Leon Fontaine - Re-Program Your Life
One of the interesting things about you is that you have been designed a specific way. You have been designed to be happy all the days of your life. You have been designed to sense and know the direction of God all the days of your life. You have been created to feel and experience God's love. You've been created to feel the dignity and the significance. They're all about you. This is how you've been created. But it isn't how most of us have been programmed. It's one thing to be designed to succeed. Everything in the Bible declares you are designed to have a great life. You have gifts and abilities to be you, authentically you. But this world has poured in such wrong programming. That people lived out a life that was never intended for them. And they will even identify with their pain as though it's them. They'll identify with their fears as though it's them. They will identify with poverty. Yeah, this is who we are. They'll identify with sickness. Yap, that's who we are.
And so today I want to show you what helped me the most to change the programming that this world brings into our lives. Because if you don't, no one can. Only you can change the way this world has programmed you. Some of you have been programmed for poverty. Yet, you've been created for prosperity. Some of you have been programmed for failure in relationships. Yet, you were designed so amazingly that your relationships should be incredible. Some of you have been programmed, your mind has been taught in a way that you just, you feel so low. You don't fit into relationships. How do we do this? Although we've been created to succeed in every area of life. Why is it such a struggle? In fact, truthfully many people who give their lives to Christ and come to church have never been able to live the life the Bible promises them. And they often hold God responsible because God hasn't done something, healed something, prospered them, as though at prayer is kind of this magic that makes your life different.
But the Bible teaches us that once you give your life to Christ that there is a way to, I'm using today's words, to reprogram yourself. The Bible calls a part of that the renewing of the mind. The establishing of the heart, and few people do it. They think more information actually changes. But more information doesn't help people. You know, it's like more diapers don't help a dirty baby's bum. You got one diaper on and you can see the poop drip, breaking through and it's all wet and thick. So you just throw another diaper on. Put some powder on the first diaper, tape it on. And you just think, "Hey, this going to handle the mess". But the mess in a few hours is going to break into the second diaper. And it's going to be wet and heavy. I mean, the box says good for 27 pounds or something. Up to 27 pounds. But adding more diapers on doesn't change it. It's to peel that diaper off and get some wet wipes and wash that little baby down and put a new diaper on. It's put off, put on.
And I want to show you in today's message the most powerful way, or the way God has designed this to happen for you. And to not do it is to live a life that is no different than the world. Because to give your life to Jesus Christ, you have a new spirit. But you do not have any new programming or training in your mind and your body has never learned to submit itself to the Word of God. The Bible has some unique verses and it says that God's Word is like bread. Jesus said that He was the bread of life. And that word life there doesn't mean an earthly life. But that God's Word the Bible is so potent. It's alive. That as you begin to study it or speak it, meditate on it, spend time on it. That it gives you a different life. It gives you new life. And if you don't begin to apply yourself to the supernatural food of the Word. Why does the Bible call it bread? It's showing us that just a light read doesn't change much. It's like just gaining more information and being more confusing already.
But Jeremiah 15:16 says, "Your words, the Bible, they came to me, were found and I listened carefully, or I ate them. And Your words made me very happy and were the delight of my heart because I am called by your name, Lord God All-Powerful Almighty of Heaven's Armies and hosts". The Bible was designed not to be a rule book. Everyone thinks it's the rule book. As though, let's see, you know. What's the rules about, can I do this, can I do that? But actually, the Bible, the Bible says is the bread of life. It is something that you focus on to such a degree that you eat it. You own it. You get it on the inside of you. And then something remarkable happens. Something off the hook happens. I mean, it just becomes wow as inside changes and you actually begin to renew your mind. The reprogramming of God's Word which is alive, does something to you. And I want to really encourage you in that area.
Psalm 119:11 says, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You". When it says hid, it literally means there's a secret place deep inside of you called your heart. And as you spend time in God's Word, this secret place where so much of what controls you is deep hidden beliefs. These beliefs begin to change. And, you know, it's kind of like you guys who work out at the gym. You know, you've got people who work out and then you've got your posers. With your posers, well, they come and they're looking at everybody and they're trying to be seen and they'll do a few reps and they're going to look good. They got the latest and the coolest. But they're just posers.
And you say, "Well, what's wrong at that"? Nothing, if that's what they want to be. Cool. Because everybody gets to do what you want to do. Believe what you want to believe. There's consequences to all that you believe and all that you do. But you can tell those who work out because they actually starts getting healthier. They get stronger, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles. They begin to sense this work out begins to prepare them. The same is true for God's Word. If you do not take the Word and renew your mind with it and get it into your heart. You can hear about miracles. You can talk about living with the presence of God on your life. And the Bible says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The Bible says that God's Word, and all this promise but you'll never be able to really walk that out. Why? Because you gave your life to Jesus Christ, okay. So He's in your spirit man. But you, you have never done the work.
"Oh, Leon. I have to do some work"? Well, what do you think prayer is? Most people think that prayer is kind of like magic. You know, abracadabra opens that wall. That old, you know. No, it's not the waving of a magic wand. It's not getting the verse just write in King James Elizabethan English. It is this Word works when it gets in you. You know, if you were taking food to the frontlines of a war, and they're so weak. They haven't had any nourishment. It's been days before these soldiers have eaten. And they're firing and they're fighting and it's hand to hand at times. And so you get the food up there and it's filed up in pallets right behind the trenches. And you say, "Good. It's delivered. Everything's cool". No, if they don't eat it, it doesn't do any good. You got all this food and all these packages of vitamins and minerals and food that was just arrived. But it's not going to do until it gets ingested.
And one of the things the Bible's very clear on, if you do not eat the Word. If you do not eat the Word, Jesus is the bread of life. If you don't eat it, it really is not going to have much lasting value on your earthly life. The Bible says life and death are in the power of the tongue. Let me show a verse in Joshua. Joshua 1:8-9 says, it reveals some interesting things. It says, "This Book of the Law, meaning God's Word, should not depart out of your mouth". What? Well, does that mean I'm going to pick it up and, you know, put it on my mouth? No. It means you have to speak the Word. And that the speaking of God's Word has a powerful impact on you and I. We know through just modern psychology that the words you use in abundance are coming out of belief and they're going to have an impact on your life. The Bible agrees. It says, "The Word of God shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein".
To meditate means to move it into your imagination. I can put it in its simplest form. Take that Word. Take that promise of God and see yourself in it. See it affecting your life, your finances, your marriage, your health, your home, your mind, your joy, your peace. Meditate in it day and night that you may absorb to do all, to according what is written in it. Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. Who makes your way prosperous? Oh, God. No. God has already done that. You will. How? With His Word. His Word has an amazing impact on you. As you begin to speak the Word of God, it begins to switch on things that are within you. Health is a switch that some people have got off. All they talk about.
You know, prosperity can be a switch that is just turn right off because of the way you were raised and how you believed and how you think. But if you want to take control and go, "Okay, I'm now a man. I'm a woman. I can't blame my parents anymore or what happened to me. How do I take control"? The Bible says speak the Word. When you begin to pray the Word or speak the Word and I mean, out loud. Did you know? That it was and until, I forget which monk it was, thousands of years ago began to read the Bible to himself with his mouth close. Up until then, the Bible was always read aloud. There is something about aloud reading the Word. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God". Why doesn't it say faith comes by reading? I think it does. Yet, it's really focusing on hearing.
There's something about you speaking, declaring what kind of future that you want. You can't just sit around and say, "Well, I wonder what 2020 is going to be like"? The Bible says that you and I declare it. We speak it. Which is a prophesy of your future. It plants the Word in your heart. And if you will continue, that literally the rest of your life will follow the faith, the patterns, the reprogramming of how God actually designed you. "So, Leon, aren't some people just on the planet to, you know, and that's just their lot in life"? No. Actually, there are only 33 years in the last seven or eight thousand years where we have an accurate look at your potential. And that's Jesus when He walked the planet. That He came into a human body. He came to this earth to show you the kind of authority and love, how to act towards people, how to live around people, how to deal with attacks, etcetera. And with the Bible says as He is Jesus, so are you in this world.
And people often ask me, "Well, Leon. It didn't happen for me. How come"? I don't know. I don't know. The Bible says if you've given your life to Christ, He's in you. So you've been created. You've been wired for success to be like Christ. But now has the programming that got into you which you weren't even in control of. Your parents, your school, the negativity, some families they just think sickness is their lot in life. Others think poverty is their lot in life. Others think we're just not as smart as others. I don't know what beliefs you've picked up. But the only way to change this is to begin to speak the Word of God. Death and life, Proverbs 18:21 says, are in the power of the tongue. This is a crazy verse. Let's look at it for a minute. Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
I worked with a man who said this, "My dad died at 40 and I probably will, too". He had some different things he'd say like that. But you know what? The month of his birthday. I think it was actually close to the very day, a crazy accident took place. That was just how in the world that, and he died. And all of us those who and there's few of us who are Christians. But the rest of other friends they went, "That's crazy"! To continue to speak something according to the Word, God's Word. To continue to speak something offhand or to with emotion has an effect on your life. Now, modern psychology which has some things figured out. And we got great psychologist and psychiatrist and counselors that attend this church and they understand, and they agree with me. That there's nothing like the Word of God. Because modern psychology it stops at the spirit. It has no ability to learn and understand the spirit.
So it study's the mind and it study its effects. But the Bible teaches us that God's Word is the operating program that needs to be put into your life. And when it does, the Bible says, Jesus says it that I am the bread of life. And that when you eat of Me, it says, you'll never hunger again. What does that mean? It means that the desires and the crazy thirst that people have. You know, trying to fulfill themselves. Trying to feel significant. Trying to have some pleasure in this life. Trying to find love in all the wrong places. There are desires and things that go on inside of people. That Jesus said, "If you'll go into my Word, I am the bread of life". That you must have a daily diet of spending time in God's Word. And that His Word is alive. It is filled with life and it has a profound effect on a human being. The Bible is supernatural food.
In Matthew 4:4, it says, "It is written, Jesus says in the Scriptures, 'A person lives not on bread alone, but by everything God says, every Word that comes out of God's mouth". If you want to live. I mean, really live. Then you must not only have a diet of healthy food. But you must feed the Word of God into you. God's Word has an effect on the mind. God's Word has an effect on your spirit, your relationships. Pray the Word. What does that look like praying the Word? Well, it kind of look like this. When I get up in the morning or if I'm in the car driving by myself, I'll just begin to declare.
Father, I want to thank You right now. That Your Word says no weapon formed against me shall prosper and I want to thank You for that right now. Be careful when you come against people. Because if you come against a person who God knows, and they're believing this promise and you become a weapon. You get taken out. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. The Bible promise every mouth that rise against me. I put it down. I want to thank You, Your Words of whatever I put my hand to shall prosper. I want to thank you a thousand will fall at my side and ten thousand on my right hand, but it will not come near me. I will look on with my eyes. I want to thank You right now, that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. And if the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in me, it quickens my mortal body. Makes it alive with the life of Jesus. I want to thank You right now, that I am in right standing with You as a gift from Jesus.
Jesus gave me this gift. That you and I are cool. We're okay.
So I want to thank You all the promise in... And I'll just start talking verses will come to me, I will declare. I want to thank You right now for this daughter. This son-in-law. I want to thank You for my son. I want to thank You for this church. I pray, and I start praying for the church. Names will come to me and I'll just keep speaking the Word of God. There's something about the spoken Word that begins to change, within you it changes. The angels, demons listen to what you say. How do you think they know how to attack your head? And as you begin to declare God's Word each day, I just call it praying the Word. While others are begging, bawling, and squalling. I'm just in a thankful mood and I begin to find the promises of God.
There's something about the praying of God's Word. God has designed you to take His Word. Life and death are in the power of your tongue. Will you begin to pray His Word every morning? Every night? Whenever you think about it begin to pray His Word. Or will you accept every stupid principle this world has? Or anything else that your parents taught you. Money doesn't grow on trees. We can't afford it. Which has developed this poverty mentality in you. Oh, look out for men. They only want one thing. So every man is a pig to you. Or however, you'll be shocked at the things that is passed on into kids. Now, that you're an adult or even a teenager take control of this area. Because you, you've been wired to succeed. You've been created to succeed in every area. But you live on a fallen world with a whole bunch of stupid beliefs. If you want the beliefs of God, that what the Bible is. It is the beliefs of God. Speak it out. Amen!