Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: All of my life is spent seeking the heart of Christ. All my whole life is spent seeking the heart of the Father. One thing that I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and I behold the beauty of the Father and the only begotten of the Son. I come and I lay down my offering before you, God. I seek your face. I want more of you. You are my sustainer. One thing have I desired. How many of you can say that? You can't say that because you're bound by compromise. You're conceding to carnality and you need to repent of that this morning.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us here at Westside Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, one hour north of Los Angeles. Today on Regaining Lost Ground, we hear the third and final part of this transparently sobering message titled, A Fresh Perspective on Healing Part 1.

Theologian A.W. Tozer once said, "There is a difference between the God we think we believe in and the God who actually exists." Do you struggle with prayer? Does it seem like you can't find the answers to why God sometimes heals and other times doesn't? Get those answers and more in this uplifting message from Pastor Shane as he shares a message of truth and hope, a sermon meant for you right now, here on Regaining Lost Ground.

You can hear the whole message at Pastor Shane's YouTube and Rumble channels. Make sure to subscribe today. For more information, visit us online at westsidechristianfellowship.org. We also encourage you to hear more truth from Pastor Shane with the Idleman Unplugged weekly podcast. And now, from Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here's Pastor Shane Idleman.

Shane Idleman: Three strikes you're out, brother. 81 years old. But God. Unbelievable. So I said you have to share your testimony sometime. Funny thing is, a former correctional officer comes up and they know each other. Can you imagine the correctional officer that was at the prison and the prisoner worshipping together? Unbelievable.

Thirty years early. Hopefully, he's going to share his testimony on a Wednesday and he's just back acclimated with life. I don't even know what the point was, but it sure sounded like it fit somewhere in here. Let me figure it out. Joseph in prison. Okay. God's timing, the test. Joseph in prison for a couple of years, then he gets out, then Pharaoh raises him up, and he becomes the second in command of Egypt.

When people say, "I don't know," but God. My favorite one right now is "There is no hope for California." But God. Maybe not, but God. You're lowering the bar a little bit there. You never know what God might do. He could bring revival to Sacramento and surprise all of us. Or maybe it will remain challenging. I do know this: you need to vote. I think we have somebody here collecting registrations in the lobby afterwards. Hopefully, we've got that. It's just biblical to put the right people in office.

Where? What verse? What chapter? When I say something political you like, then you agree. Give me this garbage about "Don't be political." My goodness. I've been good for the last three months, but sometimes you have to. Leadership matters. Have you ever put gas in your car? Leadership matters. You want companies to stay here, my goodness.

So, let's get back on track. Psalm 105:19 to Joseph: "Until the time his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him." And that will happen to you, my friends. God will put something on your heart and it might not happen next week, or next month, or next year, because he's testing you.

Lord, no matter how long that takes, no matter even if that dream dies, I will follow you. And it tests you. As the days progress and the weeks progress and the months progress, it tests you. Will you still remain faithful? Will you still hold on to your integrity, Job? There's the testing, and that plays a role with healing often. Will you become discouraged and disgruntled and begin to mock me, or will you hold the line and still praise me even in the storm?

Another great one is how many of you know that King David was anointed king, but it was years. Does anybody know the years on that one? I want to say 13, but I'm just guessing. Look it up, let us know next Sunday. Give you some homework. But he said, "Okay, you're king, David." Alright, let's go. No, testing.

I remember the dream I had of preaching over a sea of people in 2001. I knew what God was calling me to do. I could see this. But your character is not yet ready. I don't think it's ever ready. You're constantly developing and humbling yourself and God is shaping you. He shows you where you're going, but it's the process of getting there that can take a lot of time. And the test isn't for God, but for us. Faith is aligning your heart with God's heart. The only person who is truly at rest has achieved it through conflict.

There are no cheap price tags on going deeper with the Lord. Psalm 25:3: "Indeed, no one who waits on the Lord will be ashamed." If you wait on the Lord, you will not be ashamed. You will not be disappointed, let down, or humiliated as you wait on the Lord. Lord, show me, guide me, direct me.

This is important. If sickness is the result of something in the natural, the body's falling apart, you're just getting sick, then natural remedies, conventional, whatever, that might work. But if the illness is spiritually based, if the illness is spiritually based such as a demonic attack or God is disciplining you, then spiritual healing is required. No doctor, no diagnosis, no treatment, no protocol will work if it's spiritually based.

Hebrews 12:6: Did you know that God spanks you? He disciplines those he loves. Get back on track. My mom would find anything. There's an almond tree. Remember those little switches? I still have bad dreams of the almond orchards in Quartz Hill. Lots of switches. But what was the point? To stop the behavior.

So God disciplines those he loves. And if you're in the discipline process, you can go take vitamin C, but it might not fix it. You can go to your doctor and get radiation, but it might not fix it. It's a spiritual problem. Those things require spiritual tools.

Proverbs 16:3: "Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established." He'll make your plans secure or he'll cause them to succeed. You don't tell God, "Hey Lord, here's what I'm doing now, bless it." You ask him what he wants you to do and then he blesses it because you're committing your works to the Lord. And then he'll guide your thinking. Have you ever had him do that before? Like things that seem like, "How am I getting out of this? What type of job or career? What am I going to do?" And he establishes your thinking.

Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." So I don't know why I'm going through this, you might pray. I don't know why the Lord's delayed in his healing. Lord, I don't know, but I'm trusting in you with some of my heart. I'm trying to wake up the people falling asleep. Can I go around? I know who you are. I should get a squirt gun, those long ones. Next Sunday, the squirt gun is coming out. See how far that could go.

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. That means you lay it down at the foot of the cross. You say, "Lord, everything: my finances, my emotions, my plans." I just trust you with all of my heart. I lean not on my own understanding. It's like propping up. Okay, Lord, I trust you, but I'm leaning on this. I'll handle this part. But that doesn't make sense. Have you ever done that with God? That doesn't make sense.

If it's a foolish decision, listen, God could be convicting you, but a lot of times God doesn't make sense when it comes to pursuing him in the sense of what the world says to do. Because what I'm doing, how I'm fighting this, doesn't make sense to a lot of people. That's not what we do. Lean not on my own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct my path and your path as well.

Praise God for that. But don't be a "Yeah, but" Christian. I get this sometimes. "Yeah, Shane, but you don't know my situation." Some of you are thinking that right now. "But you don't know my spouse. Yeah, I know what the Bible says, but I have to handle this one myself." There's no gray area. This applies to all of us.

But be warned, not everyone will agree with you. Paul said, "God, you've humbled me." It's actually a messenger of Satan was given. The Lord allowed—did you know Satan works for God? Are you aware that he's under God's sovereignty? It's funny, Job says that the children of God, the Bnai Elohim, were going to and fro and Satan came to God. God's like, "Have you considered my servant Job? You want to go mess with him?" I don't understand that one, but that's okay, I'll ask God someday. Like, "Don't ever say have you considered my servant Shane. I'm good. I have enough to handle right now."

But God allowed Satan to test him. And then a messenger of Satan, God allowed this infirmity to come upon Paul. Why? Because Paul was taken up to heaven and it revealed things that man cannot utter. Talk about prideful, probably. And it says, "Because of the measure, the abundance of the revelation that God has given me, a thorn was given to me to keep me humble."

And God will do that often, especially for speakers. If I go speak somewhere, I know I have to be careful. I'm not that articulate with dyslexia. I hate to read. That's why I couldn't go to Washington D.C. and read the Bible. I had to do it from video because there's no way I'm reading the King James for twelve minutes without messing up. That keeps you humble.

God will allow things to keep you humble. Paul was given this messenger of Satan to keep him humble. The Bible uses the word infirmity. If we read infirmities, it's a physical weakness, a frailty, a sickness, or a disease. And God said, "No, Paul. My grace is sufficient." And there are times—this might ruin somebody's theology—but there are times that God doesn't heal. It's not always at our command. Faith must be tested.

Healing is a journey for some people. Answers don't come right away. As a pastor, I've seen God heal people through conventional therapy. I've seen countless people healed when God led them to alternatives. I've seen God heal impossible situations and I've witnessed him call his saints home. Ultimately, all of us must bow our knee to God's sovereignty and trust in Jesus, the great physician. A friend of ours said, "We do what we can in the natural and we trust God with the supernatural." Isn't that so true?

That's why we do what we do in the natural, because we are actually called to steward our bodies. That's important. We're called to steward our health. We're called to eat an apple instead of Captain Crunch. Some overnight oats soaked with chia seeds and vanilla and cinnamon instead of Starbucks this morning. We're called to exercise. We're called to steward our body. Do what we can in the natural and then we trust God with the supernatural.

I truly believe that most disease that we are facing today is absolutely diet and lifestyle related, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind. And that's why often when people change those things, they see healing. They're praying for healing, but God's saying, "Okay, but change what's causing it."

And we still pray for healing. I'll pray for type 2 diabetes today and I'll pray that God would heal. But I'll also encourage you to lose 50 pounds, get off McDonald's, stop feeding glucose every three hours and having your body resist insulin. Clean it up. That's what we can do in the natural. It's so important.

So, we're going to go in the prayer room based on James 5. It says if anyone is sick among you, let them call for the elders and they'll anoint them with oil. And it says the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up. And if he's committed sins, it will be forgiven them.

Now here's what's interesting about anointing oil. For me, it's a sign that something is happened. You have oil on you. So it's a sign that we are praying for the person. We believe oil often represents the power of the Spirit, or the Spirit, like the virgins who had no oil. There's lots of scripture and it talks about the oil and the power of just trusting God. And we ask that the Holy Spirit would begin to heal and set people free.

But I want to encourage you with this as well. Sometimes you need to anoint yourself. It's okay. You can anoint yourself. You can strengthen yourself in the Lord. You can encourage yourself, you can motivate yourself, you can inspire yourself, you can embolden yourself, you can reassure yourself, you can reinforce God's word in your heart, and you can remind yourself.

Remind yourself often of Psalm 27. Put it to memory. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? I love that. The light: he is my path, he directs me. But he's also my salvation, my security, my strength. The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?

One thing have I desired of the Lord. One thing. Of everything else in the Bible, he says, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that I will seek." In other words, all of my life is spent seeking the heart of Christ. All my whole life is spent seeking the heart of the Father.

One thing that I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and I behold the beauty of the Father and the only begotten of the Son. And I come and I lay down my offering before you, God. I seek your face. I want more of you. You are my sustainer. One thing have I desired. How many of you can say that? You can't say that because you're bound by compromise. You're conceding to carnality and you need to repent of that this morning.

Take me past the outer court, into the holy place, past the brazen altar. Lord, I want to see your face. Pass me by the crowds of people and the priests who sing your praise. I hunger and I thirst for righteousness, and it's only found one place. Take me into the holies of holies. Take me in by the blood of the Lamb.

You have to get to that spot of full surrender. Some people call it having a breakdown, God calls it surrender. Get to that spot. And maybe for those who don't know, why do bad things happen to good people? Have you ever heard that? Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, that only happened once and he volunteered.

In case you're a little slow, let me say that again because it took me a minute to read it by R.C. Sproul. People ask, "But why do bad things happen to good people?" That only happened once and Christ volunteered.

And some of you may need to make that decision. Psalm 50:15: "Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me." In other words, you will uphold God, you will praise God, you will point people to God, you will honor him, you will treat him as important, you will recognize his value.

Who's going to make up a story that the Creator of the universe sent his Son, died on a cross, beaten beyond recognition, made the hill called Calvary, Golgotha, the place of the skull, died for the sins of the world? Nobody's going to write that book. It has to be the truth.

The greatest healing often takes place long before physical healing ever begins. So, Christian, I can't get this across enough: the desperate need for full surrender has never been greater. Did you know anytime we follow God half-heartedly, it's not biblical? Carnality is not biblical, lukewarm's not biblical. And I don't want to discourage you. I hope you know I'm not talking about, "Oh, I've got to do everything perfect." But we know when we're surrendered and we know when we're not.

We know when the world's got us and when we've got God. Big difference. And maybe if you don't truly know God, you need to repent and believe. Make that decision today. I repent of my sin. Because you know what's way more important than physical healing? Spiritual healing. Spiritual healing. I was blind but now I see. I was lost but now I'm found. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.