Leon Fontaine - The Truth Exposed
I want to approach the question today, are you righteous? The human condition is pretty bad and sometimes we forget. We forget that mankind has no approach to God. There is such a strong sense of condemnation in the human race, such an inferiority complex and it makes them cowards. You might see one man get up and sing to 80.000 people and think, "Wow! He's confident. He's got it together". But I prayed with some of them because they go back in the greenroom, they got to snort four lines of coke just to recognize that I'm not what I portrayed out there. I'm insecure. And I've got low self-worth, and I'm struggling with issues, and I feel empty on the inside. Because without Christ, that's the human condition. A person can have confidence in one area of gifting.
You know, walk into a hospital and watch how a doctor walks. Now have his car breakdown and watch him walk into a garage, different guy. Everybody can have a gifted area that they can sin. But this whole human condition of this sin consciousness that holds the entire human race in bondage. And they know I have nothing to approach God with. The human condition that we know there is no way we could approach Him. There's a desperation. And so we become philosophers and try to figure this out. But this sense of guilt and this sense of inferiority. This sense of failure. This sense of weakness. It is in every person.
Now, you go ahead and do some kind of mind religion and you can kind of, you know, take your mind and convince yourself of something else for a while and, and it's fine. But deep inside if you don't have a born again spirit, you will work hard every day to keep yourself. I'm a winner. And it's not really there because you're trying to superimpose confidence who at the very core in a person that has no confidence. This sense knowledge is what the human race knows and they're all dying to have some kind of change. They just don't know what it is. And then we give ourselves to Christ and we become born again and we have a new nature. But now we've got preachers and denominations saying, "You're just a dirty rotten sinner. We're trying to clean you up a little bit. Let's polish you up. But your nature is fallen and you're just a sinner". And they think that's humble that we talk this way. "I'm just a sinner saved by grace".
Listen to me. That's the biggest lie period. The Bible is not written to the sinners in Galatia, to the sinners at Rome, to the sinners at Ephesus. It is written to the saints. And there is something the early church understood that has been erased from the doctrine of church today in the guise of humility. And what it has done has destroyed our ability to use faith for healing, to use faith for blessing, for peace, for joy, for prosperity, to rise up and raise families and generations. Who we can't function in faith until we get our righteousness figured out. Proverbs 16:18, says, "Pride leads to destruction. A proud attitude brings ruin". Always as a believer. Always. It doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian for and how well-established your doctrine is, always leave your heart open for Holy Spirit to speak to you. Let Him speak through anyone He wants.
1 Corinthians 1:30, it says, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That, it is written, 'He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.'" Christianity as I travel, and I get a chance to travel and speak at conferences around the world and denominations everywhere. And I'm so thankful for amazing churches and pastors and leaders. But it's shocking to me today, how teaching has become kind of like, "Let's just teach where the people are, so they don't feel guilty about what they can't get happening".
Does that make sense to you? If I'm hungry, I don't want you to teach me why it's okay to be hungry. Would you just feed me? If I'm sick, I don't want to know a whole bunch of teaching about it. It's okay to be sick. Don't be guilty about being sick. Would you just show me how to get healed? If I'm poor and I can't pay my bills or send my kids to university, or get a bedroom for them, or a house that works. Could you just show me how to succeed in my career? The Word of God is so different than the way so many people are presenting it today. And the one thing I want you to understand the very beginning, is when you give your life to Jesus Christ, you're no longer a sinner trying to be righteous. You are a born again believer. Now, that means there are two natures to think about. The nature of the enemy, which is what came over the planet. When Adam and Eve sinned, okay, the nature of Satan came on the whole earth.
Now, someone's going to get upset. Just let, listen to me. Instead of faith, they became doubt. Instead of confidence, Adam shook and hid from God. And today, it's the same way, deep inside of every human being, the human condition is you know you're not good enough. You know there's something missing. You don't feel right now. You can chalk it up and take a gift and become really good in one area and be confident there in a sense knowledge kind of confidence. But there is a born again experience or the nature of fear and doubt and the enemy is taken out because it's pushed out by the very nature of God that comes into your human spirit. And your human spirit becomes ignited with confidence. You are by nature, if you are born again, you are by nature a confident person. Someone's going to smack you around with a whole bunch of bad teaching or bad upbringing to make you afraid and fearful once you're born again.
When you are born again, you are filled with peace. It's your nature. You are filled with joy. It is your nature. And you got to have bad teaching or not teaching at all, to let it just do that. You know, if I go for a Harley ride, and I just go blasting around, enjoying myself. When I get home, I smell. I smell like diesel. I smell like gasoline. I smell like smoke from the BC fire, and whatever else is out there. And I get home and Sally go, "Oh, please, take a shower". She's not calling me down. Then my grandkids would go, "Oh, pops". It gets in your hair. It gets in your clothes. It gets on your skin. And when I go shower, I'm not showering so I can be something I'm not. I'm showering up the scum and the smell and the mess. So I can be who I am.
When you begin to get into God's Word as a born again believer, you need to be the washing of water by the Word because every day defeat and doubt will push at you. And who you truly are, this nature of Christ needs to rise. Jude 24, says, "Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling". This is hang with your whole life. "And to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish". Oh, this one must be talking about heaven. No, it's not. This nature that is in you. This nature of Christ is so full of power. It's so full of joy. It's so full of peace. It's so full of confidence. That we somehow think it's humble. Well, you know, Leon. You just look a little bit proud. What is proud look like to you? What is pride? Please tell me. You seem to know it. Well, it's like thinking you it. I am it.
What? I'm more than a conqueror. I'm an overcomer. I'm the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. I'm more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ. And greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. I am Jesus in me. And I'm not bowing down with the sense of inferiority. Well, gosh, golly, gee. I just hope that Jesus does something which near going... Come on! Can you imagine Jesus walking on the storm? When Peter was in the boat, and Jesus was walking on the storm. He wasn't like this. How would Jesus have walked on the storm? Confidence plus. When He walked into a graveyard and a demon possessed man that chased off everybody and could break chains. He was so demonized. He ran at Jesus. And it says, he fell on his face. It doesn't say he got on his face. It says he fell on his face. I can see the disciples all twelve lining up behind Him in single file as this demoniac is screaming. There was nothing about Jesus that would make Him back down. He was confident in who He was and He's God, etcetera. He did not walk into situations and go, "Oh, we got to pay taxes. Nah, I go catch a fish gold coin from its mouth". There's nothing about Jesus, and as He is, so are we in this world. We're called Christians. Christians. We are to be like Christ. I don't. Jesus was full of love and joy and He have humility. But He was not bowing down to any of the curses of this world.
There's a verse in the Bible, Colossians 1:13-14, it says, "Who hath delivered us out of the authority of darkness," No authority. "And has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have our redemption, the remission of sins". I want you to notice there's four things it talks about here. First, he says that we are delivered out of any of Satan's authority. He has no dominion, no authority when you become born again. When you make a choice to accept what Jesus did for you from the cross to the throne. Second, it says here, we are born into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
There's a big difference when we talk about something as born, okay? If I walk back and grab one of you fathers and, and bring one of your sons here. It's going to be kind of funny because like your, your son is in your likeness and image. We often laugh about any of the Fontaine's that are born and out, because like I have, my dad had this weird thumb and big hands. And we look at this little baby and we see his little thumbs and his big hands and we kind of laughed because oh, there's the Fontaine hands. And why? Because, oh, look at that nose. Well, that's the Kessler hair. Look at you. Like, because what is in the parents goes into the born child. And that's why he does, he calls it born again. We are delivered from the dominion of darkness. We are born into the kingdom of God. Third, it says here. We have been redeemed. That means bought and paid for, debt settled, nothing left owing. He has nothing in you.
Well, Leon, I got a lot of wild oats. Call them dead because you're a new creation and the old you is dead. And this thing needs to get into our spirit. That we're delivered out of Satan's dominion, delivered out of Satan's family, delivered out of Satan's authority. We are born into the kingdom of God. And it says here that we've been redeemed. We've been recreated. He's delivered us and He's remitted. He literally means there is no history to go back to. Erased history. Well, you know, I was thinking back when, God goes, "Excuse me". Well, remember God when I was such a jerk and I did this God because you know what, I'm so good. I make myself forget. And I have remitted it. I have cleared it out. It is erased. Everything, but before that point. And when we begin to recognize this, we begin to realize that to be a follower of Jesus Christ is not to walk around in some kind of false humility. Okay?
Humility is to give God the credit for everything you do, for everything you are. That's it. That simply it. It's not a posture? No. If you walk upright, with your chest out, your stomach in, your shoulders back. That's not pride. Hello! And by the way, this is not humility either. You know, it's not the clothes you wear. It is giving God the credit for every gift that's in you, for who you are, and what you're doing, and where you're going. And I just refused to back down to all the religious people who don't like it when you're confident about God. God's going to do this. This is who I am in Christ. They want to kind of, and I believe it's demonic. I believe that religion has a way of stripping you of your beauty, your power, your confidence. The blessing of God upon your life. God wants to raise you up and do incredible things with you. If you just believe who you are. The Bible's so clear that He's purchased our freedom. That He's changed you and I.
James 5:16, I'm going to start in the second half of the verse. It says, "The earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available dynamic in its working". This issue of are you righteous, is one of the most argued points in Christianity today. A large contingency of Christianity wants to say that, "Well, you know, you're just a sinner". Well, that would mean by nature then the spirit of Satan still in you. How you're going to go to heaven? That's like trying to put an ice cube in a fire. It just can't exist. But verse after verse after verse after verse talks about being born again. It talks about the life of Christ. The Zoe life of God. Which is the spirit of God coming into your human spirit and making you a brand new creation. And then all you got to do start renewing your mind to who the new you is.
A number of years ago, 10 years ago the Chairman of the Board of Miracle Channel came to me and said, "Would you consider taking over Miracle Channel"? And I said, "No". And as we talked about it for a while, I wanted to make sure that if I'm being asked to come in and take on this huge challenge which was going bankrupt in three months. I didn't know at that time. That I wanted to know that I could, could do that. And it's interesting. When there's a new leader, owner, CEO, then that entire new spirit. That new culture has to begin to filter down through all of those teams and all of those staff. And if it doesn't, you fire them. We fired a lot of people. But we saved an incredible gift. The only Christian license like it today in the nation.
And now it's saturating the country probably 20 times greater than it was and in languages around the world. But it took a leader to come in and to make sure that people in every department, the new culture is, we will. The new culture is we're going to go think of new ways, creative ideas. We're going to manage better. We're going to lead better. We're going to get up. And wherever it wasn't, we had to clean it out and hire someone that could. And that's like you, when you your spirit man is alive and a new culture, this is Jesus the king of Kings comes into your human spirit and you become born again. There is a new nature on the inside of you. There is a new leader, a new spirit.
Now, you just got to renew your mind, make your body submit. It's not hard. Jesus said, "Yoke is easy, burdens light". He didn't say, "Oh, renewing your mind is going to be one hell of a big fight". No. He just said renew your mind. Then He says every day be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And Jesus said, "My yoke is easy. My burden is light". And I want to challenge you today. I don't know how you were raised. But I was raised in the denominations. I'm so thankful for my parents who didn't teach this way. But so many of the men that I listened to in the conferences, it was just, it was like they pummeled you into humility. But humility was weakness and confusion. And gosh, golly, gee. I just love you and love of the Lord. And I don't know what's going to happen. I don't want to ever be arrogant enough to declare what my future is going to be. Are you kidding me? No, I just going to humbly. Oh, quit! That's not even humility. You're proud of your humility. It's time to dare to pray, dare to use the name of Jesus, dare to take your place.
Be fearless like Jesus was walking on the storm, heading out to the demon possessed man, understand your wisdom. No, use His name, understand the ability that is in you. Satan fears you. You are a righteous person when you are born again. It's time to get up and just wash your mind with the water of the Word. Get some proper teaching about who you are in Christ. And go succeed in your career. Go succeed in relationships. Go succeed and the peace, the joy that is yours. You should literally radiate a confidence. Radiate it. I was in a restaurant one time. This huge bodybuilder walks up to me. And so I'm just seated at the table by myself having a cup of coffee and chilling. And he stops at my table. And, you know, after so many death threats and people who don't like TV people. I kind of go, "Ugh, now what"?
So I looked up. He looks at me and he goes like this with his arm. You know, he goes, "I'm tougher than you". I went, "Cool". Cool. I'm stronger than you. I'm going, "Did he just get out of the war or what is going on"? And so I just thought, "Just talk him down". I said, "Cool, man. Cool". And he says, "But I've been watching you come in here for coffee for a few weeks and you've got more power than me". So have a seat. And I talked to him about who, whose power that is, whose confidence that is, whose. And I said, "Would you like to receive this Jesus"? He said, "Yes". Gave his life to Christ, began to come to our church, began to recognize what he... This guy was so ripped. He was just a man trying to find, how can I be confident, how can I get up and exert, every, no man gets born. I want to be a man. I want to be a wimpy man. I want to be a man that is just no one notices. I want to be a man that everybody just ignores.
Yeah, I want to be that kind of humble nobody. No, no little boy is dreaming that. He is dreaming to get up and change the world. No little girl goes, "Yeah, I just want to be kind of puny and out of hand and limp hair and just none, you know". No! They're going to be the princess of the ball. They're the warrior princess that's going to go change something. And somewhere between there and adulthood church just stomps out the confidence, the vision, the passion, the joy. No wonder the old covenant which was a weaker covenant had better leaders than the new covenant. Where it's the world that is the ones who are... How many people do you see out that goes, "I'm a follower of Jesus Christ and I lead a country. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ and I give billions to the kingdom". No, well, you know.
What is wrong? What about men like David? What about women like Esther? These are old covenant people. And the new covenant is better promises, better covenant, if we could just start teaching it properly and say to people stop groveling in front of this world as though this big bad world. Jesus come rescue us. I thought we're supposed to go touch this world for Christ. Anyway, I hope I've upset you a little bit because I can get you to mobilize a little bit. You're special. You're wonderful. God made you. If I was going to put a tattoo on your body, I've put designed in heaven, made by God. Because He don't make junk and He doesn't design junk. And He made you. He made you to win, to last, to rise up.