Leon Fontaine - Miracle Worker - Part 1
Hey, everybody. It is so good to have you with us today. Today, we are going to dive into a topic that I believe can change your life. We're going to talk about being a miracle worker. The word miracle is used so, I don't know, loosely, and no one even knows what it means any more. It used to kind of means crazy people. But the Bible's very clear that there is a miraculous or a supernatural flow that is available to every born again believer. And so I want to look at that. You know, when I was about 19 years old, just in my late teens. I began to work in a hospital and there I began to be trained in a pilot project for paramedics.
And so I began to get my training by working in the ORs, working in the emergency rooms, resuscitation rooms. That's where I did a lot of my ET tubes, IVs, trained with doctors. And I began to get around a whole lot of really bad emergencies. I mean, people are dying all the time, coming in broken and sick and murdered and all messed up from accidents. And so I began to be plunged into the neediness of mankind. And inside my heart as just this young man. I began to cry out to God and just say, "God, I want to see miracles. I want to be able to minister to people". And so many people, the more degrees they seem to get in the Bible or in seminary, they seem to begin to back away from the miraculous power of God. Yet when they get into an emergency, I know because I've ministered to them all around the world.
You know, they got Doctorates of Divinity and be pastors for years, coming, believing that, you know, the age of miracles is over. But yet when somebody they love or someone or themselves gets into a situation where they need a miracle, they all go back to pray. And so I begin to reach out to God in a very, very just sincere. I wasn't wanting to see God do miracles for my ego. I was around people that were dying. I was with people that were dying every day and some of them painfully bodies mangled, broken. Moms saying goodbye to their kids. Kids coming in to say goodbye to their moms. And my heart was just wrecked and I just cried out to God and I said, "God, I need to know from the Word. What is it about this thing of getting answers to prayer"?
And so I want to show you. We're going to start here in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, the apostle Paul is speaking and he says, "And my speech and my preaching was not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God". Wow, everywhere Paul went, he wanted a demonstration of the power of God from his preaching, in his services, just walking down the streets. And as you read the Bible, Jesus operated in miracles, signs, and wonders. The apostles operated in miracles, signs, and wonders. And it is so prolific that many people, the only way they could handle the Bible was to develop a doctrine that says signs and wonders stuff with the apostles. And it was only needed for the original formation of the church.
In that first century church, miracles were needed. And then after that, we don't need them when we get to heaven. We'll see that. And so an entire doctrines begin to flow about, you give your life to Christ, you go to heaven. When you die, you get to spend eternity in a blessed place. But down here, you better just learn to hack it out. And so then they begin to go to all the verses about suffering, all the verses about being brave and God, you know, helping you through this. Then from there it went to now God's allowing it to teach you stuff because of pride and oh, my. And as I begin to look at this and be in the rooms with people as they beg me for help and I'm wearing my uniform, you know. And many of them who were from our area knew that I was also working with my father in the church, and helping out and preaching and praying for people and ministering to people.
And so the more I took the doctrines that were available like, you know, God allows sickness so that we could, you know, grow and develop. Then I couldn't understand what a 3-year old needed with sickness. If a, and the pain and the heartache and the crying with all that. And I developed a hatred for sickness and disease. Hated it. I saw no value, no benefit. Now we know that when you go through a trial, learn from it. When you go through sickness and disease, you know, yes, absolutely get close to God. But to ever think that God was allowing these things to teach people. I began to reach out as never before.
Now to make a long story short, I began to see a stunning amount of miracles. The Bible teaches us very clearly in 1 Corinthians 12 that there is, that says, let me read it to you. It says, "But each one is given the manifestation of the Holy Spirit". All right. "And the evidence, the spiritual illumination of the Spirit for the good and the profit, the succeeding of others". And so when you look at this, I begin to recognize that Holy Spirit, and I was born again spirit-filled. I prayed in that heavenly language. I have been taught that by my parents who were both pastors, and I saw them do miracles. We would have miracle services where we would pray for people. And we would pray for them on Wednesday nights, Sunday nights, and people would come down to the front. We would just take time and we would lay hands on them.
There were times God would show us things, things about them that we would pray about. That's called a Word of knowledge. Other times we would lay hands. And there's nine different gifts, or the Bible talks about there's nine spirituals. And I look at it this way. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it talks, I find there are kind of twelve or nine areas that you'll see Holy Spirit flowing through you. And people have taken that and divided it up into you only get the flow in one gift, maybe two. That's your gift, as though, the gifts of healings for example is the gift to the guy who's operating in it. But as you dive into this, you realize, no, it's the person who needs a miracle that gets the gift. It's just following through you as a child of God. And so the Holy Spirit wants to manifest Himself through you to others around you and to you.
I have learned that there is Holy Spirit wants to work with every one of us in everything that we do. I noticed as a parent, that Holy Spirit would show me things. I would sense things about one of my children. And then, you know, talk with them about it, or give them a phone call. I noticed that when I would minister to people who were sick, that healing would flow through me. I could do it in services where we do a healing service. And we'd take the time to prepare the people to receive this manifestation. This flow of the Spirit of God because even Jesus Christ couldn't do a lot of miracles in His hometown. And in that case, it was because they had such doubt about Him, you know. And it says He couldn't. Didn't say He wouldn't. It said He couldn't do any great miracle.
So as I begin to dive in and study the Word of God, I begin to learn to develop how to pray for people in the back of an ambulance. How to pray for them in a ditch, in an accident scene, in the hospital. And I found that right away people were upset. And so I had to do it almost in secret. I would get, you know, I would pray for somebody in a hospital room with my uniform on because I'm working and we were in, we were based out of a hospital. And so we would assist the nurses and we had different codes, you know, etcetera. And so sometimes people would talk to me and they would, if they saw me, or they knew who I was as also as a pastor. They would ask me to pray for them. And then they would tell people that I prayed for them. And then I get called on the carpet and the CEO of a hospital would meet with me and say, "You're going to be written up because it's not your job to pray for people". And I said, "I didn't. They asked me".
And so I had to learn and I share how I learned to navigate ministering to people when you're not an official pastor, or you are not a chaplain in the hospital, they would say to me, Leon. And every time God gave me wisdom as how to deal with it. So it didn't go on my permanent work record. But at the same time, I got very good at ministering to people in a way that didn't disrupt my job or others or even the person that I was praying for. One time, I'll give an example of an amazing story. There was a grandma in our church who had a massive stroke. And so they had, had her in a bed. And I didn't know about it yet. But her kids, so she would have been, I'm guessing in her 70s. And her kids who were, who were, you know, in their 40s came and spoke with me and just said, "You know what, she's in the hospital. Would you pray for her"? And I said, "I'd love to pray for her". They said, "We need you to pray for her right now".
Well, it was during my work day. I said, "I can come back after work and pray for her because I get in trouble when they see me in a uniform walking around praying for people". And they say, "We need you to pray for her right now". And I said, "I tell you what". I said, "I have to go upstairs anyway. A part of my job was doing different work on the wards when weren't on emergency calls". And so I said, "Get her to the chapel. There's a chapel up there. There's never anybody hardly in it. Just get her in there and I'll just slip by, close the doors, and I'll get a chance just for a moment or two to pray for her". And they said, "Okay".
So I waited a little bit, went upstairs on to the second floor, went into the chapel. They weren't there yet. So I just kind of waited. And I'm just waiting and I also hear the sound, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And I looked and what I didn't know was that she had a stroke so bad that half of her body was paralyzed. And so in order to get her to the chapel, which I didn't know or I wouldn't have said this. They loaded her onto a wheel chair and she couldn't sit up. She was leaning to one side and her thumb, it was her thumb going through the spokes not hurting her. It's just, would just, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, as they were pushing her down to the chapel. So they get her into the chapel and when they closed the door, so I just got a moment or two. I got to get back to work. And so I spoke with her a little bit about God's Word. We knew she'd been taught in our church about the Word. She understood. She believed in miracles.
So I just encouraged her a little bit for about 3 or 4 minutes about God's will for her life. Where does healing fit in this new covenant that Jesus provides it for her. So I'm going to lay hands on you and I'm believing that the gifts of healings are going to follow. I said a quick prayer and quick explanation. So I laid my hands on her and I just prayed a quiet prayer. I just said in Jesus name, I speak life and healing right now in to grandma. And then I was about to say amen and sneak out, and she starts to scream. I mean, literally. It's echoing in the chapel down the halls. So I quickly walked out of there. I'm in trouble. I'm going to lose my job. So I quickly bolted out the door, closed it. They'll deal with her. I don't know why she's screaming. Was she just being emotional? What's going on? I didn't hurt her.
And so I waited for an hour or two. Then in a couple of hours or so, I grabbed the clipboard towards the end of my day. I better go check up and see what's going on. So I walked up past her room. And as I walked past grandma's room, they're there and grandma is standing up by the bed and she is packing. And I saw, I slipped in with a clipboard looking very official and I said, "What's going on"? And they said, "Well, she's completely healed". And I said, "What"? And I looked at her. And, I mean, she was moving her limbs. All of that paralysis, or that litmus and that inability to use an entire half over body was gone. And I said, "Why did you scream so loud? I've almost got lost my job if they've caught me". And then she explained how that when I touched her, the part of her body that had no feeling and she couldn't use it. It was like it just turn, came on fire. It was like hitting a base, a broken bat hitting a ball.
If you ever had a wooden bat and if it's ever cracked and you had a really hard pitch and what it feels like. And she goes my entire side of my body just felt like it was on fire. And so she just started to scream. She was so shocked. Then they pushed her back, once she calmed down, they pushed her back to her room. And she literally begins to climb out of the wheelchair as her body is being restored right there. Then they came in and looked at her, and she was completely normal and they took her out. They wouldn't even wait for tests to see. The kids just got her up and they walked her out of the hospital, and they took her home, and she shared her testimony over and over again of the power of God.
Now, what took place there was what the Bible calls gifts of healings. And so as I touched her, the presence of God just whoosh. Just flowed into her tissues, into her brain. It had to literally restore the brain. And so that it would function normally. We don't get into that. It was a miracle. It was the gift, it was a manifestation of the power of God. And so if you are the CFO of a company, and God really guides you with a word of wisdom, showing you how to navigate the financial times. The opportunities for that company. You don't have to, you know, brag about it and say, "Well, the Lord spoke to me last night". That would be a real career limiting move when it comes to your, you know, if you're working for a secular company.
And so I just taught our people how to flow in the gifts of the Spirit. You don't need to be the star. You just say, "You know what I'm looking at here when it comes to, you know, next year's, what we roll out for next year's plans for our company. I, you know, the team that is put the strategies together looks really good. I just don't feel good about it. I got this gut feeling that we're missing something and we need to go back to the drawing board". And so learn to use a language unless God gives you a real clearance to very clearly tell him, "Listen, God loves you". But I would learn to speak the language of whatever group I was with, and then I would just minister to people. I didn't even have to pray to minister to people. I could just look at somebody towards a crowded room and they said, "Please help me. Please help me. Would you pray"? And I said, "Just look at me. In Jesus name, I speak healing into your body".
And they just thought we were having a conversation. And I would reach out and put my hand on their shoulder. And you can just see them, "Thank you". Because I was in uniform. I was in a room where they, you know, where I was getting in trouble for that. I'd be in a restaurant with somebody, a business person who would ask me, you know, could you pray with me. And I said yes. Well, you know, we don't have time to go find another place and I, And so I said, "I'm going to reach out and shake your hand". Because they were very careful with me about, you know, they don't want to look foolish. And my job is not to embarrass them. I'm not embarrassed of God. But I needed to learn to function in a contemporary way. And so I'd say, "You know what, I'm going to reach out and shake your hand. And just keep your eyes open and look at me".
And as I reached out and shook their hand, like two people just at lunch table. I would speak straight into them about the presence of God for their marriage or for their troubled mind or whatever they wanted prayer for. And I could do it in about 10 seconds and then I would let go. Often, I mean, I would see full-grown men as it just begin to tear up and they quickly grab a napkin and dab at their eyes as the power of God restored them, and moved the fear aside, and dealt with the depression. And you could see His peace flow over them, or they get up and walk away and tell me, "You know, by the time I got home. I need you know the growth disappeared. It was completely gone. I've had my doctor check it out and they just think that was a, you know, that the machines that found the growth, you know, were wrong".
Over and over again, I learned to minister to people in a way that would, was spiritually alive. Which would be up to me to stay that way. And then when I spoke with them, I would talk to them about Jesus and how what He had done on the cross. That He died for their sin. That He took their sickness and disease. That all of the promises of God in the new covenant are yes and amen. The ifs, you know, if you'll do this of the Old Testament promises are gone. Jesus qualifies us. And I would teach them very quickly and take all the pressure off of them, having to manufacture some kind of an emotional faith which doesn't last, if it even works. And so I want to challenge you. We're going to do a second part of this message for time's sake. But I want you to know that the day of signs, wonders, and miracles is not over. God will show you things, reveal things to you. He'll flow through you to lay hands on your baby, your spouse. He'll teach you through His Word and His Spirit how to walk in health.
And another thing that I noticed that was going on in my life was that people had taught me that usually you could only operate in one or two of the nine gifts of the Spirit. Because, you know, there's three of the gifts of the Spirit that will show you something and reveal something. There's three of the gifts that do something. They do miracles. They do healings. There's three of the gifts that reveal things to you. You could never know on your own. I'll give an example. One day, a truck driver came and was delivering something. And so as I'm signing for it, on the inside of me this word suicide just rises up on the inside of me. And so I looked at him and I kept signing. And now I'm learning a lot better to listen to the Spirit of God, Holy Spirit within me and often I'll get a word. And I'll just use that word and so that suicide. And then it just, and I couldn't just get rid of that word. It wasn't just me thinking it up. It was coming from deep within where God speaks to us out of our, from down within our belly area and I just knew suicide, suicide.
So I looked at him and I just said, "Don't do it". He said, "Excuse me". I said, "Don't kill yourself". And he just got kind of angry. He goes, "What the, blank, blank, blank, you talking about"? And I said, "Well," I said, "Are you thinking about it"? And then this look came over, he goes, "How did you know"? I said, "Well," I said, "As I'm signing this ladle". I said, "This voice deep inside of me just warned me that you're going to kill yourself. God must really love you and care about you. If, you know, to show me that". And he goes, "He showed you that about me"? And he told me the story that after the call that I was doing with him, where he was giving me the package and getting my signature. He was going to go, in his words, "I was going to go off myself". And so I said, "That's the case, let's go grab a bite to eat. Do you mind if I buy you something to eat? Let's talk".
Well, sure. I took him out to a restaurant, bought him a big meal, didn't get me anything so I could just talk. And began to talk about his value and why God loved him. And I continually used this demonstration that he saw of me knowing what he was planning on doing. And that thing completely changed his life. He made a decision for Christ and an incredible miracle took place. That's an example of a demonstration of the power of God. Whether He can show you something about people. And I never do it in a way that makes me look like I'm amazing. I'd always say, "Well, you know what, every person who knows Jesus Christ and is born again". The Bible begins to teach them and train them. There's a process of learning the Word of God, the principles of God, with the purpose of being like Jesus. We are to be like Jesus. He said the things that I do shall you do also.
And so I want to challenge you today. That dive into God's Word. Maybe read 1 Corinthians chapter 12 a few times and read the book of Acts. Read it over and over again. It will show you in there how normal men and women were used by God. And it's not their gift. All of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are in Holy Spirit, and Holy Spirit is in you. So whatever you need in a situation. He is more than willing to flow through you to meet the needs of others and to show you things about the things you need to know about your business, your marriage, raising kids. He'll guide you. He will be an incredible help to you. I don't just see miracles once in a while. I see daily, weekly. The flow of Holy Spirit showing me things I couldn't know on my own. When I'm praying and ministering to people, the power of Holy Spirit changing them, healing them, setting them free. And it is the most amazing life.
And so I want to challenge you, continue to watch programs and keep watching our program here as well. If you don't know this Jesus as your Saviour and Lord that I'm talking about. I want to encourage you right now to make a decision for Him. You say, "Leon, how do I do that"? Well, Jesus died in your place. That's the whole reason for the cross, is Jesus came to this planet to die for the entire human race, to take their sins for them, to take the curse, the punishment that we all deserved. He took it. He went to hell in our place but He rose again and He gave us new life. But He'll never force it on you. You have to accept Him. And so right now just say:
Jesus, come into my heart. I accept the free gift of salvation. From today and on, I want to get to know You as my Lord and my Saviour, in Jesus name, amen.
Welcome to the family of God. That took place in your spirit, not in your feelings. You don't have to feel anything. All you needed to do was to give Him permission because you, He will never force Himself on you. So now make sure you keep watching. If you can find a great church in your area, you know, look, begin to hunt for one. But keep watching these programs. You will grow so quickly in this beautiful relationship of you and Jesus.