Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: In all my ways, I'll acknowledge him, and he will direct my path. If you believe in those things, if you're staying in his word, obeying his principles, and praying for direction, even like I talked about my experience in Mexico, you could still see God was all over it. Looking back, I thank him for it, how much better now the booklet is, and my knowledge of things, and what he brought me through in trusting in him and him alone. It's just amazing. You don't see it right then. It's when you look back that you can see God's sovereign hand in everything. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness. He will strengthen him.

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 part one of this truth-filled message titled A Fresh Perspective on Healing Part 2. Jeremiah 17:14 says, "Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise."

Join us today as Pastor Shane continues to share on trusting God no matter the diagnosis, no matter the trial. Rest in God's sovereignty today, 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.

Pastor Shane Idleman: If I had a title, it would be A Fresh Perspective on Healing Part 2. Part two. Here was my dilemma. I had a lot of scriptures still left from Sunday, and I don't like to just throw them in the trash and then come up with something new next Sunday. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do part two on healing next Sunday. Thank God for Wednesdays, so that helps a little bit.

But as God is taking me through this journey, scriptures have been everything. Because you have to hold your hat on promises of God. That's how you keep your sanity. There's no other way. I don't know how people do it without God. God kind of prepared me for the ministry in many different ways. I remember when I first came back to the Lord, I'll never forget the house, the site, everything is still a deep impression. I don't know if I've ever shared this. Some things I'm careful with, I know the family.

But Pastor Sean, who spoke for me, I just came back to the Lord. He's like, "Come do ministry with me." So we went to this house, and the teenager was actually dying of leukemia, and she passed while I was there. I saw the thrashing in the bed, and it was terrible. I've seen, I was there with Russell probably four hours before he passed. I could see his tumors. I've been at the hospital and prayed for people. I've seen a lot.

That can strike a lot of fear in you. Using the word to balance that fear out and also reflecting, all of those people are in a much better place. They are. It's not a cliché, that's the truth. And just recently, I read my Bible, I think it was July probably 2012. Yvette, I don't know if she's here tonight, she'll remember. But she said there's a family, they're calling for a priest. They don't know anything about anybody or any religion, and I know them, and their 12-year-old is dying of cancer.

So I went over there and held her hand and prayed with her. There's just so much emotion with that. It's just devastating. I think she passed that evening. But being able to be with people and pray with people, it's such a privilege, but it's a very hard calling, and it weighs on you. I woke up this morning to a person I've been helping. They just got back from Mexico, actually, and his wife passed last night. Praying with them, it's just a hard season, the dark night of the soul.

My point is the scriptures, prayer, and worship, that just gets you back on track, and it brings that joy back. But something I wanted to talk to you about, not necessarily for a Sunday, I think it's important though because most of you know, I talk about things other pastors don't just because of where God's called me. You're probably not going to hear from Fenbendazole or Ivermectin from the pulpit much these days and things like that.

But it's important. I want people to know, because every day I'm talking, I'm working with them. I just came in too late tonight because I was helping a couple and I've got other calls tomorrow on navigating through the cancer protocol and what works. There's really nothing that works. Nothing's bulletproof except God. Once people deal with that and say, "We can help, we can try," but do not rely on anything except God and God alone.

What a lot of people don't understand while we're on this topic, specifically even now with cancer, that's the main thing. Does this work? Does this work? The reason, and I think it's important to know because it fits with healing, it fits with what a lot of people are dealing with, it's different because it's different cells. Pancreatic cancer is different than squamous cell carcinoma, is different than prostate cancer, is different than colorectal cancer, is different than breast cancer.

So what might work for somebody, they did this, might not work for somebody else. That's why you need to be strategic in it. Right now, I don't know if you've seen in the news, but colorectal cancer is rising at alarming rates in young adults. Why is that? No-brainer. Fast food and too much weight, obesity, insulin resistance.

Pancreatic cancer, it's an overstimulation of the pancreas. What does the pancreas do? Insulin. Insulin resistance, too much insulin, too many carbs, too much sugar. So you see all these diet-related things. Breast cancer, one of the top worst ones is triple-negative. Basically, it means the progesterone, the estrogen, and the HER2 receptors are not open to taking any type of treatment. So removal is often the best way.

With head and neck and throat cancer, that's where something like I've talked about before, low-dose Naltrexone, binds to opiate receptors, and those cells have a lot of opiate receptors and it seems to help kill the tumors in those areas. So you have so many different things at your disposal. Prostate cancer, a lot of people when they just change their diet from meat and dairy and get on whole plant-based foods, really bring a lot of healing to the body. So see, that's why it's unique. There are different types of things that work differently.

Ivermectin, Fenbendazole, you've been hearing about that. Mebendazole, it's the same as Fenbendazole, it's just the same strain of bacteria, it's just different branding. One goes after the metabolism of the parasite, the other goes after the DNA of the parasite. Even the World Health Organization is finding that some parasites are playing a role in cancer. So that's why some of these things work good, where others don't, because they're going right at the source of the cancer.

Where something else may not, it might be food and diet-related, it might be genetics, genetic things that play a role in it. Not to alarm anyone, but your body's going through about 10,000 micro-cancers a day in your body, each of you. But your body gets it, and it destroys it, and it removes it. That's kind of what our body, our immunity was designed to do. Then you get into conventional therapy versus alternatives and things like that.

My point in how this was tying in is if the healing, if God is wanting you to steward your body, that's why some of these things can work, and that's why God allows some of these things to work because we've got to get our health back on track. But if it's a Hebrews 12:6, I think where he spanks you, God disciplines those he loves. You can eat all the Ivermectin you want and it's not going to matter. He's waking you up. He's using this to draw you back to him.

The verses I wanted to share Sunday that I didn't get the opportunity to are so important because I truly believe when it comes to healing, this might not matter to you right now. Trust me, there will be a coming a day where it will matter to you. We all live in this fallen world, we all live in these fallen bodies. I believe a lot of healing or feeling better is up here too. It's not just think positive, Joel Osteen, or Norman Vincent Peale. What it is, it's believing and trusting in God and thankfulness, and what that does in the body. It's a really good, and you take your thoughts captive, and you begin to have joy in the Lord. If not, you're kind of down all the time, and it can really hurt your body. Cancer, actually, I could get into a whole 20 minutes on cortisol and cancer and things like that. It's just amazing how the body works.

Some of the scriptures, Psalm 56:3 is one of the ones I was going to share with you Sunday. "Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you." So that does happen. Fear comes in. Fear comes in. "Whenever I'm afraid, I will trust in you." We many of us deal with that. If you've had cancer or you're dealing with it, you always know that you always live with that in the back of your mind coming back and rearing its ugly little head. There's that fear.

Or just in life in general, everything can be going great but still you struggle with fear. It reminds us that we can get afraid, but God says, God's word says, "I will trust in you." So really what it is, I have this fear but I'm taking it to the Lord. So you don't dwell there, you don't stay there, you take it to the Lord. You say, "Lord, this is right, I'm trusting in you." Because let's come right to the race. What can flesh do to you? What can man do to you unless God Almighty allows it?

In God, I will praise his word. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? Nothing. That could even mean your flesh. Context is enemies of course, but man, but also God's in control. He just can speak the word and speak into your situation. But many times he allows us to go through suffering.

Psalm 118, "I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. And the Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death." Interesting verse, but it says there chastening. That is the Lord's discipline. The Lord has chastened me, he has disciplined me. But it wasn't for death, it was to wake me up. It was to get me back on the right track.

And also when God does something miraculous or when he keeps you healthy or you have these years to live or different things, you're to do work for the Lord, you're to declare the works of the Lord. We're not to be selfish. That's one thing with this verse too. A lot of these verses meant a lot to me last three months. One option was to go to the elders and to take a three-month medical sabbatical. But why? What's the point? I want to declare your works. I want to preach through this. I want that brokenness, that anointing to flow into other people. Just sitting at home pouting is not going to accomplish anything. I would be miserable.

There's no point of that. It was suggested. But I think the idea when God gives you that life and gives you that voice to speak, that we are called to do just that, to declare the works of the Lord. I love this one, Psalm 107, "He sent his word and healed them. He sent his word and healed them."

Now because these verses don't have commentaries and they're not written in a whole letter per se, they're verses here and there, it can be framed a couple different ways. He sent his word, what he says, his spoken word, and it heals them. Or God can just speak the word and it heals them. All he has to do, remember when Jesus would just speak a word and they were healed? It's amazing.

Jeremiah, "I will restore health to you and I will heal you of your wounds." So what happens is you begin to meditate on these verses. It doesn't mean you name it and claim it and you speak it and it'll happen and blab it and grab it. But you're getting your mind set on things of hope.

The hard part has been challenges, very challenging. The person I just mentioned earlier and another person on Saturday, I've had two people that I prayed with for healing and they believed in God and they are no longer here in the last week. God took them. How do you process that? They're quoting scripture, they're relying on scripture. But we forget that ultimate healing is not here on Earth.

"For I am the Lord God who heals you." Exodus, he says, "I am the God who heals you." So whenever you're sick, can you imagine meditating on these verses? I believe there is power in that too. I believe as you meditate on healing verses and you believe in it and you trust it, Lord, I mean wherever your ailment is and whatever you anoint that, you pray over that. And you believe God. I believe you are the God who heals. Because now belief and faith are being engaged. You have to engage faith and belief. You have to believe that he is who he says he is.

I know I mentioned it a lot, but it's such a great principle. The three Hebrew boys, "My God will deliver us, but even if he doesn't, he's still God." What a great view. That view has been so helpful. Because you can say, "I know God's going to heal me. I know he can, I know he can speak it, I know he can just say it. But even if he doesn't, I will not turn from him."

And you can rest in that. The true believer can rest in the storm as well as in the calm port of the harbor. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Those who have been hurt, those who have been cast down, those who have been rejected by society. Have you ever been through a hard season? We do, we get hurt easy, don't we? It happens a lot.

I didn't realize even going through this how much it would hurt me when you don't hear from people. People used to go here, people I know, I've never even heard from them. It hurts. But I know I've learned a valuable lesson. I'm sure I've done that too. It makes you a better person, a better pastor to always try to be sensitive and reach out. But the pain of just relationships and different things.

Jeremiah 17, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed," calling on him to heal. Psalm 103, "He heals all your diseases." He heals all your diseases. There's nothing God can't touch. I mean if you just look at all these. Proverbs 4:20, "For they, my words, are life to those who find them and health to their flesh." God's word is health to my flesh.

The ones that I just have to meditate on are those who wait upon the Lord shall not be ashamed. Those who wait upon the Lord shall not be ashamed. I don't have the comfort of remaining silent and not telling too many people about what I'm going through like most people get to do. I'm jealous. Most people going through stuff don't tell people, do they? They just go through it. I'm like, "That must be nice."

But I've got as many people as are watching me, judging me. "Oh, I knew he should have done such and such. See, I told you." I will not be ashamed if I wait on the Lord. Just going to Sprouts and somebody would say, "Wow, I heard about what happened and you look good." I'm like, "How am I supposed to look? Like, I'm not dying. Guys, come on."

It's this constant reminder and there's shame in sometimes, and did I do the right thing? Am I doing the right thing? What is the right thing? Because if we put out survey cards and put them in the box, I bet there'd be a lot of different surveys on what I should and shouldn't be doing. Same with me, I tell people advice that they don't need to hear too much as well, because God directs us differently.

One thing he has really taught me is he doesn't need anything. He doesn't need chemo, radiation, supplements. Does God need any of that? He just laughs. But he allows us to use certain things, to use doctors, to use surgeons, and he will work through them. I've mentioned it many times before that I know tons of people who have been healed in all different ways: conventional and alternative and immunotherapy, which is kind of in the middle.

I know people who did nothing and they're fine. A friend of ours, we just ran into her again. Her doctor told her 12 years ago she has cancer and she never went back. She's still just living and gardening. I'm like, "Well, that's got to hand it to her." I don't know if I'd go that route, but how can you question her trust in God? That's more trust than most would have. "Oh, that's foolish, that's not using wisdom." That's between them and the Lord to say, "You know what, God, I'm just going to trust you. My life is in your hands." That's pretty powerful. 12 years.

The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness. Oh, I forgot to tell you the other ones. Those who wait upon the Lord will not be ashamed. Of course, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. The Lord is my light, he is my salvation. Whom shall I fear? I will trust in the Lord with all my heart. I will not lean on my own understanding.

In all my ways, I'll acknowledge him, and he will direct my path. If you believe in those things, if you're staying in his word, obeying his principles, and praying for direction, even like I talked about my huge experience in Mexico, you could still see God was all over it. Looking back, I thank him for it, how much better now the booklet is, and my knowledge of things, and what he brought me through in trusting in him and him alone.

It's just amazing. You don't see it right then. It's when you look back that you can see God's sovereign hand in everything. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness. He will strengthen him. And guys, I do open up about this a little bit. I was not in a real great spot in January. So I know God has done a lot. With night sweats, and my body was declining pretty quickly, and he changed all that.

How long it will last, I don't know. I don't know that, but I do know I feel really good now. I'll meet any of you on that hill if you want to go seven times. He's doing something, he's sustaining me. He brought me up out of that direction I was in. It was not a good direction. I don't think I'd be preaching here right now had he not done something. And so these promises are so incredible. He will strengthen him on his bed of illness if you cry out to him and worship him and praise him. Or he could say, "Son, it's time to go home. It's time to go home."

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Regaining Lost Ground with Pastor Shane Idleman. You can find more information at westsidechristianfellowship.org. That's westsidechristianfellowship.org. And for all the latest on what God is doing with his ministry here, please be sure to follow us on most social media platforms. Westside Christian Fellowship is located 60 miles north of Los Angeles in Leona Valley, California. Thank you again for listening to today's message of Regaining Lost Ground, where we are reminded daily: times change, truth does not.