Leon Fontaine - His Presence Within Us - Part 2
Hey, everybody! Welcome! I'm so glad you're joining me today because we are talking about something that revolutionize my life. My relationship with Holy Spirit. And this is the second and the final in a two-part series on what it looks like when His presence is within us. And what it looks like and what it feels like. And then how His outflowing power works in our lives. And so I want to review so bad, but I don't have the time. So my challenge to you is come on! Look after yourself and go back and watch the other one, part one about this and then you'll catch up to me as I go into part-two. Now, we've spoke about so far Holy Spirit's indwelling power in our lives and why. Why couldn't Jesus just stay on the planet? We talked about why He had to leave before Holy Spirit could come. Why Jesus limited Himself by becoming a human, etcetera.
And so I'm going to continue because as we ended last time, I was talking about my life and how each of the fruits of the Spirit function in a way, and I began to share story after story of what it was like in different instances. Because the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians is literally the strengths of Holy Spirit. As these strengths grow, because the word "fruit" means it grows. You don't just have love and don't have love. You don't have joy, and don't have joy. Every fruit of the Spirit is a continuum that develops. And so every mature believer should be so far down the track in their development of love. The development of joy. The development of peace. And it's amazing to me, when you hit a crisis, how many mature Christians, meaning been Christians for decades fail right here. And it shows me they have not developed a relationship with God, His Word where the fruit of the Spirit is developed.
And this is crucial because it gives our emotions stability. It gives our willpower stability. It's a complete renewal of the mind to come into agreement with the presence of God that is in your human spirit. And so last time we were talking about what it feels like. And I said, "Well, to literally sense the presence of God, to sense Holy Spirit is to sense love". If you sense hate or anger, that's not God guiding you. If you sense a real down depression. Let's say, "Well, God showed me this and it's just made me unhappy and it's made me down". God doesn't, His Spirit isn't depressed. And so God will always, when He is upon you and He's within you, there should always be a development of incredible love that affects your marriage, your sex life with your spouse, your love for others, your outward focus. Much of depression and unhappiness is because you have focused on you. That's why pick up your cross means die to selfishness.
Selfishness is the king of all misery. And so love is to be outward-focused. And that is when you will know greater joy. You'll know greater peace. Another one is longsuffering. This is an ability to be patient as you wait for something. Here is where many people mess up. They're not longsuffering. Now, longsuffering literally means that you can be still full of love, still full of joy, still full of peace while you wait for something to change. And you see, we all love people, friends, family, in-laws, out-laws, your wife, your kids. And as you're believing for miracles with them, you're not in complete control about their changes. And so people sometimes they don't have this ability to be longsuffering which is a powerful force. They'll give up on a relationship, a marriage. They'll give up on a job. They'll leave a church because something begins to irritate them. They become impatient. And the Bible literally talks about in his impatience possess your soul.
So this longsuffering, this patience is a tremendous ability to laugh and to enjoy life while the miracle you're waiting for, the change that you're waiting for hasn't come yet. So you just enjoy life the way you are. You just enjoy life as you're believing God in that area. I know many people who are sick in this area and they haven't got, you know, the complete manifestation of their healing. But they still get up and love and reach out where others are just so fascinated with why there's no results and they begin to get focused on themselves and then their life isn't a blessing to others. I know people whose live they're believing God for a miracle, financially, physically, you know, relationally. Yet at those times as they're going through these seasons of they don't everything their believing God for. They are still reaching out, sharing their faith, winning the lost, walking in love, making everybody around them feel good about them.
In fact, when you visit them if they're going through a rough time. People would visit them to encourage them and you walk out encourage. Because this person literally knows this incredible ability to be longsuffering. This patience. They just goes, "No. Everything's going to be fine. God's going to see me through. I'm an overcomer. I'm going to continue to develop myself in God's Word, to grow in faith, to take His Word and plant it in my heart". They understand the process of faith and they have the stunning ability to be longsuffering. Then it talks about gentleness. Now, our world looks at leadership for example. I'm giving you little examples for each one of these abilities because we think that gentleness is a female trait that men shouldn't have. That leader should be, you know, aggressive, masculine, get in your face. But this kindness we're talking about is an integrity, a moral goodness. An ability to deal with people even if you're their leader where you value them so much.
There's a gentleness that all of us should have. Even with our kids when you're raising your kids. You know, screamers don 't raise kids that know how to develop the fruit of the Spirit. Instead you learn to speak and then you bring consequences. Not the seventh time you say it, maybe about the second time depending how age specific it is. That you just say, "Hey, if you don't do this honey, then, you know, dad's going to have to do this". And you do it. You always keep your word. Which means you never give it, or you never talk about doing something as a consequence unless you stick to it. Many children don't trust the words of their parents because they keep threatening with things they never deliver on. Say no as little as you have to, so that you're not always saying no. And learn to say yes and learn to do things and play and have fun with your kids rather than sitting around just wanting him to go away and no, no, no, no. But when you do say no, or you do bring up, "You have to stop this or there's consequences".
You need to follow through so that your words. And don't wait till you get angry. Don't wait till you're frustrated. Don't wait till, you know, there's something going on on the inside of you. No, you do it while you're still filled with joy and peace. And you bring consequences, age specific consequences to bear and you consistently do that. So that they learn that when dad speaks, when mom speaks, that you know, there's a reason why. And as they get older, I would let them talk back to me. By that I don't mean back to me in a bad way. I mean, they might want to be a little bit of a lawyer and say, "Well, here's what I was wanting to do". Oh, okay. We know, I'm fine with that. And so there's many things in the fruit of the Spirit that will make you a tremendous parent. And as you model this, you model patience. You model longsuffering.
As you model goodness, as you model these things for your children, they pick it up more so because you've modelled it, then you've taught it. And so one of the greatest things for parenting and grandparenting is to be what you want them to become in their training. So we've got gentleness. We've got goodness. It just means they just always see this selflessness not selfishness. This world is so selfish, that we have trained people that it's okay to look after yourself. It's okay to say, "Hey, I've got to look after number one. That's me". That we actually honor that. We think that's great. That's good. But that's why the Bible says that we are counted as sheep to the slaughter. But then the next verse says, "But yet no, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us".
So we looked like we're sheep. Another words, we are responding and living our lives in a way that the world's belief system would be you're going to get run over. Now, it doesn't mean we're not weak. We're not managers. That we're not able to fire or hire. We're not able to rise up and stop evil. No, no, no. It just means that you'll help people around you and that you'll be a blessing. You'll be kind, gentle, good. It goes on to talk about faith. You know, this complete trust in God. This complete believing God. When others are only believing in their own ability. The work of their hand. And they, if they don't look after number one. If they're not going out and making those chances, and they don't realize there's faith. There is this dynamic trusting in God.
That is crucial to see God's grace, His favour come into our lives. And if you do not develop this faith. And faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You'll never see this favour. Often people will get around me and he'll just say like, "How come so many opportunities just come in your way? Why do things just happen? Why do people just give you things? Why did you walk in"? And they just go, "There's just no"... What they're saying is, "You're not smart enough, Leon, to make all the connections you've got. People handing you channels and churches and buildings and opportunities". And they go, "What in the world"? Because I believe in trust. That God's grace which is His unearned favour and the favour is His ability in my life. He's looking after my life. I believe in that. And as you rise and grow, and you need to recognize that faith is a process as well. It's like fruit. It needs to develop from that little bud, and it needs to develop. So these nine strengths of Holy Spirit that grow like fruit in our lives are stunning.
Now, before I continue let me say this. That when a Christian develops the fruit of the Spirit, another thing happens. Let's use this analogy. If you walk up to an apple tree, and you see beautiful red apples ready to eat. You'll notice that the apple tree doesn't eat its own apples. A branch doesn't go out, grab an apple and put it into the mouth of the tree as it munches on apples. No, the fruit on that tree is for others to enjoy. And did you know that as Christians develop the fruit of the Spirit. That they become a stunning force in leadership because they lead the right way in a servant leadership. They become amazing politicians, leaders in healthcare, in the arts, actors, lawyers, judges. And so as we raise up our children, they should be a stunning, amazing look at what Jesus is like in a lawyer's body and mind.
What Jesus is like in the body and the mind and the life of a Prime Minister, a President, a doctor, a lawyer. And so all of us as we grow in this tremendous abilities. This tremendous strengths it changes, the world begins to get around us. So many people, I remember different ladies that would visit my wife Sally in our home when she was raising our five kids. They'd come over for tea and they wouldn't want to stay away. They kept coming over and over. And someone would just tell her, "You know what, when I'm in your house, I just feel so peaceful. When I'm in your house, I just feel happy and excited". Another words, they were partaking of her peace, of her joy. That the joy and the peace that Sal and I had on our home, our children, our marriage. They could enjoy it when they were around us. But when they went back to their homes, they were responsible for developing these strengths themselves. But as you raise up your business, even the people that work for you will be impacted and able to eat of the fruit of the strengths of the leader.
The culture of the organization comes from the leader. The culture of the parents is the culture of the home. And that is why and man, we're all over the place but I think I'm trying to really flesh this out for you. That if you are a leader, you must make sure the culture of Christ, these nine fruits of the Spirit. These nine strengths that are flowing in you and growing to a certain level. That this is the culture of your business. And if someone comes into your place making mistakes. Mistakes can be corrected. Mistakes you can forgive them for and retrain them and reteach them. But the one thing that I can't abide with is somebody who is against the culture of the organization. So they begin to rise up with an impatience that puts everybody on edge. They're so self-centered that they're beginning to destroy the sense of love, of everybody helping raise up the other. They're not gentle. They're out loud, mean, and angry. They're not filled with faith. They're filled with fear and this fear begins to spread.
So the culture of a home. The culture of your business. It flows out of what Holy Spirit is doing within you. But then again, you have to have the wisdom of management. The wisdom of administration. The wisdom of leadership as to where you're going and what are the staffing and the volunteers if you're a pastor, that you need. And then you never allow people to maintain leadership roles or even labour with you if they are destroying the culture that you're trying to build. And there's a lot that has been said about culture that you can look at. So as you look at this faith, this confidence. That nobody's going to stop what God has called me to do. No one is going to stop the church that He has called me to pastor. Its role in the nation, its role in present day events, no one is going to stop the call and the path that He's prepared ahead of time. No one is going to stop what Miracle Channel and the channels that we have and the more things that are coming. Nobody is going to stop it because the favour of God is upon us. And we are going to continue to lead, manage, and administrate.
Those are three different words in a way that Holy Spirit and His presence is flow... So this faith is crucial. The Bible says that this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith. It's to believe on Him. Now, when you believe on, in the Word of God, and you believe in Jesus, and who has made you to be who you are, what you can do. This faith that rises up. Did you know that it releases grace? And grace increases in your life favour after favour. I mean, everywhere you turn, you just keep getting blessed. And people go, "What in the world"! This is available to every Christian, not just the five-fold ministry. Every Christian to walk in the amazing favour of God. Where you don't even know how to put together your future. But as you trust and believe Him and do what you can, but believe this faith, this trust in God. And you begin to speak faith-filled words, and remember words are containers. You can use the right nouns and verbs, but it could contain fear. And, you know, it could contain faith. It could contain, whatever. Words are powerful containers.
So, man, I want to just camp out here and I'm not getting through like I want to, but recognize that this faith, that there's a meekness. One of the strengths is meekness. Now, we use the word "meek" meaning as subservient. And, you know, you kind of like big precious moments, eyes, and long hair. Oh, hi. But no, the word meekness means instantly obedient to the leader. It's what the Greeks called their war horses when they were totally trained. I think it's the word "praus". And when a Greek had a war horse that was completely trained, it would attack in battle. It would go against swords and spears. It would never disagree with the rider as it's prompted it with its legs and came into battle. And our look at the war horse in the Bible, it's so confident. That it was literally, it would snort, as it smelt, and it saw the battle. It wanted to get ride in there. And, but what's, but the thing is that you and I, when we are meek, we're so confident in our rider. If you want to put it that way, our Jesus. And our Jesus is guiding us through everything.
So we are completely obedient to Him. So we're not worried, freaked out, nothing. This meekness is a different word than we use today. And then it says temperance, self-control. What, self-control is such a powerful ability because in the midst of crazy situations. When people hurt you, attack you. When temptation moves on you because of things that aren't happening in your life. A person with self-control just smiles and can't be tempted off of their root, can't be tempted off of what they do because of the stunning self-control. These are all the strengths that Holy Spirit has in your spirit. And you can grow and nurture this, and you should your entire life. You should look at all nine of this and look at every one of your children. And ask yourself what do I need to instruct this child to teach them self-control. This one seems to have fear.
How can I change that into the strengths? And rather than come against the negative, just keep teaching the positive. And the Word of God gets planted in their hearts and it just chokes out all the things that this world will try to build within them. So I've really shown you the incredible ability that Holy Spirit does in His indwelling presence in our lives. Now, the one of the things and I'll just touch on it and point you in the right direction, is that also there is Holy Spirit flowing out of us. And as Holy Spirit flows out of us, Jesus talks about a river of living water. Rivers! He says when you get saved, it's like a well that you can draw up that beautiful clear water and be refreshed all the time. But to be filled with the Spirit is like rivers of living water flowing out of you. And so then as you look at in Acts 1:8 where Jesus told His disciples, you don't go out and minister until in Acts where it say until you receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And then you're going to be My witnesses and it goes out to the world. And so this ability for the presence of God to flow out of us.
I believe is a secondary thing. I believe the fruit of the Spirit is more crucial. Because if God's going to raise you up in leadership, it's the strengths or the fruit of the Spirit that make you immobile, untouchable, untemptable, that you keep growing. But now the manifestation of the Spirit of God in your life. I mean, healing and knowing things you could never know, like a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, a discerning of spirits. Like things like the gifts of miracles. Things like or the working of miracles. The gifts of healings. The gift of faith. These are a outflowing tremendous release of the power of Holy Spirit as you minister to others.
Now, all that you need which is peace and healing and health and prosperity. Those are all in the fruit of the Spirit. You don't need to turn the gifts on yourself because if you are, the Bible say, "If the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead just dwells in you. That will heal every cell in your body". And that's the verse that a Christian should be using, not waiting for one of the gifts of the Spirit to heal them and then they do. And God uses us to minister to other believers as well. But the gifts of the Spirit are here for you and I to use and every one of us should use. Praying for our neighbor, or you come on to an accident scene and you see people and they're dying. You can lay hands on them. And according to the Word, the gifts of healing or a working of miracles.
We will explain this another time as to what each individual gift looks like. But you need to understand, that as a follower of Christ, as a born-again spirit-filled believer, not only is there an incredible ability within you that nurtures and looks after you. But there's this outflow of the very power of God. And this power is so that God can touch the lost and the dying. That we could bring miracles into the world. Pray for that unsaved guy. That person in the accident. Lay hands and get an agreement with your neighbor whose wife is dying. Or, or, or. There is this unique leading and guiding and tremendous manifestation of the power of God.
If for those who know about the nine gifts of the Spirit. God doesn't just give you one of them. All of us have all nine and He decides which one will flow through you in all of the situations that you face as you through your, you know, your medical minister or career, or your financial career, or as a pastor, as a mom, a dad. I mean, my mom would flow in the word of knowledge when she raised us boys. She would know when one of them brought drugs into the house and hid it somewhere or pornography. She go find it the very first look because God would show her. My dad would flow in the gifts of the Spirit. He would go knock on a house and tell them, "God told me to knock on this door. That there's somebody dying in here".
And sure enough, and that family still attends our church because God touched them and healed them. And so we need to understand that there is an outflowing of the presence of God. These last two sessions, I've spent way more time and I guess I needed to, talking about His indwelling presence. But as you focus on that, recognize that this power of God flows out of you to unsaved people. If God is bringing you into the midst of a crisis, whether it's an accident scene, a friend who's dying, an unsaved person whose child runaway. That you can pray with them and the gifts of the Spirit will come into manifestation and do tremendous miracles for lost people who don't have a faith in Jesus. And then God uses you to show them what Jesus would do in these situations. If you don't know this Jesus, I would love for you to receive Him right now. Only you can make that decision. God honors your word. He'll never force Himself into your life. So right now just say:
Jesus, come into my heart, come into my life. Thank You for dying in my place and paying my debt. Taking all my punishment. All my sins are gone. I'm following You the rest of my life. Guide me, lead me, and help me to get to know You and Your Word. In Jesus' name, amen.
Keep following this. Let us know you made this decision. We want to help you in this amazing adventure that's ahead of you.