Changing the understanding and expression of Christianity

After a turbulent youth as a punk and gang leader, Patrick Fontaine came to know Jesus Christ in 1983. His dedicated Christian lifestyle opened the way for him, twelve years later, to become the pastor of a church in France. He was also a much sought after conference speaker because the Lord had entrusted him with one of the most powerful healing ministries in France. In 2002 he became ill and died, but was then resurrected by the power of God. He afterwards reported on having an encounter with Jesus during his physical death that fundamentally changed his understanding of Christianity. Jesus had told him that he was going to "change the understanding and expression of Christianity within one generation." Since then, he is serving Jesus Christ by preparing the Body for a new reformation. Patrick lives with his wife and three children in Romans, France.

This is his testimony of that encounter with Jesus Christ:

“It was in the midst of the time in which I ministering and healing the sick. I felt that as the big “healer” I couldn't tell the people that I had become ill – therefore, I felt like I was driven into a corner and trapped. Because I didn't take care of the illness, the infection got into my heart, poisoned my whole body, and I fell into shock. As I fell to the floor my whole body shook and jerked with fever shock and I could feel how death entered into me. I didn't even have time to call my family, my wife. I only had time to pray for them, and then I died.

This was on the 1. March, 2002. It was the most critical moment in my life - and then Jesus appeared to me. I saw him as clearly as I would see someone sitting in front of me. For 19 years I had prayed, „Lord, let me see your face“, and now suddenly I was before him. But I had really imagined meeting Him in VERY different circumstances. This was the greatest and at the same time the worst day of my life. As I stood before him I had complete security of my salvation since there was such a wonderful overwhelming love that streamed out of him and enveloped me, greater than I had ever experienced, even during the most wonderful praise and worship. At the same time however, there was an overwhelming holiness that flowed out of him and it was so strong, that it made me feel as if I had, in that very moment, sinned. It had been years since I had really sinned. But on this day I realized that sin is not just what we do or say or think but it is part of our very nature.

Simply put, everything concerning our life as humans is connected to sin. And there is nothing good in us. So I had the ultimate conviction of sin. Since that time I no longer have illusions about myself. It is over! As I stood before Jesus he showed me all of the things that I ever did. Not those things before I was converted, but only those during the time after I had begun to serve him. He showed me all the things I had done for him and then showed me what my heart's motivation was behind those things. I saw all of the things that I did out of pride. And I saw all that I had done out of a sense of competition. I saw all that I had done in order to prove myself to others and all that I had done to make a name for myself and build my own kingdom. In all these things the balance was more than negative.

Jesus also showed me all of the things that I had NOT done, out of disobedience, out of laziness, out of fear of man. Seeing this broke me completely. And then he told me that there were idols in my life. If anyone here on earth had told me that, I would have showed him my fist. But because HE told it to me, I knew it must be true. Then He said something that shocked me deeply: “the first idol in your life, is called ‘Jesus’“. At that moment I felt that I understood nothing, just like everyone who reads this would! So I asked him how it could be possible that I have an idol that is called ‘Jesus’? He said; “the relationship that you attempt to have with me is the same relationship that the idolaters have with their gods. You are always only trying to get something from me but are not interested in knowing Me”.

I felt that my life was over, it was broken. And as I recovered, I understood that there will be people at the end of time who will say to Jesus, “have we not prophesied in your name, have we not done miracles in your name?” But in the presence of Jesus no lie can stand. He will answer them in that day, „Go away from me, I never knew you“ (Matthew 7:23). I was a part of this crowd. The Christian life isn't about performance. It's as if Jesus said, “Ok, you might have done a lot for me, but we have never got to know each other”. He said, “I tried to get to know you the whole time, but you didn't cooperate”. And I discovered that this life on earth is not about being a Christian, it's not about doing things for Christ, but he defined crystal clear what this life is about. It is simply about your relationship with Him, the only true God, who sent his Son Jesus. Life on earth is about learning to know Him. Not learning a mass of facts about him or just doing a whole lot of activities for Him, but it is about knowing Him personally and intimately. That has now become my priority and I don't want to know anything else.

When Jesus had finished dealing with my heart on this matter, He placed me in a vision. I entered into the vision – I want to make it clear that I didn't see a vision, I stepped into the vision. I was in a large city. And Jesus asked me, „Do you know what the city is called?“ One thing I have learned is that when Jesus asks you a question, you DON'T know the answer. This is why I just said, „no“, so that things would go faster. And he said, „It is called Babylon“. Well, this didn't match my conception of Babylon. I remembered that in my Punk years someone had said that the Catholic church is Babylon. Or was that the Pentecostal church? On this day I saw Babylon, full of people who love God, who do things for God. Each had his Bible in the hand. I saw mega-churches. And I saw house churches. I saw revival. And I saw prophetic ministries. I even saw people who had written the books which were in my own library. And I knew then that I understood nothing.

So the Lord gave me a little bible study about what Babylon really is. I'll tell you shortly about it. It is exactly how the tower of Babel was built and that first thing to recognize is that these people had turned their backs on Jesus, they weren't looking to Him. And they said, “Let us build!” - but Jesus had said, „I will build!“ There is a huge difference between the two. They built with brick. Now do you know the characteristics of bricks? They all look alike. They are all conformed in size to each other. But Jesus doesn't build with bricks but with living stones. The builders of Babel also built with bitumen (pitch). Now do you know what the characteristics of bitumen are? (Noah also had a lot of bitumen on the arch, so that the water couldn't seep in). Bitumen or tar makes things dry. In Babylon they laid the stones or bricks one beside the other and that which bound them together (bitumen) was dried out, the relationships are dried out, because there is no exchange or sharing.

After that they had said, „Let us build a city so that we won't be scattered“. So they built a tower which reached up to the sky (into heaven). In Hebrew the word for peak or top the same as for head. And suddenly I understood the Babylonian system. It is a human construction. There is someone at the top who touches the heavens and gets information to bring back down and share with the others. And the motivation for building this construction is so that we won't be scattered across the face of the earth. The motivation of the church of Babylon is to fill the churches because they do not want to be scattered. So we fill the churches. But God said to Adam, “multiply and fill the earth”. Just as Jesus said, “go into every nation”. In Babylon we don't want to be scattered, we want to be gathered in sizable groups. In Babylon the point is to fill our own constructions. But in the church which Jesus builds, the point is not to full the church but for the church to fill the world. Amen? It's all about filling the world, not filling the church! We are actually called to go out to conquer the world! Amen? Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?

After showing me this, He told me that another characteristic of the church of Babylon is that it is built on the foundation of Judaism. There is a specially ordained place to worship; there is a special day for worship, a specific wage for the job, a special staff and a special tribe which does the work. And all of this was developed by man. „This is not my church!“, says Jesus!

Understanding this gave me a huge shock, because I was pastor of such a church and I had not had the impression that I was in anyway in the wrong. I had a very “successful” ministry for which I had sacrificed much, my health and my family. In this craziness I had given everything because I had totally believed in this system. And I was faithful. I was really faithful in my error! But I was truly in deception.

As I went for a walk in the city of Babylon, I saw people walking around with Bibles open. I went up to them and looked into their Bibles. They were the correct Bibles! But in the margins were commentaries and the people paid more attention to read the commentaries than to read the Bible. They read the tradition which had been passed down. They read these in order to know how to understand the Bible rightly. But they were not able to receive any revelation. And as I continued walking a saw in one corner a church which looked just like my own church. And when I saw this, it really began to break me. I'm really just summarizing all of what I experienced; otherwise we would be here until tomorrow morning. But there are so many things that I would like to share.

After we were out of Babylon and back to the place from which we had started, Jesus gave me another horrible shock. He said, „Stop praying for revival!“ I said, „Oh, no!“ because I really thought that in doing that I had been in the right way. But Jesus clearly said, “Stop praying for revival”. I don't know how it is in Germany, but in France from the time of my conversion all through the years, and every few years we would have people prophesying revival. In the 80s they were saying, „Jesus is on the way!“ In the 90s they were saying, „He's at the door!“ In the 2000s they said, „He's got his hand on the door knob!“ Now we are in 2009 and someone said, „Oh dear, he forgot the key and has to go back and fetch it!“ I don't know if you believe in these prophecies. I've stopped believing in them because Jesus said, “Stop praying for revival, because it is not a revival that I have for you, but a reformation”. Amen?

What we really need is a reformation! The very worst thing that could happen is a revival. Jesus is protecting us from a revival, because if we had a revival we would never question if what we are doing is right or not. We would think that we are living in God's favor. We would continue building on the tower of Babel and would draw even more people into living and working in the prison of Babylon. That is why the worst thing that could happen to us is revival. The best thing that could happen is reformation. Nothing else!

Jesus then gave me a very clear word. He said, “I will change the understanding and expression of Christianity within one generation”. He will first change the understanding and then the expression of Christianity. After that he continued telling me about the reformation. He said, “I will bring forth a reformation that has never been experienced on earth, because the reformation will be in 3 dimensions. There will be a reformation in theology”, because we really need that our thinking in what we believe be changed. Then a reformation in Lifestyle (how you live out righteousness), you will live differently because you believe differently. Finally after that, a reformation of the structure will occur, one that won't be of human origin. Amen?

This testimony was later also confirmed in a very real way with Heidi Baker. The two of us did a conference together once. We were on our way back to the hotel and she said to me, „Hey, Patrick, I heard that you were in heaven! Tell me about it!“ And I said, „Do you have time?“ And she said, „Yeah, yeah!“ And I told her my testimony. She has a prophetess who is always with her. And as I said that “He will change the understanding and expression of Christianity in one Generation ”, the prophetess began to yell and ran ahead into her room. We just stood there baffled. 15 minutes later she came back with a small book in which she had written, with dates, what she had received from the Lord. And what the Lord told me on 1st of March, 2002, he had told her on 28th February, 2002! It was exactly in the same word, even the order of the words was the same!

I am convinced that we should not need to hold fast to a form of Christianity that is already beginning to disappear. The big question is: how long does a generation last? Some say 20 years, others 25 years, others 30 years. I don't know if we can stretch it to more than 30! To me it doesn't matter how long a generation lasts. Jesus spoke to me seven years ago (in 2009). And now it is one generation MINUS seven years! So the time is much shorter! And the reformation is coming. And I am amazed that in every country this message is to be heard. There is a cry that is coming from all over the earth.

In the Bible it says, “Come out of Babylon!” (Jeremiah 50:8, Isaiah 48:20, Revelation 18:4). Jesus said it last in the Book of Revelations. He said, “Come out of Babylon my people”. His people are still in Babylon! We don't need any kind of feeling of arrogance because that would prove that we are still there, but unfortunately the Lord still has a large portion of his people in Babylon. It is therefore necessary that the voice of the Lord echoes in Babylon.

This is really important. After Jesus had told me all of this, and I really had the feeling as if whole days had gone by in heaven. As I came back to earth and there was a crowd of people standing around me and it turned out that only between 20 and 30 minutes had gone by. I had really had the sense that I had been in heaven for several days. As I came back I began to cry and was traumatized. The first thing I said was, “I'm not serving God any more”. My friends all said, “No, no, that was from the devil”. I said, “That was not the devil that I saw. I have no confidence in myself any more. Everything is sin in me. I can't believe in myself anymore. I have really decided to give up”. I had great difficulty telling my wife these things. I am not at all the kind of person who cries. I had last cried when I was only 6 or 7 years old. I had decided then that I would not cry anymore. Everything had been blocked from that day – even though my name is Fontaine (Fountain), but there was no fountain in my life! But on this day I couldn't even talk because of all the crying. My wife began to decode my words through the tears and then she began to laugh and laugh. I had expected a slightly different kind of compassion from her.

She had prayed for something like this to happen to me! She said, “You are so thick-skulled that Jesus had to shake you in such a way, because you would never let anyone tell you anything!” I have a word for the men here: humble yourself otherwise when your wife begins to pray for you huge unexpected things could happen! And I tell you, it was 1984 when God first touched me, but really it was 2002 when my true conversion took place. I was a punker when I met him, but I was a pastor, author and conference speaker when my conversion took place. This is no kind of false humility behind what I am sharing with you, really.

The first time it was Christianity to which I was converted. The second time it was to Christ to whom I converted. There's quite a big difference between the two. This reformation, this change in understanding, will come through a conversion in our theological understanding.

When I was up in heaven with Jesus He had asked me another question. This time I had the feeling that I really knew the answer. Jesus asked, „is there a power that is greater than my Word?“ I wanted to score some points with him when I said, „No!“ And I had bible passages ready to back my answer up! Isaiah had said, “Your Word will not return to you empty”. Jeremiah said, “He broods over his word until it happens”. And I thought, “Wow! He is going to pat me on the shoulder in approval”. But he said, „Wrong! There is one power that is stronger than my Word”. It is written in Mark 7:13; „You nullify my Word with your tradition!“ The only power able to annul Jesus’s Word is the tradition. The Greek word for “annul” means, to take the power away, to take the efficiency away. We now have 2000 years of tradition which have been passed down.

Sometimes we leave to live outside of Babylon but want to hold onto our traditions. These are the understandings that we accumulated in Babylon, the definition of the words and doctrines that have been passed down through the years and have become so established in our lives that they are no longer questioned. It is one thing to go out from Babylon, but it is another thing altogether to get Babylon out of us. Amen?

Maybe what I have written has upset you? Maybe you are asking yourself, „Does that mean that I've done everything wrong?“ Well the answer to that is “Yes!”, but this is not a problem. It is better to discover that one has been doing it wrong than to be in the wrong and to believe one is doing everything right! Do you mind if I upset you a little more?

Jesus said, “These signs will follow those who believe: in my Name they will cast out demons, in my Name they will lay hands on and heal the sick”. Jesus said, “I am come that my sheep have life, in abundance!” At least that is our European version of it. In Greek it doesn't say in abundance, but in super abundance! Jesus said that those who believe will do the same works that I do and even greater. I am telling you that this is the normal Christian life. When you don't live it, you aren't living normally! I didn't come to put you under false guilt, but to help you understand the word as it really is.

When our Christianity doesn't produce the promised fruit, when we don't experience the promised Life, then what kind of assurance do we have for the things that are coming? Do you understand?

Imagine that you are a farmer. For 10 years you have been sowing wheat? What do you harvest? Wheat, of course! In the 11th year you say, I don't want wheat anymore, I want corn. But you sow wheat. What will you harvest? Wheat, of course! This farmer needs to be told, “if you want to change your harvest, you have to change the seeds you sow. If you aren't content with what you are harvesting, why do you keep using the same seeds?”

Reformation starts with a changing of the seeds. If we change what we believe, this changes our lifestyle and that results in reformation. The first lesson on reformation is that reformation does not happen when we try to transform others, but when we allow our hearts to be transformed. Jeremiah (7:3) is clear: “Amend your ways and your doings”. Jesus said, you can't get a good fruit from a bad tree, or a bad fruit from a good tree. It's fairly simple. What is a bad tree? Jesus makes it clear; it is a tree with bad roots. The roots are the part that you can't see, but it is also the source from which the tree lives. If your life is not producing the promised fruit, the problem lies with the roots. And what are the roots? It is what you believe. That's why we need a reformation of our theology. We won't live out what is promised with a theology we got from tradition. Nor will we be able to live it with the definitions that have been passed down from tradition. We really need a reformation of our theology first!

God doesn't expect us to have to scratch our heads and try to figure it out. Don't forget what he said: „I will build my church!“ He is the one who will do it and it will not be by our own power. It won't happen by us attempting to be more intelligent. It's not that we think up new things and try them to see if they work. He said, “I will change it, I will change the understanding and expression of Christianity in one Generation”.

The audio testimony in French and German can be found here: http://www.befreiungshilfe.de/audio