Leon Fontaine - Pray for Your Nation
I want to teach you how to pray. I want to teach you how to pray for your nation. I want to teach you how to pray for your nation against an enemy. And so many Christians don't know. Over the years, I've listened to the most ridiculous intercessory prayer teaching, read books that I've bought that kind of look good and just threw in the garbage. Because prayer is ineffective when it is you working to defeat the devil. When it is you and the works of the flesh that have to finish something. When you've got to make, you know, figure out what evil spirits are on which side of the city, and which side of the river and divided up. And all the teaching how to get into the throne room. It's just crazy because people don't see results.
And so we need to learn how to pray. And that's what I want to talk about and we're going to go right from the foundation and move on from there. The greatest battle that any child of God is ever going to face is the battle of faith. That battle does not take place out on the grounds, or on the city, or in the nation. That battle takes place in your heart. It is the only fight that I can find in the new covenant. The fight of faith. We often wonder why it's hard to believe God. And the reason is that we're surrounded by an antagonistic atmosphere that's presided over by enemies. Especially we recognize that our foe is not people. We don't fight people. I mean, sometimes you might have to if someone's attacking your house or coming against you. But it's always what is behind everything.
Jesus said, "The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I am come, that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly". So if that Old Testament verse that says, "Let God arise, his enemies be scattered". It doesn't say you go deal with the enemies one by one, name them all, figure out where they are, and what they've done, and screech at them, bind them. All this stuff. It says, "Let God arise, his enemies will be scattered". We don't need unique weird forms of prayer that aren't even biblical. They weren't even practiced by the disciples in the books of Acts, or on any city, or area that they went out for God. So this fight is for you to stay in faith. This fight is the fact that we live in an unreal world. We are surrounded by these currents of unbelief.
So subtle that most people don't even realize it. That it just rises up and continually makes you give in to your five senses. And whatever they're gathering, this is the way it is. And people actually don't know what faith is, what God's Word is. And so they rely upon some kind of emotional thing, or something that just kind of helps them to, "Say something quick and we're just get out of this. We're going to just trust everything's going to be okay". In 1 Timothy 6:12, it says, "Fight, the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life". This word eternal life always has two words. Eternal is how long it is, but life, Zoe life is the very life of God. And it says, "So fight the good fight of faith, lay hold of this life to which you were summoned and for which you confessed the good confession of faith".
So, I want you to remember this because everybody wants some cute prayer to pray over your nation once a day and go home. But that's like incantations. And that's not a part of the new covenant. It's not if you find the right verse say it in Elizabethan English, say it from old King James. And if you say that once a day, you've said it. You've prayed. That's all you've got to do, as though we are praying to a God, a reluctant God trying to get Him to pray. But that is not new covenant prayer. And unless you listen and learn, you will be at the, the whims of an enemy. Because we must know truth. It is truth that will set you free. We must know how to pray. When you know how to pray, you absolutely can get things done. Jesus is actually saying, "If you don't pray in My name, you don't give Me an opportunity to release my power".
This new covenant is not between you and God. This new covenant is between Jesus, a human and God. And He sits at the right hand of God in a human body as all God, Jesus Christ. And He represents the human race in His intercessory role, in His lawyer role. So that the second I pray, and I used this incredible phenomenal mighty name of Jesus. That it's going to work and all the power of Jesus that is invested in Him works when I use the name because He's within me. And I have the power of attorney over the name of Jesus which gives me the rights and the access to all of His authority, all of His power, and whatever is at the disposal of God. So if one or two people in the Old Testament can change a nation. What's going on? We better start learning how to pray.
The book of Hebrews is showing us this new covenant. This new agreement that we have and that the old one is done. And in this new agreement, Jesus, listen close for this. He's the high priest of our confession. He's not the high priest of how you feel. He's not the high priest of your faith. He's not the high priest of your family. He's not the high priest of your country. He's not the high priest of your business. He's the high priest of your confession. This is an incredible truth to the born again believer because prayer is confession. Prayer is speaking the Word over things. Prayer is declaring what God has said, what Jesus has done. So Jesus not only is the, is the Son of God and His name is incredible. He's the high priest of our confession. And it says in here, "Hold your confession fast. Don't let your confession go". And that's where we've often got people talking, and they use confession sometimes just so casually.
But as you begin to grow in the things of God, you will watch what you say. That Jesus Christ is the high priest of my confession. He's the high priest of the words coming out of my mouth. He makes sure that when these words are the promises of God, that when these words or something, He's already bought and paid for. That as I'm praying, He just, He is the one who is standing in that courtroom of heaven, the throne room of God. And He is standing there not praying for me. That's where a lot will make a mistake. No. He's standing there, so the second you pray in the name of Jesus. He's there as the one that is saying, "I paid the price for it. He's allowed to pray for that, and he's allowed to get that". And so you'll find all through these verses in Hebrews. He's the high priest of our confession. We've got to get this straight about prayer.
Stop worrying about what everyone else is saying and doing. But we need men and women who know how to pray from the heart, who know understand that the legal side of prayer. We think prayer is an emotional thing. If I cry, God really listens. Prayer is not an emotional thing. You can cry before the judge all you want and say, "It's my house. It's my car. He stole this". And judge, "Just show me the paperwork. Show me where you sign. Did you go through this? Did you, did you, you know, get it with the Land Registry? And if it's not a legal issue, you can cry all you want. I appreciate you. I love you. But guess what? You lose that car. It's not yours. Why? Because you didn't. It's just legal". Prayer is not an issue of you trying to, "Get your faith going. Get your faith going".
Prayer is a legal issue. Which is why you need to learn the legal side of this new covenant. So when you speak up and use the name of Jesus. You know in the throne room of God, in the courts of heaven, where Jesus stands as your intercessor. Which is your lawyer. That God is so excited because the enemy can no longer stop him. He can't get in his face like he did with Job because Jesus has done it all. He has paid the price. And this covenant is between Jesus in a human body at the right hand of the Father now.
You see, religion says, "You've been forgiven. But you still need to work at changing so you can please God and make God happy". And you just get into the works of flesh. That's not even true Christianity. True Christianity is that Jesus has paid it all, done it all, qualified you. You don't have to qualify yourself. He's defeated the enemy. You don't have to defeat the enemy. Now, what you do will send him running as you let God arise on the inside of you as you declare and as you learn to pray. He's kind of an afterthought. Now, I have no problem when I see him. Just speaking to it, commanding it to go. The disciples and Jesus did that. But prayer has not been taught properly to so many people. And it just becomes an emotional thing when it needs to be a legal issue. It is a spiritual legal issue. Jesus is the high priest of our confession.
To really give you a great foundation of prayer, you need to understand that in the new covenant, it is finished. Where have you heard that word before? It is finished. In the new covenant 2 Peter 1, teaches us that he's already given us all things. He's talking about in the spirit realm. He's talking about through any demonic force. He's talking about God's okayed it. He's been pleased. He paid the price. The cross to the throne. His death, His burial, His resurrection. Which you hear a lot around here has created something so stunning. That prayer is not a begging of God. Prayer is an accessing of the very power because we don't have it. Jesus has it but He's in us and we are in Him. You know, when you watch lightning, you cannot guess which tree it's going to hit. Wham! And this tree explodes, or, you know, this power poll explodes, or I was on a plane one time when it just hit the tarmac. When does it ever hit a tarmac?
And, you know, you think it would hit... you don't know where it's going to go, and it seems so happenstance. But the lightnings of God. The Bible says in Revelations 8:3 and on, it talks this way, and it gives you a picture in that language that revelation uses, apocalyptic language. And it talks about heaven and it gives us this incredible look at it. It says the angels before the throne are holding a bowl, and this bowl is the prayers of the saints. And that from fire from the altar is mixed with it. And then it comes to the planet like lightning. Where is it heading? And now what are you praying over? So Leon, what does that mean?
Listen this, many times He is using picturesque language to show us something. I don't know if there really is an angel in heaven mixing something in a bowl, or if God is trying to show us through teaching. That when you pray, the authority of being in a human body on this planet and asking God to intervene, mixes with the very power of God and the authority of your prayer in your life, because Jesus said, "You have not because you ask not". And this working together that Holy Spirit is doing with us. Just bam! Something begins to happen. When we understand that prayer is crucial. We can strategize, train people, move forward in certain directions, have strategies, get our teams together, find out what your gifts are, put you in the right place. All of this is important in a church. It's important in your company. It's important to the nation, in a town, in a city.
There's a verse that says there's something devilish. It says, "Fools are put in places and positions of power and the wise are placed under them". This is what, it's a foolish stupid thing. We need the wise who are the gifted in those areas in the right seats. We should be praying for that and declare. That the wise people sit in these places and are able to help us. So there's an earthly realm that we prepare for, but then there is a spirit realm. And when we pray in the name of Jesus, this name is the same as Jesus doing it. Jesus praying it. And that name Jesus thwarts all dark side influence. And this is where what's behind what's going on, what's behind the attack on you, what's the behind the attack on your company, what's behind the attack on your nation, what's behind the attack on our health care, what's behind the attack on what's going on. It's always the demonic.
Well, Leon, you can't keep talking about demons. Well, how's that working for you? I'm not even binded but I'm very aware of the spirit world. And Jesus laid it out so clear. You can't miss it. He said, "The thief comes to always kill, steal, destroy". If anything is killing, the enemies behind it. If anything is stealing, the enemies behind it. If anything is destroying, the enemies behind it. I don't care who he uses, how he uses it. Whether he's going to use viruses or leaders or attacks or war or missile. It doesn't matter how, the enemy is always behind killing, stealing, and destroying. Jesus is always behind giving life and more abundantly.
So what do we want? We want what Jesus is giving. We want more life in our homes, more life in our country, more life in our towns, more life in our finances. We want His blessing and His favour on all that we do. So this prayer is crucial. To be able to pray and know your authority. That is when the name of Jesus begins to work in the most stunning way. Now, the name of Jesus is ours to use as born again believers, because we have the power of attorney. When lawyers read through the cross and the epistles, and they see what has been laid out in teaching. Lawyer after lawyer has said, "That's exactly what the power of attorney is".
The ability to stand using someone else's name and have access to all their bank accounts, all their houses. All their authority is now handed. And it is, I've been, people have often within my family and those give me the power of attorney to run of theirs because they had to leave for a country that wasn't safe or in the waning years of their life. Would you please help me to run these things. And there's nothing that is withheld from me with the power of attorney to look after that person with those, with those rights. You have been given the power of attorney over all that Jesus has, and so we need to understand that. You know, the first written down miracle of the apostles after the day of Pentecost was Acts chapter 3, when Peter and John are walking by a man at the gate beautiful. And it says he was taken and placed there daily. That means he watched the disciples preached. It means he had met Jesus because He was, He was a man already.
And Jesus was walking to the temple every day and walked right past him. The man at the gate beautiful was there every day. They carried and dropped him down at Solomon's porch or Solomon's portico. Where the disciples walked back and forth every day. Where Jesus walked back and forth regularly. And all of a sudden, Peter and John walked by and he cries out alms for the poor. They fasten their eyes on him. Holy Spirit led them and Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee". And this man's got his hand up because he's expecting to receive something from him. And it says Peter grabbed his right hand and pulled him to his feet. And this miracle went popped, crackled, snapped, just like rice Krispies. And his ankles and his feet all moved into place by the very power of God. And from that point and on, you will see what Jesus taught in John 16 about His name was used by the disciples.
They had an understanding that grew. And this understanding grew in the name of Jesus. They recognize that when you use the name, that it's like Jesus Himself doing it. And so to not pray is arrogant. To not pray is arrogant. It's pride. You're going to do it your way. You're going to figure it out. You're going to raise that kid without God. You're going to make your career work without God. You're going to stay healthy without God. You're going to do, you know, keep a nation strong without God. Because with God requires prayer. So prayerlessness is a crucial, brutal oversight. In Jeremiah 17:5-13, listen to this from this perspective because it nails it.
It says, "Thus says the Lord: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He's like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He's going to dwell in the parched places in the wilderness in an uninhabited salted soil. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord. He is like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green. It's not anxious in the year of drought for it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his own ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. Like a partridge that gathers a brood and she did, that she did not hatch. So was he who gets rich but not by justice. In the midst of his days, they will leave him. And at his end, he will be a fool. A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O Lord, the hope of Israel. All who forsake You shall be put to shame, but those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water".
This poetic chapter is showing you and I, that when you just think, "Well, if we get the right guy in power politically, just that will work". Make sure you do that and check out track records. Make sure you're involved in the process. Make sure that we, that you vote. Make sure that you rise up and get involved. Because prayer without works is dead anyway. But now as we work on the natural side, who is speaking to what's going on behind the scenes is the prayers of the saints. And if you do, it says your life gets watered. And it doesn't matter what kind of storm, what kind of drug, what goes on. The access of the roots, it says, goes down deep, and it continues to pull up. But a person who stops praying, that means you're putting your faith in your ability, government's ability, doctor's ability.
We all want great people in all these positions. But we're to put our faith first of all in Him. And we are to pray that way. We're to declare the Word that way. And when we do, we have both the lightnings of heaven and the management and the administration of the earth. There are systems and structures that we're working on, yes. But first of all, our trust is not in our efforts. Our trust is in the presence of God that is anointing our efforts. You can create a tree with a great roots structure, a great branch structure, with great leaves structure. But if there is no moisture coming to those roots, that tree will die. What is the roots of our faith? The roots of our faith has to be rooted in the finished work of Jesus, not just in a promise.
So many people who've been taught faith. Just find a promise confess it, confess it till you believe it. No, no. That's a part of the process. The very root of the process. The deep roots of faith are always in the nature of God and in the finished work of Jesus. And until people dive a little deeper than their shallow claim of promise. They will be easily shaken. And when you depend upon someone else's prayer, and when you depend upon someone else believing for you. It may get the miracle. But if you don't establish yourself in the very roots of faith, you're just going to be shaken anyway. And your life won't continue to get better and you could even lose what someone else has prayed with you and agreed with you for. So it's crucial that you stop saying, "I don't quite understand the Bible. You know, I just trust in God's going to see me through". No, you're not. In many cases it's just a lazy way of not finding out what did Jesus do. So you can get up and be assured that the generations ahead of us have a country, have churches, have something there to continue to stand and to grow.
When you pray, remember this. That prayer is declaring what is already done. So you're putting it into effect on the planet. I declare every leader is, is got wisdom. I declare you've given the right people talking into their ear. I declare in the name of Jesus that my country is a country of freedom, of justice. Just declare. Why? Because He's already defeated the enemy. And as God arises through the prayers of His saints, declaring what they want. He gets to flow through and mix His lightnings with our prayers and cause these things to begin to happen.
And so we must be persistent. We can't just stop because we had a failure over here. You know, look at the Old Testament. You know, as because the Old Testament is a great look at people who, anytime they lost something and they kept serving God. They always had it returned to them seven times, a hundred times. They always ended up better, further, bigger, and happier than they'd ever been before. If something got stolen, or taken, or even if they fail, or went down. When they rose up, God is so faithful. God has never seen the righteous forsaken, or their seed begging bread. He makes the enemy returns seven-fold what he steals from you. Like, get to learn the Word because your prayer becomes stunning. And then you're like a tree planted by the rivers of living water. That you bear fruit in every season. It doesn't matter what goes on around you. A thousand will fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand. But you, you look on with your eyes and you walk in the favour and the blessing of God. Amen!