Leon Fontaine - As He Is, So Are We
There's a crazy story in the Bible I want to read you. There's lots of crazy ones. By that, I mean stuff that just blows your mind. Just, kssh. Because this is not a fiction book. You know, when I was in school, they actually had a Bible course, but they taught it under "myths". Greek mythology, and then other myths, and then the Bible was taught there in that class. And I had to laugh because, the world doesn't get it. But listen to this really interesting scripture. A lot of times when I teach from it, people go, I never heard that in the Bible before. Listen to this. After saying these things, Jesus crossed the Kidron ravine with His disciples, and He entered a grove of olive trees. Judas the betrayer knew this place, for Jesus had gone there many times with His disciples. The chief priests and the Pharisees had given Judas a squad of soldiers, and of police, both to accompany him.
Now with blazing torches, lanterns, and weapons, they arrived at the olive grove. Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to Him. Stepping forward to meet them, He asked, who are you looking for? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. And Jesus said, "I am He". As He said this, they all fell backwards to the ground. Let's just stop right there. Here is soldiers, I mean, the modern police, there were others there, they had all sorts of clubs and swords, I mean. They're here, man. There is a show of force. And one guy says, "I am He". And those words carried so much power, that the soldiers hit the dirt. The police officers hit the dirt. Anyone that was in that rabble of people, wham! And they just hit the ground. The story goes on where all of a sudden, Peter pulls out a sword, cuts off one guy's ear, we know that Jesus literally reattached it, touched him, this is in front of all these people. And he says, Peter, he says, if I wanted to, I could call twelve armies of angels. Hello. He wasn't concerned.
Today I want to talk to you about your words. You see, the only way to express authority on this planet, is through words. Every word that you speak, the Bible says angels are listening. We know that demons are listening. Someone said well I don't have to say anything, I just believe in my heart. The devil can't read your heart, and he can't read your thoughts. So for you to say nothing, means nothing is being spoken, no authority is being used. And if Jesus spoke with such authority, did you know that according to the Bible in 1 John 4:17, that it says as Jesus is, so are we in this world. As He is, so are we in this world. I want you to understand today that as a born-again believer, as someone who is alive with the presence of God, that every word that you speak, does something. It does. And it does more than communicate.
In Mark 11:24, it says, this is Jesus talking. Therefore, I say to you. Whatever things you ask, or declare, that word means both. When you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. You are to believe that it's already yours. Now today, I haven't got time to get into it, but I'll tell you this. That, it is always covenant believers that walked in the miraculous power of God. In the Old Testament, they had a faith in God, but their faith in God was because of the covenant they knew they had with God. And that covenant gave them this background. Gave them this confidence. And today in the New Covenant, we have a confidence in what this New Covenant is.
Now, most of Christendom, don't even know what the New Covenant is. It's startling as I travel the world, and teach and train, how many that they don't understand that, even faith as used in the Old Testament is different than faith that is used in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the transitional gospels, which is different than faith that is used in the Pauline epistles. Even the apostles, when you see their confession of faith in the book of Acts, did not yet have a revelation on substitution, redemption, sanctification, their belief was that He was the Messiah. He was the Son of God. That He was here as the Son of God. You can read the entire book of Acts, and look for anything that says more. But until the apostle Paul came, and begin to reveal to them what took place in the spirit realm where nobody could see it, then he met with the disciples in Jerusalem, and they were in awe with what God had communicated. And then he went through the Old Testament, and he pulled verse after verse after verse. Of prophetic words that were declaring what Jesus could do when nobody could see. He died. But he was gone for days, and no one knew where He went, or what He did. We call that the cross to the throne period.
Now, because Jesus speaks, and His words carry authority and power. When I first saw this as a teenager, it stunned me, because I had developed this thinking that you live your life, and you hope and pray that things go well. But when I begin to recognize for myself, that I had authority over my future, authority over my body, authority over my mind, authority over my course, my decisions, the things that were going to go on in my life. It blew my mind. It was just like, oh my. I can do something, I could. And that just made me dive into the Word, and I mean my mom and dad taught me the Word. They were both Bible teachers. My dad was a preacher, my mom was a teacher, preachers proclaim it, teachers explain it, I haven't got a clue what I am. But somewhere in there, because the Word of God fascinated me. And I begin to look as a paramedic, I begin to look at these verses. And I begin to discover that I had missed it so bad.
I thought words were for communication. And I found out that words were for the release of power. That Jesus didn't snap His fingers and knock the soldiers over, He spoke. You know, when He was talking to Satan, Satan was going to tempt Jesus, and Jesus knew this was coming. And so he takes Him to three different spots, and mmm, you know do this. And, everyone thinks Satan is big and powerful, he's just a defeated, little, fallen angel. And so, Jesus, people think well why didn't Jesus just snap his fingers and boom, just blow him backwards 80 feet like in the movies? But He didn't. Why didn't He just wave His hand like choo. And just knock him on his face, that would have been fun, doing a snow plough in the dirt with his nose for about a hundred feet. No. He didn't do any of those things. He released His power by speaking. This seems to be the hardest thing for Christians to get.
And maybe you've been raised in a place that believes differently. I have found this, and I teach our church this all the time. For every mile of truth in the Bible, you're going to have two miles of ditch. For every mile of road. In other words, for every truth in the Word of God, the enemy loves to get people in the ditch on this side that are just crazy, and faith is everything, and they don't even understand the doctrine of it. Then you've got people on the other side, there are no miracles anymore. You know, it's just a spiritual rebirth, and you're going to have to live like hell from pillar to post, sick disease, poor with a little old cabin and no running water, but one day in the sweet by-and-by when you get to heaven, you'll have your mansion. Like, crazy stuff the Bible doesn't say.
Today I want you to know, that words are how Jesus released His power. He said, I am He. Pew! Whole troop goes down. But, that shouldn't surprise people because, He spoke to a tree and said no one's going to eat from you anymore. He didn't scream at it, curse at it, kick it. Just spoke to it. These words carried such power, that this thing began to die from the roots up. He's the guy who spoke to the winds and the waves and they obeyed Him. He's the one that they said just speak the Word. And he just spoke the Word. The Bible has an Old Testament verse that says, He sent His Word, and healed them. Other verses say not one word will come back void. The Bible says God watches over His Word to perform it. Jesus, when dealing with the devil, spoke God's Word. He said, it is written. He didn't have some kind of motion, He released words.
And I want to tell you today, that you are, your life and your access to the power and the promises of God, will never go further than your confessions. They'll never go further than your words. It says here, in John 15:7-8, if you abide in me and My words abide in you, now here's what the church thinks. If my word abides in you and you abide in me, you can chill out and relax, God's got the whole world in His hands, and everything's going to be okay. That's not what it says, folks. And I don't know how we can miss it so bad. You know, people love to think He's got the whole world in His hands. Hmm. What happened in Syria, where they beheaded their kids by the hundreds? What happened in Russia as they locked them up? Take a look at history and look at the stuff that went on, and why weren't they just dancing around saying He's got the whole world in His hands. He's got the itty bitty babies, in His hands. That's not in the Bible. That's a song.
Now let's read this again. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you. You will ask whatever you will, and it will be done. That's what makes the difference. The spoken word. When you read the New Testament, there are more but there's three main words in the Greek for the word "word". One is the word 'graphe'. Now 'graphe' is where we get our English word graph, and it's the written word. It's the marks on the page. It's the nouns, the verbs, the whatever. Now, there's another word that is 'logos', and that literally means the revelation, the wow, blow your mind, the whole meaning. That's why Jesus is the logos. Now, then there's a third word, and that word is rhema. Rhema is a word that isn't just written on the page, it's not just understood in the heart, it is spoken.
And Ephesians 6 says, that the sword of the spirit is the Word of God. But spoken. We must learn to speak the Word of God. God spoke His power. He didn't snap His fingers and put in the Milky Way. He didn't wave His hands and put in a few galaxies. He spoke His words, and if God spoke and released power, Jesus spoke and released power. Old Testament says we're made in His likeness and image. New Testament says as Jesus is, so are we in this world. We missed it so bad, that Christians become Christians to make heaven but feel like they're going to live like hell on the planet, meaning poor, depressed, unhappy, sick, diseased, downtrodden. We're going to be the lowest of the snakes belly on the planet, and yet not one promise in the Bible says that. 1 Timothy says in 6:12 it says, fight the good fight of faith. Well what in the world does that mean? It means get up and fight the devil, no, devil's defeated. It means get up and fight people, why? Nobody can stop you. The fight of faith, is to stay in faith.
One of the analogies I use is the wagon train years ago. As settlers were coming into the country, as soon as hostiles would attack, they would put the wagon into a circle formation and from the circle formation, they were formidable. They were all hiding behind solid wood wagons, and they could just fire and defend themselves. The problem was, that you didn't go anywhere in that defensive position. So until finally they said westward ho, and the front wagon once more began to lead, and all the wagons followed them, they were finally going someplace. And you and I need to understand, that the fight of faith, is to make sure your life is going somewhere. Talk to so many Christians, well, you know, I tried the faith stuff. That's like talking to the guy that goes, you know I tried the marriage thing. You go yeah, just because you tried it don't mean much to me because mine's doing pretty good, I'm pretty happy with it. I tried that. No you didn't. You got some kind of half-baked doctrine somewhere that someone didn't teach or you didn't understand, and we need to get back into the Word of God.
Now, the Bible says in Hebrews 10:23, let us hold fast the confession of our faith. It doesn't say let us hold fast the belief of our faith. Let us hold fast the confession of our faith. Whatever you believe, you must be confessing. What? Why? Because the words of your mouth according to James 1, deceive your own heart, or the words of your mouth according to Mark 4 in Jesus plant harvests in your heart of healing and prosperity and blessing. And God's Word gets planted in there. The spoken word is so incredible, this rhema, this spoken word of God is something every believer must do. People often say well Leon, I don't even know how to pray. How do you pray? I say well, I chat with God and visit with Him about things, ask Him about stuff, and worship Him, and then I pretty much declare His word over things. What do you mean? Well, I just declare that this, declare health for my family.
Every time I pick up one of my grandkids, kids will see me talking or whispering to him or her, and I'm just speaking the Word over them, you're going to be a mighty man of God. You're going to be an incredible warrior prince, you're going to walk in health and blessing. You're going to rise up and you're going to be the leader. And I just begin to declare the promises of God, why? Because the prayers that my dad prayed over me, sixty years ago, when I was just a twinkle in his eye, are still in effect today. Do you really think something powerful as speaking the Word of God is time sensitive? That it just disappears in the next three seconds, and that's it? No. Everything he has ever prayed over me, is still at work, and the words and the promises that he spoke are still at work. And so I have spent my lifetime speaking the Word of God and so has Sally. Speaking the Word of God over our children. Speaking the Word of God over this church.
When no one could believe we would go anywhere, I said no we're buying the whole 53 acres, not the 5 acres the board was against me about. And I said no, I want the 53. We're not going to buy the 53, we're going to buy 5. Fine, find another pastor because I need a board that's going to understand how to believe God for big things. They changed pretty quick. And today, all of these men are in the church. On the board, or hired, or somewhere. Because we all grew in the things of God. And those 53 acres didn't touch what God was going to do, because we had to go for another 53 and then another city and then a television station. So whatever else we were believing God for. I spoke those things, we prayed those things, we declared. This is what God is going to do. Long before we ever saw it. And this is the thing that people need to understand. The Bible says whosoever shall say to this mountain, be thou removed and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but believe that whatsoever he sayeth shall come to pass. He's going to have what he says. Now this freaks people out. Because some people grab this and go stupid with it. No, it's saying very clearly that your words have power.
Hebrews 10:23, hold fast your confession. People talk to me all the time, Leon, nothing's happening in my life, nothing's happening in my business, nothing's happening in my body. Nothing's happening in my marriage, nothing's happening in my life, wah! What's all this? I said um, do you speak the Word? What? Do you speak the Word? Well, I don't know. Well, do you think the enemy Satan might come against you? Well if Jesus needed to speak the Word when Satan came against him, do you think maybe you should speak the Word? Well I never thought about that. If the Bible says you prophesied to the wind, if God said to the prophet Ezekiel, you speak to the valley of dry bones. He didn't say wave your hand, he didn't say blow them a kiss. He said speak to it. And the speaking of God's Word causes life to come to situations. Until the church wakes up to this, and we begin to daily keep our confession, and I don't mean begging confession. I mean thanking Him.
I'm thanking You today that my body's healthy, healed, and whole, my youth is renewed like the eagle. I thank every cell in my body, my immunity, is filled with the presence of God and if the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in me, it quickens my mortal body and makes it alive with the very presence of God. You can tell I've been saying that one for a while. Say well Leon, that's just vain repetition. Oh, it's repetition but it ain't vain. Because I'm releasing my faith when I speak it. And maybe it's time that we speak the Word of God and acting like Jesus, and recognizing we are children of God.
Proverbs 12:8 says, there is that that speaks like the piercing of a sword. But the tongue of the wise is health. Did you know the words that you speak can destroy someone? It can kill them. That's why the Bible says that every mouth that rises against you, you put it down. You want to hear the. I better be careful. I'll tell you, here's what I say over me. And my family, my wife. I say every mouth that rises against us, I put it down. Every sword that's pulled enters their own heart, every arrow that's loosed enters their own heart, and every net that is spread, they fall into, and every pit that they dig, they fall into, in the name of Jesus. Those are verses. They're pretty cool. So you don't get worried anymore about people coming at you. Go don't, do not, please don't do that. Why? Because when they rise up against a follower of Christ, who is speaking the word of protection, you become a weapon. God doesn't do anything to you, you just enter the zone, dude, that you don't want to be in.
I challenge you, what are you saying, with God's Word. Death and life, Proverbs 18:21, are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it will eat its fruit. Now this goes both ways. I know people that just love to gossip, they just love to sling mud. I've got them to a whole 'nother degree. They blog about me, talk about me, lie about me. And they don't realize is that this comes back on them. And people for example who gossip and love to talk about people, they can never hang on to friends, they don't have a circle of friends. They go from group to group, and after a while they get kind of tired of that, because their mouth is saying things that demean others. Things others don't need to hear. There are others who just love to be negative. Well you know. Our country's going to hell in a handbasket, we're all going to be socialists and doing a Nazi salute, and they just go on and on and on.
And I say, I'm glad you're aware, you're doing something about it. But our nation's going to serve Jesus, and our leaders are going to serve the Lord. And if they're not, they're going to be moved out, and the leaders going in. And I just begin to declare, what I'm saying. Say well, that's not happened. Who cares? Faith comes from the word, from the Gospel. And you believed enough to receive Him. But once you received Him, you then according to 2 Peter 1, obtained precious faith. The very faith of Jesus was deposited into you. Not because of your word, but by the righteousness of our God and Saviour. This divine power, it's not a faith issue.
If you're not seeing anything in your life, it's not because you don't have enough faith, because everyone's got the same measure, Romans 12:3. What you need to do, is begin to meditate in His Word, every day just speak His Word. Don't let your mouth ever go through a day where it's just, you know, sitting there quiet. In every situation, when you begin to think about something, speak the Word over it. When God brings you to my mind, I speak the Word over you out loud. When God brings someone else to my mind, a friend, a family member. I'll speak out loud the Word of God that comes to me, a promise that comes to me. That is potent, powerful prayer. Because it is the Word of God being spoken. And when God's Word is spoken, there is no more accurate prayer. No more perfect prayer than to pray the Word of God. To pray these promises.
Father, I'm asking You to do something powerful in the hearts and the minds of every person listening. I pray that, if they're a follower of Christ and they are, they are a believer. I pray that this would open up a door to an entire new world for them. I pray for every mature believer that is here and wanting to see new frontiers and new places that they go in Christ. That they recognize they must speak to the dead bones. They must speak to that next season and declare it done, declare it theirs, declare it because of the power and the presence of God. And Father, I pray that we'll be a church, a church of like precious faith. And Father, we'll see souls won. We'll see this nation touched for Jesus. I pray this in Your wonderful name.
If you don't know Jesus as Your Saviour, you're here in the building, you're watching. I'm going to lead you in a powerful prayer, if you'd like to put your faith in Him. You just say:
Jesus, come into my heart. I give You my life. I choose You, and I choose to believe on You. In Jesus' name, amen. And amen.