Leon Fontaine - Are You Double Minded?
What I'm going to say is going to unlock some things that I believe are going to help you in a tremendous way. Don't be proud and think, "Oh, I don't have time". You don't have time for God. That's pride. You don't have time to hear His Word. Don't you, God is first. And you're going to find amazing things taking place in your life. Now, in Galatians 5:19-26, it talks about two things. The works of the flesh, and he says, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, all right, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like".
Okay, stop right there. I have worked with all of that in the church. I have worked with people who had murdered. I've worked with people who had gotten involved in sorcery, witchcraft. I mean, you just pick it. They got, they started getting drunk. They hated people. I remember one man telling me that he's picked up his rifle how many times and pointed his wife when she wasn't aware. Someone, I mean, I could tell story after story people. These are Christ's church. You bet. When you just live in your own carnal abilities and you don't allow the Word of God to come in and to let... When you give your life to Christ, you're a new creation in your spirit man. But your mind needs to be renewed and your heart, that autopilot. It needs to develop new beliefs. The Word must be planted there and the old go and the new rise up.
And so here it's talking about the works of the flesh. People bought this, "I don't know if I'm a Christian because I'm addicted to this pornography. I'm addicted to like alcohol, drugs". Others are, and you'll meet other Christians who are so selfish in their business deals. People get married to someone that they thought was so wonderful and knew in God. And all of a sudden, the selfish person, this narcissistic thing comes out. And all of this I find in Christian's lives. And then he goes on to say, "Now, just as I told you in time's past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God".
Now, right here people who don't understand the grace of God and the new covenant or the Word. Don't get it. They think you miss heaven if you do any of these things. Now, that's not what it's saying. Just hang in there with me. Let me show you something. Now, to have selfish ambition, okay. Everyone of us including me and everybody else watching, unless you're deceived by your own arrogance, would have to say there are times I've acted selfishly, and it was about me and I had to correct that. So if I had died while I was dealing with that selfish ambition, are you saying I wouldn't go to heaven? Jealousy. Don't tell me you haven't been jealous in your marriage or about someone else's success. All of us deal with jealousy. Well then what does it mean you can't inherit the kingdom of God? It's not talking about you can't enter heaven. He's talking about you can't inherit the kingdom of God.
Now, as you go down to this verse. This verse will help you a lot. Romans 14:17, it says, "For the kingdom of God," this is an identity. "It's not meat and drink". All right. It's not a physical place. It is, it says, "But the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost". When you do this thing called being born-again, and you are obedient to the Scripture of faith in Christ and you trust in what He has done. He's qualified you His righteousness. You are in Him. This grace of God just supplies incredible things to your world. You are living in the kingdom of God on this planet. But you can be born-again and if you die go to heaven. But yet never learned to walk in the benefits of the kingdom on this planet. You don't feel righteous.
If you feel like you are lower than a snake's belly. Everybody else is smarter than me. You're struggling with self-worth and self-esteem and you don't feel significant. You don't feel righteous. You have not learned to live in the kingdom of God which is present here on this planet. All right, I can be a Canadian and when I go to America, I'm still a Canadian and I'm walking out as a Canadian. You are a member, a citizen of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven. But even as you're on this planet, you have access to all the rights and privileges of that kingdom. That's why our prayer is thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. As you live out your life down here, you can have. It is says for the kingdom of God. It doesn't say is the place heaven. It doesn't say that. It says for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not this physical world. But it is righteousness, peace, and joy.
This righteousness means you know who you are. You feel so good about yourself because you believe on Jesus. You're righteous because of Jesus. You are blessed because of Jesus. The favour of God is on your life because of Jesus. Even when you fail and make mistakes. You know that it's because of Jesus and so you run back, so in love with God. Then this peace that is in the kingdom of God. Oh, man! There's a peace that passes understanding. You can have that peace on the planet even before you go to be with Jesus. Jesus told the disciples when you walk into someone's house, say peace be on this house and your peace will touch that house as you stay there. And if they don't accept your peace, then don't stay in that house because that house could be full of anger. It could be literally a demonic, you know, transference is going to take place and we'll talk about this. But the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness of peace.
Now, this word "peace" means it's actually talking about you're so blessed on the inside and it affects all of your outside. And joy, a joy, and it's all in the Holy Ghost. So when it says up here, those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He is saying to believers, "Okay, you have access to the feelings, the blessings, the promises, the nature of God. All that's in heaven is yours on this planet. But you're going to fight the good fight of faith to have it and keep it because the enemy's going to try it, not that the enemy can take it away. He's got no power other than to tempt you to use your power against you. So when you learn his devices and you learn he's trying to get you selfish". Focus on your own abilities give up on God. How did he tempt Eve? He just got her thinking, "Am I actually going to a whole level if I eat the fruit"? She didn't believe that everything God said was true. And today, every Christian I talked to will never deny all of the truth in God's Word.
But everyone that I talked to that doesn't get results will say, "Well, you know, I don't know if I believe it this way". And you can see them struggling with God's Word just like Eve in the garden. That is enemy coming to tempt you. And he wants to tempt you out of what to believe. If you do not learn to get into God's Word and find out what the cross, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension to the throne of God. If you've never been taught that, you need to get out of your church and get in with church that will teach you that or go find a life-giving church because there's an inheritance for you that will see you walking in the miraculous. So here it says that, in Galatians 5:19-26, that all this mess will be in your life, if you do not learn to walk in the Spirit. Which means to grow and learn in His Word. Plant it in your heart. Protect it. Let it rise up. Then it says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love".
You know what, when you walk in a love, God's love. It changes everything. You can love the unlovely. You can love somebody through a bad period of life. You can love them when they turn on you because... It doesn't mean you're going to be stupid. It just means there's a love. Then it says a joy. Things around you cannot be happening. Which is where happiness comes from. Things are happening. I'm happy. I'm going waterskiing. I'm happy. Going bowling. I'm happy. Happiness comes from happenings, with joy is a stunning force. It is a strength. It is a power. You can live in it. Then peace, longsuffering. When people around you, ever watch an impatient person? Moms don't be so impatient with your kids because your impatience is doing something to them. Longsuffering is that ability to smile while you bring a disciplinary action. Not screaming frustrated, angry, releasing, you know, all this pent up thing. No, no, no. Stay longsuffering as you're training and equipping, as you're working in your marriage, as you're working in your business.
I think I know some guys who think that screaming at their employees and dishing them and... is the way to go. No. Longsuffering means you are suffering through their inability to help you with what you'd like to do. So but walk in faith, walk in joy. Teach them how to do it. You don't need to be a screaming, irritated person. Whether you're a parent. Whether you're a boss, whatever in life. Whether you're serving a boss is not even good. Longsuffering is a stunning, a fruit. It's a stunning thing and fruit grows in your life. And then kindness. Ah, I love people who are kind. When they have this kindness, you enjoy being around them. Goodness, faithfulness. There's a word. Just try to find somebody who will be faithful to their marriage, faithful to their friends, faithful to their pastor, faithful into their boss, in this company. It's hard to find. Then gentleness. And by gentleness, I don't mean that you are a pushover, a wimp. No. It means that you can be a Navy Seal and take out all the enemy but yet there's a side of you that can love and pick up a child in one hand. That gentleness, yet there's power. It's power under control and self-control.
So as you begin to go through, there is a life that you can have on this planet. But it's going to require that you begin to recognize it is in Jesus. It is in the Word. Stay in His Word, otherwise you are going to live your, I know people who their entire life, I know because I've known them for 40 years and I'll talk to them today and you can just see their brain double-mind. Well, you know, I know. But, but, but. And you just, you go, and you've taught them. They've sat under our ministry. And you go, "Why can't they get it"? Well, it's a decision that they have to make, because double-mindedness is something that will capture you. And you want someone else to change your double-mindedness. No, you must choose. Elijah said to the children of Israel, "You are worshiping Baal and you're trying to worship God. Choose this day". There is a choice that goes on inside of us. And then an aggressive, assertive following that choice. Choose Jesus, choose His Word, and get up and go with the sense of courage and power.
I want to talk to you about something else in 1 John 4:1-6, it says, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world". Now, then it says, "By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. But you are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error". All right. There is so much wonderful doctrine in there. I want to talk about the transference of spirits.
Now, I don't mean that Christians get demon possessed. But the enemy, okay, is a spirit. And we know that we don't wrestle with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers, okay? With the darkness. So there's two kingdoms on this planet. The kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. Now, the kingdom of darkness is going to continue to push at you. I mean, look at the chapter where Peter says to Jesus after He asked His disciples who am I, and Peter says, "You are the Son of God". I mean, and He goes, "Peter, flesh and blood hasn't taught you that. God told you that". Peter feels good about himself. And Jesus starts to talk about the price He has to pay for all of mankind giving his life. And Peter now looks at Jesus and goes, "Not so". Jesus turns to him in the same chapter. He says, "Get thee behind Me, Satan"!
Okay, what in the world? People, you can submit to the Spirit of God. It's all through the... and you can submit to the lies of the enemy. Peter did that. And in one moment he is listening to the Spirit of God. The next moment he's listening to the enemy. And often in my life, I have had the most wonderful people. Some of my best friends talked to me about something and I know that it wasn't the Spirit of God. And literally, now I'm not saying they're bad. They're amazing wonderful people. But it doesn't mean that everything they say is born of God. And they have given me advice and I've listened to it, prayed about it. No, that was, if I have done that, it would ever have cost me. It wasn't ever against the Word. It was just decisions on how we navigate this and what I should do and how I should deal with certain situations. And I have known that was not Godly advice. It was out of their own head, out of their own carnal thinking. In other times, I've just sensed the presence of the enemy pushing.
Now, fear for example is a spirit. It's not an emotion. It's a spirit. And so we have not the spirit of fear Paul says to us in his letter to Timothy. We have not the spirit of fear. So the spirit of fear you can't counsel it out. I've met people and know people right now just totally lives taken over by fear. And you tried to explain to them why the fear, why got... You can't. This spirit of fear, they have to rise up and they've got to test that spirit. That is not the Spirit of God and it is a wrong spirit. Command it to go. In Jesus' name, you spirit of fear, get off. And then every day take the Word. I have the spirit of love. I have the spirit of power. I have the spirit of a sound mind. Speak that, connect to God's Word. And push off that spirit or that spirit of fear will cause you to be fearful and your fear will grow. That spirit of fear will take over not just the area that it started getting into your world.
Maybe you started being afraid of sickness or your marriage breaking up or you have a baby now and you can't deal with the fear of what if this baby does this. Well, as this fear last in your life, it spreads its tentacles. And this spirit of fear will go after every area till you are controlled by a spirit of fear. And so I have noticed that when I spend time with people. I remember times counseling with people, and they'd be a spirit of fear or they'd be so angry. They'd be so irritable. They would be lustful or jealous. And as I'm done working with that person, and I'm done working. I'm going home. God taught me to deal with that transference. That that anger on that man would cause me to be a little more short with my wife and my kids as that spirit of anger because it's not a Spirit of God. It would push at me. It will make me short-tempered or unhappy. So I would deal with it. Literally on the way home I say, "Father, in Jesus' name Your words says that the peace of God that passes understanding is mine. That the joy of the Lord is my strength. So in Jesus' name, the spirit of God".
And I would begin to speak His Word out loud and declare who I am. And it was amazing as I got this spiritual bath and it begin to push off. There's kind of this calm. Now the reason we shower at the end of the day or in the morning when you get up, is because it's like your body and it's got odor and the soak from the, you know, if you're riding your bike. Often as I ride my bike, you know, I can feel the exhaust in my clothes, my hair and you smell it. I mean, if I'm touching other thing like a dirt on my hands and exhaust in my hair, a good shower just cleans it up. The Word of God keeps your heart purified as we read that part. It just keeps it clean. So all these negative emotions are pushing at you. And you need to recognize that your feelings of all these negative emotions doesn't mean they're real. It doesn't mean there's even a reason force. I've got to look at my husband. I've got to look at this. No. Remember that there's a spiritual attack that pushes against you always.
Now, then it goes on to say that you are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. So get up and speak the Word of God every day. Why? Because every day you live, the enemy is attacking your mind. You must keep the shield of faith up. Well, how do you get faith? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing the by Word of God. So forty years ago you learned what faith was. You think that keeps the shield up? No, it is the Word of God daily coming in that you memorize, meditate, get it planted in your heart. Never stop. And that shield of faith could stop every fiery dart, every wrong thinking, every cloud of fear. Every spirit of, whatever. And when you talk to friends who are in the midst of something, you know, and they're, "They did this to me".
Don't allow their jealousy. Don't allow their dissension, their anger to get in you. Talk with them and keep that shield of faith up, because the enemy will spread it from Christian to Christian. He'll spread it through one person dominating a whole company. One person dominating a family with the wrong spirit, a church. This transference, I just see it everywhere. And so just keep the Word of God alive on the inside of you. Now, in Romans 8:36, it says, "As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'" All right, a lot of people have read this, and they think that Paul is talking about that all of us are going to just be killed. Just put up with it. Take it. It's not what he's saying. It says here for your sake we are killed all day long. He's not talking about physical death. Because we operate differently than the world. We look like sheep to them.
They're going, "I could never walk in love. They would eat me alive. I would never make it up the corporate ladder if I was, was to respond like you say with love and honor and integrity". That you'd never make it. Wrong! They look at us and they think, "You're like a sheep to the slaughter". No, I am not. It doesn't say we are sheep to the slaughter. It says we're accounted as. So and then the next verse, "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us". Yes, living or dying you win. You know Jesus Christ then you die, you're not lost. Ha! You can go to heaven for eternity. But it doesn't mean that every Christian just dies, roll over and say, "Okay, shoot me". Be so passive. No, no, no. That's not what he's teaching. But it's just saying that when the presence of God is on the inside, you will do things differently than the world. Which is self-centered, pushing, backstabbing, stepping on fingers to get up.
So they look at us and go, "How in the world can you make it in this world loving people, caring about people, honoring others, helping them get ahead. How do you go there"? Because we're more than conquerors through Jesus who loved us. So we need to stay strong in our faith. We can't just be fair weathered Christians. In Philippians 4:11-13, Paul says, "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and I've learned to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer in need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me".
As you keep your single focus on the kingdom of God and His righteousness and the Word and who you are in Christ. There's going to come times where maybe the answers get delayed or maybe you're walking through a time where you feel hungry. You're not getting the finances. The things aren't working like, you know, instantly. Paul is saying here. I'm content. Even when there's a need that hasn't been met yet, I'm content. This is when most people jump ship. The answers to their prayers haven't happened quick enough. So I'm going to try another way. I'm going to cheat a little bit. I'm going to cheat in my income taxes. And, you know, my needs aren't being met. There's no pleasures in my life. So I'm going to go over and try this. I just needed. And they no longer looked to God. Now, I want you to understand. That when you are believing and standing in faith and not seeing results, Paul's saying I've learned in whatever state I'm in to be content.
And so in life as you're going up for God. Yes, there's going to be times as you're believing for new things, greater things, or people come against you for example. And there's a battle that might be come at you through the courts, might come at you through money, might come at you through people, a neighbor. Sickness will push at you. There's so many things that will push at you. And so many people if they don't have immediate results. They are not content. They begin to be discontent. Their heart begins to be troubled. And they go what? You learn to be content. And get up and make a change. And let's go do great things for God. Walking in the promises of God with His grace all over us. Believing Him, not between two opinions. The enemy's trying to get you to two opinions. Just trying to get you to distrust even a little bit about God and get double minded. Stop and choose today who you're going to serve. God bless you. Have a great week.