Leon Fontaine - Harvest God's Promises
Jesus start starts out in Mark chapter 4 by saying, "This is the way the kingdom works". Now, the kingdom is the kingdom of God. When you give your life to Jesus Christ, you might be on the planet, but you can live out kingdom principles and you can live in kingdom atmosphere even though this world has a bunch of pain and heartache and suffering. Jesus said, see, anytime Jesus talks about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. Do you know that probably the majority of the time He's not talking about the place called heaven. He's talking about the resources of heaven. He's talking about the power of heaven. He's talking about the peace, the joy of heaven being in us and impacting our lives down here.
So once you begin to understand that when you see how simple it is. I'm gonna bring up probably verses that you've seen a whole bunch of times. Jesus says it this way. This is the way the kingdom works. When you see that, when He goes, in Mark chapter 4 He goes, "This is how the kingdom works". My eye would, okay, I got to learn this. This chapter that I'm teaching from today, of all the chapters in the Bible and I've studied the Word for 40 years. This is the most studied chapter I do, is this one because this one has taught me how the kingdom works. This is where I figured out how to begin to see consistently the blessing, the favor, the miraculous, the power, the supernatural of God, not just once in a blue moon but consistently doing things in our life.
Jesus starts out this way. He talks about a farmer who's planting seeds and he's threw, back in those days they'd have a big sack of seed and he's throwing seed like this in the ground. Some seed falls on the road, some in shallow soil, some in rocky soil, some in soil full of thistles and thorns, and some in good soil. And He's telling the story and everyone's kind of going. And then He takes His twelve disciples. And here's the interesting about chapter 4. He takes His twelve disciples aside and He says it is not for them to know the mysteries that we're teaching. It's all in parables so that you can know.
And then He explains the teaching. And He says something really interesting. He says the seed that I was teaching about is God's Word. The soil and the four different kinds of soil is your heart. And He said in this chapter, if you will deal with your heart, you can have harvest, miracles. Harvest is another word for miracles. You can have every promise in the Bible can be harvested continuously and every day in your life. It's what this teaching carries on through. And so He says, now, when you begin to go to work with learning God's Word, He first shows us what to look out for. The first thing is the devil. He said that, when He's talking about how the seeds went on to the aground and it didn't go in the dirt and the birds came and ate up the seeds, and Jesus said these birds are demons.
In other words, the devil doesn't care if you come to church. The devil doesn't care if you have a cup of coffee and you sit here and listen to me talk. What he absolutely is afraid of is you doing the work of planting the Word. When you do the work of planting the Word in your heart, the Bible says in 1 Peter 24, the Word is unkillable, unstoppable, impossible to fail. So if the Word never fails, then the issue of the failures Jesus is talking about is the heart. It's not the seed. It's the heart. And He says how that, you know, one heart was so hard-packed the seed couldn't even get into it. The enemy came and just took it all away.
When you begin to grow in God's Word and get out to church and you want to learn some more. The enemy's gonna harass you. What I mean by that? He's gonna try to do something to get your attention off of the Word. He hasn't got enough power to hurt you. He's a wimp angel. But he loves to get your attention off the Word. Get you on something else. And then, Jesus said the second thing to lookout for. He said that when you first start growing and learning in the Word, people are gonna persecute you. What does that mean?
I'm amaze how many people come here and they say, "Leon, this church is amazing. It changed my marriage. I'm so excited. I've got a dream for my life, or I'm off this addiction, or I was just looking for something. My life's going well. But, oh, this just". And then all of a sudden, people talk to them. You go to what church? Is that Leon Fontaine? Is that healing and prosperity? You go really, really. And the persecution comes from people. And the enemy directs people against you. And you kind of go, "Well, I don't know. Maybe it is". And they begin to back away. And the enemy, what he really wants is for you not to get God's Word in your heart because when it grows to the full term, that's a miracle coming your way.
Then the third kind of soil or heart He talks about, is a heart that has got wrong priorities. You're focused on success and money and the deceitfulness of riches. Now, God has no problem with wealth. But when, it says that the deceitfulness of riches keeps you so focus, or fear and worry begin to come into your life. And the Bible says that none of the Word of God in those three kinds of hearts actually produces miracles. But then He says is a fourth kind where the heart is keep protected, looked after, and the seed grows and bears. And then it says you begin to harvest the seed and the seed is God's Word. It's His promises 30, 60, and a hundred-fold.
This is looking at a human being walking on the planet who although they live in this planet. They are functioning in the kingdom principles. They have kingdom resources. They have kingdom results, kingdom peace, kingdom joy. And it doesn't matter whether it's a psychiatrist or a medical doctor or a banker or a relationship or whatever it is. You begin to walk with this incredible advantage that any believer can have. And that is, you've learned to make the kingdom work. You see, you can live your entire life knowing Jesus and go to heaven when you die and only access earthly resources, only access your mental resources, only access your physical resources, and never learn to access the stunning phenomenal power of God.
In Ephesians 6:10 it says this, you be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. What did you say? If you said to me, "Leon, suck it up. Be strong". You're talking to me using my strength. You're talking to me using my mental energy. You're talking to me just be the man you're supposed to be. But when someone says you be strong in His power. How am I supposed to do that? And that's what it says in Ephesians. You be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Well, how can you be strong if it's up to Him to give it to me? Because He's already given it to you.
This is the problem with much of Christianity. We think that God decides miracles. He doesn't. And Peter, Peter is teaching us that God has given you all things that pertain to life and godliness. This entire teaching by Jesus is showing us that you're the farmer planting the seed. The seed goes into your heart, so God's Word goes into your heart. It begins to grow. Verse 26 and on says first the blade, then the ear. And then it says then the full harvest and you get the harvest. So if it's a verse on healing, you plant that healing scripture in your heart. You begin to keep planting it day after day. You keep speaking God's Word, meditating in God's Word, and you're planting this Word in your heart. It comes up. And when it's harvestable, that means you're harvesting it. That means you're deciding to take that miracle. It's not God holding it back. It's not God saying you can't have it.
It not God saying I got to teach you something, so you got to suffer a little bit longer. It's not in His timing. I hear it all the time. Oh, it's God's timing. No, it's not. Today is the day of salvation. Which means today is the day that what Jesus did on the cross. This salvation encompasses not just salvation from hell but sickness, disease, poverty, the entire curse of the law. Religion keeps making up these things. Like, well, you know, God allows it. We learned through our suffering. It's the Holy Spirit is such a lousy teacher that you have to burn. You know, I don't have to burn my child's hand with a match, to teach him not to play matches. I don't need to drop my kid off a house, to teach him to not climb on the house. You don't lock me up. But that's how people see God.
And as long as you believe that, the problem is it will happen to you because everything that comes your way, you're going, "Does God allowing this? Or, you know, I don't know Him. I don't know if I have enough power. Do I have enough faith? How can I change this"? All of these things are wrong. There's a verse in the Bible that says that one of the things that stops the power of God in a Christian's life is religious truths. It says that when you have heard a religious truth that comes against God's Word, that comes against miracles. It says that it makes God's Word of no effect.
I have found that Christians are harder to get healed and miracles than people off the streets. Do you want to know why? Because they have religious teaching that shuts down the miraculous flow that is supposed to be with them every day. Wherever you are right now, if you need God to touch you in your mind, in your body, in a relationship, finances, whatever it is. The power of God is not waiting for God to go, okay. It's already been given to you. Your spirit man is alive. God's Word is alive. And if you don't begin to plant God's Word in your heart, it will be like this.
Let's say a group of farmers got together and they're all chatting about what seed they planted this year, what they're expecting for prices on barley, whatever. And one guy, "Oh, you know". He says, "I'm believing for a great year. I didn't really have time to plant anything. But I'm believing gonna be a great year". Everyone's kind of go, "Is he okay? What's his smoking? Like, what does he mean"? He's a farmer who says he didn't have time to plant any seed. He's got all this property but he's still believing for a harvest. Yet, that's what Jesus is comparing the kingdom to. That if you want to see a consistent flow of the supernatural ministering to your body, ministering to your mind, ministering to your relationships, ministering to your future, ministering to your career, ministering to you in every area. Then the promises that are in God's Word aren't you just grab and say it like a magical hex.
O, bless the Lord, O my soul who heals all my diseases. Psalm 103, Psalm 103, Psalm 103. Jesus is here. That's like magic. The Word is to be planted, and when the Word is planted, it grows. The seed is never the problem. The soil is, which is the heart. And what's interesting is as you get into God's Word, as you make God's Word first place in your life, your whole world changes. How? Leon, how do you plant that seed? Well, when Jesus is teaching, He goes on to teach about a lamp. And He says if it's dark in here, there's no lights on. And all of a sudden, I have some light. The light from this iPad and it illuminates my surroundings. And Jesus is saying as you begin to plant God's Word in your heart, you begin to get a revelation.
What God believes, what God thinks begins to be illuminated in your heart. You begin to understand things as revelation comes to you. That comes from planting the Word in your heart. Then the next thing that Jesus teaches in there is that He teaches on focus. And He says, focus is a big issue. What do you focus on? And do you give your attention to? And He says in there that the level of attention you give to the Word determines the level of virtue that comes back to you.
Do you know how many people don't even study the Bible? And when I say, "Are you at least studying? Are you speaking His Word? Are you listening to Him? Do you carve out time every day"? Well, Leon, I'm telling you man. I just don't have time. I got a wife. I got kids. I got a husband. I got other things. You think you're special? Look around you. We all got the same stuff. That's like a farmer saying my prosperity is focused on the harvest. Didn't have time to plant. But we're believing for a good harvest.
That's like Christians who spend no time in the Word, speaking the Word. Speaking is so crucial because the Bible said life and death are in the power of the tongue. That like the bit in a horse's mouth. That Words that are spoken, that little bit controls a 2.000-pound horse. That little rudder on a ship. In the middle of a storm the rudder determines where the ship goes not the storm. And what is the rudder? It's what you say. And so even though it feels weird. You need to begin to find God's promises and you need to speak them out loud in your prayer time. Just, Father, Your Word says, and that verse is mine, in Jesus' name.
As you begin to speak His Word, it begins to plant seeds. Everyday you're planting seeds into your heart. Every day, by speaking and then as you speak, you're meditating. You're marinating in God's Word. And the intention that you give it changes everything. I'm talking to people around this planet and in this church. Who if I was to ask you, have you ever carved out a couple of months and just decided 30 minutes a day. I'm gonna listen to one teaching tape a day and then I'm gonna just spend some time another 15 minutes in the evening. Just 45 minutes just to spend in the Word. Speaking it. Listening to it. Speaking it. And see what Holy Spirit begins to teach me.
You do that, your life will radically change. Radically change! The Bible says the Word is unstoppable. It's unkillable. When you begin to declare, Jesus said the peace that I leave with you is My peace, not as the world gives. I walk in the peace of Jesus Christ because of what it says right there in John. And I start declaring that every day and my brains messing with me and I got so many storms going on. That peace gets planted in my own heart. Now, I'm dealing with something in my physical body. That's why I find the promise that says himself took my infirmities on the cross. That I am free from the curse of the law, Galatians 3:13. And I just in my quiet time, I just, Father, I am free from the curse of the law. No curse can touch my body, in Jesus' name. I walk in health, in Jesus' name. Your speaking this.
Now, as you speak this, you are renewing your mind. You are planting it in your heart. You are speaking into the two worlds, both this physical world and the spirit world. The Bible says the enemy listens to your words and must obey them. And then angels listen to your words and will obey them. This thing about confessing the word is so incredible, so powerful, so amazing. That you don't even have to figure this out. Just do it. And when you do, Jesus goes on to teach in Mark 4 and He says in verse 26, this is the way the kingdom of God works. That a man plant seed and then he goes to bed. And while he's sleeping the seed is growing and he doesn't know how. You can get your heart to a place of constantly never stopping speaking the Word, meditating in the Word, declaring what God's Word says. Or your heart it has pushed out the misbeliefs. It's pushed out wrong beliefs and all this good stuff gets planted.
Now, your heart is regularly daily producing a joy. It's producing peace. It's producing health. It's producing an expectation of prosperity and blessing. And as you continue to do this, your heart just produces on that soil, you don't even know how. You don't even know how. Why? Because you've done the work. Well, Leon, that's work. Come on lazy. Just listen up here. You work hard to pay for your house. You work hard to raise the money for your kids to go to the university. You've spent 15 years to be a surgeon. You've spent 5, 6 years to be a teacher. You can't spend 15, 20 minutes a day in the Word to have supernatural help in your life?
If I had, I got an edge today. I'm sorry. If I had a nickel for every Christian I talked to going through something and they want to know why. I'm going, "What do you mean why"? How come? There is no how come. You live on a planet where Satan is a god of this world, full of chemicals and sickness and accidents and disease and liars and cheats and backstabbers. And you wondered why? That's not the issue.
Let me ask you a question. What? How much time do you spend in the Word? Well, you know, I kind of know what the Word says. That's like saying to a guy who's starving. I don't have to eat because I know what chicken taste like. No, you still got to eat it. It's in the eating that you get energy. It is in the speaking of the Word. That as you are renewing your mind by speaking the Word. You are planting it in your heart. There is a future harvest coming. That harvest is unstoppable. It is unkillable. Unless you don't do the heart work. But when you begin to get into God's Word, and it will teach you walk in love. It will teach you forgive. It will teach you God's Word is powerful. It will show you Jesus took your sin on the cross.
That's a good thing to declare. I am free from the effects of my past. And in the name of Jesus, I am righteous because Jesus gave it to me as a gift. You start speaking that, shame goes away, condemnation goes away. If you deal with shame and condemnation, you should be speaking about how righteous you are as a gift because of Jesus. You should be speaking how that Jesus on the cross took every one of your sins and you're free from them. They shouldn't affect you. And as you speak this, you're planting a harvest of joy instead of guilt. You're planting harvest of peace instead of condemnation. People don't do the work.
Leon, it's not about work. This is grace. It's free. No, no. You understand something. I am not doing the work to earn it. I'm not doing the work to qualify myself. I am doing the work because He gave me a heart. He gave me a body. He placed me on the planet and said, "Here's the Holy Spirit. Here's the Word. Just get this in your heart and watch what happens". The Bible talks a lot in Proverbs. There's nobody here like that so no one to get offended. I hope. It has a lot to say about slothful people, lazy people. It talks about people who, you know, they're like leeches. They won't do the work them self. They hold on someone else to look after them.
Everybody in this room doesn't need to have a degree in anything. The simplicity of the Bible that Jesus has forgiven you. That you are His child. And now before you get to heaven when things will be perfect. You're living on a planet full of crap, junk. And if you want to walk in the blessing of God here, you got to get this mind renewed. Take captive thoughts. Pull down wrong thinking. Get it out of your life. And how do you do that? By speaking the promises of God, the Word of God, by meditating.
Get a hold of this message and go through it every day this week. And I'm telling you something tremendous will happen in your life. And every day go through at least one message. Everyday find a promise and begin to speak it, personalize it. When you do this, you are dealing with the heart. You're a wise farmer who's preparing the soil. And it's no longer gonna be, "Well, Leon, the miracle comes when God wills it". No, no. The only prayer in the Bible where Jesus said if it be thy will, wasn't about sickness, disease, protection. It was simply about Him going to the cross for us. No other place. Once you know God's will, you don't pray if it be your will.
And so as we understand this powerful process. If you do not begin to speak and personalize the Word, some time to think about it, to recognize what Jesus has done. If you don't consistently speak His Word each day like that, you will always struggle with miracles. And when you run into crisis which will be all the time. Why? Because even if you don't have one, your boss will. The guy driving the wrong way down the highway will. You're surrounded by people and issues and problems and governments and you name it. So you're not gonna get out of this world free. Stuffs gonna happen. But as we take His Word and speak it. Pay attention to His Word. You're gonna see incredible things begin to take place in your life. Keep speaking His Word. Keep believing His Word because that seed is growing, and that harvest time is going to come.