Leon Fontaine - Finding Direction
I want to talk to you about some of the things that I've learned that I've seen in the Word about knowing and hearing. I say knowing and hearing because I want to show you very clearly how to easily know the direction God wants for your life, every day knowing what decision to make, knowing things that others would never know unless Holy Spirit revealed it to them so that you can lead your life in a powerful way. The Bible teaches us Holy Spirit will show you things to come which means things you don't know about your future, where to go, what to do, a vision for your life in daily, decision making if it's a big decision finances, what investment to make, who to hire, look out don't even drive down that road.
I'm amazed at how much Holy Spirit has protected and guided me into a blessing and guided me away from pain, heartache, etcetera. He's always sending and talking to us. We just aren't hearing him so knowing and hearing and we're going to talk about the fact that so many people because they don't sense him or hear him say that there was dry times in their life when the spirit of God was not directing them. What do you do when God is silent is kind of what they taught. God is never silent. God is never backing off from us and leaving us flapping on our own. In fact the Bible says He's already given us all things that pertain to godliness and life. He's promised that his presence is never leaving us, never first taking us so if He's never going to forsake us or leave us what good it is for Him to be in us but just shut up for a week, a month? I had a guy that said God wouldn't talk to him for years and I thought to myself dude, who taught you the Bible?
So I want to jump into this and I believe that by the time we end this message today, you are going to have a beautiful sense of knowing and hearing. In fact you already have, maybe you're missing it because too many leaders talk like this. Last night as I was getting ready for church, the Lord spoke to me and when they say that you think that you know this voice entered the room. Leon, here's what I'd like you to do and almost nobody I've ever talked to and in my life ever hears audible voices inside or outside. Nobody in the Bible heard audible voices continually so when someone tells me that they do, I doubt them immediately. If someone says they get dreams every day and visions everyday I doubt the man because I don't find it in the Word. I don't find Jesus operating that way or the apostles operating that way etcetera and so when I study the Word it shows very clearly how to hear and know.
God can give you a dream, absolutely. God can have an angel speak to you, absolutely. God can give somebody else a Word for you and it could be confirming a direction, yes but all of these things, we need to know how to kind of judge them for ourselves. How does it feel to your own heart? The primary way God is going to direct you and guide you into incredible blessing and away from the attacks of the enemies is going to be through just and I call it hearing but it's not hearing a voice. I should call it properly sensing. Knowing, hearing, sensing is the words that I'm going to use. You know. In the Old Testament, God would give people such amazing direction that a prophet of God would talk to the king and tell him, we are going to be attacked in a day or two through this valley and there was nobody there for them to even know it. God would show and reveal him.
So the anointing that was in the Old Testament or the way Holy Spirit helped people of old would there would be a certain flow on the king to lead and to be strong and to be a warrior. There'd be a certain flow of God's power on the priest to get before God and pray and intercede on behalf of them and then there would be a certain flow of God's power on the profit for direction in the future up to make sure that we are following God and not idols. To make sure that God was directing with all of the countries that were against them. Today since Jesus died on the cross, did you know all 3 of those the that flow of Holy Spirit is upon us? We are now all kings and priests. It says now we're profits as well because we all sense and hear and know the voice of God and Holy Spirit shows us all things to come.
Now I know there's the 5 fold ministry which just means that they teach it, which they means lead God's people in it but God's people hear and know from God as well and so in the Old Testament He would just kind of speak to them. They would know things. Let me show you in the New Testament since the cross if some of you young people want to live a life that begins to succeed right away instead of you being, well I'm about 60 I kind of figured out how to hear from God. Let me show as a teenager, as a 20 year old, you can know the voice, you can know the direction, you can know and sense and know what directions to go, what to look out for. If you listen to what I want to share today. All right the first verse I want to give you is in Colossians 3:15. Listen and it's on the Amplified which really fleshes this out. Listen to this, and let the peace, the sole harmony which comes from Christ rule, act as an umpire continually in your hearts.
I want you to notice this peace needs to be in your heart and it says it needs to be an umpire then it says deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your mind in that peaceful state to which as members of Christ's one body you were also called to live and be thankful, appreciative, giving praise to God always. Now here it is saying that the peace of God in your heart, not your mind. The peace of God that is in your heart will be your umpire. Now if you know what an empire is, he's the one that decides the game. Foul. You're out on first. Okay. Nope. That's fair territory. He gets to run. An umpire decides everything about that game whether it's hockey, whether it is football, whether it's soccer, whatever the game is, the umpire decides what's in, what's out. What you can run the play with and shut the whole thing down. Nope, you're out. Three strikes, you're out. The umpire decides all of these things.
Did you know that what is the umpire in your life will be a peace that comes from your heart and it says that questions will arise in your mind. And if you allow your mind and you try to be led by your mind you're going to be fighting with reasoning. Reasoning is the voice of the mind. Sensing and knowing is the voice of the heart and so as you recognize this different voice. Reasoning is up here but then you get a peace that settles in your gut. Settles in your heart. It's a sense of well being, a sense of tranquility about this. Now many times when I've wanted direction for big decisions, you know, we run four different organizations, Sally and I, and each of them I mean needs millions of dollars and staffing and people and every decision you make, you know, it's got to do with cash flow but it's not just the running of a business. It's God, what's the direction? And we've made decisions that people would look at us and go, you're crazy. What are you doing? That goes against all business wisdom but we knew in our heart.
Now, our brain was going a million miles an hour trying to put all the reasoning together. What's the first step, second step? Where is the money coming from? Who's going to join us? How's this going to work? All of that stuff was going in our brain but here we knew there was a peace, go in that direction. But I don't know where the money's going to come. I don't know who's going to help us. I know but that's the direction that we knew to go and when we moved in that direction, we found that God prepared ahead of time in some cases. Other times we just stayed the course. When it's still looked lean and like nothing was going to happen we knew in our heart. There was a tranquility and we allowed the umpire of our decision making to be the peace in our heart not the reasoning of our head. There are things I know that we are going to do is a ministry around this world that I have no evidence of, no proof that we're going to do it. I have no ability to figure out any steps right now but I can tell you we're going to do this and there's no steps of reasoning in between other than I'm moving in that direction and God is going to make way now in the meantime we are planning.
We are studying. We're strategizing. We do what we can without getting all freaked out, just moving in that direction and I want you to know that there's an umpire. Holy Spirit and his peace should be the umpire in your heart. Maybe you've got an opportunity to do something but every time you go to work for that company or you think about working in that company, you just get this knot in your stomach. No, a knot is different than butterflies. Lots of almost every decision we make, we have butterflies. And there's this kind of his nervous energy like an athlete before an important game. When you knew you were about to go against a team. This is provincials. This is the state championship. This is, you know, the nationals and the game's about to happen. You'll know beyond a shadow of a doubt you're supposed to play. This butterflies is not saying don't play. This butterflies is just you wanting to do your best, be your best, wondering what's going to happen.
Butterflies in that kind of adrenaline edginess. That's not saying no. But when you go to make decisions about finances and money and who's going to babysit your kids, who you're going to marry, who you're going to date, all these different things. If you ever get this just, I call a red light just no. I don't feel good and you can't shake it. It's down in here and you can say I don't. When you say I don't know why but, you're probably sensing what's going on on the inside. Now people who never deal with fear are never led by the presence of God very well because they've not, you have to deal with fear. Dear will always go no, no, no. Every new thing you're about to attempt fear will go no, no and if you have never dealt with fear, you can never be led accurately on a regular basis by Holy Spirit because you think fear is Holy Spirit and that everything is a no. I've found most things are a yes if it's okay with God's Word and I want to branch out He'll show me how, He'll guide me but the peace in our heart is the umpire.
Now let's read that again and let the peace, the sole harmony which comes from Christ. You know when it talks about soul harmony that you know there's a sense of everything's going in that direction. Everything feels good about that even though you're nervous and you haven't got it all figured out and it says let this peace from Christ rule, act as an umpire continually in your hearts. You know during the day as I go from appointment to emails to meeting with people to shooting in the studios, I'm trying to always be aware of this peace even when I'm driving. I remember driving down the road one time. Getting this desire, get off the, get off, get off, get off, get off just like a sense of just pull over and this why? I mean it's rush hour. I don't want to pull over but I pulled over the side of the road and I sat there and I'm just thinking so I finally I thought well I'm gonna just hang this air freshener, whatever I'd had there in my car and then I just. Why am I sitting here? I just felt okay let's keep going.
So I got going and I'll never forget going down that freeway and noticing on a clover leaf the semi that was in front of me and I remember seeing this car behind me when I pulled over in a horrible accident. Five-car pileup and I'd have been in the middle of it if I wouldn't have just sensed and it was just like just pull over. A direction from Him with no reasonable reason why. I did not have to put sugar in my coffee. I didn't have a bite of my hotdog. I just, no reason. I just pull over for five minutes and God had just taken me out of that accident scene. God is always guiding us, leading us. I mean story after story. I can share example after example of staffing, meeting people, knowing and sensing this person is called here and they're part of this team. I may as well come and go but then there are those that God gives you that you know to invest and you just sense it. There's others who'd love to get involved and I won't even touch them and no one can tell. I don't even know why.
Credentials are great. Everything's fine but the leadership of Holy Spirit who knows the future's going, no, don't do that and so you can be guided by the Holy Spirit. There's many times as a dad that I would just be walking around and one of my children would rise up in my heart, my mind and one of my son in law, daughter in law, their name would rise up, their face would come before me for no reason and the second that happens I just say in Jesus' name I speak life and blessing and protection, God, upon this person and I pray that You guide them, lead them, touch them that Your power touch them right now, heal them, guide them and I'll just speak whatever verse came to me. Sometimes I'd even know it was a sense of blessing and healing. Other times a sense of direction. Other times speak protection over them. Just things that I would just tend to know and I'm talking 30 seconds and then it'd be gone but anytime someone comes to my mind for no reason, I just speak God's Word over them because I believe Holy Spirit trying to show us things and as you speak out loud and direct your prayer, the enemy, all evil forces of the wicked one have to obey you.
You release the angels. You're a guardian when you speak to Word because angels obey the voice of God's Word it's says in Psalms and so as you sense and know, it's to do something and God will never by the way help you judge other people's hearts and so that's one thing you never do is I know that person. They think they're pretty special but I know the truth about them. Holy Spirit's never gonna let you have some edge over people as if you know the deepest darkest secrets of their hearts with this arrogant thing. No. If God's gonna say don't touch, don't get involved with that person, that's what he's going to show you. The rest is your guessing. The rest is you thinking you have a right to judge but the Bible's very clear do not judge. Jesus said do not condemn.
When you hear Paul talk about being led by the Spirit, listen the way Paul who had incredible direction, listen to the way he talks, his language gives us an amazing look at how to be guided led by the Holy Spirit. In Acts 15:25-28 it seemed good onto us being assembled with one accord to send chosen men onto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. All right stop right there. A lot of time, people say about, what God tell you to do? Most of the decisions I make, I'm talking most of them, it seems good to me or the umpire of peace in my heart as we would talk with board members from different companies, strategic groups of people at for making decisions about the future, Sally and I, as we look at things like this, there's things that would feel, she should have an idea. I'd have an idea and we both would feel good about us. It just seemed good. We would talk this idea through.
Here's the church goes, the television crew goes. This is where our schools need to go. This is where around the world Spirit Contemporary international needs to go. Like however we would look at this thing and as we strategize and had an idea, one of us doesn't feel good about it. We don't do it but if we both felt good and Paul was using that language. It seemed good to us. It wasn't the Lord said and a lot of people use it to control others. Even as a leader of organizations that has boards and staff, I almost never in my lifetime have looked at the team around me and said the Lord told us we're going to do this. Let's go do it. No, I would say I have an idea. I want your input. What do you guys feel about this? And I'd outline the strategy, tell them we're going to go how, how much light I have on the topic right now and I'd want to know, does it seem good to you?
Now all of them would have a ton of questions that I might not be able to answer but as I shared the vision and the why that was in my heart but the entire team, the vast majority would almost always go, it feels good to me. Now I don't have anything answered. I got a lot of questions but it seems good to me. He says it seems good to us. Who? The people being assembled together in one accord. These are people with like heart, like calling. There are times someone might be in your circle that you can't listen to because they're just a fearful person or they don't even have a dream for what you're doing, your company, your ministry, etcetera and so you can't listen to them most of the time. It's always gonna be fear, negative or jealousy. Now let's go on. Men that have a hazard in their lives in the name of our Lord Jesus, we have sent there for Judas and Silas who should also tell you the same things by mouth. Again he says for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden then these necessary things and he begins to explain to them.
I want you to notice this is what I have found in studying the Word and in my life is the majority of times, something will feel good to me and I'll just, I feel good about that even though my mind is screaming and my reasoning which is the voice of your mind screaming what? Your spirit's going yes. In your life, I'm gonna encourage you, get into God's Word, know what God's Word says because He'll never guide you against the Word and then when He needs to guide you that's just not in the Bible like which job to take, Holy Spirit will show you. God leads us through our spirit which is in here. The Bible teaches us that where you sense your spirit, like the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, the Bible says searching all the inward parts of the belly in Proverbs 20 and 27.
So you're going to sense it in your belly. Those gut feelings and God wants to umpire and direct you by peace. When you hear a lot of preachers and spewed the Lord told me this, you need to know they're actually talking about this sensing. They almost never hear words or a voice okay because I've spoken to some of the best leaders around the planet for the kingdom of God and we all concur that of course, He'll give us visions and dreams and an award from somebody else and some of them in a rare point have heard a voice but the 99.9 percent of the time, feels good to us and Holy Spirit. It seems good to us and the team that is around us in like precious faith or in one accord and so we move forward at man, God can guide you so accurately. Well pray this has helped you and Father, in Jesus' name, guide them, lead them, let them hear clearly or sense clearly Your peace in their heart opposed to the reasoning of their brain and guide them in every decision in Jesus' name amen.