Leon Fontaine - Activate Your Heart
Today I want to talk about getting your heart to work for you. Getting your heart to work for you. As I look around, the planet, and I recognize the distrust that has developed as never before. In all of us average, everyday people, and do we trust the words of our leaders? Politics, news, healthcare, take a pick. But everywhere I go and every people I, person I talk to, there's this massive distrust. And the fault is ours as a church, because the Bible says we are to be the salt and the light on this planet. That we are to be the head and not the tail, that when it comes to rising up, we are to be the influencers. It is taught, story after story through the Old Testament, and it's taught again and again through the Word of God.
We as a church need to recognize that we have to equip every generation for the work of the ministry. The work of the ministry is not just pastoring. Every one of us are ministers of the Gospel. And so, if we're in business, rise to the top and be the head and not the tail. If you're involved in the arts, television, movies, politics, education, healthcare, business, leadership. Every area as a believer, you are all called to be influencers there. You are called to succeed, to be significant, to move out of survival mode to stability, from stability to success. From success to significance. This is upon every believer. Every believer is to be the head and not the tail, in the areas that you have moved in to.
However, I've noticed as I travel, and as I work with even the people that begin to come to Springs Church, I notice that the doctrines that have been taught for decades, for a hundred years or more, have almost destroyed the church's ability to be salt and to be light to this world. There's two of them specifically, that really get me upset because I kind of just see them everywhere in churches and denominations. The first one, is that we are sheep to the slaughter. Well, the Bible says pastor, we're just sheep to the slaughter. So, you know on this world, we're not going to succeed. One day in the sweet by-and-by, I'll get my mansion. Right now, it's just a cabin. One day I'll be happy, but right now let's just barely get through.
Where in the world did you get that from? The Bible does not say, that you are sheep to the slaughter. Read it. It's a comparison. It says that when the world looks at us, we are as sheep to the slaughter. When they look at us and go well, man you need to, you need to be like everybody else. You need to cheat, steal, lie. I don't mean everybody, but I mean there's a ton of people we know that whatever business or world that you're in, that to get ahead they are doing things, a lot of them that you don't want to do. And so, you look like sheep to the slaughter. You are not doing what needs to be done to get ahead, and I, we refuse because character and honour and integrity, and representing Christ is crucial to us. Or we're not going to be salt and light.
The second doctrine that I just see everywhere, and it just ticks me off, is this end-times belief that Jesus has to come and rescue His poor church. Because we're so defeated, and we're just a remnant. Everybody's backsliding, everybody's leaving. And there's just a remnant left. And before the remnant is gone, He has to come in and swoop us up, and rescue us from the big bad devil and the world. Well I didn't know Jesus was so wimpy. I didn't know that the Gospel was so weak. I didn't know the cross wasn't a definitive battle that won. Listen. The most Biblical way you can be when it comes to when Jesus is coming back and we enter those phases, is He said, "occupy 'till I come". The word 'occupy' it means to do business, buying, selling, succeeding, rising up in whatever area that you're in. Occupy this planet. Not like, be the slave barely getting by on this planet.
Every promise in the Word, doesn't stop working because all of a sudden someone says we're in the end times. Or someone says, oh we are now in the season of this. This is, the promises of God still work for protection. The promises of God still work for healing. The promises of God still work for success and blessing and rising up. God is still God. And the Word still works. In Romans 6:14 it says, for sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are no longer under the law, but you are under grace.
Now, the second we hear the word "sin" we automatically think, oh so he's talking about wrong sex, drugs, and murder. Yes, that's included in sin. But it's what most people don't realize is included in the word, that you know, they don't understand. The word 'sin', in most of its uses, literally means to miss the mark for God's best for your life. Let me give you a sin that most people don't realize. Did you know that to have a heart of unbelief, He calls it evil? When the children of Israel wouldn't go into the promised land, after watching miracle after miracle by God getting them out of Egypt, and then miracle after miracle in the desert, and they still didn't believe He could take them in. It says, they limited God. And here's what the Bible calls them. It says, they had an evil heart of unbelief.
Did you know that to have unbelief, and to not believe God is sin? Therefore, the Bible says that we have not under the law, but we are under grace which is God's ability inside of us. And it works, by faith. It's by grace are ye saved, through faith. Therefore, the issue of grace in your life is what determines whether your life as a believer will be one of joy, peace, rest, and victory. Or, you're going to have this difficulty of frustration and defeat, uncontrolled emotions, in every area of your life. Those area, this is not up to God. This is up to you, understanding His grace and understanding how faith and grace work. You see, our spirit-man can only be changed by God. But, our hearts have to be changed by us, in agreement with God. God can't change your heart.
You have to work with Him. And as you work with Holy Spirit, you can change this heart from one of stress and worry and fear, and all this. To one of grace where your heart is established, that Jesus paid price. He made me righteous. All of God's on the inside of me. As He is, so am I in this world. And something changes in you. So my challenge to you today, is that you need to deal with your heart. You, and I don't mean because you are such a bad person. I mean, the heart is the autopilot for your life. See, your heart is the place where who you are in your spirit, and who you are in your own thinking, your soul, where they come together. And this causes conflict for many Christians. They're going to give in to one way, or the other. Which way are you going to side with?
And so many people not understanding how to begin to establish their heart in grace. And grace is God's ability. Grace is His peace, His joy, His favor, which comes to you for free. When you got saved, God gave you a new heart. But if you don't quickly get into the Word of God, all of your wrong thinking, believing, and habits, will destroy what He's done there. And you will move back into the way you believed before. In Hebrews 4, the whole chapter. It talks about a rest for the children of God. And this rest, is where you succeed without wrecking your body, without blowing your mind, without extreme emotion wrecking you. It works without destroying your marriage and wrecking your kids, and your reputation. The rest of God is literally meaning you've come to a place where you understand how to get God's grace in your heart.
How to convince your heart with the Word. A part of it is renewing your mind, looking at the mirror of God's Word, and the autopilot which controls your future. The control for your future is not in heaven. The control for your future is not sitting in a church. The control for your future is a thing called your heart. It is not your spirit, although it seems like it. It's not your soul, although it seems like it. It's this kind of connection where soul and spirit meet. When you look at the Bible, and what it has to say about the heart, it just blows your mind as to how many scriptures are talking about your heart. It says, let not your heart be troubled. Troubled heart can't believe. Guard your heart with all diligence, because, guard it. That's your autopilot.
Keep the Word in the centre of your heart, that's your programming. As a man thinks in his heart, so he is. That's your identity. Establish your heart in grace. That's the power of changing anything. It's by grace that you're saved through faith. Don't doubt in your heart, because doubting in your heart is an opposite belief. Confess with your mouth and believe in y our heart for the things ahead of you. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. If you sit there in emotion of not getting what you want, and moaning and groaning. The longer the enemy can keep you in a negative emotion, the more he can influence your heart beliefs. No wonder it says, don't let the sun go down on your wrath.
I've heard a bunch of different theories on that. Well let me show you what it's about. It's because if you stay in an emotion that is not found in heaven, then you weren't designed to have it. And if it's there, get rid of it quick. Because the enemy is able to conceive sin in your life when you stay in a negative emotion. You can feel like you have a right to be mad, envious, jealous, upset, ticked off, whatever words you want, depressed, down, gloomy, you go ahead and stay there. But the longer that you stay in a negative emotion, the more power the enemy has to influence the beliefs of your heart. They come in through your emotions into your thinking, from your reasoning, and if they're left there through repetition and emotion, they drop into this thing called your heart.
You want change? It starts in the autopilot. And if you don't change the autopilot, then you have no hope. You can go ahead and pray to God all you want. You can fast, you can pray, you can intercede, you can do tongues, you can do all nine different kinds of prayer. But, if your praying is not changing the, your heart by renewing your mind and the Holy Spirit goes to work with you on your heart. Nothing changes. You must begin to look into the Word of God, you must get your heart established in grace. And now, someone says well Leon, where's the devil in all this? That's a good question. By the way, he's never stopped working on you. He's never stopped. He's shot his best shot. Well, really? Yes. I have people that go to the mission field and they talk in third world countries about raving lunatics, and they say you know, that's demonic oppression and possession and whatever else, and we don't see much of this. Are you kidding me? The devil will attack anyone who is not emotionally secure. The Bible says the devil in Peter, is like a roaring lion walking around, looking for someone to devour. What's he looking for?
Well, when you watch lions, whether you watch YouTube or you see lions on the hunt, you'll notice that when they attack a herd, they will try to move out the weakest one. The youngest one. The sickly one, a pregnant one, anything that makes them not as fast and not as tough. They circle that one out, and they all try to take him down. When the enemy, like a roaring lion, is walking around, it means he can't just take anything he wants. He's looking for something. What's he looking for? He's looking for a weakness in the area of heart beliefs. He's looking for, a wrong heart belief. Because the battlefield is the mind, and then he can begin to heap on the accusations. He is the accuser of the brethren. He'll bring up your past, and just mess with you on it. He'll give you reason after reason. And he likes to look for emotional people. You see, say well Leon, I just can't help it, I'm emotional. No. All of God, the good emotions God's given us is great. But you see, emotions come from thinking. Deep feelings, come from heart beliefs.
A lot of people think well I just can't control my mind. Wrong. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, it says there that we've got weapons that are mighty through God. And where these weapons are effective, is in your reasonings, your arguments, your thinking, these are strongholds, and it says take every thought captive. We absolutely can control our thinking. We absolutely can influence our emotions to such a degree, that we are not living in fear. And every other emotion that comes out of fear. We've swallowed the thinking of the world that it's just a sickness. It's just a condition. And so we give up. The Bible has answers.
And I'm meeting so many believers, who emotionally they're wondering why they can't control their emotions. You can, you just don't believe you can. And the way you do that, is by looking into the mirror of God's Bible, of the Word of God, and allowing these truths to begin to renew your mind, drop into your, and it does not take long. And this heart, begins to produce new autopilot directions in relationships. New directions in finances. New directions in health. New directions in joy and happiness. Because the heart is the autopilot of your life. Ignore it to your own peril, because your heart has beliefs. It was programmed by your upbringing, your parents, television, things that happened to you, teachers, uncles, aunts, you've already been programmed. If you don't like it, change it.
In 2 Peter 1:4, it says whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruption that is in this world. Listen to me. The divine nature is in your spirit. Now, someone's going yeah it doesn't do me much good. You're right, although it does, it gets you to heaven. But you want to be a partaker of the nature of God. His nature is joy, peace, healing, health. I mean, bigness, power, etc. That's God, that's His nature. And that nature is in you. How do you partake of it with your physical body? How do you partake of it with your emotions? How do you partake of it with your thinking? You use the promises. What are the promises? They're God's Word. If you do, you can't just ignore the Word of God and then pray for power. You can't just never meditate in the Word of God, and then scream for help. You need to deal with this autopilot.
So, recognize that this autopilot of the heart, that you need to go to the Word, and there are promises by the way, that are more important than some of the ones you've been focused on. Like, the promise of being righteous as a gift. Oh, you're trying to claim the promises of healing, prosperity, great, you can do that. But, have you even claimed the promise until you believe that you're righteous because Jesus makes you? Have you taken that promise, that says you're a new creation, old things have passed away and everything is new. Or are you still sitting under the accusations, and the guilt and the condemnation of past things that you've done? Are you taking the promises of God that says you, you're more than an overcomer. And then stop seeing yourself as stupid and weak, and a weakling and not as smart as everybody else. We're not dealing with the most basic issues.
Now we're trying to believe God for a healing or prosperity or whatever, and we haven't even dealt with the, with the powerful basics of what to believe. Your life is just a week away from getting in there and beginning to work on your autopilot called your heart, and never stop. The Bible says in Proverbs 4:20 and on, it says keep your eyes and your ears focused on the Word of God, because that is where your mind stays renewed. Your heart stays established, is in the speaking and the meditation and the listening, and the thinking through of God's Word. As you choose Him, and you begin to believe on Him, the life that you live should completely change. And if it's not, God is not holding back. If it's not, God has not said no. If it's not, it's not God's issue, it's not God's move. He's given you all things that pertain to life and godliness.
There's a percentage of people, nobody here, nobody here. But there's a percentage of people too lazy, too you know, just I don't know what it is, to get in the Word and recognize the incredible power of developing new heart beliefs, renewing your mind, falling in love with Jesus. Because of what He's done, and incredible changes that will touch you right now. Did you know, that your life is to change continually until you die? And I don't mean get worse and worse. I don't mean my twenties were the good ol' days. I don't mean, my thirties were the good ol' days. You ask me what my favourite time was? It would be yesterday, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. It doesn't matter what age I am, because I'm looking forward as the best is yet to come. You need to be looking forward to that. God's going to change you, remake you, mold you in the heart area but only as you. God can't change your heart, every verse I gave you says you.
Now Holy Spirit will work with you. This is phenomenal, incredible, amazing news. This week, start tonight. Make a decision. I am going to begin to establish myself in the basics of Christianity. That it's not self-righteousness, it's a faith-righteousness. That the promises I have been qualified for, that Jesus is in me, and as He is, I must act that way in this world. That I am secure because of the cross. I have the life of God because of His resurrection. Because Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, as my intercessor, meaning my lawyer, that as I go forth into this world, He's the one making sure that everything He settled in the New Covenant, is flowing in your life because you're declaring it, believing it, and saying it. Man, we live so far below what God wants you to do.