Leon Fontaine - The Meaning in a Name
Hey, it's good to have you with me today. We're gonna talk about a fascinating topic. I wanna talk to you about the name of Jesus. Let's take a look at this. Because, you know, when you study names, why is the name of Jesus a swear word? Why don't they use somebody else's name? Like, Buddha. Why don't they use some other religious figure's name? Why in the English-speaking world when they slam their hammer on their nail, they use the name Jesus Christ? And if their mad about something they'll scream the name around people so that, it's just, oh, because the devil wants this name demeaned. He wants this name brought down. He wants it so that we don't even think that there is power in the name.
Now, I'm gonna read you. I wanna dive into some verses and we're gonna help you out because I'll make a couple of statements and then we'll talk about them some more. Jesus teaches and I'll show you in the Word that the name has been given to us. And that we can do the things He does if we use His name. And that when we use His name, all the power that is behind that name is the power that is available to us. And so Jesus, it talks quite a bit about this in the Word. I often like talking about the Power of Attorney. And how that if you're gonna help a friend out who wants to give you the Power of Attorney because they're sick or because they have to fly away to another place. You have access to whatever they have, all of their wealth, all of their buildings, lands. You can influence all the staff that run their businesses. The Power of Attorney is complete. Power and control overall assets and businesses, etcetera.
So what's behind the name of Jesus? And Jesus very clearly tells us that He's given us access to that name. Here's what it says, most assuredly, I say to you. This is Jesus in John 14. He who believes in Me. So we've gotta believe in Jesus. The works that I do, Jesus says, He will do also and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. All right, the name of Jesus. It says here that, it doesn't say Jesus I'll confer with my father. We'll sit down and talk about your request. We'll take it before the twelve disciples and we'll vote and see if you qualify for the thing that you're asking for. It doesn't say, or after a lot of time suffering and struggling, we'll give it to you. He literally says, you ask and you use my name, I do it.
Now, that's a remarkable thing to say. Now, let's look at the word "ask". Because now I have seen lots of people who they asked and to them the word ask means to beg. So that they'll pray kind of like this, "Oh, please Jesus. Please Jesus, I'm ask. You said I can ask. I'm asking you please, heal my brother. Please fix these finances. Please help my marriage. Oh, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Please Jesus". And they use the name like that. That is not what this is talking about. This says simply whatever you asked in my name, I will do it. Now the word "ask" in the original when you look up the word there in the Greek for ask, it actually says the original word is of uncertain origin. Okay, so there some uncertainty with this word ask. But some of the other ways this Greek word is use it means to require something. So it means to call for something.
So both of those could have been used by the translators if the word ask to you means begging. And then it really changes its meaning. It says and whatever you call for in my name, I'll do it. Whatever you require in my name, I will do it. Another word is declare. Whatever you declare in my name, I will do it. And I think the word ask has taken some people to this begging situation. It reminds me even when all of us Fontaine all get to the family. I get to a supper table together and we're all eating. I mean, there's like 12 of us all down this huge long table. And if you want food, you can't get up and get it. It's way down there.
So you asked for it to be passed to you. Now, so I say, "Jeremy please pass the potatoes". Now, that asking is not a begging. It's not pleading. It's not bugging. In fact, it's just how we move things around the table. My son doesn't go, "Hey, you guys. Let's take a vote. Should we pass Leon the potatoes? All in agreement? Ah, we don't think we're gonna pass the potatoes, or no, I don't wanna pass it". It's just the way we move the food around the table. When you use the name of Jesus, it's the way we move things around this planet. We move out sickness and we move in health. We move out our poverty. We move in prosperity. So Jesus is saying, whatever you call for, whatever you require, whatever you ask for, here on this planet that use the name and I'll do it. The name of Jesus causes things to move. It releases the power of heaven. It destroys the forces that are coming against you. The name of Jesus.
The name of Jesus is the most misunderstood thing I've ever seen in the body of Christ. People will use the name at the end of a prayer like a salutation. You know, if I'm gonna say, "Dear Sally, I was thinking about you today. I'm out traveling right now. Love, Leon". It's kind of like in Jesus name. No, the name of Jesus cause things to move. It releases the power of heaven. It destroys the forces that are coming against you. The name of Jesus, I remember as a young man carrying, you know, Sally and I have five children and the time she'd be walking the floor and they'd be gasping for breath like these little babies do when they've got colds and flus and they're all plugged up and snuff off and they're crying and they're just breathing hard. I remember just using the name of Jesus and just speaking it over that little body. In Jesus name you're healed. Sinus is your whole. Viruses you are dead in this little body. It is strong. It is healthy. It is whole in Jesus name. I didn't beg and plead with God.
"Oh, God would You please touch my kid. What is wrong with You? This has been going on for two hours". I didn't do any of that because I knew He'd already given me all things that pertain to life and godliness. And I use the authority that had been given to me in the name of Jesus and I would just speak straight to it. I remember times in my own body. I would just use the name of Jesus. I remember when death threats would come from people. And I just kept declaring in Jesus name. No weapon forms against me shall prosper. Any person that rises up against me, I put that down. Every word they speak, I put it down in Jesus name. I'm not asking God to do something. I'm literally using the name and declaring things. I'm requiring things. I'm calling for things. I'm, etcetera.
When you speak about over your future with the Word of God and you use the name of Jesus. You, that is your authority. You know, I had a friend that was, asked me to use the Power of Attorney. I thought few people, two, actually three that have asked me to use the Power of Attorney over their things. One family had gone to a ruin country that didn't have a stable government. And said while they were gone would you please look after our accounts, our moneys so that if the government changes and they shut us down. We can't get out of the country. You use our money and you get us in a jet, a helicopter, whatever you need get us in and get us out. And, you know, when I would go sign at the bank, then I would sign my name on their checks and it would be POA that I would sign at the bottom. Which meant this person had given me the Power of Attorney and that they gave me their name. I could use their checks, their name. I signed my name at the bottom but it was Power of Attorney.
You have been given the name of Jesus if you are a born-again Christian. But if you don't know what's behind the name. If I didn't know where the bank accounts where, where are the businesses where, where to go. I didn't know any of that stuff. Then, me having the Power of Attorney with their name doesn't help me. You need to know what Jesus' has done. That He's died on the cross. That He has set you free. That sickness and disease was paid for and He'll never use it to teach you anything. God will never use sickness. He'll never use poverty. He'll never use calamity as one of His teaching tools. No, people, "Well, Leon experience is a good teacher". Experience is not the best teacher. Holy Spirit is the best teacher. And if you don't listen to Him, you'll have to learn by experience, not because God wills it. But because He's trying to teach you.
You know, don't run red lights. So as you keep doing that you're gonna get hit and that accident and, you know, and the bumps and the bruises and the hospital time and the loss of money is gonna teach don't run red lights. But that wasn't His will, those who don't listen. And so you and I need to understand something, that when we want the miraculous in our lives, stop begging, bugging, pleading. I've watched people pray as they wept and prayed at the altar begging God to save their son who was unsaved and run away from home. I'm going, "This is bad. This is like all the other religions where they have to bring food and plead with their Gods and their idols. They have to walk on their knees up all these steps to please this unwilling God and pierce themselves with nails through their mouths and ears and noses. I've seen it and they're trying to get God to notice and look after them. That's not the God that we serve.
Jesus says here very clearly that you use my name. You declare, ask, require, call for something and I'll do it because you've used the name. You need to go on a search in the Bible of the power of the name. The authority in the name of Jesus. When Jesus told His disciples all power, all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. In the spirit realm, in the physical realm, in every area. The name of Jesus, everything bows to the name of Jesus. And then begin to use that name. Now, here's what exciting. They'll be a confidence that rises in you. When Peter grabbed that man at the gate, he explains the miracle in verse 16. Because he asked him, how do this guy who's been like laying for decades. How did this happen? And here's what they said, I love it in the Amplified. Peter explains it this way, "And Jesus name, His name through and by faith in His name, has made this man strong whom you see and recognize. Yes, the faith which is through and by Him, Jesus, has given this man this perfect soundness of body before all of you".
All right, Peter is saying very clearly that he used the name. And that when he used the name, He believed in the name. And that man was expecting to receive. Some people think that you can overpower others. That when you use the name of Jesus, you can get anybody healed. No, Jesus couldn't. In His hometown they were offended that He thought He was something special when that's Joseph's son. And it says, the whole area was offended by Him, turned off by Him. Literally offense is an anger. Offense is a pride. Offense, who does He think He is? And it says there he couldn't do any great miracles. So we know that that person has to be in agreement with you to use the name for someone else. This man, it says reach out or this man was looking at Peter expecting to receive. Peter, remember he walked by that man and said silver and gold have I none right now, but what I do have, I give.
Can you imagine the arrogance it sounds like of a person who's a Christian looking at a person and say, "Okay, I got something to give you. What I have, I give". Well, just a minute. Wouldn't you rather just pray? Jesus, you're the healer. Jesus, you're in heaven come down and touch this man. No, Peter had Jesus. He had the presence of Jesus, the power of Jesus. He had the name to release the power of Jesus. So he simply said, what I have, I give. And then he explains what he had. What did he have? He had the authority to use the name and this Jesus was in him. And like the power flowed out of Jesus into people that would touch Him. The power flowed out of Peter and the trigger was the name. The name released the power into him and straighten these legs, straighten these bones, and brought health and healing to muscles that were all shrunken and unused and that they were restored by the power of God.
I want you to start using the name. I don't mean to beg in the name. I mean, start declaring in the name, start calling for things. Start declaring for example, I walk in health in the name of Jesus. My immune system is strong in the name of Jesus. My kidneys work beautifully the way God designed them, in Jesus name. Everywhere I go I walk in the protection of God. Everywhere I go angels are in camped around about me from jets to cars. If you've got a son in the military, declare. Everywhere that boy goes the angels of God are in camped around about him and no weapon formed against him will prosper. We're not gonna be afraid of the arrow that flies by day. The bullets that fly by day or the terror at night.
In the name of Jesus, they walk in the protection of God. And you begin to use the name not begging. But here he's saying use it, require something, call for something in the name. I call for healing in Jesus name. I require protection in Jesus name. That's real arrogance there. You're commanding God. No, you're not. No, you're not. God's already given it to you. What you do is you're using the name to release His power, using the authority He's given you. Wouldn't it be awful? If I have a babysitter come and watch my five little children and said, I'm giving you authority over these five children. You're gonna determine where they go, what they do, what they eat, when they go to bed. Whatever they do, I'm giving you authority over my kids.
And I come home and I say, "Hey, I only count four". Oh, you know, one of them left. What? Why? Well, I didn't wanna think there it was my place to tell them they couldn't. They said they wanted to go and they left. How about I give you authority over that child. I want you to use your authority and keep that child. I don't care if they cry, kick, and scream. They're five years old and they're out in the streets somewhere? It's a crazy example but it's true. When the mayor of a city, you know, and they raise up a police chief. And they raise up all these policemen and women to go and to protect and they give them authority to stop cars. And a cop comes back and says, "Oh, you know, I saw this car going down the wrong way but I thought, well, I better be careful. I don't, you know, wanna".
No, the authority is to use and when you don't use the authority you've been given for the purposes of that authority people hurt and they suffer. The body of Christ today has been told to use the name. They're to use the name in cities. They're to use the name with their friends and families, in their own lives. They're to use the name to reach their neighborhood, to declare in the name of Jesus. That people are being saved and coming to church. That everywhere I go, I'm sharing the gospel. I'm compelling people to come, in the name of Jesus. I'm gonna win the lost to Christ.
The Bible says he who winneth souls is wise. The name, it's yours. Have you used it? Have you used it wrong? Maybe you need to learn the power behind that name. Maybe you need to get back into God's Word. And maybe you've been taught wrong. Maybe you've been raise in religion of begging, bugging, pleading, and humility is being so humble you could never dare ask for anything. The Bible's very clear, God says I wish above all things that you prosper and you be in health, 3 John 2. The Bible says He wants you and I to be, we're qualified, He wants us to be partakers of the divine nature. His nature is filled with healing, joy, peace, prosperity. God's Word is very clear.
So you have to make a decision. And I'm challenging you this, today in the last couple of minutes we've got, I wanna encourage you to begin to declare. In Jesus name, my family's healthy. In Jesus name, I speak peace on my house. Every time you go home. When you walk up to your door, drive up to your house. You say, "In Jesus name, I speak peace of this house". You know it's so powerful that the disciples were told when they said peace on this house, and if they were visiting somebody and they didn't like them and didn't want them. The peace they had spoken would return to them. That means an actual release of the power of peace goes when you say it.
Well, that's the case then say, "In Jesus name, I speak joy on my house. I speak peace on my house. I speak healing and health on my house. I speak discipline and all the blessing of God on my house". I'd be of not the spirit of fear in this house but the spirit of power, the spirit of love, and the spirit of a sound mind. Declare it. Call for it. When the Bible says here that yes, that we can ask. Jesus said if you can ask anything in my name, I'll do it. That same Greek word means call for anything in my name. Require anything in my name and I will do it.
Father, I pray right now, that the things we've talked about today are gonna drive deep into the heart of each person watching. And they're gonna begin to use the name of Jesus. Father, I pray they would start today. Guide them into great teaching. Guide them into a whole new level of faith and the miraculous as they understand and use the name of Jesus. I thank You for that now. In Jesus name. Amen.
A closing miracle, I read in the, one of our cities newspapers. A number of years ago about a Pitbull that it grabbed the neighbor's child and wouldn't let go. And they were hitting it with a bat and screaming at it. It was just horrible. And a neighbor who is a Christian walked over pointed at the dog and said, "In Jesus name, let go". And the dog let go instantly and ran off. And they reported in the papers like that on the front page. That the name of Jesus has made the Pitbull let go. I could tell you story after story of being attacked by a man with an iron, with a tire iron who wanted to kill me and just using the name on him and him dropping and running. Story after story of using the name for so many areas of God's power in our lives.