Leon Fontaine - Choosing Life, Dealing With Evil
I want to talk to you today about something that began to impact me in my early twenties and my late teens. I'll start with the story in my late teens and early twenties as never before began to get serious about getting to know Jesus, about His Word. And the thing that really touched me was that we have an ability to release the presence of God into others, into situations. A lot of people in their Christianity just see Jesus as a psychological comfort to a mess up world. He will comfort you as you go through all of your issues and they're going to get worse so learn to be comforted. I thank God for His comfort. But that's not what the New Testament teaches. That God's Word is just for comfort. It's like getting a shot of valium or it's like getting a shot of Demerol for your pain. That's all Jesus really is. That is such a lie and it has crippled the church of Jesus Christ.
I remember working at the hospital as a paramedic. I was in a pilot project here in Manitoba. And one day, I relieved a nurse who was watching over a newborn baby and she was quickly going to grabbed a cup of coffee and take her break. The baby was crying, and it was laying in his little bed where they had it and it wouldn't stop crying. She said, "The baby's not going to stop crying. There's something wrong with her, it's stomach. It's going go in for surgery and open something up in there. It's been in constant pain and it's just, was just crying nonstop". And so I said, "Okay. Well, hurry. No one wants to be around a crying baby that long".
So I remember her going and as I was just kind of walking around the room and just keeping an eye on things. I just thought, you know, I'm going to pray for this baby. Nobody's here, no one's watching. And I remember walking over and the... You'll be careful in hospitals especially if you work there. Just gently put my fingers on top of that little tummy and I just spoke the Word of God. I just said, "Stomach, you'll be healed in the name of Jesus. Small intestine whatever is wrong, we just speak life into this little one". Instantly, it just stopped crying. And I just didn't think anything of it and it went to sleep.
So probably about 15 minutes later, I'm gonna standing at the door waiting for this nurse to comeback, and I can hear the elevator where the room was situated in the hospital and she's walking towards the room where I am. And all of a sudden she just starts to run, and she's running down the hall. And I'm going, "What the... What? What? What"? She comes bursting into the room rushes over to the baby and starts to kind of shake it and checked at us. What's wrong? She goes, "When it stopped crying, I thought something had happened". And so I didn't tell her. I mean, she wasn't a believer. I said, "Okay. No, everything's fine. The baby went to sleep". She goes, "What"? I said, "Yeah, it just, it went to sleep since I got here". And she goes, "Huh! That's just crazy".
And so I just left. And I remembered checking by later and just chatting with her. I think it was a day or two later and said, "Hey, whatever happened to that little baby that I helped looked after there, you know, when I just gave you a break". And she goes, "You know what"? Then she said, "They did another check up on it and they have no idea. They must had a wrong test. There's nothing wrong from between the stomach and the small intestine. Everything was fine. And so they, after they did, kept it on an observation again for another day. They just let it go home".
And it's an amazing thing to know that life is inside of you and I. I can tell you story after story of situations. I remember a neighbor of ours that would come over and she meet Sally, and we had four little girls at that time. I think Zac wasn't born yet. And this neighbor would come in and she would just visit. She had a couple of kids. She just stay in our house all day, day after day after day. And so I don't know what's going on. Then one day she just told her. She says, "When I'm in your home, is the only time I feel peace". She says, "When I'm sitting here, it's like everything just calms down". Because the life of God radiates in your bodies, in your home, into your children. It can also be released into situations, and that's what I want to talk about today.
I want to teach you how to deal with the life of God and how to deal with evil. There's a term that everybody knows but few understand, and it's called eternal life. When you give your life to Jesus, you receive eternal life. Another version says everlasting life. And so if I ask somebody, what is the definition of eternal life? They will tell you, you're going to live forever in heaven with Jesus. And that's accurate for a part definition. But when you look at the term everlasting life, you have to ask yourself a question. Everlasting means it last forever. Everlasting, for eternity, never ending, never stopping. You are going to have this eternal. This lasting, forever everlasting life. But what kind of life? If you hurt somebody and the judge gives you life. What is that?
Well, your life is going to be a jail cell. So life isn't, we've got to determine what kind of life? When you deal with people who want to commit suicide. The first thing they'll talk about is I can't stand life. There's something in their life they cannot handle anymore. And if you were to say to somebody who wants to take their life, "Hey, you can have eternal life". They're going to go, "What? Who wants to live like this forever? I can't even live another day like this". So everlasting life, eternal life, doesn't just mean it is forever. It is also the word "life" in the Greek is the word Zoe. Z-O-E. And it means the life of Jesus.
As you go through the Word, you'll find that everlasting life means the life of God. God's life. The life that God's is. You know, what He is made up of. His nature, His power, His ability. This life that God is, that in Christ, that is in God. When you gave yourself to Jesus Christ, when you believe on Him, the greatest thing that ever took place in your life was you came alive with everlasting life. Now, we need to understand something about this life. Because as I travel, and even as I look through our church, there's such a majority of Christians who don't understand that life and don't understand how to get that life to move into their mortal life, their health, their mind, their finances, their family, their generations.
Let me show you a verse, John 5:24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my Word, and believes on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but that person is passed from death to life". Now, I want you to know that both death and life are continuums. Death, you know, it means that all that goes with death. Death to finances, death to your mind, death to your marriage, death to your sex life, death to your kids, death to your prosperity. Death is a continuum. So when we are in the kingdom of darkness, it is impossible to have this favor, this blessing in this life in every area. You can have success in an area or two. But this people without Christ don't have the life of God on the inside of them.
And so the more success they have, the more problems it will bring. But now if you've passed from death to life, life is a continuum. And as you obey the principles around that life, which I'm just touching on today. That life will flow into your mind. That life will flow into your marriage and it will take it further, stronger. It will equip your mind until your mind is so strong. The Bible teaches us that when it comes to the life, it says in John 1:4 that this life is the light of men. And it literally means that your development as a Christian from strength to strength. This light is going to grow brighter and brighter. It's talking about your development.
When I was taking many of the courses that I had to take in my late teens and early twenties. It was in a pilot project here in Manitoba because they didn't have paramedics then. And so they worked out of our hospital where I was working, and I got to be a part of this pilot project. And so I would take the intensive care course, cardiac and trauma and the jaws of life. And I mean, just training after training after training. And I found that as I learned to live in this life that my mind totally got into way, how can I put? More ability. In high school, I mean, I was okay. I had apply myself a little bit and pull off a march to pass. But when I began to get into the Word and recognize who I was, and that it wasn't just Leon's acumen. It wasn't just Leon's brain and thinking and memorization ability. But that this life was my light.
Another words in the dark. If you've ever been out camping and there's a cloudy day, no stars, no moon, and it's so dark you can't see the fingers in front of your face. You turn on a flashlight and you can see where that skunk is moving in the bush. Don't want to walk on to him. It illuminates your darkness, or it shows you the path you should be taking. In life, this life that is in you as a born-again believer is not just a life that heals you. It's not just a life that makes you feel good. It does something to your mind, your thinking, your abilities. I began to pull off in my exams ninety-nine and some of the most, the hardest exams I would get involved into doing some of the practical. And back then they would have the province guys come in and mock-up bodies and cars.
We go to the junk yard take a wreck and they would put all these different things in there. And you had to maximize survivors. You had to learn to go in there and do everything in the proper sequence or you fail. And I remember walking in there and like crystal clear, I knew exactly what to do. An ability that I did not have before because the life of Jesus on the inside of me was lightning. It was lighting up my darkness. It was putting to peace my fears. And when you begin to understand this life that is inside of you. It will work in your marriage. It will work in your home. And it will give you abilities you never had.
Over and over again different of my co-workers would sit me down and say, "What is different about you? How do you handle this? I'm getting drank every night to get rid of the pictures of that child that died in my arm. I'm struggling in my marriage because I'm so ramped up at work seeing all these horrible things that I can't relate to normal life". And they would look at me. They say, "How do you do this"? The life of Jesus on the inside of a believer. You need to tap into it. You need to renew your mind with the Word. You need to release and learn to release this life.
Now, let me show you a verse, a couple of verses before we close in. John 20:30, it says here in the book of John that many other signs did Jesus do in the presence of His disciples that are not written in the book. But then John says, "But these that are here in the book are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name". This life is not just going to get you to heaven when you die. This life affects everything in your world if you will dive into the Word and get it planted in the deepest beliefs of your heart.
Learn to obey the Word. It's not because you get a gold star on your chart in heaven. It is because this life that has been entrusted to you is to get up and live. So that the world can see that with Christ there's a peace, a joy. There's an authority, a power that is amazing. And it says here that by believing you might have life through His name. One of the problems of the church today is they don't understand there are two kinds of faith. One is a faith of the mind. It's just informational. And they think because they've got informational faith and they could even maybe control their emotions for a while and be positive. That that's the faith that moves mountains. But it isn't. That is mental assent. That is mental agreement but that is not heart faith.
And the reason so many have backed away from faith, it's because they've tried it and it doesn't work. But they don't know what faith is. And so I want to explain to you today that you need to begin to get into the Word of God and feed on His Word, grow. When I was a young man, I would find that I still do this. I would find the greatest teacher with a track record of knowing Him. And the miracles and the signs and the wonders that was in their lives. And I would go, and I would listen to them preach. I would find great teaching books by great men and women of old who have proven they knew Him and the things that were going on their lives. And I would study the Word. I wanted to know who am I? How can I walk this planet?
And with my life see the supernatural life. Zoe, life of God. I want it in my mind. I want it in my body. Romans 8:11 says that if the same Spirit that raised Jesus' body from the dead, and it was dead for three days. It says if you've got it inside of you, it will quicken your mortal body. It will make your kidney alive. It will make your pancreas alive. It will make your intestines alive. It will make your joints alive. It will make your synovial fluid alive. It will take that organ, the brain make it alive. It will quicken and bring life to it. But we've got all this negative talk or we're too lazy to often get into the Word and to be who we is. So this life that is inside of you.
So people are praying for promises. The Bible doesn't say to pray for the promises of God. It doesn't say, "Oh, dear God, please"! No. It says, "You speak to mountains. You declare the end from the beginning". Learn what New Testament or new covenant faith is because it's your inheritance. Romans teaches us in 5:17 that you are to rule your life as a king. It says reign in life as kings and queens. Which means you don't sit around waiting for something to happen. You take the authority that has been given to you. And as you do, the life that is in you is released into situations. It will be released into your body, your spouse's body, your child's body, into a situation on the other side of the world with your son or daughter in battle or whatever.
This life that is in you. There are guidelines. There are rules, principles that God has placed here to show you how to access this life for yourself and how to use this life for others. When Jesus walked the planet, He was there to literally be an example and show you what God was like and how we could minister this life to the people around us. I want to challenge you today. Don't be a Christian that just feels, I got saved. I'm going to heaven. All the rest is just being good. And it's developed into this thinking that I need to be good so God will bless me. No, no, no. It's not because you'll be good. God knows all of the principles that work on this planet. He knows the principles that release His life into your own mind. You can have the mind of Christ.
The Bible literally promises you. Listen to this ladies. That your youth will be renewed like the eagles. Another words, we weren't designed to age through sickness and disease. People say, "Well, that's not true according to science". I know. But I'm telling you Moses was a hundred and twenty and his eye hadn't dimmed, or his natural forces abated. Many of the patriarchs, they just literally prophesied over their kids. You know, gathered themselves up, laid down in bed and their spirit left. You and I need to recognize that if the promise of God is that your youth can be renewed, it means you ain't young. But you don't need to walk around like a tottering, sick, depressed, life is over.
Hey, I'm 55. Freedom 55 or 65 or 75 or whatever doctors or retirement people tell you. You get up and live your life. And if you're breathing, God's got a plan. And if you're breathing, His promises work. And if you're breathing, then you need to learn to release the life of Jesus. It affects your body, your mind, your marriage, your home. It will affect generations of your family. You can declare the Word of God. And even when you're dead and gone, generations down that weren't even alive when you declared what's going to happen, will be impacted by the prayerful declarations. Those prophetic prayers that they said, "This is what will be upon my family".
God's Word says you've got to learn that in the new covenant you are kings and priests, and it changes the way you deal with situations. One of the great old preachers that moved in signs and wonders. I was reading one of his books. He told a story of walking into pray for this elderly lady who was sickly and very poor. He walked into her home and this is, you know, I think in about the late 1800s, early 1900s. That he walked into her home to pray with her and minister to her by her bedside. And, you know, some neighbors are helping her out with food. And she shared how that at one time she had worked very closely with a very wealthy family. The person had passed away that she worked for. And so she's without a job, then she's gotten sick.
And so he prayed with her and encouraged her. As he was walking around her house, he noticed this picture on the wall. And the picture was actually a document that was framed. And this elderly lady who couldn't read had said that her friend, this wealthy lady had left her this parchment paper, this document. And so she had it framed, and she had it put on the wall there. And he looked at it and read it and it actually was the will that she had been left a ton of money. She lived in this place that she couldn't even get around. And the entire time that she lived there, she was a wealthy woman because of that document.
Because of the decision of that wealthy, the boss that she had worked for. And I see so many Christians in this story who don't know. They haven't spent enough time in the Word to know that all that you need is in Jesus, and Jesus is in you. That His promises, what Jesus did on the cross has given you divine life. Zoe life. Everlasting life. And it is up to you to get into His Word now and learn that, so you can use that life in your life and use that life in others. You need to understand life is on the inside of you.