Leon Fontaine - The Word Brings Power
Names, today, don't seem to have the same understanding that names did in the Old Testament. A name was something that you protected. And, people would use a name and all the power and the authority that was behind that names was important to them. When David attacked Goliath, he said you know, I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, and he killed that giant and saved an entire nation. He said, the name of the Lord of hosts. The Bible's kind of unique and people have never looked at this closely. It says, praise His name. Call upon His name. Give glory to His name. Honour to His name. It talks about praising His name. And they would use that term, the 'name' of the Lord. Then in the New Testament we find Peter for example, who has a guy who's crippled, never walked. And he asks for money and Peter says what I have I give you. In the name, and then he says, "of Jesus".
I want to talk about developing a faith in the name of Jesus. Peter in Acts 3, they said how in the world did this guy get up off his mat, he hasn't walked in decades and he's jumping and he's leaping. And it says people were, they were not just shocked, they were scared. What in the world? They knew, they see, they saw this man's wasted legs. The muscles are gone, the tendons and ligaments have shortened and curled up into a spastic, you know. Those weren't even legs, they'd never been used. And all of a sudden, they just wham! They just came out strengthened. And his mind had to have the network put into it of how to walk and jump, he'd never done it. And it takes children like a year or two to get the coordination to, and so God did an incredible miracle, and Peter teaches them it is faith in the name.
The name of Jesus, is a legal right. It's not kind of a thing that you feel, woo, I feel the anointing. No, it is a legal right for a born-again believer, and only a born-again believer to use the name. It will not work for those who are not born-again. Because it is given to the sons of God. And, and so, let's dive in and take a look at, what about God's Word? Now, you've got to understand that as, the Word of God is something that, it's not just learn the rule book. And you've got it made. You know, when you, if you love hockey. And, you go to watch a hockey game. And to see the stick handling, the skating, the faking, the turning, the putting the puck in the net. It's not the person who knows the rulebook the best, that is the best hockey player. It's not the guy that can quote NHL rules for hockey, on blue line and offside and how many players on and off, no. It's, they all know the rule book. It's those who develop hockey skills.
The Bible is not just a rule book. It's not just giving you principles. It also will teach you the skills, spiritually, mentally, physically. It will begin to instruct you and show you how to literally step in to using the name against demonic attack. Against people who come against you. To use the name to declare your future, to bring the promises into your world to cause things to manifest in your life so that your, your Christianity isn't just some kind of New Age mental alertlness, or belief system, and that's all. So we've got to understand the importance of you staying in God's Word. In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, it says that you need to receive the Word of God. And that it effectively works in you, who believe.
Did you know that when you read the Bible, some of you say this. Well, you know, I just don't get anything out of it and so I like it when you teach, you just seem to make things and I'm glad that I do. But now listen to me. You've got to stop saying that, and you've got to begin to ask Holy Spirit to be your instructor just like I ask Him to be my instructor. And you need to believe, that when you begin to listen to the Word, read the Word, read a great teaching book by a great teacher, that's a smart way to start, who begins to teach the Word. That you begin to believe God's Word works in me. I understand it. It illuminates my mind. It's planted in my heart. It begins to grow and bring incredible strength into my life.
If you don't begin to believe the Word of God has that impact, you will never be a student yourself of the Word. You're going to stay this baby Christian, who needs to be bottle fed. Or if an emergency happened, you need someone to be there. I've got news for you: in everybody's life, there will be a time when you need a miracle and there will be nobody around. You won't get cell reception to call up a pastor or a friend to pray. And you will need to deal in a faith and believe God for protection or for a miracle. Do not neglect the Word of God.
Now, as you go into God's Word, something unique begins to happen to you. First of all, believe that He's going to teach you. Believe that you can study God's Word. Start saying that, when I study the Word, Holy Spirit teaches it to me. When I study the Word, it builds me strong. Begin to confess the opposite of what you've been saying for years. I just don't get anything out of it when I read it. Stop! I don't understand everything I read, in fact, the Bible is stacked. In other words, you can't learn and build floor four, until you build floor three. And you can't get to three until you build floor two.
The Bible is so incredible that as you study it, each, each level of things that the Holy Spirit reveals to you, begins to open doors to things, I was just reading last night and I got so hooked on a topic, I'm just oh, I made it to pen, I've got to preach a whole bunch of services. Because, it doesn't matter how much you've studied the Word. It will continually give revelation. It will give birth to new ideas. Your entire life you'll be able to study the Bible, and it will be, it'll just blow your mind. Wow, look at this, I've never seen this. And as you do that, you grow in faith.
Now let me say something, it's going to help somebody listening to me right now. Every time you try to believe God for a miracle, you've got one verse you go to. It's the only one you know, you know, and so you go to that one. I'm going, haven't you developed in your understanding of God's Word? Do you know how many verses teach a different aspect of God's healing power? Thousands. And you stated one. Your life, every day, should be the Word of God. Diving into God's Word. Meditating in God's Word. Because, it begins to diagnose you. The Word begins to literally cut off the things you need to stop believing that are misbeliefs. It begins to plant the things that you need, and Holy Spirit, who is your personal instructor, begins to do that on the inside of you. And so meditate in God's Word. Never look at God's Word, you know, it amazes me how few people, don't spend time in the Word.
You know, in 1 Peter 1:22, it says that you begin to purify your souls in obeying the truth of God's Word through the spirit. As you begin to stay in the Word, it, your soul is your mind, your emotions. People will often ask me, how do you stay so calm in the face of all the things that have gone on and believing God? I go, only the Word of God, Holy Spirit begins to take His Word. And it begins to plant it in my heart. He begins to literally hold my mind and help me to hold my mind in positive emotions. When you begin to plant God's Word in your heart, and when you begin to feed on God's Word, it literally begins to move off fear. It begins to move off envy. It begins to move off strife. It begins to move off sadness, loneliness. All these things you don't need, and you begin to explode into a sense of peace, and joy. And they become stabilizing emotions in your life.
Many people can never hear from God, because they can't get past their emotional mess in their own head. They can't hear God because of the screaming of fear. They can't hear God because of the selfishness of envy. They can't sense the voice of God because of the worry and the timidity. One, you allow God's Word and you feed on God's Word, it begins to do something to your soul. It begins to do something in your head, your emotions, your mind. In 1 Peter 1:23, it says that the Word of God lives and abides forever. It's unkillable, it says there. Unstoppable. And so in 1 Peter 2:1-2, it says that you should desire the Word of God and that it will cause you to grow. You're going to grow in faith. You're going to grow in a strong mind. You're going to grow in the ability to use the gifts of the spirit. You're going to grow in the knowledge of His Word. This growth has many incredible effects on you.
Did you know that Jesus is called the Word of God? And so, as you begin to get into the Word, ask Holy Spirit to teach you, to become your best friend, He is going to show you Jesus. And what He has done. You're going to begin to sense the love of God, the grace of Jesus, as you fellowship with Holy Spirit. In 2 Timothy 3:15, did you know that as you learn God's Word, it literally reproves you? It will stop you when you're making a wrong move. And you'll just sense, no. Don't go there. It will stop you when you're making a mistake, in dealing with somebody or doing something. It will just, it will just boof! It will rise up inside of you and you'll go no. It will correct you when you don't know what to do and you're making a wrong move. It will correct you, and the Word of God will just rise up and you'll make the right decision. The Bible says it instructs you. It thoroughly equips you for everything in your life. To be a husband, to be a wife. To be a lover, to be a father. To be a mother, to be a grandparent. To be, a financier, an entrepreneur. To be talented, to pick your gifts and use them. To know God, to hear His Word. The Word of God prepares for absolutely everything that is ahead of you.
If you want to be equipped for the rest of your life, and move on from one season to the next in God's Word, then you must stay in His Word. Listen to His Word. What I do, is I love to study His Word, then I love men and women that I have respected that have good fruit in their life. But when I can find a person that the Spirit of God is upon them, and their life has built and produced, and they've got a great track record. I begin to read their books and what are they teaching? What is God showing them? And I love reading some of the great men and women of old and new ones, so make sure that you're studying the Word. Because you begin to develop the ability of God.
Listen to this. There are different seasons, and they'll never end. As you grow in God. Just like you do physically. You know, you were a happy kid, then that incredible grade 12 moment when you realized I'm now my own boss. Then, you know, maybe university or career and the things you learned to do to become and rise up in your career, your education. Then you got married, that was a real gulp, you know, and now you're learning to make, you're not just a happy single, now you've got to be a happy married. And that requires different skills and abilities, then kids come along. And you enter a whole new season. And then as those children grow up and go to school, and as your house becomes empty again as they go to their new lives, you have an empty, that empty nest. Then you get grandkids. There's different seasons.
Did you know, there are different seasons in God? And many people have never gotten out of first year. You know, I remember driving these four-speeds, we'd have all of these you know, hot cars when I was a kid my friends had. And you'd go through first gear, and in first gear your, is the RPM's are way up. And you couldn't get any faster. You need to put the clutch in, and pull it into second, and you'll go twice as fast, at a quarter of the RPM's. You can hear the gear just chk-chk... Then in second gear, you can just be waaah! Clutch in, down into third, or up into third. And now again. And it starts, and life is like that. You think I can't handle more, I can't do any more, no listen to me. As God's Word comes into you, something happens within you, and you begin to walk up with confidence.
And I don't know what each, each season is for you. But ahead of you is a place of walking in more relationship with God. The name of Jesus, becomes more powerful off your lips. Every season of your life. And as you grow, and you begin to help others and handle careers, and grand, and the grandkids and your children. And the problems, you know, if you've realized it, your kids will always desire you and need you for wisdom. They might be their own man and their own woman now, but in the way God has designed families, listen to me. I want to talk to someone. I'm going to go off my message for a minute. God has blessed your family, if you've given your life to Jesus Christ. Your kids are blessed, your grandkids are blessed, and for generations ahead of you, the blessing of the Lord is upon your family.
Now. That doesn't absolve you from learning and growing in the Word, of properly teaching and equipping your children, for properly handling finance, sexuality, and growing in God. If you as a parent do not grow in the things of God, so your kids can see this sense of God upon you. They won't want God because you've not shown them real relationship with Him.
In Psalms 84:7, it says that when you continue in God's Word, you go from strength to strength. You know, in the, your physical body it says is decaying. You know, the Bible says that the glory of the young man is his strength, and the glory of the old man is his grey hair, or his wisdom. And there comes a time as you age, you need to stay in shape, and you can stay strong. But you're never going to be as strong as you were at the height of 25-30 when you could work out and I mean you're made of rubber, you could bounce back. But the Bible says your inner-man is renewed every day. So, I don't care if you're 80. At 80 you ought to be a phenomenon of hearing the voice of God. In the name of Jesus, miracles happen around you. Words of knowledge and prophecies and the direction of God is so easy, because you've gorwn from one season into the next.
It is so crucial that God's Word begins to rise in you because the name Jesus, you won't grow in faith in that name. You're going to have to learn to overcome temptation. God's Word will show you how to overcome opposition. Those two things shut down the majority of people. Thery're either tempted out of God's will, or some opposing force, opposition, it could be sickness, finances, people. Opposition or temptation. People quit, plateau, get stuck. But if you'll stay in God's Word, it doesn't matter what the enemy plans. It doesn't matter what he does. The Word of God, as you meditate and stay in it, get out to church. Let's learn the Word, because Psalms 119:130, says God's Word brings light. It brings illumination to your mind. And Proverbs 4:20, the Word brings physical healing.
Someone said to me the other day, you know, I haven't needed prayer for decades for anything. But I said, that's because you're in His Word every day. And just meditating in His Word causes this effect of the healing power of God to flow out of your spirit, and if the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, it makes your physical body alive with health. As you begin to continue in the Word, Psalms 119:11, it literally teaches us that you get victory over sin. Satan has nothing in you, because the power of sin has lost it's power. Unless you're going to just sit there and let him gum you to death. When you begin to study His Word, the Bible says in James 1:22, that you're looking at a mirror. What? God's Word. Because it tells you who you are, what you are, what you can do. It is a mirror, not what you want to be, what you want to become, not what you, no. Of actually who you are. It is a legal right for a born-again believer to use the name.
Satan himself could manifest to any born-again believer, and the name would make him get on his knees. Every knee bows to the name of Jesus and the authority that is behind the name. As you learn and grow in the name of Jesus, and in the Word, listen to this close. God's Word is what judges you. Did you know the Great White Throne judgment, where all the dead will one day be raised and stand before God, if you're born-again, you won't be at that judgment. Because you are born-again. And what judges you is the Word. So if you, and by the Word, to judge, don't look at it as a negative. Look it as, someone judging figure skating in the Olympics. You know, and they're giving marks. Holy Spirit and God's Word will help you judge your life. What do I need to do in this area? What do I need to do? It helps you to decide, to choose, to judge which is a smart decision, which isn't.
The more of God's Word that is in you, the more you can handle, the bigger you can become. You know, just the blessing of God in your life can be hard to control. As your life grows, and the blessing of the Lord flows in your life, it must be managed. And as things attack, you know, when I was a single it was easy to just kind of look after myself and be happy. Then you've got a married, now I've got two to think about. Then I had a child, I've got three to think about. Then another child, I've got four to think about. Until I had you know, seven of us to think about. Then they started getting married. Then I got twelve to think about. Then they started having kids.
Now I've got 19 to think about. And if I'm not careful, I begin to worry and fret. But I go no, because as you get big on the inside, it affects your life on the outside and the only way you can, is to take His Word and never stop. And the Word will grow you into something you won't even recognize yourself at the confidence, the peace, the faith, that you can't make grow. But the Word automatically does. I was trying to explain it to somebody one day. I said you know, it's like taking a medicine. You can have an infection that's really bad, and nothing seems to go away, and all of a sudden you take a medicine and you put it in your mouth, and all of within 24 hours, it just about seems like shrink away and disappear.
God's Word just stay in His Word. It begins to cause you to become confident. Peaceful. Excited. Joyful. Zealous in love. Filled with care and love, and all of a sudden the ability to handle multiple storms and problems. Working on something in your marriage, with one of your kids, and in business. And your parents end, you've got friends and things going on. You can just walk from place to place knowing the blessing of the Lord's on you and the only thing that can happen to me, is I get better, I get gooder, I get gooder because God, His Word is in me. This is what you need to understand, His Word is precious.
Please, don't stop growing in His Word. Ask Holy Spirit to be your best friend. And to teach you, every time you go to His Word. And Holy Spirit will take that Word and illuminate it, and your entire life will change. Now, you'll get up and whether you speak in the name of Jesus to a dog attacking you or some kind of thing that's rising against your business, in the name of Jesus, I command that thing to stop. The name of Jesus begins to hold such power that you use it carefully because of what's going on on the inside of you. If you want to get bigger on the outside of your world, you need to get bigger on the inside.
Father, I pray right now, that You would touch each person listening to this message. I pray that they would just fall in love with Your Word, because Jesus is the Word. And Father, as we use the name of Jesus, our faith in the name will never stop developing all of our lives. Father, reveal that to each person.
For those who are watching right now, if you don't know this Jesus as your Saviour, you are not born-again. If you're not sure, you're not. Let me show you how. As I'm speaking, God's Word causes something to change in you. Faith begins to rise on the inside of you. And that sense you're feeling, maybe I need to do this. Wow, I just feel like, I just feel different. That's God saying, "Come to me". Just say this, just say:
Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross. Thank You for paying for my sins. Thank You for adopting me into God's family. Come into my heart, I'm following You for the rest of my days. In Jesus' name, amen.