Leon Fontaine - Fallen From Grace
Today, I'm gonna teach on a topic called Fallen from Grace. Fallen from Grace. My first scripture will be Galatians 5:4. It says there, "If you seek to be justified and declared righteous and to be given right standing with God through the Law, you are brought to nothing and so separated severed from Christ. You have fallen from grace, from God's gracious favor and His unmerited blessing".
Fallen from grace here does not mean that you are losing heaven, okay? However, in order to get to heaven you have to accept salvation as a gift. You cannot work for it. You cannot earn it. You're just not that good enough and neither am I. But to believers who have given their lives to Christ. They are to live with this same grace. This unmerited favor. That salvation came to them. They are to live the same way every day of their life. And when Paul was writing to the Galatians, they began to go back to trying to be good enough, trying to earn the blessings and the favor of God. And he said some of the most severe things to the Galatians. He said, "Who has bewitched you"? He basically just kind of, "Hello! Wake up"! Like, "What's going on here"? And here he says you have fallen from grace.
As you begin to live your life believing to move in the supernatural. It is so easy for us through some of the teachings that is out there to begin to feel like for you to walk in God's power, His strength, the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, for you to get healed, for you to be restored from something that's going on. That there's something you have to do. When you begin to go in this direction. When you begin to ask Jesus to do something for example, He's already done. When you ask Him to give you something, He's already given. You are beginning to slide into works. You are beginning to try to earn the miraculous flow in your life. Now, listen to me, and you fall from grace. You fall out of this incredible area of walking in the supernatural, of the strength and the presence of God that is around you. I'm going to read you a story that I don't agree with most people when they teach on it because it tends to be very negative. But it's a story of the apostle Paul who's learning this because he basically in a situation has fallen from grace.
We're going to go to 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, "And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. That the power of Christ may rest upon me. That the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities, distresses, for when I am weak in human strength, then am I truly strong, able, powerful, in divine strength".
The word faith I think some people have misunderstood over the years and they feel like faith is the power that gets things done in our world. And in 1 John 5:4, it says, "This is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith". But faith is not the power source. The word faith in the Greek which is pistis. It literally mean a trust. It literally means a faith, a believing, but a trusting in God. And when this faith begins to flow and rise up in you, it releases the flow of grace. What is grace? Grace is unearned favor. What's the favor? God's ability. If you want a definition of grace, so many think that it's just unearned favor. But that's how you get grace. If I say, "Hey, so and so. Come on up here. I need a favor". He's going to come up here, stand up and go, "What favor"? And then I tell him.
So when you look at God's grace, it is an unearned favor. It is God's ability. You and I have a choice today. We can live in our strength. We have all learned to use our wisdom, our strength, our giftedness, our abilities, and we become quite confident in them. But as you begin to walk out the supernatural future that God has for you. You will not be able to fulfill it in your natural ability. Which is why Ephesians 6:10 says be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Because most Christians are strong in themselves and in the power of their gifts. Most Christians never make the transition from their strength, their power, their skillset. And they have never taken and begun to believe Him for His grace. What's His grace? It's His ability, His power, His peace, His joy, everything supernatural that comes from God is available to the believer only when you believe.
So believing is very crucial. And because I don't want to go in this direction. I want to keep going on this grace. If you want to know how to walk in this foundation of great faith. Where does this faith come from? Well, Romans 10:17 says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God or understanding the Word of God. If you are a person who has been taught God's Word. If you've been taught faith and you're beginning to flow in that faith. If things aren't working for you. If you have hit a wall. If your life is no longer in a season of God's favor, God's blessing. You feel like there's no fruit of the Spirit. You're not joyful. You're unhappy. You're not peaceful. You're irritable. You're not walking in His and forgiving people. You begin to hold grudges and there's things you've got. When you begin to walk into a season where all of the negative stuff going on is in your life.
Listen to me! You've fallen from grace. You've been given this place to live in, a place of God's blessing, a place of God's peace, a place of God's joy, a place of God's healing, a place of all of the fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5. But if your life is this frustrating inability to produce results. Listen to me! You need to look at, "Have I fallen from grace"? I don't mean, "Am I going to miss heaven"? Because that's Jesus. He secured that for you. But I mean, in this lifetime have you moved back because you know so much world and you're able to do so much stuff.
Was there a time in your life? I'm just asking a question. Was there a time in your life where the miraculous flowed easily? Was there a time in your life where you saw a God do more things in your business, in reaching out to people, and your relation? Was there a time, was there a season for you where you could rejoice at how easy things were? They just seemed to come to you. They just seemed to happen. Because if there was and there isn't. It's a good chance you've fallen from grace.
Galatians 2:21 says, "I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain". Did you know? That in your Christian walk where you must be dependent on His grace, His ability. That's what grace is. It's His ability that comes to you as a favor. It comes to you because Jesus qualifies you as a gift of righteousness Romans 5:17. If, it says here you can frustrate. Now, another version of this going to the original Greek says, that you can neutralize. Neutralize the grace of God. So as Paul is sharing these things. He says, listen to me. Listen to his words, because of how much revelation I have that I wouldn't be exalted beyond measure. I was given a messenger of Satan. Stop right there. So many people say, "It was God". All right.
So let me think. Let me get, God went to the demonic realm and said, "You. Yeah, you. That little demon over there. Yeah. I'm sending you against Paul". That's a stupid thing to think. God doesn't use demon. He's not sending demons. Who and what is wrong with Paul being exalted? The Bible say he would be and that you would be. The Bible says that him who desires to be great, be the servant of all. There's nothing wrong with being great. One of the islands Paul went to, he was shipwrecked on. They called him God and they were bowing down worshipping him. You can't get much more exalted than that. He didn't take it. He literally simply taught them Jesus and won the whole island to Christ healing them.
And so the issue is not because him being exalted beyond measure. The enemy can't afford to have you and I being exalted to the top of your company, exalted to the top of your area of expertise. Why? Because in all the areas that you go, you are a believer. You are a follower of Christ. He wants the world to be jealous of you. It is the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. It's not the badness of God. It's not God sending tornados to Haiti and Bahamas. It's not God who's doing these things because of the great sin that's going down there. Jesus took the sin of the world. I think Haiti is in the world. I think Bahamas in the world. If He took the sin of every person and He took the curse that went with it. Stop talking as though God.
No wonder the world doesn't want to serve our God when they see the Christians who incorrectly begin to teach God in a way that everyone's going, "I think I'll stay away from your God". We've got to recognize that if it's the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. Where is the man who's never experience God going to see His goodness? He's supposed to be seeing it in you. But we're too busy believing we're not much different than the world. Same struggles financially, same struggles sexually, same struggles of our minds, same struggles with depression. You see, there's no discernable difference in most cases. So where is God's goodness going to be seen? It's supposed to be seen in you and I. Which is why the blessing of the Lord is upon us. Which is why His grace is available to us and all that we need is in Christ.
And this grace, this ability, God's ability is to be available to us. Why are we frustrating God's grace? Why are we falling from grace? Why are we trying to do it in our own strength? Why do we think we're so smart? Why are we judging? Why are we holding unforgiveness? Why are we doing all this human stuff? That God's given us an ability to rise, and the Bible says seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. When Ephesians 6:10 says be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I began to recognize in my life that I don't want to be strong in my own power. I've developed, and I have not opposed to developing more skills. I'm not opposed to reading and studying which I do all the time, to develop a greater understanding of reaching the world, traffic flow, social media, television, linear, and all these things that I believe our churches called to do.
But when I begin to feel like it's my strength, my wisdom. It's all these things. I begin to carry a burden I never was meant to carry. I begin to have this inability to produce results because I've fallen from this place that's been given to me as a gift from Jesus. Because righteousness is a gift of righteousness. Which means I'm in right standing with God, access to all of God's ability. I'm an heir of salvation. And the word salvation doesn't just mean saved from hell. It means saved from hell and the entire curse of the law with access to all the blessing of the law. Because Jesus said that all of the promises now since the cross is all yes and amen. When we talk about in our Christian lives of living by faith, some of you I think, think that your faith has to be in a specific verse. And so we think that my faith must be in healing.
So I'm going to speak and confess healing scripture. Please do. My faith must be in prosperity. So I'm going to speak prosperity blessings. Please do. My faith must be in relationships. And now, my faith must be that I walk in peace because I, yes. My faith must be that I'm patient because I'm dealing with anger. My faith must, I could give you probably 50 things right now that you want and that you can believe in individually for. And there are times where I have because I'm in the middle of one issue. But I have discovered something that is incredible when this issue of believing God and walking in this grace and that is, that what is my identity and what is my self-worth? Where do you get your self-identity? Do you look to your abilities in the physical world? Do you measure yourself against other people in your business, in your career, in your ability to get results? And then this is where your identity comes from.
And so you're working your little butt off trying to rise up amongst your peers because there's the sense of significance you desire. But yet the Bible says that where we should look for our identity is in Christ, and that He loves you, and that He values you, and that you are a King's kid. I believe the most important confessions of God's Word before you move to healing, prosperity, peace, joy, protection, and all these beautiful promises of God. I believe the most important confessions, meaning the most important place to connect with God at the heart level is your identity. You see, I'm not trying to get healed. I am the healed. I'm not trying to get prosperous. I am the prosperous. I'm not trying to be at peace. I have it. I am this.
When you begin to have an identity of being in Christ, you begin to expect all of it. You begin to expect all of the blessings that go with being a true son or daughter of God. You know, if you ever watched my five kids when they were growing up and living with Sal and I here most of you saw and knew them. You didn't see four of them wearing great clothes and one in lousy clothes because we wouldn't give them nice stuff. If they were in the family, we all ate the same. We didn't put them all steak at the table, but one got, you know, Wieners and Kraft dinner over in the corner. No, if you were in the family there was an expectation to share in what the family had. Sally and I didn't eat good food because we're parents and we gave them all just junk food. When they're in the family, we didn't have them sleeping in a separate house. We're in the nice one. They're in the really bad one just, you know, across the lot. No, to be in the family is to share in family's resources.
And so when you begin to identify with who you are, that your identity is not a lawyer. Your identity is not a father. Your identity is not a mother. Your identity is not your name. Your identity is not your skin color. Your identity is not your language group. Your identity is in Christ. And when your identity comes there, you get value, or you get worth from your identity. So if you focus your identity on your career, then as your peers like you or hate you, your self-worth goes up and down. If your identity is in Christ, and when Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit came upon Him, a voice said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased". Had He done anything yet? No. He hadn't done a single thing yet. Yet God valued Him, loved Him, believed in Him. God believes in you. God has placed His Spirit in you if you've given Him your life.
Now, my time is up. So let's just kind of quickly bring a consensus. The Galatians had a tendency to continue to move towards earning and creating their own future rather than doing the things they were doing with this grace. This ability of God on their lives. And as they began to trust in their own ability, you know, more than the things. I trust in my abilities for certain things. But when it comes to this overall sense of where am I going? It's Him. It's His grace. And that means every ability that I have developed, you know, every skill that I've developed, every gift that I've been given functions phenomenally better under the supernatural flow of His grace. But His grace can only be accessed by faith. By grace are ye saved through faith.
So what do we believe? We believe on Christ. That He died for me. That He took my sin. That He took my curse. That when He rose again with new resurrection life, I rose with Him. And I identify with Jesus because my sin is gone, the curse is finished, and this new life is mine. And when He went to the right hand of the Father, I'm seated with Him. So I have authority to deal with the things that are going on in my life. Learn to connect with God and to rely on this grace, this ability which is freely yours.