Leon Fontaine - Activating the Miraculous
As a young teenager, later in my teens. I got involved working in a hospital where I began to, I joined a pilot project. There weren't any paramedics in Manitoba at that time. So they decided to use our hospital and trained people in the ORs, Resus rooms, the doctors, and the nurses there. And I was so privileged to be one of the ones that was chosen and got involved. It was the start of the paramedic program that now was running really well in the province. But as I began to look at a lot of the pain and the heartache and the brutality of murders and knifings and fights and accidents and all the things that I began to see. My heart began to just cry out. That isn't there an answer for a hurting world? Where are the miracles? Where are, where's the church? Wherever we go that is able to pray and to see healings, miracles, you know, incredible things.
And so I began to look and study more. I began to look, and I began to read some of the wonderful believers, pastors, and leaders in the Eastern world. I mean, we're in the west. In here in the West, we want it now. We want it fast. We want popcorn but we don't want to cook it on the stove. I'm going to make it two minutes and twenty seconds. That's how I do it for. You've got a whole bag of popcorn. And everything about the west is fast. But I began to read great men and women of God from the East. And they, a lot of them would talk about what it was like to spend time meditating in God's Word and how it would increase the presence of God on your life. It would increase the results that you needed in business, family, miracles, the gifts of the Spirit, you know, your faith. That everything in your life would increase.
And so as never before I began to hunt down some of the best teachers I could find, and I'd go through all my mom and dad's stuff. And I began every day, I began to spend time in God's Word, and something began to happen to me. And I began to recognize that if we aren't careful as the church of Jesus Christ, that we get caught up in the world's way of living. And yes, you can have microwave popcorn, but you can't have microwave relationships. And as I begin to meditate in the Word, I would spend time each morning. Back then I would get a hold of cassettes of men and women of God and I would listen to them. I would read books. I would mark them up so bad. I mean, you know. And today, and I've never stopped.
And as a teenage boy, God began to use me to witness. I led so many people to Christ on their deathbeds before they went, in the back of the ambulances. I had to learn. Here is where I began to develop what we now called, "The Spirit Contemporary Life". Because I realized everyone doesn't want you praying with somebody in a hospital room or speaking life as you do CPR in the Resus room. In fact, I was written up a couple of times. And when a couple of times the Union had to fight for me to keep my job and I realized that I don't have to let everybody know what I'm doing. I could do it a contemporary way of sharing my faith. I could pray with somebody without bowing my head or closing my eyes. I can literally speak life to someone without saying in the name of Jesus you have. I can literally just begin to pray in a way that people just didn't know what's going on and just allowed me to begin to minister from room to room, in ORs, Resus rooms. They had no idea what I was doing.
The absolute key was never leaving God's Word. But everyday if I can, and if I'm missing a day or here or there. I'd always go straight back into the Word. Jesus said in John 6:63 that the Word of God is Spirit and life. In Mark 16:20 it says that when Jesus arose from the dead, the disciples went everywhere preaching the Word and that God confirmed the Word of God that was being shared with signs and wonders and miracles and healings. Oh, sorry. He didn't confirm their whining. He didn't confirm their crying. He didn't confirm their stories. Although stories encourages people. It is the Word of God. It says in Mark 16:20, "And they went forth preaching everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following".
I love working with my kids. They're all young adults and just stunning young men and women. And often I'll ask them, "What are you praying about? What are you seeking God for"? And I want to get in agreement with them. One time I was just chatting with one of them and that they share the, a thing they're believing God for. And I just asked just kind of nonchalant. And so all right, "What verse are you standing on"? Because I want to get in agreement with them. And their comment was, "Well, I'm just declaring positive affirmations". And I said, "No, we need a verse". I have found.
And so we began to talk together and find a couple of verses that promised what it was they wanted and then we got in agreement together, because it is the Word that God confirms. It is the Word that will grow your faith. It is the Word that causes you to believe in His grace. And when you get out of this Word, when you stop going to church. You know, it's a funny thing. When you're hungry and you don't eat, your appetite goes up. You get hungrier and hungrier. But when you stop spending time in the Word, stop going to church or courses or classes, spending time in the Word each day by yourself in the Bible or in a great book. That you lose the desire for God's Word. And so only discipling yourself to get back in the Word.
And as you get back in the Word, you begin to again develop the taste for the Word, a desire for the Word. And it scared me one time when I literally just, I've been discouraged years and years ago as a young guy and I remember getting out of the Word. I remember not doing the things like I used to do and just thought, "Ah, nothing seems to go wrong". And I'll never forget a storm in my life rising up, that almost took me out, almost lost my faith, and I realized, "Woo"! You know, the Bible says there's two houses. One built on the rock, one built on the sand. When the storm came, it didn't strengthen either house. It destroyed one and the other it couldn't shake. And I recognize the reason you need to get into God's Word is you can get up and be successful in every area of life. But also so that when storms come, you can't be shaken. Can't be shaken. You need the Word of God.
In Romans 10:8-10, it teaches us that any area that you want to see miracles, the Bible uses the word salvation. It literally means saved from sickness, saved from poverty, saved from the enemy, saved from anything the curse of the law would try to do. It literally says the Word of God must be in your mouth. The Word of God must be in your heart. And I began to rise every morning and I've never stopped. And I began to talk back to the crazy things that were going on in my head. You know, the enemy will shoot darts at your head about you especially. People don't like you. People don't want you. You're not good enough. Everyone else is smarter. And all these crazy thoughts. They're talking about you over there and you don't fit in over here. I mean, as he can get one of those thoughts to hook.
So you start believing a lie. He's accomplished what he wanted to do. See, the devil's got no power. So he's got to turn yours against you. And I realized the greatest thing I could do was down hold the Word of God into my mind, my heart through my mouth by praying the Word, speaking the Word. And that when I did that, that when stuff came against me, I would go right through. And I found that the burden was easy when I stayed in the Word. I said, "Easy". Yes. But when I got out of the Word, it's like I couldn't control the fear. My own emotions would be going all over. The temptation to quit. The temptation to back off and not press on. All these temptations if I didn't stay in the Word, I found that they were beginning to win. They began to slow me down. They began to push me back.
I find all these little fires I was trying to put off. But when I got back into the Word, I would walk into situations and know what to do with peace, with strength, declaring the Word of God and seeing the miraculous presence of God make the difference, because everybody here you've been called to live a life beyond what you're able to accomplish. You cannot accomplish what God has called you to do without Him and His Word. A stunning verse that changed my life as a young man was in Ephesians 6. And I was studying the Greek word for Word because in the Greek there's lots of different words for the Word of God. Three of the main ones is the word "Logos". Which is the meaning, you know, the revelation of God's Word. Then there's "Rhema" which means the spoken word.
Then there's "Graphe" where we get our English word graph from, and it literally means just the written word. And so as I was reading this, it said that when you put on God's armour, you are given a sword. And that the sword in verse 17 to 20 is the sword of the Spirit. Or one of these versions I think it's the ASV says. It is the sword that the Spirit wields. Now, he's not talking about the Holy Spirit. He's talking about your human spirit filled with Holy Spirit. And that this is the sword of your human spirit which is praying the Word. As you begin to meditate in the Word, you begin to deal with situations, speak to mountains, speak to things that are going on, and your words are so filled with the strength of God as faith rises in you. And I begin to recognize it. Anything God has called me to do, I could never do on my own. So when I'm weak, He's strong. When is He strong and I'm weak? When I stay in God's Word.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that if you do not spend time in the Word of God everyday meditating, you will not be thoroughly equipped. You're missing equipment. You're missing skills. You're missing things that only the presence of God can give you. And so if you want to be thoroughly equipped, it says, then you must study the scriptures for doctrine, for correction, for reproof, for instruction, to understand righteousness that the man or woman of God maybe complete. But so many people don't do that. All they got time for CNN to watch it 14 times. They got time for, you know, movie channels and anything to fill their time. But if you don't start, and I want you to start today to find a great teaching book or a great message series or something that begins to get you every day spending a little time in God's Word. Something in you will change.
In the Bible there's, in the Old Testament there's often different stories and analogies that are kind of a teaching about Jesus. When the children of Israel were coming out of Egypt, the exodus, and going towards the promised land, there was no way to carry food for a couple million adults. So God caused every morning heavenly bread called manna to just appear on the desert floors. And they would get up every morning. Moms would go out. Men would go out and they gather enough for that day. Some at the beginning were afraid that maybe God wouldn't show up tomorrow, so they gather more than they needed. It would always rot during the night. Or in other words, you had to every day go out and collect manna. That is a beautiful Old Testament picture of you need God's Word every day. To think on it, speak it, pray it. Let it just sink deep in your heart. It will bring peace to your emotions, healing to your body. It will bring an ability to take relationships to new places. It will keep you humble rather than pride which will destroy your life.
There's something about the Word of God that is alive. There's something about the Word of God that will change you from a natural person into a supernatural person. I deal with people a lot who can't control their emotions. They can't seem to live in happy. They can't seem to live in joy. They can't seem to walk in peace, and it's up and it's down. And they say, "How do you do it"? And say, "I'm binding the devil. I'm praying". No, no. That's not what does it. What does it is taking the Word and feeding on the bread of life which is Jesus. And what is Jesus? He's the Word.
When I get out of the Word, I'm a mess. If I spend a number of days not just spending some time in the Word. Oh, man. I could just feel my stomach start to tense. I wake up in the morning and now the hundreds of problems that I'm looking at in all the different organizations and the things that we're doing around. That they just start to eat away at me, and I start to go, "Oh"! But when I'm in the Word, I could easily walk into meetings and situations and hear about things and I just have this confidence. God will make a way. He will show me what to do. I will know where, how, when, why because He is with me. That confidence only comes when I spend time in the Word of God. And because it is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God praying, situations would arise that I see beginning to form and I would just declare, and I would speak to the mountain. But I would speak to the mountain with the promise from God's Word and things would happen.
There's an amazing story that you have all heard before. But let me bring it to you in maybe a different way. Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus has been baptized by John the Baptist. He hasn't yet done one miracle. He's in the wilderness where He is being tempted by the devil. He hasn't eaten in 40 days and the devil comes to Him and he begins to tempt Him out of His ministry, tempt Him away from His focus and what He's been called to the planet to do. Which is why, by the way, he tempts you into sin, to get you off direction because everyone of you have an amazing call, to do stunning things for God. Whether it's business and arts or music or medicine, etcetera. And within our lives He wants us to succeed.
So the enemy comes to Him and he says to Jesus, "If", I don't like him so I'm going to make his voice sound bad. "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But Jesus answered and said, 'It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God"'". You see, I always thought when I read this, "Jesus, why You're putting up with this jerk? Why didn't You just flick finger and boom! Just knock him into another dimension". Well, He couldn't and there's a whole story to that because this lease that is on the planet, okay? Many Bible experts think it's about 7000 years that Adam and Eve had, the enemy got it and his time is going to run out soon and one angel will throw him into the lake of fire forever. But here his time isn't up.
And so Jesus uses the Word on him like you and I can. So He said, "It is written". I have found that whenever I pray about a situation I always allow Holy Spirit to bring a verse up on the inside of me. So when I pray, I pray the Word. So then it says, "The devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, 'If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone'".
Now, did you know the devil quotes scripture? I had been with leaders. I had been at conferences. I worked with people that have the craziest beliefs. And I'm going, "What in the world"! The devil loves to quote scripture and he'll misquote it. He'll quote it at the wrong times. He'll bring confusion, condemnation. He'll quote it out of context. He'll do whatever he can to make you feel condemn. He'll plant thoughts in your head that make you feel like you don't fit. You don't belong. You're not as smart as anybody else. You're not as good as anybody else. You can't do this. What's wrong with you. It's always about you that he's trying to make your beliefs turn against you. So Jesus literally again says, "It is written". A second time Jesus says first, "It is written, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God".
Well, the devil didn't quiet there, took Him again to an exceedingly high mountain showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Jesus, "All these things I'll give You if You'll fall down and worship me". We understand that Jesus came to the planet to get the kingdoms of this world, to become the God. You know, the kingdom of God being here taking out the kingdom of darkness. He was going to die on the cross for mankind and the devil's offering Him all of this. Jesus says, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve'".
The devil left Him, behold, angels came and ministered to Him. God's Word was never designed to sit in a book. Never designed just to be a part of a Bible. It was designed to get into your heart because your spirit needs to wield the sword of the Spirit and change was going on around you. Would you go ahead and just go to church once every few weeks and don't spend time meditating in the Word. And I'm telling you, there won't be much difference between you and the world. But if you will take this powerful message, this truth that rock to change my world. I can never be without the Word of God. It's my sustenance. It's my daily bread. It's what I need emotionally. It's what I need spiritually. It's what I need physically. It's what I need relationally. It's what I need for what God's called me to do for career. It's what I need for the future. It's what I need for any storm or demonic attack. That no weapon formed against me prospers and any mouth that rises against me I put it down.
There are times, I got to be careful. Whenever I preach on this, I'll start quoting the scripture and sometimes I just don't want to stop. It just feels so good to speak the Word, speak the Word, speak the Word because I do that on my own in the car by myself. And when I'm done, I just feel like 10 feet tall. It's like God is all over me on the inside. If you're tired of being lonely. If you're tired of feeling depressed. If you're tired of dealing, going from sickness to sickness. The Bible declares that your natural being can become supernatural with the presence of God. Why wouldn't you discipline yourself today? And you'll start to desire it.
I go places now. I'm on holidays and the kids will see this. My feet up by the fire or on the beach. Why do you read? No, I got this amazing book. He's a great teacher talking about the anointing. And they go, "This isn't work". No, no. That's not work for me. I crave it. I love it. I desire to spend time with God and His Word. Then when I go play and hang out with the kids, there's more joy, more happiness because He brings that into our lives, too. When God is in our lives daily, everything from work to relationships to holidays to laughter to joy to boardgames to sports. It's amazing how your whole world changes.