Leon Fontaine - Fighting For A Great Future
I want to talk today about the word of God and I want to show you what is the best way for us to fight. There's not just one way but I want to talk about prayer. And I want to show you how powerful it is. We should always be proactive voting. We should always be helping the poor and the marginalized whenever we can. We shouldn't just be taking a backseat and just kind of living our little lives and well that's another country, it doesn't matter I mean that's a whole 'nother topic but I love the fact that our country gets involved and that we care. We want to help people.
In Flanders fields is a poem that I think every. I know when I went to school every person had to memorize it and I remember I had to memorize it and I still have it in my memory but there's this one verse that I wanted to start off with in this. There's one, couple lines it says, take up our quarrel with the foe, to you with failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high and then it goes on. You know what we've got to remember that freedom is not free, that people have paid an incredible price for our freedom. They've died stopping to tyranny, stopping evil people from over running our countries who would take away the freedom of serving Jesus, who would literally do evil things because they were demon possessed leaders fighting to take over this world or to do wicked things.
So we need to learn to fight as believers. What do we do. It's amazing to me as I travel how few people actually pray for their leaders. You know the Bible very clearly teaches us that we should do that. In first Timothy 1:18, Paul's talking to a young man Timothy and he says this charge I commit to you son, Timothy according to the prophecies previously made concerning you that by them you may wage the good warfare. We need to know as believers there's a war going on. They're trying to take away our rights and privileges and not allow Christianity and all its beautiful principles to go forth. They're trying to stop us, silence us in every possible way from ridicule in movies and talk shows to laws that stop us from teaching the truths of the Bible.
There's a war on the kingdom of darkness against the kingdom of light and there is no demilitarized zone. You're not just going to be able to say, I'm opting out and no, you're not. You're going to be affected by this so what can we do as Christians? Someone said, well takes more than prayer and I totally agree yet I don't find too many people praying. And so, I want to show you something from the word that I hope will revolutionize your life and changed the way you pray every day and you'll add this to your prayer list. In 1 Timothy 2. Here's what it says, so first and foremost, I urge people to pray.
All right this is the most important thing. First and foremost before everything we do, going into battle, going into work, going into hospital. Before we do anything it is I urge you foremost first pray then it says they should make their requests, petitions and thanksgiving's on behalf of all humanity. Teach them to pray for the kings or any one in high places of leadership so that we can lead a quiet and peaceful life, reverent, Godly, holy, all of which is good and acceptable before the eyes of God, our savior who desires for everyone to be saved and know the truth because there is one God, one mediator between God and us. The man Jesus, God's anointed who gave his life as a ransom for all so that we might have freedom. The testimony was given to me at just the right time, Paul is saying.
This is exactly what I was appointed to do, to tell everyone Jesus story as a Herald, an emissary, a teacher of the outside to the outsiders in faith and of the truth. Listen, I promise it's all true. I'm not lying. All right this is from the voice translation and I want you to notice something that a lot of people don't realize. It says here the reason we are praying for leaders is so we could have a life that's peaceful, Godly, quiet. Leon, we can't have that there's role wars and rumors of wars. It's all over the world, the end times is coming. Okay, you know, you and your end time stuff need to be a little bit careful because a lot of teaching I hear in the end times isn't even biblical it. It just sells great books as people wax eloquent with their imagination.
We know Jesus is coming back. We know things can get worse in the world but he's commanded us to disciple nations. He's commanded us to take this gospel to the world and he is saying here the reason to pray for leaders is so you can live a quiet, Godly life. Do you want turmoil? Do you want beheadings and killings and wars and all? Christians must pray and the promise is that if we pray that we can lead quiet, peaceful lives. Reverent, Godly, holy, we're allowed to serve God. We're allowed to live holy and this is acceptable. It says before the eyes of God our savior and it says who desires for everyone to be saved. God desires for everyone to be saved and the key to this is leaders.
I'm sorry but I've just found it so many believers don't pray for leaders. They'll complain and talk about their president Trump. They'll complain and talk about our prime minister Trudeau. They'll complain and talk about but they will pray for them or if they do is Lord take them out. No, the Bible says that we are to pray for them. It doesn't say that we're to curse them. We're to pray for them so I want to show you 3 ways to pray for leaders. If you're in a company, did you know you're to be praying for your leader or whoever you work for, are you praying for the boss because if you're not, you won't need a quiet and prosperous and blessed life even in your career? Why? Because you need to be praying. God's promises if you pray for people in leadership that then your life will be blessed because they've got the power to bless you. They've got the power to understand you, they've got the power.
So from prime ministers, presidents, kings, despots, horrible dictators. We should be praying for them. We should be praying for Russia, praying for China, praying for America, Canada, all of them. Pray for the leaders. We need to take some time each day. Now. Someone says, Leon, how do we pray for these people? Well I believe that just saying Lord, save them. Lord, save them. Lord, save them. Lord, save them. I don't think that's the way to pray. You know a lot of people talk about Old Testament promises and they'll say this. We've got to seek God's face. That's an Old Testament comment. When we when you were to go see the king you would get in front of his face and he had to put his scepter out to receive you so you can speak to the person in authority.
Today we don't have a like that anymore. Today Jesus is within us. We've been given authority. He died for us. He says you speak to mountains. You declare so we pray differently today than they did in the Old Testament so I want to take you and show you 3 of them but first of all let's go to James 5:16 and the last half of the version the Amplified says this the earnest heartfelt continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available, dynamic in it's working. Did you know that if you're a believer you are righteous because God gifted you with righteousness? You are in right standing with God not because of your behavior or your perfection because Jesus gave you the gift of righteousness and you're to believe it so we're to pray passionately and we're to pray knowing that we are righteous, that we have the authority to pray this way so Ephesians 1 gives us the first prayer that we should be praying for our leaders.
Now verses 7 if you want to learn this write this down. Verses 17 to 23, this entire prayer is about leaders having an aha moment. You see the enemy of our souls, the devil, will use people to speak into their ears, to lie to them. You can read stories of the Bible of where leaders have had someone whispering in their ear and it caused death and destruction, where the enemy would go in there and woo them and make them think and believe and feel certain things so when you pray this prayer it literally says that you'd give this leader the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of Jesus, the eyes of their understanding opened. This prayer put the leader's name in there and say I pray for our leaders that the eyes of the spirit of wisdom on of revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened, that they would know the hope of God's calling upon them. What are the riches of the glory of the inheritance on Christians, the exceeding greatness of God's power to us who believe.
This entire prayer is for someone who's blinded or they could be a wonderful Christian but they need more clarity. They need wisdom to make decisions. This prayer is really effective for leaders who don't follow Jesus, who are listening to the wrong voices. They literally have a wrong thinking, wrong decisions that are being made. Pray this prayer and put their name in that every day. It's not just get up and say Lord, save them. Lord, save them. Lord, change them. Lord, change them. Lord, change them. Lord, save them. Lord, save them. That vain repetition is not what prayer means. Prayer means to be effective. Prayer means to know how to pray.
The Bible says in Corinthians 4:4 that Satan as the God of this world blinds the eyes of their understanding. He'll surround them with people, make them think that what they're doing is right, proper but it's not and so if we want to see what we fought for, if we want to see what soldiers have died for then we must wait a good warfare according to the word of God and that means to pray. Right now if we've got soldiers are we do out there defending and protecting, we should be praying for those soldiers for protection, for blessing. Pray this upon the commanders who lead them into the raids and lead them into stuff that they would have the spirit of wisdom of revelation. God will guide them, lead them for protection.
For leaders is what I'm talking about right now. Countries, pray Ephesians 1. Now another prayer that we need to pray is Ephesians 3. The apostle Paul is showing us how to pray and he literally is praying these prayers all the time. If the apostle Paul is showing what to pray we should be praying. He says in the third one for this reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and it says that he would grant according to the riches of his glory that you would be strengthened with might through his spirit in your inner man that Christ would dwell in your hearts through faith. You'd be rooted and grounded in love, able to comprehend with all the saints this incredible love.
This is talking about, now when you've got someone who's making right decisions let's say it's a prime minister, it's a president who's on the right track and he's being attacked and being attacked and being attacked you know, the enemy's trying to wear them down. Did you know that you can pray for strength in the inner man? The presence of God would go in there and gird them up and strengthen them, that they would feel his peace in the middle of demonic because Satan uses people and it's a demonic attack. I know over the last 30 years I can't believe the stories I've heard about me, the things people have said about me, the things they have taken on and lied convincingly to make me look bad and make people disbelieve me or leave the church. And so I know in my limited area that when you're going to lead an entire country and try to move it towards good things, the enemy will try.
How can we strengthen that leader? We can strengthen them by praying Ephesians 3. Ephesians 1 is them having an aha moment then beginning to listen to Holy Spirit, them beginning to reject the forces of darkness' wisdom and evil cunning and plans and they begin to realize that they can follow the word of God. Men and women of God and the Holy Spirit begins to enlighten them on the inside but Ephesians 3, we need to pray to strengthen them. We need to pray Lord, give them strength that they are on the right path making right decisions, that evil men, evil women can't just side or do something to them or even kill them when they're on the good side.
How many leaders have been killed because they're doing the right things? Pray for protection as well. A third prayer that I believe we should be praying for our leaders is Colossians 1:9-4. It says for this reason we also since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, it says, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Did you know that you can know the will of God? Not just in the Bible verses but if you're praying for your president, if you're praying for your prime minister, for the leader of your country, they need wisdom. Sometimes as they look at world affairs, financial affairs, as they look at military issues as they look at evil man an atomic bombs and all the stuff that's going on out there, they need to be filled with the knowledge of God's will.
God knows whether we need to do sanctions, whether or not we should attack, whether or not we should shut this thing down, whether or not the people who are wooing them as a leader to partner with them are evil or right. They need to be filled with the knowledge of God's will and this prayer goes on to show us strengthened with might that what we're doing is doing, we're bearing fruit in every good work. You know what we want our prime minister, we want presidents, we want leaders of countries to bear fruit which means the decisions are making are good for our country, good for our families, good for Christianity, good for health, good for military, good for everything.
We can pray Colossians 1:9 and pray that the wisdom of God that they're drawn to because evil men and evil, if you think for a moment the kingdom of darkness is going to stop trying to take captive whole countries, what's the best way for the enemy to take captive whole countries? To go after the leaders, to surround them with wrong people, to tempt them into arrogance, to tempt them into self centeredness, to tempt them and even lie to them, to literally begin to take them down a road of thinking that makes it look as if they think they're doing right but what they're doing is evil or down the road they don't see the consequences of the decisions that they're making. These 3 prayers, the first one makes some have an aha moment and begin to listen to the wisdom of God. The second one which strengthens them on the inside gives them power to stand strong when they're doing good things.
The third one is to have them so aware of wisdom and all the things in the decisions that they're making from everything from schools and universities to trade to finance. We need leaders who know what they're doing. We need to pray for our country, pray for our prime minister. You know can you imagine what would happen? If I was to ask myself right now I wonder how many people are praying. For the leader of their nation. In Canada where I am it's Trudeau. I wonder how many people are praying for him and how many people are speaking wisdom, this first prayer, praying for a revelation, praying for strengthening towards good things and towards God that God's strength would be upon him, pray that for wise decisions in all the affairs.
There's no way for a prime minister or president to know it all. There is no man that can walk in and know how to deal with everything from foreign affairs to deal with things like what's going on within the country, what's going on in education, what's going on in trade, what's going on in hospital, should be allowed these vaccines, are these drugs any good, should natural phatic herbs, all this stuff that is being thrown at these leaders, they need wise women and men in each of these areas to guide them and to speak truth into their life. When we pray these prayers for our leaders and I hope you've written down or get a hold of this message when you pray for them I believe the presence of God will be upon them and if all of a sudden 100 begin to pray did you know that one man prayed and God said he would spare all of Sodom and Gomorrah because one man was praying.
When you go to the Old Testament, we don't have the authority and the power like we have in the New Testament. I challenge men and women out there to begin to pray in your morning prayer times, evening prayer times, every time something bothers you on TV or on the news, pray the spirit of wisdom of revelation of the knowledge of Jesus upon my leader to the eyes of their understanding opened in Jesus name. If all of a sudden you know you should pray Colossians or pray Ephesians 3 they'd be strengthened with God's power in their inner man. The strength to do morally what's right, the strength to stand strong when the lies in the onslaught of the enemy come against them, pray Colossians chapter one, Father, that they're gonna literally know how to please you in all ways that they're going to know how to make decisions, they're going to bear fruit, every decision is going to be the right one and it's gonna bear fruit and bring blessing to the country.
Pray these prayers, protect that man in the name of Jesus. Speaking of help and blessing upon him but as we pray for our leaders now I'll go as far as to say this if you pray for leaders in your country and no other leader does, no other person does and that country falls or that country goes evil or killing and destruction begins to happen there, I believe because the Bible says if we pray we could lead a quiet and peaceful and a Godly life. I believe that even if you're in a country where no one prays and everything's gone to hell in a hand basket and soldiers come in and I believe God will guide you and He will guide you to the right place of safety, He will guide you to that place called there where he'll you look after you. He'll warn you in advance, take you out of that country whatever He needs you to do, whatever. He will guide you because you've been praying for leaders so let's make sure and understand that we are commanded to pray for leaders and it says first of all you know.
You say, Leon, I need a good job, then pray for the nation because what goes on in the laws that are being made, the decisions that are being made by the prime minister, by the presidents, by kings in countries the decisions they make is what determines prosperity or depression. It determines whether or not the country's gonna go and thrive and rise to the top in this world economy or the country's gonna go down. We need wisdom on leaders so we need to be thankful for what our men and women have fought for. We need to be excited about being proactive now and they're saying. I love this poem you know take up the quarrel, don't just do nothing. When good men do nothing evil men prosper, when good men do nothing evil men lead, when good men do nothing evil men will rise up and their ways will be brought into leaders and you're going to suffer and live in torment and heartache if you don't pray for leadership.
Pray for prime minister, pray for the leaders of each province here, pray for them believe God these preemies are taught of God. Please pray for the mayors of your city, pray for the leader of your organization, whatever's got you employed, pray for anybody it says that it's got leadership and authority over you, finances, people, money, pray for the leaders, pray for the heads of hospitals, pray for that people make decisions about healthcare, pray for these people in the government. When you pray, the Bible says Godliness, the Bible says that you can have peace, you could have prosperity, you can have this, God did not design Jesus to come to the world you just go to hell in a hand basket and I'm going to take this on in the two minutes we've got left.
That the end times theory that goes around and you know there's got to be at least 20 different theories out there about the end times, anytime the end times shows a defeated church, anytime it shows a church that is not gonna disciple countries, that can't raise up great leaders and rise to the top, anytime we've got that that's a wrong doctor.
So I'm going to challenge you to date pray. I am calling our nation to prayer. I am holding and not a vain repetition. Take these 3 prayers and pray them, pray them over every leader in your life and especially the leader of our nation and let's watch what God does to Canada. Let's watch what God does in America. We need America strong, Canadians. Pray for America, pray for the leaders there, bind the power of the enemy. Command his thinking, his strategies, destroyed and the presence of God rising up in our leaders.
Father, I pray in Jesus name for our leader now here in Canada. I pray for our prime minister Trudeau that he'd have the spirit of wisdom of revelation of the knowledge of you, the eyes of his understanding opened, that Father, he would know, Lord, the presence of God. He would know your thinking. He would know your plans for this nation. I pray that you would strengthen him in his inner man with Godly strength, moral strength, that Father, he'd be aware. Father, I pray that he would bear fruit in every decision, every good work that he would not move his ear or his eyes or his thinking towards anything evil or wrong but Father he would be a great leader that Father, he would rise up and lead this nation powerfully in the ways of righteousness and in the ways of great finances, great health care, great trade, great wisdom and all that he does. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.