Leon Fontaine - The Language of The Heart
As a young child, some of my earliest memories are my parents, teaching me Bible stories. My dad or mom would put me to bed at night, and depending upon my age, it was very age specific. They would teach me the stories of the Bible. Not just the five main ones like Goliath, Noah. My dad was good at finding these really little story that people would skip over and he would just teach them to me. My mom included. When I got to an age where, I could begin to memorize for myself, my dad began to pay me. To memorize the Bible. I think it was a nickel a verse. And all the kids are looking at their parents now going oh. And I found all the short scriptures and the short chapters like Jesus wept, pray without ceasing, et cetera.
Then I ran out of those and I had to start memorizing the longer and the harder ones. And I had no idea the wisdom of what my parents were doing. That, to make the Word of God so much fun and the stories. Even the stories have incredible teaching moments. I could teach for hours and hours on forgiveness, acceptance. But Jesus told a story. He said a, a man had two sons. One of them came to him and said, give me what's mine. I'm out of here. That's like saying I wish you were dead, you're not dying soon enough for me. So give me what's mine. I'm gone. He left, and blew it on sinful living. Hellish living. When he was out, he was eating food with the pigs because he was starving. And he realized, I should go back to my dad's ranch, my dad's plantation. I mean, even the people who work for him, have it better.
So he does. Goes back, and the very road he took home, was the one his dad was standing on, waiting for him. And he said father, and he had this speech all prepared. I'm not worthy to be your son, so I'll just work somewhere, I know I've blown half the family fortune. And his dad interrupted him. Hugged him. Put the ring on his finger that allowed him to do the cheques, handle money. Put his coat on him. And then killed the fatted calf they always kept for parties. But then the elder brother, he comes in from the field, and he sees the partying and, he's upset. He's angry. You never do it for me, you're going to do it for this, my brother that wasted half of our income? And his dad looked at him and said, all that I have is yours. In other words, you could have partied every Saturday.
The story, is known so well and Jesus told that one parable, and out of it you could teach for about a hundred hours. That older brother represents religious people, who can be just so, you know, that's why I hate religion, it's man-made rules. It keeps you never getting close to God. And the father represents God and the prodigal. Why did, there's just so many principles in one story, but you see stories impact the heart. And so, my dad taught me stories and parables, and my mom, and then when I got older I would memorize scripture. And then when I got out on my own, I remember the first time I got a job at a hospital and begin to be trained to be a paramedic, and saw the absolute horror of a car accident. A murder. Going into the home of a rape, an assault. Just breaks your heart.
And as I did this day after day, I begin to just cry out on the inside and say God, what happened to the miracles that are supposed to be here for believers? And as I begin to meditate on God's Word, I discovered something that I want to share with you today. I discovered how to move God's Word from my mind, to my heart. Because no miracles take place until the heart is involved. And it's probably the least taught about things in Christendom. That, there's something within every person, called their heart. And I don't mean their physical beating heart. I mean you know when someone plays football, he goes through five guys. I mean he gets hit, and he just keeps going. Man, that guy's got heart. And we mean passion, but many of the Bible words cannot be translated by our Webster's Dictionary. Because the word heart in the Bible, does not mean just keeping your passion up. It's talking about a subconscious part of you that literally, it's some kind of an overlap between your mind and your spirit that it's called heart.
And, I haven't got time to dig into just that, but repeatedly. In fact, you can't get born again, unless the Bible says you confess Jesus with your mouth, and you believe in your heart. Then it says that even answers to prayer, that you can literally speak to the problems in your life, and the power of God, and that prayers weren't meant to be just prayed and never answered. They should all be answered if they're prayed according to His will. But the Bible says that you can't doubt in your heart it doesn't say head, it says heart. And so, as a young man, single, I, I begin to want to see God move in my life in a greater way. And so I began the study of the heart. And it stunned me that the heart was so talked about yet not, not talked about. I found that, we are in charge of our hearts to guard it. And that out of the heart comes forces. Good or bad.
Out of our heart comes issues. Out of our heart comes boundaries that can contain us, and that if we don't see the favour and the blessing of God and the miraculous in our life, that Jesus says in Matthew 12, that a tree is known by its fruit. So if you're looking to see what needs to be changed in the beliefs of your heart, you look for what kind of fruit you're bearing. And in Matthew 12 it says that a good man from good treasures, and the word 'treasures' you'd say deposits. A good man from the good deposits in his heart, brings forth good things. But an evil man with evil deposits, it says he brings forth evil things. Paul taught that, don't look at the things that are seen, look at the things that are unseen, because the things that are unseen are permanent. He's saying here, that don't look at the visible, look at the invisible. That the spirit world which is invisible, is from there that this world was created. And you as a born-again believer, have an ability to pray. And the invisible world will bring into the visible world, a healing. It will bring in a miracle of protection.
In Proverbs 4:23 where it talks about the heart, one of, there's three words for the word 'heart' and chatting with scholars in the Hebrew, one of the things they say is when you go to a word and you look at the Hebrew meaning, put them all in there. And apply them all. And you'll, just see a wisdom coming out of it. So, the three words that are there for the word 'heart', is literally it's talking about the issues of the heart. The forces of the heart. And then the boundaries, that your heart projects into your life, issues. Your heart projects into your life, forces. They can be good or bad. And your heart creates boundaries. Not good ones. Boundaries, that you know, we call it the ceiling. I can't seem to get past this ceiling in business, or maybe a set-point if you work out. I can't get past my set-point. And, believers just pray more. Pray harder. You know, cry more. Volunteer more. Do whatever you can. And we're missing something.
And so, as I begin to work in that hospital, I begin to go home at nights, and I begin to take the Word that I have been taught, and I began to differently study it. I couldn't find in the Word that knowing a truth with my mind brought any miracles. That, that amazed me in my studies. Yet the Bible says in Romans 12, that don't be conformed to the failures, the heartaches, the brokenness, the hurts of this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So I realized okay. So I can renew my mind and change my thinking, but it has to lead to transformation.
Now transformation, is not more knowledge. Transformation in the Greek is metamorphu, which comes from our word metamorphosis, where a caterpillar spins a cocoon, and comes out not a better caterpillar. Not a caterpillar with better habits. A completely different being. A butterfly. As a caterpillar, it took it a week to cross a tree. As a butterfly, in the wind, it can be in the next province in a day. I begin to recognize that I had to move the Word of God that I had been taught, from my mind to my heart. And so I begin to study what is this thing called heart?
Now, when you're born again and you give your life to Christ, you are a brand-new creation. Everything is passed away, all of it. Okay? Nothing is being held to your charge. Nothing. But, your memory banks are filled with it. And so you have to renew your mind. And the things that you believe, you didn't even put there which is a real rip-off. Because your parents, your culture, your town, your city, your basketball coach, your friends, uncles. When you were young, have been pouring into the treasure of your heart. Which is the beliefs of your heart. And so, I don't want to live out what someone else put in me. I want to be responsible.
And so I begin to look at well how do I change the heart? Because everywhere I looked in the Bible, if unbelief or doubt, or a misbelief, gets into your heart, it costs you your miracle. Well, why would God do that? He didn't. According to Peter, He's given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. You've been qualified already, for all of the promises of God. So there's nothing left for God to decide. We simply need to take what's been given us, His precious Word and His spirit, and begin to apply it, and Holy Spirit will go to work. And He'll go to work on your heart. I wanted to be able to pray with people, because from the ditches and the accidents of going, I just thought God. And as we worked out of a hospital, there was times I was sitting beside people who were given up on, and they called them red star at that time. It meant that, you wouldn't come in and try to keep them alive. They decided they wanted to go. Their life is over.
And so there'd be no measures. They would. And so we would go in at times, and they'd be cold or we'd cover them up or we'd sit with them if they wanted someone to sit with them. And wow. Some of the conversations. And I wanted to be able to help them, win them to Jesus before they would go into eternity. And recognizing that, as God's Word gets in our heart, there is a revelation that flows off of you. You know, many call it an anointing. So you'd call it an anointing, the presence of God, Holy Spirit. All would be using the same kind of language and words in the Bible. And, I begin to recognize that the language of the heart is visions and dreams. What do I mean by that? Your mind, it's language is knowledge. Repetition. And you can learn a lot of stuff. But learning those things, doesn't make the miracle it's talking about flow out of your heart.
And so, the heart is something that we can control. It says in James 1, that your mouth can deceive your own heart. It says in Matthew 12, that the treasure in your heart can be good or bad. Luke says if the treasure that is in your heart is darkness, how great is that darkness. And so if you don't deal with the beliefs of the heart, it's not God withholding from you. It's not God saying 'no' as so many people will teach. It's just a simple adjustment. That as you renew your mind with the Word, transformation comes as it goes into the heart.
Now, there's a part of you and I, called the present tense. And our consciousness, which no one understands. This consciousness that we have exists in the present. But your mind has a memory bank, that you can go backwards in your life and remember every horrible, embarrassing, shameful thing. Or good thing. But you can also go into your future through the imagination. And the imagination is interesting. Genesis says, that even evil people if they learn to imagination, it's hard to stop that. Because they as evil people begin to live out of this phenomenal ability of the heart. And that it produces. A good man from the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good things. And an evil man from the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth evil things.
So as I begin to sort these things out, I found certain ministries would focus on one thing. Like, this one's about faith, that one's about renewing the mind, that one's about grace, that one's about hope. But there was this desire in me to connect the dots. I want to know how they work together. How does faith and grace work together? Where does hope come in? What's with got with my spirit? What about my mind? And then I begin to recognize, from my mind to my heart, there's a process. It's what Jesus taught in Mark 4, that when the Word of God is planted in your heart, which he calls soil in that parable. The enemy comes immediately, to do what? Steal the Word. Just steal the Word. Why? Because if you ever learn to the quick and easy process of getting God's Word as a believer from your mind to your heart, you begin to produce. And you begin to produce 30, 60, 100-fold. It changes the boundaries of your life.
If you couldn't get anywhere financially or maritally or romantically or financially. All of a sudden, the Word of God comes in, and the Bible says in Romans 8:25 and on, that Holy Spirit begins to search the hearts. And Hebrew 4:12 says here that it goes in, and it looks at the deepest part of your heart, sifting and sorting through your beliefs. Why? He wants to find beliefs and misbeliefs and things that are hurting you, and he wants to take the Word and guide you, so that it just goes away, and the real truth of God's Word rises up on the inside of you. When you protect your heart, and you feed your heart, and you begin to do the simple things that God's Word says to do. This heart which is the autopilot of your life, begins to increase the boundaries.
Another portion of scripture I believe in Isaiah, it says that, you need to lengthen your cords. Strengthen your stakes. What does that mean? You are getting bigger. What? Everything. Your family's getting bigger. Your finances are getting bigger. Your impact is getting bigger. Your influence is getting bigger. And that's what God has called you and I to. To succeed. Someone says I don't like it when you teach success in church. I said well did you get married to fail? Did you start a business to fail? Did you have a family hoping it would fail? Did you have a child hoping they'll fail? That is ignorance gone to seed. To think that the God of the universe created us but you know, he's already settled in it, sorry sucker. For you, you can have you know, it's 2/10, for your it's 3/10. And maybe once every 50 years, I'll give somebody 9/10. No, no, no, no. His blessing is upon all of us.
And the Word of God will teach you who you are. How you got here. Why Jesus is so precious. And how the Word can transform your life, as it becomes knowledge and then revelation. The Bible says that a man that cannot control his life, is like a city with broken walls. It's an interesting principle. Did you know that the Word will teach you that your mind is the protection of your heart. And if you do not recognize that, you can allow things into your heart, ignorantly and not realize. And so in the days of the Old Testament, if you wanted to live safely, you would live in a city that had walls. And those walls would keep the enemy out. And the better the walls, the better, the longer you could live in favour and in blessing.
In the New Testament, after, in the new covenant, it teaches the exact same thing with a different analogy. It says that as you spend time in the Word, that you begin to put armor on. And that armor stops the fiery darts of the enemy. That missiles coming in, phew! So when he shoots a missile, phew, incoming! And it's coming at you, it doesn't go into your mind. Oh I've got to process that. No. It hits the armor, or the beliefs of your heart, just put it out. I'll give you an example. For those of you who have been born again for just a little while, I'm going to say something that your armor's going to stop, and you're not going to think about it.
Alright, here it comes, here's the missile. God is dead. None of you are going to agonize over that this week. In fact, you guys haven't spent 30 seconds thinking about that. Because the beliefs of your heart snapped that out just like that. I could look at you who have given your lives to Christ, and know who you are in Christ, and just say, you're really not born again or forgiven, sucker. And you know what? That didn't last ten seconds in your head or your heart. Why? because the beliefs of your heart, create the walls. Create the armor. And as you spend time and feed on God's Word, as those missiles become more complicated, you don't have enough faith, you haven't lived right. This is God's will. He needs you to suffer, He's trying to teach you something.
If you don't have the Word of God in your heart, these things get through, and they begin to cost you your miracles. And me, I like getting on a chair, my feet up, a cup of coffee in the one hand, my iPad on my pillow in my lap, and I can spend hours just meditating and thinking, and looking. But I found out that this enjoyable thing of looking at the Word of God and then saying Holy Spirit, could you teach this to me? Or maybe I was going through something and I want to find more verses on that. Or why is there a delay in what I'm praying about right now, God? And I just dive into the Word, and Holy Spirit would begin to lead me through verses and things. And as I'm in the Word, all of a sudden an idea would come to me. And I'd start searching out all those words, and I'm looking at this, I'm looking at that. And inside of you, your heart just comes alive. And it's revelation and revelation.
And you know you've got a revelation, because it's just, wow why didn't I see that before? And that revelation should never stop. There is no end to the stunning, phenomenal depths of knowing His Word. And so as you know His Word and you fellowship with Holy Spirit, the Word that you grow in creates the walls that protect you. The armor around you. So that as you do greater things and greater things, you rise in influence. You come to whole new levels in finance or influence. When most people shut down, it costs them their marriages, their health, their mind. It will cost them something. Because to succeed in the world without the foundation of the Word, something will crumble. But as you grow in the Word, then you and I can rise up to levels never seen before on the planet. And you'll do it hanging on to everything. Your marriage, your family. Well there's a cost for everything. I know, Jesus paid it.
Go back to this beautiful process, of feeding on the bread of life. Renewing my mind until it transforms me and my heart gets established in grace. Because then your heart releases the forces of life, expands the boundaries of your life. And you can enjoy a planet where Jesus is leading you and guiding you, and victories can be always yours. Father, I pray today that You would touch each person here. I pray that, we would go deeper. We would understand the joy of Your Word, the incredible, beauty of fellowshipping with You. And You taking us on a journey with our lives that is so filled with power and joy and peace and blessing. Touch each of us. With every head bowed for just a moment.
I want to close my message down, with a simple prayer that I prayed that changed my life. It is a request, to God. Simply to accept what Jesus has done for us. You see, Jesus died in your place, took all of my sin and your sin. So that we could be in God's family. And God will never force you, manipulate you, or make you. He's the one that gave us our freedom. He'll never violate it. For those who are joining us by television, whatever country. Pray with us out loud, let's all of us pray with these amazing folks. The prayer. This amazing prayer request. When Jesus comes in. Let's all pray together out loud, just say:
Dear God. Thank You for sending Jesus. Who died in my place. And qualified me. For heaven, and to be in your family. Jesus, come into my heart. I'm following You as my Saviour and Lord. For the rest of my life. In Jesus' name, amen.