Leon Fontaine - Fellowship With God
Hey, everybody! It's so good to have you with us again. We've been talking lately about prayer. A whole new look at prayer for people because so much of the Christian world prays unbelief. They pray begging, bugging prayers. And so we've already talked a little bit about this and I'm gonna try to do a second part but people need to understand that prayer of course is just, it's fellowship with God. It's communion with God. It's having a relationship with Him. And then as you look to needing things in your life physically, mentally, you are not begging God for something that you do not have. You are simply putting into effect what's already yours.
And the way that we do that according to the Word of God, and I'll just say this quickly and we'll talk about it in the future, is that you must give your life to Christ, then you become a new creation. You don't have two natures. You only have one nature. That's a nature of God and it pushes out the old nature, but your mind is trained in the old nature. Your desires are trained in the old nature. So once you give your life to Christ, you must learn about the cross. You know, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus, His ascension to the... These are crucial thoughts as to, that's where your identity comes from in this new you.
Then the Bible says just teach your mind the Word, renew your mind. And it says this Word in your mind will make your body conform. And then it says you will be transformed. There's a transformation that takes place as you begin to be who you are. That's why we begin to put off the old and put on the new. It's not talking about becoming what you're not. The language of the Bible is very clear, and it says, "Put off the old. Put on the new". So all this old thinking and habits they can be easily just put off. The Bible another place says that sin will not command you. Sin will not have dominion over. There is nothing in the sin world. There is no desire. There is nothing that can control you anymore.
Before, before you give your life to Christ, desires and sin would rise up through fear and a sense of lack that if I don't do this myself, I'll never have it. And people begin to just sin. And it's like they can hardly stop but the new creation has power over sin. And so a lot of things people don't get, don't understand, this is crucial that we jump into the Word and that we understand these things. Now, until you understand from the cross where Jesus died for you. How that Jesus died in your place. He took the curse that was supposed to come to you, all of the sins you've committed.
You know, there's a verse, that really beautiful verse that says the writ that was against you, all of the sins that you've ever committed in your life were nailed to the cross. Jesus took them. And so that when the enemy tries to bring them up and say you don't qualify because of these things, a couple of things you need to understand. Well, first of all, Jesus qualifies you for all the promises. And then the other thing is, is that Jesus not only qualifies you, but the promises are yours because of Him and you just walk right in and you get the chance to receive them. So anyway, out of the quick review but let's dive into this thing.
According to Galatians 3:13, it says that we are delivered from all the curses. Now, what does that mean? Well, if you go to Deuteronomy, it teaches us there 28, that the first 15 verses are all the blessing. And then the last 50 or more verses are all the curses. Anything you can find in this list of curses. It says that Jesus took the curse of the law and there's none there to give you. So many people think that God is teaching us a lesson by allowing the curse into our life or by, you know, etcetera. But Satan is just a glorified God servant who's helping us out. It is such ridiculous comments. But we are delivered from the curses.
Now, another way to look at it is this, that if it's not in the heaven, then it's not in God's will for you. So the Bible talks about, whatever you bind on earth must be what's bound in heaven. So if you wanna know the kind of life you should expect, then you should be expecting the life that is in heaven even before you get there. Much of the old teaching was it in heaven is where all the blessings and the benefits are. And no one seem to realize you can have the mind of Christ down here. His thoughts, His feelings, His desire. You can have them down here. That when Jesus said the kingdom is not with observation. They're here. It is within you. So this kingdom is within you even before you physically go to this place called heaven. And so the curses, we have to understand that every curse, whatever. So sickness is not in heaven. Fear is not in heaven. Unhappiness is not in heaven. All these things.
Now, we're living on a fallen planet. All right? So there's a ton of pain and heartache and stuff here that you're gonna deal with. Everybody older than you is gonna die before you probably. You know, people are gonna reject you and come against you. We live on this earth with people, fallen people. They're gonna lie about you, backstab you, etcetera, etcetera. Even the one you love will hurt you. So is this world full of pain? Is it, oh, absolutely! But now, if you stay in that, you're gonna get depressed off the charts and never enjoy that you can have the mind of Christ. You can literally have your heart establish in His grace. You can experience the blessings of heaven to a degree, to a great degree on this fallen planet. But we do this through faith in the Son of God. Now, when Jesus comes back, we will go to the place called heaven and He will remove all tears. He will remove, you know, it's still as it's a done deal. From then God's grace, His Word will go to work at you and for the rest of your life it's working out through your own salvation with fear and trembling. I mean, you're established in your heart. You're transforming into who Jesus made you to be.
So I'm going back to this point Galatians 3:13. You have been delivered from all the curses. If you don't know what the curses are, they are in Deuteronomy 28. And so if you find the list of curses, God will never use them. God doesn't want them on you. If you can find the curse in that list, then God will not use it to teach you. One guy said to me, "Well, you know, it's a really learning experience for me". And I get it. Anything I go through that is hurtful and negative or I've made mistakes, or I don't know what's going on. I wanna learn from everything. But the way God teaches us is by His Spirit and by His Word and His Holy Spirit is so powerful, He doesn't need to slap you, to make you sick, kill your kid, bankrupt your business, to teach you anything.
Now, when those things happened to us, I think we become aware and we reach out to God but that wasn't a part of His will. And I tell people this, if you don't learn to grow and gain the knowledge of God through His Word and His Spirit, you will get it through experience just because. You know, if a general is looking at all his soldiers in the battle and he's seeing them fight. And there's this one guy that just seems to get in front of all the attacks and lead his people and rally his people. You can say, "Well, that general made them attack that hill, those trenches, to see if he's gonna be a good leader". No. Just an everyday battle he shunned. And that's what I would say about you. God is not giving you battles. He's not placing harsh things in front of you to test you. No, but everyday life will be your test.
If you don't learn to rise up and experience Christ with joy. If you don't learn to rise up and experience Jesus in who He is and have a confidence in Him of patience, a longsuffering, a strength. Then it's just, you're not gonna be able to rise up and do what God has called you to do. The curses if its' not in Deuteronomy 28, okay. If its' there and it's in the curse list, you don't have to have it. If it's not in heaven. So I'll have to know what I just do. I say, "Okay, I've got, this was going on in my life. Does that go on in heaven"? No. Then that's not God's will for my life. And so, then I begin to say, "Father, I wanna thank You, Your Word declares this, and this is what I am believing You for".
Now, what scary about this and I'm gonna shock some people with this. That Jesus says to a man according to your faith so be it done to you. Over the years as I've tried to work with people. I mean, I've been preaching since I was 17 and I'm turning 57 this year. And so that's like 40 years of teaching the Word preaching and I went from youth pastor to associate pastor. I've been doing this a long time. I have discovered what you truly believed at the heart level can be right or wrong, good or bad but here is where you'll experience life. And even by default, if you don't know the promises of God, and so life does stuff to you. Don't blame God. There's a bunch of stuff you don't know. In fact, the Bible says my people perished for a lack of knowledge.
And so as I continue with our church and our television audience to continue to teach them the Word. I want them to know what the New Testament teaches. Curses? They will say, "Leon, you know, there's a generational curse on our family". Okay. That's not true anymore because when you give your life to Jesus, the Leon Fontaine that I was died. Okay, died. And now this new life is the life of Jesus. And so there's no generational curse if ever you come across that death. Everything dies. Everything that person, the curses, when he dies, the debt's done. So I'm in Christ now. So there's no generational curses.
Now, if you've got an angry grandpa that treated you angrily and was angry and confrontational and flew into rages. You'll have to deal with that not as a curse but as a learned reaction to confrontation. So the son, the daughter can struggle with that as well. It can go on generation after generation, not because it's a curse but just because it's learned. That's what the Bible says train up a child in the way he should go, when he's older, he won't depart from it. And so that you'll see and all that requires is just putting off the old habits, putting on the new habits of Jesus. You already have His nature. Now, you just put on His thinking. You put on His habits. You begin to live this beautiful life that God has given to you.
As we begin to look at the promises of God in this new life that is ahead of you. The curses, Galatians 3:13, is a vital verse to hang on to and to learn. And then when you have to understand that until you experience God's promises for you, it won't affect your heart. Let's talk about that. When you begin to look at God's Word, and let's say that you're believing God for something like healing. So you go to Psalm 103 where verses 1 to 7. It's got beautiful verses on healing and health. And it says, who heals all your diseases. Now, that is a promise. Jesus has qualified you for that promise. But until you will not see that promise begin to work in your life til you connect to it from your heart or you begin to experience that promise for you personally. And it often looks like this. You know, the Bible says Holy Spirit is here to lead you into all truth and then He's to show you things to come.
So as you begin to look at that promise, you know, that He's healed me from all diseases. Let's say that you struggle with cancer and, you know, and it's somewhere in your body. Now, as you read that verse, you can't just say it like vain repetition. "Bless me oh, Lord my soul who heals all my diseases. Thank you, Lord". Say it. No, no. You must take it. It's gotta renew your mind and then as it begins to be established in your heart, here's when you begin to experience that promise. So here's what happens to me, is I'm believing God that diseases has no right here. It's a part of the curse. Jesus qualified the blessing. Thank You, Father. You've healed all my diseases. I declare I walk in health and healing from Your Word in Psalm 103. Then in my meditative time because I just slow down. Throw out my phones, iPads, computers. Make sure no one's around. This is my prayer time with God.
Now, when I'm doing this, I'm fellowshipping with Holy Spirit. And all of a sudden, Him and I begin to take that verse until we experience it. I see if it's cancer, that cancer disappearing whatever that looks like. Doctor saying, "It's gone". Maybe you see that lump disappear. Maybe things that you could never do, you begin to do. So you begin to experience that promise as it affects your life in your meditation time. That's what the Bible says we don't look at the things that are seen. We look at the things that are not seen. So many people struggle with, "Well, now you're gonna start talking about your imagination". Okay. God gave you an imagination. What do you suppose to do with it?
Now, you're memory. You know, if you look at your, you're like a CD player. You can rewind into the past. You can fast-forward into the future. The heart is where your future is established, okay? The heart, and the heart is where, it's the real seat of your identity. It's how you see yourself. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. A lot of people know things in their head. But because if not done the meditative work of slowing down, communing with God, looking at His Word, until His Word comes alive, takes root in the soil of your heart and begins to grow incredible harvest of this new identity in Christ. Until you do this, you literally are not going to experience that promise on a consistent basis. It must affect your heart. Whatever affects your heart is affecting your future.
The Bible says in Mark 11, that when it comes to speaking the problems and mountains, that you cannot doubt in your heart. And your heart is affected by things. Like for example, it's affected by the things you routinely focus on. And so all the beliefs of a person's heart were not put there by them. They were put there by who raised them. From parents to uncles to aunts to teachers to religious figures to Sunday school teachers to their friends. So that's where the beliefs of your heart come from. And then from the things that cause extreme emotion. For example, there are things that totally change people's heart beliefs in a second. Take a young person who becomes brutally raped, boy or girl. Their entire identity is changed in the moment and they need, God's gonna touch that. They've gotta get themselves back in the Word to find out who they are because that painful horrible experience can say, "Well, I'm dirty. You know, I cause this, etcetera".
So when we begin to look at God's Word, it's a repetition of God's Word. And then as we sink down into this meditation of the Word. That's where you begin to experience. That the coach said you're a lousy athlete. The teacher said you're not smart in the brain. You know, your uncle said you're the most likely to fail. You're the black sheep of your family. Your mother looked after you so much trying to be good that it actually caused you, "There must be something wrong with me because my mom's trying to control my every move. So I must not be that smart". And your dad might just have been absent. Like, there's just so many factors that we don't understand. But as you go to God's Word, the Bible says that God is the God to the fatherless. All the things that your parents should have taught you and modeled for you and loved and trained into you. God will look after those areas.
Now, even I had great parents. But there's no way they could be perfect. So the fatherless areas of my life, my dad didn't know when his upbringing to transfer and my mom didn't know. God will be that for me. As you go into His Word, Holy Spirit leads you into all truth for you and you begin to be established in your heart in grace. What does that mean? It means all of your working, all of your tragedies, all of your traumas, all of your failures. Those things no longer determined who you are but it's the grace of God so your identity is now with Christ. The old Leon has died. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but it is Christ who lives in me. The life that I now live, it says, I live by my faith in the Son of God. So I identified with Jesus.
Now, I am peaceful, confident, joyful, knowing my future is secure, able to take on any storm, go through any kind of long-term heartache and hurt because Jesus is my source. He is where my identity is placed. And so as I begin to experience the promises of God. Now, as we close in the next couple of minutes, let me help you with something you can try today now that you hear this out. And that is as you are believing God for something, go to promises. Now, often one promise will stand out. It will just grab you in the situation you're going through. You know, we had a family friend years ago that had gangrene on his foot. And, you know, he was believing God for a miracle. As he was going through the promises of God, this verse jumped out, "Your foot will not be taken".
And, you know, there're lots great verses on healing. This one just stood out to him and he's began to thank God for that, rejoice in that. And as you begin to speak out loud the Word of God, the next step is to slow down and let that verse speak to you. So this guy shared how that he began to say, "You know what, my foot will not be taken". Well, the doctor said, "We have to take it off now. This gangrene can kill the rest of your body". And he wouldn't let them. And then all of a sudden, you know, they began to see new skin began to establish where the blacken, the foot that turned black. It began to become pink. And in his prayer time, he wouldn't look at that foot knowing he's gotta make decisions. But he has principles and things that he knows that secular world doesn't know that Jesus, you know, is the real healer.
So as he just continue to connect to this verse, my foot will not be taken. You know, inside, so don't look at the things that are seen, look at the things that are not seen. He began to see this foot pink and healed and beautiful and cells regenerating. And that was his prayer time, was just communing with God and Holy Spirit continue to bring this truth and He continue to show him things to come. Just like you can have bad dreams from your heartache and evil past. Holy Spirit can give you dreams in the night, daydreams during the day. It caused you to literally see the answers before they're there. Seeing with the eyes of faith. Seeing with the eyes of your heart. These old timers in Christianity talked about standing on the promises, seeing with the eyes of faith. They understood. You had to believe it before it happened. And the heart only works in the now. The language of the heart is to believe that it's done.
And so I wanna challenge you. I pray that, I hope these messages have helped you and that you'd listen to this one over and over. I have said a ton of stuff in this last 25 minutes that you need to hear over and over, until all of a sudden, you begin to rise up. And when you pray and believe God for things, you're not caught in this religious tradition of begging, bugging, and pleading God as though He's deciding every miracle. He's not. He did already give you everything you're gonna need in your lifetime. So, He's not making every individual decision on every miracle. That stuns some people. And now, there's a devil. The devil can't stop it.
So your intercessory prayer that's screaming, shouting, binding, figuring out what part of the river and what demonic influence and what's the name of the evil spirit and all this other stuff that goes on. No. The devil is a defeated foe. But if you believed the devil's got power, he'll take it, okay? If you believed you've got to beg, bug, and plead, you'll just live this life that, "Well, God doesn't want me to have it because it's not good for me".
And so these promises, this teaching of what Jesus did from the cross, His death, His burial, His resurrection, and He's seated at the righthand of the Father. We died with Him. We're buried with Him, rose again with Him and are seated with Him. This revelation it's where the church is so drastically falling short and that's why we do not see the miraculous. We do not live in this miraculous power of God that helps us defeat everything and live so full of peace and joy with the power of God, because of this one area of Jesus and the completed work that He's done on the cross. Tune in again, let your friends know about these messages, And we'll see you again next time.