Leon Fontaine - Fearfully And Wonderfully Made
When God made you, it says that He made you fearfully. Wonderfully. And, that's an interesting choice of words. That, not only is there something about you, that is wonderful. Beautiful. There's something about you that's dangerous. I think sometimes people, need to remember that. That you are fearfully made. You are wonderfully made. Because Christians tend to think that we're just this sweet little rabbit running around. We don't hurt nothing. Oh, you don't know your Jesus. You're fearfully made. You were made to get up and impact the people around you. You were designed to get up and influence nations, cities, neighbours. You were designed to stand up and defeat every lie, every curse that would come against you as a believer.
And so, too many Christians today, they kind of have this cute little Canadian Christianity, that it's you know, we're wonderfully made. No, you're fearfully made as well. That word means, that there should be an awe about you. There should be something about you, that influences the people around you. And, when I was a paramedic, I had a friend. And, he was as well in the field, and he had a 12-year-old daughter. Now this 12-year-old daughter could out-shoot anybody in the province. She won every rifle shooting competition going. He was so proud of her. And, one day we were just chatting about the things of God. And we were talking about, a sense of wisdom to make decisions.
And, so I was telling him how that God brings wisdom, clarity, for us to know how to handle the power, the influence that has been given to us. They're two different things. And he wasn't getting it, and I said well, do you let your 12-year-old girl carry her rifle around? Never, it's locked away, she can't touch it until I unlock it and hand it to her at the range. I said, why is that? Well because she's 12. I said, she could out-shoot any man in the province, at 12. And yet you don't let her have her own rifle, what's the sense in that? And, he got it. As we learn who we are in Christ, we have to have the wisdom, the direction, to understand how to use this great influence. Sadly, most people never understand how fearfully and wonderfully made they are. Today, I want to focus on one area. Okay? Because there's so many areas about you being fearfully made. Okay, wonderfully made. I want to focus on your sixth sense. You have a sixth sense. It's not God might give it to you; every person with or without Christ has a sixth sense. It is your human-spirit.
Now your human-spirit is not omnipresent. It's not everywhere. Your human-spirit does not know what's going on in Africa, or with your son in Toronto. Your spirit is confined to your body. There is no other spirit on the planet, no demonic spirit, et cetera, that is omnipresent or everywhere at the same time, except for Holy Spirit. And Holy Spirit is. So, as you take a look at you, and even people who have not given their lives to Christ. There is a sixth sense that takes a lot of what their mind has memorized. A lot of the data that you have learned, and it helps you to interpret it. Now this is before Christ. Let's just talk about this for a minute. You see, there's a lot of data that you can gather. We know through your five senses, what you are smelling is being memorized every smell that you have ever smelled, and what it meant to you, and what it did to you, is locked away in the memory banks of your brain. Everything that touched you, every sensory feeling that you've ever had, from the womb up is locked away in your brain, and it is there. Everything that you have seen, every colour.
My eyes right now, are looking at this congregation, and every person here, what you look like, the colour of your hair, what you're wearing, the colour of your short pants, whether or not you're wearing shoes or sandals, it is all there. But now, as my brain interprets all this data, it only takes a little slice of it, that to me is important, and it interprets it. If someone was to get up and run towards the stage, I would notice that. Okay? But there's a ton of things I don't notice. And so the interpretive factor of your brain is crucial, it's like books. I love books. There are tens of thousands of books that were written all around the planet this year. A couple of them are going to change my life. But how do I know which ones to read and which ones to adopt? And so, we are living in the age of information explosion. And that's wonderful, except most people are lulled into a sense of everybody else will know what to do in every situation, and we know through psychology and the study of human beings that 97 percent of the population is too lazy to form their own opinions on anything. 97 percent will not form, they will not think.
Thinking is more work than you can imagine. Especially if thinking goes against the general population, or the way you've been raised. If you're thinking, you know, and you'll just conform to what you've been taught, the beliefs that you have, to think outside of the box of the beliefs you've been raised with is something 3 percent of the population do according to psychologists. Now, thinking is crucial because the Bible tells us we must. The Bible tells us that to live our lives, we've been given this brain and working through the brain is the soul. Okay? The spirit is where when you get born again is where Jesus is.
Now, I have met secular people who do not know Christ, do not profess Christ as Lord, at all, and their business is amazing and we've become friends and as we've talked they'll tell me about their gut. And they'll say, I've learned to never go against my gut. And anybody here with grey hair will usually say the same thing. In so many situations, I should not have done business with that person. And I didn't feel good about it, but the money was so attractive. And so I went ahead and I made the move. Every human being on the planet is fearfully and wonderfully made. You have an onboard computer called this mind, and it gathers through five senses. But then there is a sixth sense, that comes out of your inner-man.
Now when you give your life to Christ, and Holy Spirit comes in to your human spirit, and you now are forgiven for everything you've ever done wrong. That Jesus Christ as you study the Word of God, you begin to recognize that you qualify. That although you are not perfect, His perfection is yours. It does something to the apparatus of your core. And at your core, you no longer struggle with all your moral failures and all your guilt and all the condemnation and all the worry. That, if you'll stay in His Word and look at what Jesus has done from the cross to the throne, it will change your inner-working.
Now, Holy Spirit knows what's going on right now in every member of your family's life, He knows the future of your business, He knows the future of your children, your marriage. He knows what's going to go on in the weather, in the government. In every area, He is aware of the future, and He is omnipresent all the time. And He resides in your spirit. Now most Christians don't have an ability to develop this sixth sense. In fact, I've noticed most business people are far better who don't know Christ, at sensing and knowing than many Christians who live in a magical world. Of God didn't show me. And I know there are things that God isn't showing us, because the Bible says there are secret things that only God knows, but there are also things that He's revealed to man. And everything you will need to live your life and to succeed has been revealed to you. Now, we need to begin to recognize and respect that you have a sixth sense.
And, I'm going to encourage you as I go into the Word, that you understand every decision that you make, practice listening to that inner voice. Now, what you should do is let's say you're going to make a decision about business. You're going to make a decision about hiring. You're going to make a decision about, always step back and ask yourself and record it somewhere. How did I feel inside about it? Not, does it make sense with my five senses, because that's the way I make most decisions. I've learned to analyze, I've learned to listen to the positive about it, the negative about it, gather all the information. There's wisdom in the council of many on every area of decisions that I make. And then I always step back, but how do I feel about this? And sometimes I don't know how I feel, but I'll note that. And later on as I walk that decision out, and it's a. An absolute failure. I'll play the video back in my head and go, when I made that decision. And I become very aware of when I make decisions, and what I do when I'm making that decision.
Why I made it according to my five senses, which gathers all the information, and then when I step back away from my five senses, what did my sixth sense feel like? But your daily decision-making, God is not in control of. And He has given you such freedom. He's given you such autonomy that you have to learn to make decisions. And every decision that you make has consequences or blessings. And this autonomy, this freedom that you've been given by God, He will never violate. It's so important to God, He's in love with you so much, that if you choose not to accept Him as you go into eternity, I wonder if God cries but He won't take away your freedom of choice. And force you to accept Him, so He can take you to heaven. Because an un-reborn spirit can't even exist in heaven. As we look at the Holy Spirit, we recognize that if in the world certain people can get really good at reading people, do I invest, do I hire, do I marry, do I date, do I become their friend?
One of the warnings I probably won't get to the verse today is that, it says that some people, they befriend those and it says they fellowship with devils. Meaning that, that person's first and most important thing in life, begins and if it's not God, it's idolatry. Well Leon, I don't bow down at a, at a stone idol. No, you bow down to money. Well Leon, I don't bow down to some kind of, no. You bow down to your career and you're driven to succeed and to hear the accolades of your peers. Whatever is not, whatever is first in your life, is what makes your decisions. And so, you, there is a worship. There's a decision-making there that will destroy you. Seek first the kingdom of God, Matthew 6:33 says, because of the safety, the humility, the trusting God with our lives.
That's 1 Corinthians 10:20 where it talks about if you begin to fellowship. In other words, fellowship, doesn't mean you can't hang out with people and bowl with people, and go golfing with people and do business, talking about fellowship. Coininea in the Greek. And it means, just absorbing and hanging out together. And sharing hearts and desires. And there's a transference that takes place in those circle of friends. I only allow people into my inner circle that have something for God. I have lots of friends. But the people who have access to my ear, to sit and just talk and to confide and to enjoy. This fellowship, I make sure that there's not something because over the years, often even people that are there will give me advice they think they're really helping me. But it's like the advice of Peter to Jesus and Jesus says get thee behind me Satan. I cannot do that. You need to be careful about what goes on in the decision-making of your life.
Now, not only do you need to learn to begin to sense this sixth sense, but in closing I'll just give you a direction to look at. You will never develop an ability to make decisions, and to know what to say in situations, and what to do, until you renew your mind with God's Word. And you establish your heart in grace. If you don't establish your heart in grace which is the New Covenant, okay? The Old Covenant is law. It is your actions and, the way you live your life has, you know, it's got blessings or consequences. But there's a spiritual side to this. Where, the grace of God which is His undeserved favour. His ability that is yours because of Jesus. You will live in this, I have to do my own work by the sweat of my brow. I've got to, you know, I'm going to work my fingers to the bone, I've just got to work harder. I've just got to go bigger. And I have found that whenever I get into that mode, I can get sick. Whenever I get into that mode I make stupid decisions. I struggle with my emotions. Whenever I get into this mode of Leon has to earn, get better, be better, now.
When I trust in the grace, the ability of God, that He'll always, His favour will be on my life. My mind, submits to my spirit. My mind is safe. And the emotions that come out of the focus of the mind no longer seem to control me. So my mind must submit to the spirit and to what the spirit of God. So I've got to renew my mind's thinking, so it submits. Submits, because the mind will always want to dominate. Ever since the fall of man in the garden of Eden, men wanted, and women wanted to decide for themselves what was good and evil. They didn't want God's grace to show them what was good and what was evil. And so as you look at this, make sure you recognize and here's a beautiful portion of scripture that changed my life.
It is in Psalms 119:97-104. It says, oh how I love Your law. That word 'law' is different than what we mean, it means your principles. It says, I fix my mind on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, because they're always with me. I've got news. You have an enemy. He's always with you. There is no demilitarized zone in your life. There is the kingdom of darkness, and there's the kingdom of light. They are continually fighting. And you never know how it's going to try and erupt. It could come through a multiplicity of ways, but Satan is here to kill, steal, destroy. Recognize that. He's going to make you wiser than your enemies. It says I have more discernment than all my teachers. And then it says I comprehend more than those who are older than me, because I not only know them, but I keep Your precepts. It goes on to say that Your words, they're like honey to me.
I just love them, I want to, I want to taste more of them. He's understood that there is, you know, you have been created for success by God. You have been designed for success, through the creative power of God. But you've been programmed for failure by this world. And until you renew that programming, you'll go to heaven when you die, but you will live out the failure of the beliefs that your parents, grandparents, teachers, preachers, and the interpretation that your little mind makes as a child, about who you are, what God is like, et cetera. These things will control you through life. And so, as you begin to enjoy this Word of God and meditate, get to a life-giving church, and begin to do this, your mind learns to know who you are in Christ, and it submits to the spirit of God in your spirit because the Word of God is taking, I like people say well, you know, I'd love to read the Word but I don't have time.
Well that's like saying I'm going to go and invest and don't know anything about it, but I don't have time to talk to the expert investors. That's stupid. I'm going to build a house, don't know how to do it, but my neighbours are both carpenters and finishing carpenters, I don't have time to talk to them. Dude. Like, that's ignorance gone to seed. Yet, the Word of God is the download that will cause this fearfully, wonderfully made you to win and to succeed. Other than that, you simply will be someone who will follow crowd thinking. God leads you so beautifully that in john 10, Jesus said I'll call you by name, and I'll lead you in the paths that you should go. And you'll follow Me. It doesn't say I'll call the grouping. It says I lead you by name. You're all so unique.
Let's make sure, that we recognize our call is to follow Jesus, and to attract as many people as we can. And the people that we're attracting to Jesus, believe a plethora of different things than you believe. Why argue about them? Just share the Jesus that you love. This beautiful Jesus. How He changes lives. How He prepares you, and helps you to live a life as a man, as a woman. And everything ahead of you, He'll never leave you, and never forsake you. We don't even get that. In the Old Testament, if it ever says, "And the Lord was with them", they never failed. Today, He'll never leave us, never forsake us. People often ask me, Leon, I say, I don't know. I was born for the storm, I'll be fine. Well, what about me? I say, I don't know what do you believe? Well, you know, I just don't know what's going to happen this year. I don't care what happens this year. I was born for the storm. I follow Jesus. I will win. I will end up on the other side of that storm, succeeding, and moving on and the call and the blessing and the favour of God in my life. I've decided that.
Well do you get to decide that? Yeah, you do. Oh I'm sure there'll be messes somewhere, and I'm sure there'll be blessings somewhere. I'll sure that we're going to find crooks and failures and evil people and I'm sure we're going to find beautiful, wonderful, incredible people. And you'll have to discern which for yourself. Because I'm not going to walk through your life and point at, no. You learn. You develop. I'll teach you the Word. Paul said I am free from the blood of all men because I taught you what I know. It doesn't say I'm free from the blood of all men because I helped you make every decision. Jesus loves you. He cares about you. He'll never leave you, He'll never forsake you, and He will guide you through every decision that you make.