring change to your life. If you're gonna move into the next chapter God has for you. If you're going to, go into the next beautiful season God has for you. You're gonna need to know how.
In Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare, not for calamity.'" That word welfare there means, doesn't mean plans to leave prosperity and go into a welfare. That means that you're gonna fair well. You're gonna do good. So plans for good and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. God has no plans for calamity for you. Okay, all of those who thinks He does, don't know their Bibles. God's plans are all good. Once you know the plans God has for you. You need to get in agreement with those plans. That agreement must be what you believe and what you speak. Even in your conversational language that you'll sense a faith that rises out of people. Like, let's go build this thing. Let's go bring this church to the city. Others were going, "Well, you know, there's lots of churches here and it's hard to find buildings". All this talk actually is showing the beliefs of your heart.
Now, John 6:63, says, "It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, Jesus says, are spirit and they are life". When you begin to believe the Word of God, when you begin to get it deep down on the inside of you, it comes alive. And when you believe it, it has a life to it that is stunning. Jesus is saying that spoken words are not just communication. They are spirit. Did you know that everything in the physical is made out of spirit because God spoke planets, suns, rocks, animals, people. He spoke things into existence. So we're to recognize that Jesus is saying the words that I have spoken to you, they're spirit and they are alive. We are to be like Jesus. Therefore, did you know, the words that you speak are spirit and they are alive. But the Bible actually says that by your words you'll be justified, by your words you'll be condemned.
So you can actually speak curses. Jesus or in the Old Testament God said, I set before you a life and death and in case it's a hard decision, choose life. Like, we are the ones who choose life or death with our words, our believing, who we hang with, what we do, our actions. So let's understand that and let's recognize how to grow and how to have a life that works. Now, Matthew 4:4, Jesus answers and says, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God". All right. God's Word is written and as we read it and as we renew our mind in it, did you know that Holy Spirit is taking that Word and He's speaking it to us. That's why in 1 John it talks there about, how did that you don't need anyone to teach you? It doesn't mean you don't need teachers or pastors. It say that as you get into God's Word, Holy Spirit is revealing it. He is speaking it to you in a way that makes your eyes open, epiphanies. You know, the Bible in Ephesians chapter 1, a prayer to pray in there is that you'd be filled with the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation, in the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding opened.
Now, this is an incredible thing. Holy Spirit is inside of you as a believer and He is always speaking and guiding and praising God. Your spirit man when you give your life to Christ, your spirit man is alive with joy and peace and rejoicing. It's like a big old party in the spirit realm going on in there. It's full of power. It's full of the promises. Holy Spirit is in there. Now, as you learn to listen to Him, you begin to hear God's Word. When you speak God's Word, you're hearing yourself speak it. But I have noticed in my life that as I begin to meditate in the Word and I speak God's Word out loud just by I'd be meditating and just in my devotions by myself. I'd say, "Father, Your Word says this". And I'm confessing. I'm declaring and I am prophesying it. That all of a sudden, as you do this, you will sense Holy Spirit taking a hold of you.
Now, if it's a new belief that might take a few days or a few weeks of changing, getting the old out by renewing your mind with the Word until these new beliefs get into your heart. We must establish our heart in grace the New Testament says. And all of a sudden, as you speak it, you can just sense that, you know, faith. You sense the Spirit of God taking a hold to that with you when you speak the Word to something. I begin to get my mouth in line with what God's Word says and as I speak the Word of God, because Holy Spirit is within me, those Words if spoken in faith, did you know that even angels listen to it?
Often when I'm, you know, if I'm going through a rough time and I let myself kind of get depleted which I'm guilty of, I'll start speaking God's Word and it almost feels empty. It's almost feel like I'm saying it because I'm supposed to, but I don't sense any faith. I don't sense, l swear to God taking a whole, I haven't been spending time with Him, listening to Him. And I want you to know that man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Bible proceeded from God and Holy Spirit taught it to 40 men over the course of 1.600 years who sat down and penned this incredible book and this written word called the, "Graphe". You need to let Holy Spirit teach it to you so it becomes Logos and alive so that you can rhema. You can speak God's Word from your mouth. When you begin to speak God's Word and practice that every day, you begin to take a hold of your future. Until then God's plans are good for you but it's up to you to walk in them.
In Ephesians 2:10 in the Amplified, it says that God has prepared a pathway ahead of time for you that you should walk in it. He doesn't say you have to. You get to do whatever you want. You have freewill. Freewill is so powerful. God will never take it away from you. You get to do what you want, when you want, how you want, where you want, believe what you want. All of them have consequences, either good or bad but you get to decide what you wanna do. So as I see what God's will for my life is, as I trust Him that with Him my future's the best. I begin to get my mouth in line with what God's Word says. And as I speak the Word of God because Holy Spirit is within me, those Words if spoken in faith, did you know that even angels listen to it?
It's interesting, there's a verse here in Psalm 103, that says, "The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word". Why does not just say angels obey God they're mighty in strength? No, it says, they perform His Word. When God's Word begins to be spoken from the mouth of God, from the mouth of Jesus, from the mouth of a born-again person, it says they obey the voice of His Word. Therefore, when you and I begin to declare God's Word, He wants us to do that. There are so many verses it say things that we couldn't wrap our mind around. Like, "Command ye me the work of my hands or you speak to the mountains. You declare these things. You have not because you ask not". All of these incredible promises are powerful.
Some people actually think that God is the one who decides whether or not you get a miracle. Who decides whether or not the mountain moves. Who decides whether or not, and that's not true. He decided 2.000 years ago when Jesus the lamb of God died for the sin of the world. You know that where there is no sin, there is no curse. When there's no sin, there's nothing negative that's allowed there. So because your spirit man, okay, not your mind and not your body because your spirit man no longer has the nature of fear and sin. And it teaches us in Romans chapter 7 that you now have a nature, of the nature of God is inside of you and it's sealed in your spirit. That even when you do things that are wrong out here. That you don't lose the presence of God or your status of righteousness because we are the righteousness of God in Christ. You are in Christ when Jesus is inside of you. So now, speak God's Word, know that the enemy can't stop it, know that it's not God deciding. It's just you and I getting in agreement with God's Word. God's Word says the promise is yours. What do you do with it?
Well, Mark 4 teaches us plant the promises of God in the soil of your heart by speaking them. Speak out the promise of God. Like, I'll be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and thanksgiving. I let my request be made known unto God and the peace of God that passes all understanding, mounts a guard on my heart, mounts a guard on my mind. I love claiming that verse. When I speak that verse, that promise of peace is already mine. It's not God going, "Gabriel, do you think we should let Leon have some peace? Get the disciples together here and have them, let's have a vote. Leon is declaring he's got peace. You okay with that? Oh, you know. Ah, the votes no? We got to test him some more"? Like, we have the most ridiculous beliefs. No, the Word of God is established. It is there. It works. You and I need to get in agreement with it, with our beliefs and with our words. And speaking out loud God's Word as you meditate and study is crucial. Asking Holy Spirit to be your teacher, your helper. He will guide you into all truth.
So that your mouth which is what releases truth into this world. It's one thing to have power. It's another thing to use it. I've often use the example of, I love the bush and getting out into nature. But let's say we're in a dangerous territory. There are bears present. So, you know, the guide that I have actually carries a rifle. When I was in Africa, I was in this country and I want to go down by the river and looked at the hippopotamuses. And so in doing that they actually had soldiers that they were helping protect the people from different things. And they say, "Well, you can go down walk by the water but you've gotta take this soldier with a machine gun". So we're walking down by the water and I just thought it was kind of funny that this person's, I don't have the gun. They do.
But now let me make, let's add and make up a parable here. Let's say that this soldier gives me the gun and so I'm carrying it. We're having a great time and all of a sudden, a hippopotamus starts chasing me down. There's no place to hide, no place to go. The only hope is to shoot it. And so I howler at the soldier, "Help me. Shoot him. Shoot him. Shoot him. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die". And the soldiers going, "I gave you the gun. I gave you the gun. I gave you the gun". Like, my fear is causing me to look to the soldier who's given me the power and the authority because by giving me the gun, they give me the authority to use it. They'd given the gun and I've got the power to stop the hippopotamus. But instead I'm sitting there screaming at the soldier. The soldier's going, "I gave you the gun. I gave you -, do it". I often liken Christians to that. That God has given you the authority to use His Word. He's given you the power, His presence, His power is within you. His angels are listening to you.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 1 the last verse that says that the angels are mighty and powerful but they are here for the heirs of salvation. They are the servants. That means the angels listen to my words. They listen to what I say and when faith in God's Word, when agreement with God's Word is coming out of my mouth, is coming out of me. Then you'll notice that power is there. So stop begging and bugging and pleading with God as though He has to make this decision yet. Some people see God as this guy in heaven who has got seven billion people on the planet and He's monitoring every prayer and then He's gotta make a decision out of it. Oh, there's a little girl praying over there for protection. Should we do it? Let's give her a yes on that one. Oh, there's a person over there. Let's give the no on that one.
So people are dying all the time. Millions of children are dying every year in rapes and murders and brokenness and all the junk that's going on. And we think that whenever they pray about it that God is deciding yes or no and that whatever happened was His will. Any person I've sat down and talked to about this, you know, they hushed up really quickly when I start talking about this is ridiculous. God has placed spiritual laws and He's written them in the Bible for you and I. This world is fallen, filled with calamities, sickness, evil people, evil spirits. It's filled with disease, viruses. It's filled with storms and tidal wave. This is a fallen world, okay? It's not the way God designed as the garden of Eden, as a knock off of heaven. Let it be made in the likeness and image of heaven but manmade decisions that let, you know, Lucifer in and a lot of negative things are happening on this planet.
So Jesus came along and because of His death, His burial, and His resurrection, you have a right to rise up and to decide your future. You don't have a right to decide somebody else's future. Every person has been given freewill. Every person can make a decision to speak and to believe and agree with the Word of God or agree with whoever they want. Their favorite scientist, their favorite psychologist, their favorite New Ager, their favorite TV preacher, who might not know the Word or he might. You are making decisions that are affecting your future. I wanna challenge you today to know God's Word. We gotta start believing in God's grace. That He's favor is already spoken. It's already on your life. But God's grace, His unearned favor can't flow until you believe it. But as you begin to believe what happened from the cross to the throne, as you believe that God's grace is here. That it is done. Then all of a sudden, the words that you speak change, your look at the future changes, even your look at the past.
When you think the devil so powerful he did all these things to stop you. He's not. You think God is so mean, He didn't allow you to have those miracles. He's not. We have a wrong understanding of God's Word and we must make sure that our mouth gets in line with God's Word. In our last few minutes, let me give you a couple of verses. In Proverbs 21:23, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles". Things that you say can bring trouble into your life. Now, we know why, yeah, then just say I hate you, too or say you're a creep to somebody who's stronger than you and yeah, I understand all that. That's communication stuff. But what are you saying about your future, your marriage, your job, your life, etcetera.
What are you saying about kids? I pray God's Word over my kids all the time. That the presence of God leads them. That they hear His voice, life and healing. And these spoken words, they affect them. What words do you speak? Proverbs 13:3, "The one who guards his mouth preserves his life. The one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin". So, you just blah, blah, blah, blah, and keep talking. And you start going negative and what you think and what you're ticked off about. Oh, I'm tired. I'm so -, The more you talk. The more your life gets into trouble. Be quiet, hold your mouth. Don't be saying all this stuff. There's lot of times I get upset. I wanna just spout off. Don't. The one who opens the widest lips comes to ruin. You can ruin your life with the things that you say, ruin your potential for all the blessings of God. You know, there's a story in the Bible, it's really interesting. And it's about John the Baptist dad.
Now, John the Baptist parents couldn't have kids. And so all of a sudden, she gets pregnant with John the Baptist. And an angel talks to his dad Zechariah about this. That your wife is gonna have a son and that you're gonna name him John. And his response to the angel was one of doubt. It was not one of yes! It was one of doubt. And the Bible says from that moment on, that Zechariah, the dad, lost the ability to speak. He could not speak. And so for nine months this man had to write things down because he couldn't speak. You have to understand that the angel knew that he's not guarding his mouth. He's not gonna preserve this life, of this little baby in his wife's womb, John the Baptist. He knew that if this man opened his mouth like Proverbs 13:3 says and Jesus knew these verses, that his mouth would come, his life would come to ruin because of all these negative words speaking out.
So many times, I just close my mouth and shut it and don't say a thing unless I'm speaking God's Word, God's promises. You control your tongue. You're not gonna do it on your own but Holy Spirit will help you. You need to be aware of words, spoken words. You need to be aware of the things you're saying. You need to be aware of the things you allow people to speak into your life and that you are listening to. If you listen to CNN, constant negative news all the time. You are gonna begin to believe it. You know what I watch CNN or news channels and I see this person who's just dressed up and taught to talk. They're not experts. And they begin to talk about economy and sickness and it just fear begins to come in. Find out what's going on, you want to know what's going on the world and then do not listen to it a second time.
I mean, they will repeat that report every 20 minutes for the next 24 hours. By that time, you're pickled in the negativity. You're marinated in it. No, whatever goes on around this world, the Bible says even a thousand falls at your side and ten thousand at your righthand. It won't come near you. Even Isaac in a time of famine where no one had food. He planted and received a hundred-fold return. What are your words saying? Believe God. Father, I pray right now that someone, something in this message today will drive deep into their heart, guide them, lead them, into a whole new chapter of speaking God's Word, coming into an agreement with God's Word. In Jesus' name. Amen.