Leon Fontaine - God is Not Ignoring You
If I was to ask you the question. What eats your lunch? What do you struggle with? What consumes your time? That you're trying to change, don't like. Is it your marriage? Is it your inability to build relationships? Is it physical? Are you struggling with health issues? What's going on in your head? What are you struggling with? What's eating your lunch? What is causing you to be focused on this issue all the time? Because today, I wanna show you a secret in the Word of God that many Christians don't get, because they don't know the proper definition of certain words like faith, miracles, the supernatural, etcetera. And they don't understand the prayer. They don't understand how the teachings of Jesus before the cross fit into the epistles and the teaching after the cross that the apostles wrote about, and the Old Testament stories that can encourage us.
And so we kind of throw into this big old soup bowl and we add a bunch of stuff and out of it comes this, you know, stir fry. That we just think this is what Christianity is. But the Bible says that God used to wink at our ignorance. And you could just believe what you want, pray what you want, do what you want, then God's gonna workout it out in the end. But that's not really how the Bible teaches. And that for you to be here today and to be a student of the Word and to learn the principles of God's Word are crucial. For you to know truth. For you to understand the difference and understand sound doctrine, so that you could live your life. They're crucial. God never designed, okay I must say this off top. God never designed prayer to not be answered. Okay?
Now, most people, the ones I talked to anyway by law of averages. They'll think that one prayer answered a month they're feeling okay. To tell them that everything you pray should be answered is a whole new thought for them. You know, like how long would a relationship last if you talk to your spouse and they didn't answer. Again, ain't that rude? Like, "Hey, hey! Wahoo"! Oh, I'm sorry. Or on purpose they just ignore you. It's not gonna be a relationship that grows, okay? And God's not ignoring you. This thing called prayer is two things. It's communicating with God and it is praying in the name of Jesus and believing for things that you don't have to happen. It's believing for the life that God's created ahead of time for you and that you should walk this life. But most people can't get their lives pass some kind of a ceiling or some kind of a boundary.
And so everybody here has boundaries on every area of your life. You have boundaries on how much money you make. You have boundaries on how healthy you are. You have boundaries on how happy your relationships are. You have boundaries on your emotions. You've got boundaries on your health. And all of these boundaries are self-imposed. All of them are self-imposed. Now, it doesn't mean that you originally put them there, but you grew up in the beliefs that you have are feed to you, where created within you. That's why the Bible says train up a child in the way he should go. Those are the beliefs, the training. And when he's older he won't depart from them. So there are no perfect parents here. I'm so glad my kids, all five of them found Jesus. And that Jesus is the father to the fatherless areas I didn't know how to teach them about. Okay? And that's how I pray.
And so, where you are at right now, this thing called the heart that we talk about. Everyone, "Oh, I get that now". No, you don't get it. If you'd got it, you'd be breaking boundaries. You'd be changing your boundaries. You'd be breaking free from all that holds you back, if you really understood the gospel and the understanding of the heart. So, beliefs are more important than actions. Beliefs are more important than actions. Any actions you have that you don't have corresponding beliefs will get you nowhere but frustrated. Example, you're working at your marriage, but you don't believe it's gonna work. Working at your finances but you don't believe that anybody in your family ever gonna get passed minimum wage. It's praying for healing but really believing it's not gonna happen. Like, our beliefs are more important than our actions because actions that come out of beliefs caused miracles. But believing without action doesn't work, action without believing. But believing is more important.
In Mark 9:23, "Jesus said unto him, to him that can believe, all things are possible". He didn't say, to him who gets it together all things are possible, to him who cleans up his life, all things are possible. But please get it together and please clean up your life. That's great for your horizontal relationships. But between you and God and your ability to literally move into the miraculous and see your life grow and do great things, believing is all through the Word.
So I'm gonna take you to a portion of scripture that is really astounding when you look at it, is 1 John 3:19. Listen to this and really make sure you pay attention. Here's one of the things about your mind. Most people can't keep their mind on track pass about 10 seconds. And you have to train yourself, renew yourself to focus and lock in, because if you can't, you'll never change or grow. Because within your, 10 seconds is a long time. One, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand, four, you've already diagnosed somebody's hairdo, somebody's shoes and where you're going for coffee, and who's got the big head sitting in front of you, you can't see past them. And so you must learn to focus like a laser beam.
And the Bible teaches us in Mark chapter 4 that what you focus on is what defeats you or what you focus on is what wins in your life. Focus on condemnation, you'll be defeated. Focus on faith and grace, you'll win. Focus. So when you're here today, focus on God's Word. For those who say, "I just don't get God's Word". You actually do. You just don't focus on it long enough. It's not a biblical issue. It's a focus issue. And you'll find you can't focus on anything very long because you've never been trained, that focus is crucial and that focus determine success. So focus, and it says, "And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure," I want you to get the word assure. It's really a weird word. "Assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him". Stop right there. We keep going in a minute. All right, this make this verse very powerful. This is after the cross.
So Jesus has died, people now can be born again. They can be new creations. And it is saying in this portion of scripture that we just read, that if your heart doesn't condemn you, anything you ask is yours in prayer. Let's unpack that a little bit. "Oh, Leon, then are you saying that if your heart does condemn you, that you're not gonna received". That's what it's intimating, but it doesn't say that. It says, if your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart. But it is doing one thing. Listen close to this. It is making your heart the determining factor on anything you pray about and do or don't get. It is saying, anything you do or don't get is a heart issue. Not a devil issue, not a God issue. Did God, didn't God. Why did God didn't heal? Why didn't God answer my prayer? That question is Old Testament. God has answered every prayer by giving us all things that we need for life.
So this portion of scripture is bringing whether or not you get prayer answered to a heart issue. "Well, Leon, you call me a bad person"? No, it's not doing that. It's actually not even talking about what kind of a person you are. It's simply saying if your heart condemns you. If your heart doesn't condemn you the miraculous is open to you. If your heart doesn't condemn you. If your own heart doesn't condemn you, then anything, everything you ask is yours. When you know something is God's will and that's a lot of stuff in God's will. You should get the answers. There's nothing-, Satan's not stopping it. God is not withholding it. But that's how we pray. Whether binding the devil or begging God. Both are outside of what this is saying. It's saying if your heart doesn't condemn you and you got confidence towards God, you can ask anything, and you get it. So either the Bible is a lie. Either of this verse needs to be pulled out of here or it's a part of the Canaan and it's special. And if it's special and it's precious, then we need to make sure that we understand how this thing called the heart works. It's not talking about your mind. We know you should renew it. It's not talking about your spirit.
We know that Jesus' is in there. It's talking about heart kind of the central area, that's the decision making is where your self-worth. It's where your ego. It's who you are. It's where it is. It's what you believed about yourself. It's what you believed about God. It's what you believed about your past. It's what you believed about your future. It's all in here in this place called heart. So, the enemy who's a loser, he will try -, he doesn't try to stop things. He simply -, It's impossible for him to stop your miracle. He can't. Because the Bible says God's Word is incorruptible, unkillable, unstoppable, nothing can stop it. So he's got to stop your beliefs because it's your beliefs that release it. And it's gotta be a heart belief. And people say, "Leon, I didn't get what I prayed about and I lost a loved one. Are you saying I didn't have enough faith"? That's not what this says. It doesn't say that if you have enough faith, that you gonna receive from God. It says that if your heart doesn't condemn you, you gonna receive from God. This does seem a little simpler than ramping it up, ramping it up, ramping it up. And this measuring stick.
Are you there? Are you there? I'm believing. I'm believing. I'm believing. I'm almost there. I can feel it that I'm almost on breakthrough. You know, Christianity can really get stupid if people don't stick to the Word. Now, this verse is simply saying if your heart doesn't condemn you, you ask anything you get it. And what I think it should say is, but if your heart does condemn, you're screwed. But it doesn't say that. It says if your heart does condemn you, God is greater. God is so good. That verse just goes positive both ways. If your sitting here and everything you believe in God for. That's wonderful. If your sitting here and ain't nothing working, okay? You're in luck because God is greater than your condemnation. And that's where we can move you from the realm of never getting answered prayer to one where things begin to happen in your life.
The problem with religion is that you begin to lower the bar to where you get results. It's kind of sour grapes. You know that Bible talks about the foxes jumping up and trying to get the grapes in the old story. And he can't get them and finally, he just goes, "They're probably sour anyway". That's what people do. They'll try, and they'll try, and they'll try. Like, let's pick on something there. They'll try to have a, the marriage they've always dreamed of, great friendship, great love life, friends, happening, doing life together. And then when they can't seem to get the two of them there it's, "Well, it's better than most". Or, you know, they wanna get financial to a place that can give more, where they can do some things with their life and, but they can't seem to ever get past to place of barely paying their bills and struggling to just keep ahead of the rat race.
And so either they just, "Ah, you know, rich people they've compromised somewhere. They screwed somebody over to get where they are. So I'm-," And what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? You're making excuses for your inability to get results. When you do that you lock yourself in. Your own heart condemning you, so you start condemning anybody that's making it past you. Then you get into envy and jealousy and all these problems. The Bible is simply saying, Jesus said My yoke is easy. Only book say 43 reasons why you're not getting your miracle. This? Doesn't even say you can't get it. It's actually just sticking to the positive and saying if your heart doesn't condemn you. It doesn't say, if your heart doesn't condemn somebody else. It says if your heart doesn't condemn yourself.
So here's what the enemy does. He knows the Bible. The devil has all 66 books memorized. Think about that for a minute. He's a created being, okay? God created him at the beginning of time. He used the power God gave him and created evil and became evil. He's been around for thousands of years. He tempted Adam and Eve. And it's the same group of fallen angels that tempting us today and they use the Bible. The devil quoted the Bible to Jesus. How stupid can you get? But he knows the Bible. So he would take the Bible out of context and he will attack you with it. And a lot of TV preachers help you as they waved their bony fingers into the TV camera and tell you, "You're going to hell you dirty rotten sinner. Yes, sinner. You liar". And they just, they cause condemnation to explode in the body of Christ. You're a liar. You're a sinner. You're barely saved by grace. Who you think you are? You arrogant.
And so this bombardment of negativity and condemnation coming from the pulpit. That we think that if we can get people to cry and come down to the front and sob and rededicate their lives to Christ, we've done something. But the opposite is actually true. If we can get a Christian to stop looking at their sin and their inability to produce results and look to Jesus as the author and the finisher of their faith and that He qualifies them. And get their heart out of this self-loathing, self-condemnation, you'll begin to ask God anything you want. So this condamnation. You say, "Leon, what is condamnation? What is -," Well, take demn and put damn in there. Condemnation. Condamnation, is you are damning yourself. It's like, you know, you go to believe God for something. All of a sudden, you know, "Yeah, but, you know what? I did this when I was, you know, last year. Well, you know, chickens coming home to roast". Or you'll limit yourself with your beliefs. Like, I'm just not good enough. I'm not smart enough. And condemnation is a lessening of yourself through whatever means it does that. I didn't finish my school.
Is somebody here right now guaranteed that you don't think you're smart? That's condemning yourself. Bottomline is, you're not dumber than a doctor, a lawyer. The only difference between you and a lawyer is one thing. The only difference between you and a doctor is one thing. The only difference between you and the world's best trumpet player is one thing. And it's pursuing law. It's pursuing medicine. It's practicing trumpet. And this people are not smarter than you. They are just more discipline and focus in one area and they learned it for years, so they have something they can bring. That this is not like, "Well, there's dumb people and smart people here in the room. Ha ha ha". No, you believe that? You're already condemning yourself. You know, I didn't graduate Grade-twelve. Why don't you shut up about that? Most of the millionaires in North America didn't finish high school, college.
So but if he can condemn you about your wisdom, condemn you about your looks. "Well, look at this face. I got a face for radio. I just can't get anywhere. I mean, look at me". And like, so now, you're condemning yourself about your looks. "Well, you know, I stumble over my words. I can't seem to get along anywhere. I just socially not really there". The reasons you're not socially there, it's because you're condemning yourself because you're not socially there. "And I can't make friends anywhere. Everywhere I go no one likes me. I just don't fit in. Oh, my God. That's why God -". God didn't make you as a loser. God didn't make you, so you can't get along. God didn't make you stupid. God didn't make you to lose. God made you an overcomer, born of God, ride upon the high places of the earth. He gave you the wisdom of God. The knowledge of God. That's your belief. But you don't get what God believes. You get what you believe. You don't get what God believes or everything would be perfect. You get what you believe.
So that's why the Bible says as He's looking and bringing you to a place of where we can be walking in this enhancement. I'm careful with the word miracle because to most of us in this room, the word miracle means you got a problem. You're in bankruptcy. You're going in a bankruptcy. Ah, I need a miracle. Well, what about the power of God that take you from an average business to a great business? What about the miraculous power of God to take you in great business to world changing business? What about the power of God to take your average marriage to a marriage that just rocks? Why do we only look at miracles as when you have a crisis? I don't wanna, I don't want miracles that way because it means I got a crisis. I don't want marriage crisis and financial crisis and physical crisis. And if we do, I'm glad God is there.
So the word "miracle," let's replace it with the word "supernatural". That you are enhanced. Superman is enhanced. The man of steel. Now, it's not real but, and we need to recognize the presence of God is on us. That He's commanded His blessing on us. He's prepared a way for us ahead of time. That we should walk in them. That He's given us all of His promises. All the promises are yes and amen. The only thing stopping you if you're a believer is what you've learned to believe. Okay? So, here it says. So now, what I'm focusing on specifically is condamnation. Condemning yourself to a lower level. Condemning always moves you down. Advancing moves you up. Promoting moves you up. But condemning moves you down. You are condemned to a life of sickness. You are condemned to a life of poverty. You're condemned-, No, so condemnation is when your own heart condemns you.
Now, I'm gonna say something else. Everybody here including me, has to deal with this every day. If you want change. There's nothing to change about the devil. You can't change the devil. So what's you're worrying about him for? You can't change God. Which most people think that's they gotta do with prayer. God! Get 40 churches and prayer towers and prayer people and sobbing in intercession. All these teachings, they're going around now for decades. And you're not gonna change God. God's already moved. He's already given you all things. So this book. This beautiful portion of scripture is really unlocking something for us when it says -, Let's go back to verse 19 now. "And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him".
All right, before we get into condemnation and not condemnation. It is your job to assure your heart, to establish your heart. How do you do that? You do that by turning to Jesus. He is the one that died in your place and He releases Holy Spirit to continue to say to you, you're righteous. You are righteous. Do you know that's Holy Spirit's job? One of our messages we share was Holy Spirit does three things. He convicts us of sin. He convicts us of righteousness, and He convicts us of judgment. When you focus and put it in line, if you're not saved, He'll convince you, you need Jesus. There's one sin you go to hell for, it's not receiving Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. His free gift of salvation. That's what you need to receive. Once you receive Him as screwed up, as messed up, as sinful as you are. You begin the journey of working with Him. Okay? So we must assure our hearts before Him. So as you get into the gospel and find out that Jesus died for you, He took your sin. Then He took the curse of the law which is the punishment that went with all of your sins. So that you are a new creation. So you died and this is you, a new creation. And so the way we assure our hearts before Him is to get into God's Word as it tells you Jesus paid it all. You are forgiven.