Leon Fontaine - The Powerful Word
When you become born again, you have a new nature. Now, you've heard this said repeatedly over and over if you've been raised in church. But I'm going to ask you to stop, to kind of get rid of you, spiritual pride. I know I have to all the time. Before I really understand more on the Word, I say God, I just push aside my pride that I think I know this topic. And Holy Spirit teach me. And when I'm open like that, I find that I'll see. There was a time in my life years ago where I thought I had the Bible kind of figured out. And, you know, and church can do that to you as we just try to simplify it for people. But I've so enjoyed diving into the Word. For example, things like Jesus encouraged us to believe. But after the day of Pentecost, none of the Bible does that. Isn't that interesting? With all the teaching on faith, and I love teaching on faith, but it doesn't tell us to pursue or try to get more. In fact, Jesus would do that, but He was preaching to fallen people, and He was preaching to the Jewish nation who were under a covenant.
And so, they had something to believe. That covenant. The words from that covenant. They were covered with the bulls, the blood of bulls and goats so they could consider their sin covered and have faith for the promises of God. But after the day of Pentecost, when people had born-again spirits, we have them focusing on the Word. And it will just say the Word, the Word, the Word, the Word. And that's what I want to talk to you about today, because for some reason, things get religious when you omit the power, and that the Word is alive. And so, I want to take you on a little bit of a journey through that. So many people don't recognize that if you struggle to walk in the miraculous. If you struggle to see answers to your prayer as a believer. To live in the supernatural. A power of God. Often, and usually, and it's amazing to me over the years, I would say it's number one in my experience. It's because, people don't trust their own words first. They haven't been raised in a home where they've been taught your words are you. And if you say it, you do it. If you promise, you keep it. If you speak, that's you. You can't, you can't differentiate you from your words.
If you say I can't stand Leon and can't, you can't differentiate the people who just heard that. That's you. Who you now, not only are you, you know, seven foot two and you're this and you're that but, your words are you. And so as you get into the Word of God, you've got to understand that words have no value to people who've never been taught to keep them. To speak only words that lift up, to never speak words that condemn, that call down, or even give the enemy a prophetic utterance towards the negative. And so we've got to understand that when we speak, the more I dive into God's Word, the more excited I am, but the more I'm cautious with my mouth. Because I recognize that my mouth can release the power of God. My mouth can release a curse. Your mouth as a believer can, the Bible says, deceive your own heart.
So there's a lot of power. And so, when Jesus talks about His words, he talks about the words I speak unto you, He didn't say are informative and they'll deal with your reasoning mind. He didn't say that. That's interesting. He said, that the words that I speak to you are spirit. Okay, first of all, these, that means they derive their power and their ability from a different world. The spirit world. And then it says, and they have life. And that word "life" is the root word is Zoe. Z-O-E. Which is the life of the person who gives it. So that's God's life that comes through those words.
Now, in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, write it down and go study it later. But it says here, that wherefore I also give continual thanks to God. Because when you heard from me, the spoken Word of God, you received it. Not as the word of a man. But as it is in truth, the Word of God. Who Himself works effectually in you, that believe that. What's interesting in the King James, it says this way. The Word of God is working mightily in you. So, when you begin to deal with fear, emotions, trying to believe all this stuff that life has, and you're, and you don't feel confident. You don't feel like, you are dominating the circumstances of your life. The Word needs to go to work in you. Because it's the Word that works mightily. Effectually, in you. And so this is crucial. Hebrews 3:17 and on teaches us, that when people hear God's Word, it will not profit them unless they receive it and trust it. Another version says you mix faith with it.
And so, even as I'm speaking today, you've got a choice. Just sit here and look at me and analyze me and how I say it, and what you think about me, and you know, and all, then you are just stuck. You're locked into the five senses. But if you can back off from my mistakes, what I look like, et cetera, et cetera, and just say God, I'm allowing Your spirit to speak through that broken vessel. And as He speaks, Holy Spirit ignite these words to me. And Holy Spirit is the teacher. The Bible says we all have an anointing from the Holy One when you give your life to Christ. And, each of you are in a different place with different struggles, different victories, different issues.
And so Holy Spirit takes one message that I do, and He'll speak to you. People will tell me points I never made because they were tuned in to Holy Spirit. And as Holy Spirit took a verse that I was using in this teaching direction, it would go shoo! Into that teaching direction, and bring victory and health and vitality and life to them. And so the Word of God is very special. It's very precious. It is not just, marks on a paper that phonetically make sounds when you say them to bring new reasoning to your mind. That's what people think when they think about renewing the mind. No, the mind is renewed by a remarkable miraculous flow of Holy Spirit touching your life through the Word. And, when you see that, you begin to value the Word.
And so, we have such an advantage on this planet. That, if we've got to stop looking at the world as though they write the best songs, they do the best movies, they become the most prosperous, they run countries. But we poor little Christians are just dickey-dee-ing along trying to, you know, help out somewhere. It is such a destructive gospel when people teach that Holy Spirit is going to just work on you the rest of your life, and fix up all your mistakes. And so, we've got Christians who are just the sweetest, people, Jesus loves you. And they'll phone you up and say, you know, I looked at you wrong in church and I'm just broken by this. And I shouldn't have had that thought. And everything about them is to get them better. And they think Holy Spirit is always working on them for every thought, every issue, and they don't realize He's not. He's not. Holy Spirit very clearly convinces the world, the word 'convict' means to convince. Convinces the world they need Christ. That's the sin. They need Christ.
They don't ask anybody in the world to stop doing anything. It doesn't ask anybody in the world to stop doing or being anything. It doesn't do any of that, which is all the world teaches. It teaches to simply receive something, not do something. And what you receive is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Which gives you a new nature. You know, it's interesting watching animals, you know if you've watched the nature channel, you know, this animal is born they stand within half an hour. Because if they don't, they're prey to some lion or wolf. And so, how does this little calf, you know, just fall out, and then all of a sudden in its wobbly legs stand, and then before the day is done, it can run. It's just built-in, it's instincts built in to that animal. So each animal has a nature, it has its instinct. And then it just does naturally what it should do. You don't have to teach a cat to chase something. They say, never run away from a mountain lion. It just literally, triggers the chase response. And from many other animals.
So there's instincts. You know, that duck didn't sit down for a little, transformational message about flying south. Okay? He just can't help it. This instinct causes him to rise up and join other ducks and go south. Now, when you are born again, what's fantastic and beautiful is you have a nature change. And this nature change is in your spirit only. Your flesh, or your body has still been trained by the old nature. Your mind is trained by the old nature. Your imagination is trained by the old nature. And so, the Word of God, Holy Spirit will take it and renew your mind, your imagination. And something fantastic goes on on the inside of you as you begin to desire kingly things. You begin to desire godly things. And all the pleasures He made on this planet, He just tells you I can show you how to have these pleasures where they won't hurt you. Where they won't hurt your family.
You know, He's the one that designed sex. He's the one that designed money, prosperity, great food. Fun. You know, taking risks and getting out there and getting your heart pumping, enjoying life. He created all of that, Satan perverts it. Satan doesn't have any creativity, he's a pervert. He just perverts. And so don't ever give him glory as though he has power. As though he has, he doesn't. And even the things that go on today in your world. The battle today is not between you as a born-again believer, and the devil. The battle that we see in Galatians 5 is between your recreated spirit and your flesh. And so, once you understand that, you can go well that's easy, all you do is spend a little time in the Word, and the Word begins to work mightily in you, and God's Word begins to renew your mind, re-establish your creativity, your imagination. It begins to give you brand-new desires, old desires just start dropping off. And new ones start rising on. And, but.
If you really want to destroy Christians, what you do, if you're a pastor, is you preach sin at them. And the more you preach sin at them, the more they become sin-conscious, where you can't get God's Word to work from a sin consciousness. You can only get God's Word to work from a Christ consciousness. And so the more you look at your own sin, the more you disqualify yourself from God's healing power, Him restoring your marriage, bringing you peace. And so we're not to look at our own ability. We're to look to Jesus as the author and the finisher and everything in-between of our faith. He qualifies you. And so, it's just, it's crazy to me how as I look at the denominations and, I keep saying this because you need to know that I get into a lot of denominations. Meeting with a lot of leaders. And you can just, see. I'm just stunned at how there are still some out there who will teach the gospel, good news. But others are trying to hard to clean up their congregations and it's not their job. I wasn't called to clean fish, I was just called to catch them.
Jesus said follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. He didn't say cleaners of fish. Or cleaners of men. That's the Word of God's job, and the Holy Spirit. The church's job is to make you feel like a part of the family of God, and encourage you in this new nature. And when you fall down, we just pick you back up because falling doesn't change your nature. Sinning doesn't change your nature. Those words that I just said, freak out pastors. Because they say if you say that, everyone's going to start sinning. Hey listen. They don't seem to need my help, okay? So let me give them good news. That we first must understand our nature, before we have any victory on our habits and our works. And so that's rarely taught. And so for you, I want to encourage you today that God's Word is working mightily in you if you're working the Word. Okay? That's the part that you need to do, is dive into God's Word.
In Acts 19:20, it says, talking about the city of Ephesus. It says, so in a powerful way, the Word of the Lord kept spreading and growing and it prevailed, it was unstoppable. Why is that? They were preaching the Gospel. Okay? A lot of the religions of the world already know about living a, a disciplined lifestyle. It's all about discipline in most cases. But here, the gospel of Jesus was that Jesus did it for you, just receive Him. And as you believed on Jesus, and people say well I don't, I don't know how to believe. You don't have to know how to believe. Well I don't have any faith. You don't have to have any faith. The Bible teaches us, that as the Word of God is taught to you, faith comes to you through the Word. And that's why as you share with your family, your kids, those around you about this beautiful Jesus and what He's done for us, the faith to receive Him is there.
Now they just have to make a decision. And so, the Gospel, you know, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It's the power of God and the salvation to everyone who believes. That the version in the Greek in Romans 1:16. So this Word of God not only changes inside of you, it has this incredible ability to get on your husband, your kids, your neighbour. The people that you, that you work beside and you run into who ask questions. Holy Spirit guides you in sharing the Gospel. So that they want it. Because every one of them has deep inside of them, they're connected to the dark kingdom. Kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of light. And there's no root change, except through Jesus Christ. The Bible does not bring a change to an unsaved person until they make a decision. And my challenge to you today is don't stop listening to the Word, taking notes, go home and, one of the easiest way to do devotions, and devotions is devoting some time to spend with God.
Is take this Sunday message, then listen to it each day, get your notepad out, and then ask yourself each day, what are the things I feel God saying to me? Something will change in you, like you never believe possible because all of a sudden He'll put a finger on something you haven't thought about, or He'll bring up something that, in your past and you go, I'm just going to let that go. Because this is who I am. And the Word of God continually shows you who you are as a new creation, which allows you to just drop off the others. It's not a profound look at your sin that's going to set you free from sin. We had a, when I was going emergency driving as a paramedic, we were trained that you hit what you look at. And they said you notice that although there's a lot of space between power poles on country roads, that most people who hit the ditch hit a pole. And it's because they're always looking at one. And you hit what you look at. And they taught us how to come into an intersection at a higher speed, and never look at the car. You just see it with your peripheral vision, and you look for the open lane because your body naturally will help you guide the vehicle. And as much is true about life like that.
What do you look at? What do you think about? And if the enemy can get you to feel condemned or con-damned, then you will be continually thinking about how many issues, problems, and sins you have. And I'm going to just tell you. It's nice to decide I want to change them. But then you can't change them by looking at them. You change them by looking at Jesus. Because, have you ever heard some of these beautiful old hymns, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim and the light of His glory and His grace. It's talking about the things that seem to defeat you. And, so the Word of God is Jesus. In John 1:1 it says in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Wrap your brain around that. I can't, so I just read it and say that when I study the Word, Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to me.
When I read the Old Testament, because a lot of it doesn't apply to my actions today. But it shows me the historical value of the old covenant when I take it through the cross. And so, I really want to challenge you to value the Word. Even if you are brand new here and you don't understand it, just listen to it. And as you listen to it during the week, Holy Spirit will show you something and connect it to a truth you heard. He'll begin to, something will change on the inside, because when you give your life to Jesus Christ, you don't have a baby spirit. You have a complete God on the inside of you. You have all of Jesus on the inside of you. And that nature is trying to get out of you.
And I'll close with this thought. Because you have the wisdom of God, you have a peace that comes from Jesus so no one but born-again believers even have it. You have a joy that comes from Jesus so people without a born-again spirit can't even have it. You have literally as you go through many of these, you have a love. This love is agape love. And it gives you an ability to love people. And I don't mean in a wimpy way. You can tell when a man has a love, he values people. There's just something about men that, they see value. They see strength. They follow a man that has value and loves them, that it's not done like their wife loves them. And so we need to recognize that love isn't an emotion, it affects emotions. Love is valuing that person with the love of God. And you can love to such a degree that even the apostle Paul says, he wished he could just suffer with Jesus and die with him for people because he loved people so much.
Now, he couldn't. That's why people get confused with that scripture, he couldn't. Because Jesus had already done it. But it shows you the love that Paul had that drove him from city to city, whipped and beaten. Every time he was beaten with rods, they flipped him upside down, put his feet up, and they broke the bones in his feet by beating the bottoms of his feet. And he'd be healed, and he'd keep going. They killed him, they raised him back from the dead and he kept going to cities. What drives a person? The love of God. Not a natural love. Now listen again. People without a born-again spirit, of course they can love. I'm not saying they're evil, I'm not saying they're bad. They have a form of peace, a form of love, a form of joy. But not as the world gives.
So you need to get excited, and as you dive into God's Word, probably a better picture for me is this great big tap is your heart. And as you learn the Word, the tap begins to open. And out of your recreated spirit flows the nature of God. And the more Word that you learn that's working on the inside of you, the more that, that powerful force opens up and begins to radiate out of your spirit, until you're growing the fruits of the spirit, patience and self-control, kindness, and love, and joy. You become just the most irresistible force. There's a love, a joy, a peace that radiates in us that can grow and grow. Until like Peter, you walk by somebody and the peace just touches them and can heal their body. You know, just being in a room with you, they begin to just feel good. People would come over to visit Sally when I was out working, and women with their kids and they didn't just want to leave. They'd tell her because there's so much peace in this house. There's just a joy here. And when they left they had to go back to their house.
Recognize that this flows from you as the Word of God begins to renew your mind, give you new pictures in your imagination. It begins to touch your body, and cells rejuvenate. You know, the zoe life of God, it literally means that it rejuvenates your cells with spiritual force. It's just there's so many things here that I pray you'll start treasure the Word, read the Word, if you're new and you don't understand something then listen to preaching. Because the five-fold ministry gifts are here to teach you the Word. And it's not just an ability with words, it's an anointing from God that is upon five-fold ministry gifts. That it's the spirit of God flowing off of them that reveals. It's a revelation as Ephesians 1:17 tell us.
Father, I just pray right now. That You'd touch each person that's here. Let them just be in awe of how good You are. And now if they've given their lives to You, that Father there's the most exciting living ahead of them. Not religious living, not phony humility living. But a living filled with confidence and life and peace and joy, and laughter, and all that You've provided for us, flowing from our recreated spirit. Touch them I pray.
If you're watching right now today or you're here. And you're not sure that Jesus Christ is your Saviour and your Lord. Well, if you're not sure, then He's not. Because only you can make this decision. Only you. And as you make this decision, He is, you know, as you're listening to the Word, faith rises. And you can just say yes, I want to accept Jesus. Now if that's what you'd like to do today, I'm going to lead you in a prayer. I'm going to ask everybody here just to pray it with me, and everybody around the planet listening to this. Let's help those who've yet have not had this born-again experience with a new nature. Ask God for it, it goes like this. Just say:
Dear God, thank You for sending Jesus. He died in my place, suffered in my place, and rose again victorious. Over all my sin and my problems. So Jesus, come into my life. Come into my heart. I'm following You from today and on. In Jesus' name, amen.