Leon Fontaine - The Power Within
Today, I want to talk to you about Holy Spirit. When God designed human beings, He designed them in this incredible way. That as they would move in life, as they would administrate and manage and make decisions, that His Spirit was such a part of this, that they didn't walk in just a natural ability. But instead, they literally walked in this partnership with God. That religion has destroyed. And I want to talk to you today because I don't know what you're dealing with, or what's going on in your life. But every area of your life is to be filled and empowered and touched by Holy Spirit.
In Zachariah 4:6, it says, I'm going to read you from the Expanded Bible, "Then he told me, 'This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: 'You will not succeed by your own strength or by your own power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord All-Powerful, the Almighty of Heaven's Armies of hosts". You see, you are not, depends about your definition of successes, you know. If your definition of success is just to exist, just to survive, or you're probably doing good. You can pat yourself on the back and say, "I survived". But I refuse to survive. There's never a season in my life that my goal was to survive. There's never been a season in my life that my goal was just to make it through. It didn't matter how much was going on personally. It doesn't matter how much hurt. It doesn't matter how much pain, how much sickness was pushing at me. It doesn't matter.
There was something about me, "Okay, God. You are with me. I'm going to get up and I'm going to go kick butt. I'm going to get up and go do something great for God". And He can turn any situation around from what the enemy intended for you, for harm. And He can bring phenomenal blessing and peace and joy and healing and miracles into your life. You are not going to make with what God is calling success, with what God is calling this, if you don't allow His Spirit. If you don't learn to work with Holy Spirit. All through the Bible in the Old Testament... You know, the Old Testament prophets, they're very interesting. They would be preaching away at the people and all of a sudden they go, "Boop". And they start prophesying about Jesus, and then boop, they come back on to their message.
It's hilarious which is why so much of the Old Testament seems written in code because you'll be reading this message and then it's out of context. It was kind of like, and then all of a sudden says, "And the bulls of Bashan have encompassed me about and they have pierced my hands and they have pierced my feet". Yoh, woo, woo. What's going on here? Through the gift of prophecy these men of old would be teaching and preaching to the people and all of a sudden boop, they would begin to speak and prophesy of the power and the coming Messiah. And so it's interesting that when you look at the presence of God in our lives, that it is something that... And look at the word here it says, "You will not succeed".
In the King James, we used to sing it all the time. Not by might nor by power, but my spirit says the Lord. There's something about the Spirit of God that this modern church has completely missed. We have one group that's trying to prophesy into everybody's lives and give everybody direction. Which is not even new covenant. We have others who just think that the brilliance of God's Word gives me such great ideas and guidelines for my life, and it does. But somehow there's been this inability or this disconnection of allowing the Spirit of God to flow. When He says not by might nor by power, He is telling you and He's telling me but I'm speaking to you today. He's telling you. You're not going to succeed like He's designed you to without the Spirit of God, without the presence of God, without this... And one of the things, I love pictures.
And you know what, when it talks about the Spirit of God, that's Ruach in Hebrew or Pneuma in the Greek. The spirit, the word "spirit" means wind. It means breath. The moving of air. That's why in Genesis 1:2, it says, and He created the earth and the heavens, and the Spirit of God was moving on the waters. And this picture, this word spirit, this ruach. It's talking about the blowing of the wind. And another word it uses is, and it's hovering. Like a mother hen on eggs. That something's going to hatch. Something's about to come forth. And as the Spirit of God was moving on the waters, God just spoke, and things began to happen. You're not going to be able to do the things that God has put in your heart.
There's greatness on the inside of you because Jesus is there. And everyone of you is designed to live this life of enjoying His presence. And that when you begin to speak to mountains, He never designed it to be some kind of mind over matter. Some kind of a head trick. Some kind of a just keeps speaking it for 50 years and a bulldozers will come by and the company will remove it and go, "Oh"! No, the Spirit of the Lord is about His power, His miraculous supernatural ability in our lives and you've got to believe this. If you don't, then you are literally relegated to just being a normal person. Which means you are not going to succeed because you're going by your own might.
So we could take that verse turn around and say, "By your might and by your power, welcome to average living". Okay? Or welcome to failing somewhere because there will be a storm that will take you out. It will make you compromise. It will make you sit down and lick your wounds. It will make you give up. It will make you get off your faith. It will make you get out of grace. It will make you not even know God because you're not there. And so I want you to understand that the Holy Spirit, oh my! He is so amazing. In John 3:8 is an incredible portion of Scripture that Jesus explaining, and He says, "The wind blows where it wants to and you hear the sound of it, but you don't know where the wind comes from and you don't know where it's going. It is the same with every person who is born of the Spirit".
Do you understand? That you can experience the effect of Holy Spirit. You can sense wind. You can feel the wind. I love wind. I love hearing the wind go through the trees. I love just sticking my head out of the window when I was a kid. That the air just blow my hair everywhere. There's just something about wind. And when you hear about the Spirit of God. God is trying to give us word pictures to understand. That in the spirit realm He's like a wind. As far as the eye can see when the wind begins to blow. It's touching so much. And you don't know where it's coming from and where it's going. Another words, when you begin to partner with Holy Spirit, and you begin to understand how He is designed to be your helper. You begin to enjoy. The Bible uses so many different references to the wind and to breath.
In Psalm 104:30, it says, "When you breathe on them, they are created". When God actually made man. It's pretty unique thing when He made man. I mean, out of dust, think of every nerve ending, think of the fascia of your body. Think on the billions and trillions of signals running through it simultaneously to make your little toe just keep on balance and your heart to keep the beat going, and your alimentary canal to continue to move and digest food and give you, I don't even know where to start. Health, you know, doctors, if they think they've got it figured out and I love them. We got them in our church. But nothing can touch or under... But yet it's nothing until God breathe.
And when He breathe this air, this wind into the nostrils of man. He become a living soul. And he was to function like God. These are God's kids. That's why we call Him Father. They weren't to act like animals or Zebras or cows. They weren't to act like Orangutans or monkeys regardless of the ridiculousness of the world thinking. They were to function and act like God. They were to learn by watching God. Learn by hanging out with Jesus. So that you can learn how to have relationships at the wind of God was touching. You can learn to have a body so healthy that they're in the spirit, the presence, the wind, the breathe of God would just bring a life to you.
And I just want you to make sure that you begin to get your brain to think. You begin to renew your mind. You begin to allow the Word of God to touch your heart in such a way that everything in the Bible is written for a purpose and a reason. That what they touched was healed. Where they went, the angels of God went before them. That when, they didn't worry about their rear guard or the, your reward, King James calls it, because the angels of heaven protected them. They didn't go until that was their destiny or until they were ready. And so this Holy Spirit that I'm talking to you. But when Jesus was talking to His disciples in 14, 15, and 16 chapters of John. And He's trying to tell them something. He's saying, "I'm going to leave and you're not coming with Me". And they begin to feel like orphans. He said, "But Holy Spirit".
Did you know that Jesus was setting up a new leader. That was going to lead them places. A new leader that wasn't just going to lead them but that's going to empower them, and He was breathe into them. And because He was breathe into the twelve disciples and the hundred and twenty on the first day. I mean, the Pentecost thousands got saved. Then every day thousands got saved. And if the early church just by walking and talking, the love was so amazing. This desire to help others. You know, literally a, maybe 300 years at the best after Jesus, religion, Christianity was then used for every excuse that some self-centered leader could do. When it was to fight wars to take over countries. In the name of the Lord, paint a cross on their shield, and they just missed it.
That when Jesus came along, that He was in the midst of Rome and all that Rome was doing, and He didn't fight Romans. That He took them out by the breathe of God as people begin to know Jesus Christ. They become to know, you could feed them to lions. You could kill them. You could do whatever you want. It didn't matter. It just went, and it just spread through the then known world. Unstoppable going through the hearts of every individual. The presence of God touching people. That made you so alive. You would never go back to the way you felt before. And even if the way you felt before was okay financially. It was okay relationally. It was okay people respected you and knew you. But it couldn't be compared to a relationship with the living God.
We need to win the hearts of the people by showing the living God in our lives. We need to see the power of Jesus that just totally shuts down things in a way that the world has never seen before. In Habakkuk 2:19. They're talking here about, you see, the Israelites when you go back to Abraham. They were coming out of a polytheistic look at Gods, multiple Gods and then they find out there was one God. And listen to something. It's Habakkuk says in verse 2:19, it says, "How terrible it will be for the one who says to a wooden statue, 'Come to life. Wake up! 'How terrible it will be for the one who says to a silent stone, 'Get up!' It can't tell you what to do, teach you, or guide you. It's only a statue covered with gold and silver. There is no life, no breath in it". He's saying that to serve God. He is the living God. The creator of the universe. The living breathing presence of God and you're going to worship some gold cow like they did with Moses came down from the mountain.
All around the world people are worshiping at, you know, in India millions of Gods. And in other places a God that is actually evil spirit and they don't know it. That's why there's such hatred and anger and killing and hurting women and children. Like just take a look at the world's religions and you kind of just go, "Urgh". Because there's no freedom. There's no life. There's no joy and there's no breathe in it. It's not a living. You don't look up at a stone statue that people used to sacrifice things to from children to you name it. And you look at this inanimate object. Yeah, it's covered in gold. You can even have the greatest artist you've got made it to make you just wow, you know. And put it in the valley where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego can go, "We're not going to bow to that thing old king. It doesn't matter if you burn us up". And then the presence of God as the fourth man comes into the fire.
Look at the Old Testament and see the presence of God, the miraculous, the flow. But in the New Testament there's a change. There's a difference. And that is that the Spirit of God, the presence of God. This wind of God came within the very hearts of a human being because of the sacrifice of Jesus and what He did on the cross. And then He rose again to give you a life. And this life should be filled with the presence of God. It should ooze out of you. You should just love people. You shouldn't even be worried about yourself because nothing is going to stop your success. Nothing is going to stop your life. Nothing is going to shut down your finances. Nothing can stop the favour and the blessing of God on you. Not kings, not queens, not governments, no flow, nothing, when you know the presence of God.
One man could take out an entire country like Moses to Egypt. One person could walk in and see stunning things. I'm speaking to you today. Do you know how special you are? Do you realize that He wants to flow through you and use you. Don't let religion get you stuck on all these rules. Did I do this enough? Did I pray enough? Did I get all the bad thoughts out in my head? That, and just begin to serve Him, and the presence of God, the wind of God. This Holy Spirit will fill you up to such a degree that living for Him is just easy. There's just no other option because I'm experiencing a new life that is so incredible that no one can shut it down. Not your spouse, not your parents, not your kids, not no faith. Nothing can take away this experience of the life of God that is in you. God breathe in you when you got born again.
I was talking to a guy in our church and everything I said he had a problem with. And everything that's going on, he questioned everything. And I just gave him a few answers and helped him out because it's a journey for all of us to learn and grow. But one day he commented on his absolute lack of faith, in his absolute sense of knowing God. And I spoke, "Maybe you're not born again". Excuse me? Maybe you're not born again, because without being born again, you're just a religious person. Well, I grew up in church. I said, "Those are the worse". Oh, what do you mean? Well, you think because your mom knew God, and she could weep and pray, and your dad was excited about that. You think that you somehow just got wheeled into the kingdom. But every individual person has to believe on Christ from the heart and confess Him with their mouth. And you have to submit and desire and tell Him to come in and this incredible miracle takes place.
As you come alive with the very breath and the life of God, and for the first time in your life your spirit man is ignited by the very presence of God. You are born again. And he looked at me and you could just see him thinking and his brain wanted to fight. He says, "I don't think I am". Well I said, "Are you ready to believe"? Because born again is not our prayer. I lead people on the prayer to flow in that direction and understand it. Born again is to believe from your heart and to declare with your mouth. Jesus is Lord. He rose from the dead. Meaning that's the very reason you can be born again. Without Jesus dying and rising again, there's no hope. The breath of God is in me. The breath of God is in you. It flows from your spirit and it touches everything that you reach out for, but it's by faith. This grace, this ability, this favour of God must be believed.
And as you fellowship with Holy Spirit, the Word teaches us. You'll begin to know the love of God. You'll begin to know the grace of Jesus and the communion of the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? As you commune with Holy Spirit, you are going to fall in love with the Word. If the Word of God and messages don't just come alive on the inside of you. When you hear, I mean, anointed preaching not religious dribble. But when you hear a man, or a woman of God take His Word and just speak it.
Are you just looking for a new clause, a new doctrine, something you haven't heard before, or you're wanting the living breath of God that's flowing out of a teacher, a preacher, a prophet, apostle, a pastor. They just touch your life and just speaking to you and you just feel the encouragement. You just sense the presence of God rise up. When you read the Bible, take a look at people. They're alive. They're incredibly alive. And they're alive with His joy, His peace, His purpose, His love. They would go lay down their lives for people they don't know just like Jesus.
On the day of Pentecost after Jesus had died and rose again. They're in the upper room, and the Bible says the sound of a mighty rushing wind! I like that. Wind hit the place where they were, and tongues of fire sat on each one, and they were filled the Holy Spirit. Filled with Spirit, filled with that wind, filled with the Spirit of God, Holy Spirit. And then He tells us to stay filled. That's something I do every day is just to spend time in the Word and to commune with Holy Spirit. And when I commune with Holy Spirit, there's this love that you get.
That my dad taught me this. He had this down pad. He said, "Leon, just feel sorry for people that come against you". I said, "What"? He said, "They're coming against the living God not you". Recognize what's behind it. Recognize the broken heart, the pain, the betrayal. The things they've experienced. And don't let your flesh, another words, don't let your little ego rise up. Just know the presence of God is on you. And if you can't get them, to just forgive and walk in love. That they become a weapon and they can't prosper. They move themselves into the kill zone. I don't mean God's going to kill them. I just mean you talk to any soldiers or they'll just say, "You know, when you're going to attack".
For example, when a team of officer goes through a doorway into a room to take control of it. The doorway is the kill zone. That's the area you want to get out. Get through that thing fast. That's where bottleneck. That's where the enemy. That's where the drug runners. People can just take you out. Why? Because you're a bottleneck at the door. And we have to understand that. That you don't ever want to move. And so all I'm trying to tell you is that you stop worrying about, who's going to shoot me down? Who, what are they going to say about? What they're going to blog about me? What are they going to do about me? Who cares. It doesn't matter to me. Why? The living God looks out for me. The living God is in my future. The presence of God is in my marriage, my home, my body.
So even if I eat any deadly thing. Even, you know, as you begin to move out of this natural thinking, and I love doctors and I get check-ups and I'm on vitamins. I have no problem. Taking something if I got an infection. I'm not like that at all where it just one or the other. They all work together. But my faith is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness. And when you begin to live this way, you have no problem. There's not this little e. It's just this beauty, this freedom, because within me is the presence of God. The wind of God. It makes me alive. It makes me look at the future and just know nothing's going to stop me. That's how He has designed you and I.
But you're a pastor. Are you kidding me? Pastors are just to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. I'm just a teacher. That's it. You're the players on the field. You're the gifted financers and moms and dads. You're the gifted layers of hands on the sick. You're the gifted casting out. It's you. I'm just the teacher, the coach. You're the players on the field. Father, I pray, that they catch You. I pray that every believer listening, who just desire the living God as a deer pants for the water. They'd begin to believe as David prophesy over this generation. We'd run through a troop and leap over a wall. That the same spirit that raise Christ dead body up, would quicken every cell and organ in our mortal bodies. That His peace and His joy would flow off as to such a degree it would look like rivers that would touch neighbors and people.
Father, I pray today that we would crave the new leader that Jesus said, when He said, "Holy Spirit, would He be here". I pray that every person listening to this message would just come alive with the desire to know You, to give up on religion, and to serve the living God. His living Spirit on the inside of us blowing and flowing into everything that we touch. And that our life would become so exciting Father because we don't know where this wind comes from or where it's going. And with Holy Spirit in our lives everything that we touch goes beyond what we think. Everything we do takes incredible blessings and corners we never knew were even there. Everything that we say and do is just filled with the presence of God. An eye has can't see, an ear has never heard, and we can't even imagine or understand the stunning living that is ahead of us. Touch every person with that thing. I pray in your wonderful name.
If you don't' know Jesus. Today, I'm going to speak to those who, you're just churched. Maybe no one really confronted you. Are you born again? Are you, have you really believed on Him? Ask Him to come in. Was it just some kind of a rhetorical prayer? If so just say:
Jesus, I choose You. Thank You for dying in my place. Come into my heart. From today and on, I'm following You and I'm breathing and inhaling You everyday of my life. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.