Leon Fontaine - Already Yours
Hey, everybody. It's so good to have you with me. We're going to dive into God's Word and Holy Spirit is going to teach you and I the things of God's Word. And when you hear God's Word, it contains life. And so it's going to change and impact and help you and bring hope. And it will help you to grow and to know amazing things from God's Word. Now, I want to talk about something I call already given. Already given. In Ephesians 1:3, it said, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us". Let's stop right there. It does not say who is going to bless us. It says hath blessed us. And then it says, "With all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ".
Now, this is saying very carefully and very clearly that there is blessing that has been given to you. To be blessed means to be happy, fortunate, and to be envied by the people around us. Now, they can't see spiritual blessings, so it has to flow from the Spirit of God that is within us into our physical world. And so we have been blessed with spiritual blessings. Now, we know that God spoke this physical world from the spirit world. That everything that you see in the physical is made from the spiritual. And so we, this a phenomenal verse and the reason this is so important is that many people think that prayer is bugging, begging, and pleading with God to get Him to bless you with healing, to bless you with peace, to bless you with joy, to bless you with prosperity. But here it says He hath blessed you already.
And so prayer isn't about begging, bugging, pleading. Prayer is about prophesying and declaring your rights and privileges in Christ. And you are prophesying your future. Prayer is prophesying your future. If you are not praying out loud properly over your life, you're just being silent. Nothing is going on in your world. If you are begging and bugging and pleading. Please, God. And every time something doesn't happen your answer is, "I don't know why God didn't protect me. I don't know why He didn't heal me. I don't know why He didn't prosper me". Then you don't even understand the new covenant, because God's already blessed you. He's already done that for you.
So prayer is not about getting God to move. Prayer is not about trying to make Him feel sorry for you till He does it. Prayer, and there's different kinds of prayer. Prayer is a relationship with God. It's just means fellowshipping with Him. Talking, laughing, asking Him for help, guidance, leadership, what should I do here. But then prayer is also the using of the inheritance you've been given and getting it from where it's been given to you into the physical world, into your mind where your emotions are. And because you've been blessed with joy, peace, happiness. You can get that into your mind. Because you've been blessed with health, healing, prosperity, protection, and you have all power over the enemy. Some people's prayer life is just screaming at the devil. I don't, I spend very little time, very once in a blue moon. I'll sense something go on and just command it to stop. Prayer is this prophesying. This declaring of what your rights and privileges are because of Jesus and you've already got it.
Now, to some people that's a whole new thought. But let's go to 2 Peter 1:1-4, and Peter here is talking, and he says, "I, Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, and I am writing to them who have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ". Peter just said right now that I have been right standing with God. I don't have a guilty conscience. I don't feel condemn and unworthy and as though I'm, It's not right even talking to God. He says, "Jesus qualifies me to be a son". It's what he's saying here. And so I'm in right standing with God and I don't need to come into His presence, you know, with trepidation and condemnation and guilt. He said, "Come boldly". So it's a loaded first verse. And then he says, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord". He's talking here about what Jesus did on the cross. This new covenant. The Lordship of Jesus in our lives.
And so it's His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father. These are absolute keys that few believers I find spend much time in them, so they don't understand that they are a new covenant believer. They're just kind of a Bible believer. They try to mix up all the covenants and the things that are said everywhere was, and as long as they got a verse on it, they think it works. But the new covenant supersedes the old covenant. And it is a better covenant based on better promises. So why would you go back to the qualifications of the old covenant? When you can have this incredible new covenant. Now here's what it says, verse 3, "According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to your life and to living godly, and this is through the knowledge of Jesus that's called us to glory and virtue".
I want you to notice it's past tense. It doesn't say as you pray and beg and bug and plead with God. He is going to give you everything that your life needs. It says He's already. He hath given it to you. So as you grow in faith in the Word of God, in the knowledge of God's Word. You literally are not trying to get God to move. You are simply using the inheritance that has already been given to you. You were called an heir. Now an heir is somebody written in the will, and you cannot collect the things you've been promised until that person dies. And when that person dies, the will goes into effect. Then everybody can meet with the lawyers. And this property to that person. This much money to that person. This business to that person. The death of the person creating the will is what releases all this.
So we're called heirs and the person who died for us was Jesus. And so when it says He hath given, it means upon Jesus death, His burial, His resurrection. This beautiful incredible revelation that Paul got, that you now are an heir. So everything's been given to you. All you need to do now is learn to access it. That's it. So that is why when Jesus teaches us to pray, He says when you pray believe you have received it. Like you're praying from the prayer of an heir. You inherited all of this through Jesus and Jesus qualifies you because you're born again. So this changes our prayer life, instead of screaming at the devil, instead of trying to pray in a way that controls demonic strongholds and gets God to move, etcetera. You begin to declare what's already been done.
How do we do that? Well, the next verse really reveals this to us. It says that if you want to learn to access all of your inheritance. It says in verse 4, "Whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises. That by these you might be partakers of the divine nature". If I'm eating a sandwich and you're hungry. If I give you a bite, we're partaking together of that sandwich. You and I get to be partakers of the divine nature. Someone say, "Well, that's just in your spirit". No, because the next line says, "Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust".
Now, the corruption that is in the world is all of the desires and the things we need being gone after the wrong way. If you need money, you kill somebody for their money. That's the corrupt way to do it. God's blessing, favor. So this, it's saying here that these promises. So what do we do with these promises? There's an old hymn that I used to sing as a little kid in my dad's church and it was standing on the promises of Christ, my King. And it's just keep talking about these promises that you stood on. And what it was saying was that the promises in the Word is how we pray. We take that promise and we've already been given health.
So we find promises on health and we pray those promises. We declare them. Now, we are not speaking to God because it says that we're speaking to the problem. Jesus said, "Have faith in God. And whosoever shall say, not to God, to this mountain, to the problem. Be removed. Be cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but believe that what he say shall come to pass. He will have what he says". It doesn't say God will give him what he says. God's already given it. And when you begin to just bake and marinate and meditate on that new covenant and recognize that most of what you pray about has already been given.
Now, there's one prayer in the Bible. It's the prayer of, "If it will be Your will". And the only time I ask God what's Your will, is when the Bible doesn't explain it. I know what His will is on joy, peace, healing, prosperity, protection, long life, happiness, great relationship, because the Bible list all those promises. But there are other things I'll pray about like, "God, what direction should I go in my career? Both are good, one is probably better. And you know the future. Should I take path A, or should I take path B"? And you don't know. "So Father, what is your will? Can You please guide me on this". That's a prayer of just kind of discovering His will, spending time with God. And all of a sudden, I just kind of get, "Um, I don't feel good about this one". But I feel really good about, I feel like green light. I just feel good about this way. It doesn't matter all of my sense knowledge stuff.
Now, I do all the work there, too. I study out the track record of that company. I study out the track record of this company. But ultimately, I always go by what you might call a gut feeling. But it's highly developed in born again believers to such a degree that you will know things. In the Bible when you follow any of the men and women of God in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. There's things that they would know. That there's no way they know. And so God would show them, reveal things to them. That they couldn't know through their five senses. They didn't see it. They didn't hear it. No one phone them or told them or texted them or emailed them. There, and often you'll just be in a situation where you'll just know something and so it helps this decision.
Now, so that's the kind of prayer of needing to know God's will. So but God's written will in the Bible, that's His will. And so when you hear people say, "Well, God is sovereign. He's going to do what He wants to do". You're totally wrong. God is sovereign means God is all powerful. And so this all powerful God, people say, "Well, but He can do anything". No, He can't do anything because He gave you His word and He is a God of His word. When He gives His word, He can't break it. The Bible says that clearly that not one comma, not one period, a jot or tittle of His word will ever not be performed. The Bible says that God watches over everything He's promised to perform it. He would never go against His word.
And so some people think that God is sovereign means that God can change His mind or delay it or stop or do what He wants. But God has already given to you all that you need for life. Another doctrine is, "Well, God's withholding healing. God's not letting me prosper because God knows I can't handle it". Um, you know, sounds like a good teaching but too late. God's already given prosperity. He's already given this ability to walk in his best. Jesus said, "I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly". That word, that phrase in the Greek means superior in quality. So superior the world can't even produce it hardly. And innumerable in quantity.
So as you begin to study God's Word from a new covenant perspective and from the fact that He has given us all the promises. He has given us everything we're going to need. If you've had an accident, and your leg is broken badly, and they say you're never going to walk normally on that. God knew in the future that you'd run the red light, make that decision, break your leg or whatever. And He's already given you the miracle to have that leg returned and healed to new. He hath given us all things. As you begin to recognize, you will have a different understanding and an incredibly deeper love for Jesus. Because as you get to know Him, you begin to realize all that He has freely given us. And I'll give you a couple more verses. Write this down because you need to study these verses.
In 1 Corinthians 2:12, it says, "Now we did not receive the spirit of the world" When we got born again. "But we received the Spirit that is from God so that we can know all that God has given us". Past tense. Did you know Holy Spirit again it is saying in Corinthians is to show you all the things you've got. So faith if you really want to get accurate which is crucial. Faith is not believing that God can do something. Satan believes God can heal. Satan believes God can prosper. Satan believes God protects. But Satan doesn't have faith. So it can't be knowing God can do something. Faith is knowing it's done. The inheritance is already been given. I have, every promise has been freely given to me. My relationship with God no longer needs to be begging and bugging and pleading.
I learn to speak to problems, to declare with my mouth, healing and prosperity and a wonderful new year. And then when I spend time with God, it's more of a relationship, learning and growing and enjoying Him. And Him and I having a fellowship and sharing life together. How long would a friend last? If you had a friend and every time you got together, he was bugging, begging, and pleading with you to give him money. Let him use your house. Let him use your car. It's always something new that you're begging, bugging, and pleading for. We're not going to have much of a relationship. And the same is true people say, "Well, Leon, the way your teaching is as though, you know, this is just, you don't even need God". No. I want God in my relationship. I don't want Him to be the person I have beg, bug and plead with. That's not a relationship. That's a boss and a slave. He's my Father. I'm His son. Sonship. This new covenant.
So many Christians around the world have missed the entire Gospel. And they have just some mixture of old covenant, some mixture of law, some mixture of grace. Enough to mess up their head so much that faith doesn't work. Faith simply believes and it acquires what it has already been given. Now, another amazing verse is 1 Peter 2:24, it says, "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins," Now, that doesn't mean that you are living an exemplary perfectly sin-free life. He's talking about your spirit. Your spirit man has Jesus in it, and it is sealed. My mom used to make dill pickles and crab apples and she would can all this stuff. The most important part was when she put the lid on the jar, that it was sealed. And if we went down to find canned fruit or dill pickles or whatever we were eating.
You know, months later, if we saw a bad jar. It was because it wasn't sealed. Okay? And so when Jesus comes into you and you are born again. It is sealed. The things that you do, don't contaminate your spirit or they'll mess with your head. Oh, it will mess with your body. But you are a born again of the spirit. And so when you begin to recognize this, oh, it just brings tremendous joy and love in knowing Jesus but so many have backed away and embraced a teaching of sickness, disease. God is such a poor teacher. He has to make you sick. God is such a, you know, His presence in you is so weak that having money will corrupt you. Like it's just ridiculous the teachings, that go on and on that are not a part of the new covenant.
Now, here's a cool verse in 1 Peter 2:24, "Who His own self, Jesus, bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes or by whose beatings, whose bruises, you were healed". Everything you will ever need to be free from disease, to be healed from injury, to be protected from sudden death. All has been given to you. Past tense. It has been given to you. So you were healed. So I don't approach God if I need a healing in my body, begging Him to heal me, bugging Him to heal me, waiting for Him to heal me. For you to sit around waiting for God to heal you and when He's ready, He'll heal me. It's not even Biblical. He's given it to you, and it is up to you to use the precious promises. And it says prayer is powerful.
What is prayer? Prayer is declaring out of your mouth. And I could show you a ton of verses that life and death are in the power of the tongue. The tongues ability to form a word and speak it. And the words that we speak when we're born again are spirit in life like Jesus had. Prayer is you declaring what your day is going to be like, what's your future. Someone ask me, "Leon, what is this new year going to be like"? And I said, "It's going to be blessed. It's going to be the best one I've ever had. I'm going to find new treasures, new things. We're going to go past old boundaries. We're going to," And they go, "How do you know all that"? Because that's what I've been declaring every day of my life.
And people often look at me and say, "You just seem to be so lucky". No, I'm not lucky. I just understood my covenant rights. I'm a new covenant man, not a mixed up covenant man with law and grace. And when you begin to understand this, you keep developing and growing and developing. And you begin to see how precious God is, and what a wonderful thing that He has done for you and I. In Mark 11:24, I'll give you one more verse. It says, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them". See, you have to believe it's a done deal. You have to just believe that it's yes. It's done.
Now, people say, "Well the Bible says you have not because you ask not". Now we knew a lot about the Scriptures. Even when I pray, and I know that it is because of God. That I have healing. And so even when I'm speaking to sickness or declaring, I'm just going, "Thank You, God. You are the one that provided this for me. You are the one that sent Your Son to die in my place. It's because of You". And so I'm just falling in love with Him deeper and deeper. One of the most, I'll leave you with this thought. One of the most beautiful things to recognize as a promise is that in Romans 8:1, it says, "Now there's no condemnation. Now there is no sense of guilt". No sense of, "I'm not good enough to talk to God". And that's one of the most beautiful things of the new covenant, is that God wants His kids to be free around Him.
I have five kids and they're all married. So I count their spouses all my kids, too. So Sal and I have 10. We don't ever want them to walk into our presence with their head hang down. Never being able to laugh and enjoy being with us. Always worried we're going to do something bad or cut them off or, you know, just scared of us. I would be appalled. When they come in to our presence and our grandkids, too. I want them to have a sense of no guilt, no condemnation. I want a sense of freedom and equality. Now, between you and God, I don't mean that you think you're God. But you are in the class of God because He brings you there through that born again experience. And you rely on what He's done. You rely on knowing Him, spending time with Him, and letting Him guide you through your life. Oh, I pray that you might need to listen to this over and over and over again. So that you can begin to be a son and not a slave. So that God can be your Father, not your CEO, your general, your boss, but Father.
And that this relationship will give you understanding of how much He loves you because faith worketh by love. And listen to this message and the one we just, just keep following us every time we're on. And I pray that Holy Spirit and God's Word will just take a hold of you and you'll begin to hope and dream and rise up to live the incredible life that God's already prepared for you. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Saviour and your Lord, then I'll show you how to. See, no one can get you born again. Only you can make that decision. And you do this by choosing Jesus, by trusting in Him.
You say, "Well, I don't know Him". Well, what do you got left to trust then? You've trusted in the government, the banker, your job, your career. We just choose Him. And there's something going on, when you hear God's Word and you're not a born again. Something rises up on the inside of you. The faith that you need comes from the teaching that you hear and that's why you're desirous of it. Just say, "Jesus, come into my heart". Just say, "Jesus, I give You my life". Say, "Jesus, I'm following You for the rest of my days. Guide me, lead me. In Jesus' name, amen". Welcome to the family of God. Keep watching our program. And now you can begin to grow in a powerful, wonderful, joyful way as you begin to discover who you are, amen. God bless you. We'll see you soon.