Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: To me, it's very healthy. I love the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. I love dreams, visions, prophetic words, words of wisdom. It doesn't happen very much. The Word of God is my standard. The Word of God is what I bury my face in. The Word of God is what I live by. It's the foundation of all sound doctrine and learning. It's what we use.

But sometimes I need a little help. And that's where the gifts come in. It's like, Lord, I'm in your Word every single day for an hour, but it's not going to turn to Matthew 6 and says go pastor a church. You have this desire, Lord, is this you? I don't know if this is you.

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-telling message titled, "How to Hear the Spirit."

A.W. Tozer once said, "When a person yielding to God and believing the truth of God is filled with the Spirit of God, even his faintest whisper will be worshipped." Today, join Pastor Shane as he teaches how we may be more obedient to the Lord by learning how we may hear the Spirit of God living in us 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: This is a challenging type of message. The title is, "How to Hear the Spirit." One of the toughest challenges in the Christian walk, I think we can all agree, is discerning God's will. Do you ever wonder, Lord, is that you or is that me? Is that you leading me, or is that something else leading me? I don't want to make the wrong decision. I want to hear your voice clearly.

I'm going to step into this with fear and trepidation, based on God's Word because we're talking about how God speaks to us. It's important. It's one of the things most Christians really struggle with. One of the top prayer requests in the prayer room is, I need to know is this God's will? Should I take this job? Should I marry this person?

Should I, like Tom, we prayed many times what type of treatment for him and what, Lord, what are you doing and how are you leading us? Just listening and hearing that still small voice is so important. I'm not getting through all of it. I tried for first service and it was just impossible. So, I will do part two next Sunday. I want to give you a lot of tips to get you going in the right direction. I don't want to keep you here too long, but it's very important.

We're picking up in the book of Acts. I'm going through the book of Acts, chapter 16. I'm going through systematically, trying to go verse by verse, but sometimes certain topics really stand out. Remember Paul divided with another believer last week. We talked about healthy division in the church. What does that look like? The best recourse is often restoration and humility.

But sometimes God says, hey, I want to go this direction. But somebody says, I want to go this direction. They went their separate directions. God will sometimes do that because he gives us different callings and passions. I've seen it over the years. Sometimes people get frustrated with other people because they don't share their passion.

Why isn't everybody in the church helping with the homeless ministry? Then somebody else says, why isn't everybody volunteering at CareNet? Then somebody else says, why isn't everybody getting involved in missions? Well, that's your passion. We can't juggle everybody's passion. I can't do everything we offer at the church.

Sometimes they ask why aren't you at the Tuesday night men's studies? Because I've got Wednesday, I've got Sunday, I've got five kids, I've got Friday. I can't do that. I'd love to at some point. Same with you. Many times you're going to have to choose those battles carefully. Don't wrongly judge others just because they don't share your same passion.

A lot of pastors don't share my same passion for awakening America and revival and things like that. Their thing is maybe they're on lots of mission trips or maybe they're with the homeless outreach or maybe they're just expositionally teaching and working on booklets and home groups and life groups and things like that. That's where God's got them.

Thank God for different things in the body. That's how we have the whole body. We're not all doing the same thing. We're all doing what God has called us to do. Paul separates. I believe it was Barnabas that separated. They went their other direction. When he came, when Paul came into Derbe and Lystra, there was a disciple there named Timothy.

Has anybody heard of Timothy? You have if you've heard of 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. That's who Paul finally meets in the book of Acts. He meets Timothy. He was the son of a Jewish woman who believed. So, his mom is a Messianic Jew, believing in the Messiah and they're Jewish, but his father was a Greek. He was well-spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.

Paul comes, he meets this brother, probably a young man, and they said, hey, this guy's solid, you have to meet him. Paul said, I'm going to take him with me to do ministry. I'm going to have him go with me. When he took him, he circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region.

Can you imagine Paul going to Timothy and saying, "Hey"? Timothy's probably like, "What?" As a grown adult, there's no such thing as putting you out and waking you back up. What makes this interesting is Paul decided to do this after the Jerusalem Council that we just talked about, where they said you don't have to get circumcised. You don't have to follow the law of Moses for salvation.

So, what is he doing here? From Bible Hub Commentary, "Timothy's circumcision was therefore not a theological requirement, but it was a strategic choice to avoid unnecessary obstacles in ministry, potentially limiting access to synagogues and dialogue with Jewish leaders." So, basically, he became all things to all men.

In its entirety, Paul said, "To the Jew I became a Jew. To the Gentile I became a Gentile. To the free I became free, but to the bondservant I became as a slave. I became all things to all people that I might win some to the gospel." Isn't that so important? When you can't relate to somebody, it's hard. You have to relate to your story. People that I cannot minister to, others do.

People that they don't seem to reach, I can reach. I hear that a lot. "Maybe you're here because I can relate to your story." Other people dress up in suit and tie and they reach the intellect of others where that's not my sweet spot, but that's what God's called them to do. You listen to Alistair Begg on the radio, talking about a good teacher. If you saw his crowd where he's at, it's a lot of intellectuals and you can hear him talking about that a lot. He reaches them where they're at.

What about churches that are victory outreach? They're down in Skid Row and they minister to the homeless and it's a whole different outreach program. You ever see people all tatted up, ministry leaders on their neck? They're reaching. I wouldn't recommend it necessarily, but if that's where God has you and you're ministering to that group of people that they can relate to you on their level, they understand you.

That's why God has given us different ministries and different ways of relating to people. If you hear sermons that don't really have—have you ever had somebody send you, "You've got to listen to this"? And I'm like, "What? That didn't do anything to me. That was boring." But to them, it really ministered. Me and my wife do that with worship all the time. She'll send me a song and I'm like, "It's okay." She's like, "What? I was crying. That was so good." Then I'll send her one and she's like, "What?"

Because different things hit us differently. That's why he circumcised Timothy because now they can walk in and they can minister. That was really their ministry initially, was to the Jews. Paul gets so frustrated later, he says, "You've rejected Christ. I'm going to the Gentiles." That was why they did it. It had nothing to do with he had to do it for salvation or because of the law, but basically to fit in and to be able to minister.

Then we get into Acts. It's called the Macedonian call. I'm sorry, pronounce that for me, somebody. Macedonian, there you go. Once I heard it, I knew I could say it after that. Dyslexia gets me sometimes. The Macedonian call. They were actually forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.

Can you imagine this? The disciples are going to preach the word in Asia. Asia Minor is above Israel, probably 600 or 700 miles. Но they're going to preach the word in Asia and the Holy Spirit said no. Wait a minute. Why would he not want me to go preach the word in Asia? Always remember a good thing isn't always a God thing.

He says, "I don't want you to go there because I want you to go here." He wanted him to go to a different area. So, if you're going out and God says, "I don't want you to go there. I'm closing that door and I'm redirecting you." That's why we're talking this morning about how to hear the Spirit. You ever hear the term out there, led of the Spirit? This is where it comes from, being led of the Spirit, being pliable, being teachable, listening to the voice of God, hearing the voice of God.

So, they were forbidden. The Holy Spirit actually forbade them to go to Asia and preach. So, what did they do? They came to a few other cities and they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So, now they're trying to go to another place and the Holy Spirit did not permit them. Passing by a different area and it was down by Troas.

What did they do? They're waiting there in Troas and as Paul is there, he has a vision. Most will say that a vision is something you have with your eyes open. You're not necessarily asleep. I don't know if that's happened to any of you before, but it's so vivid, you can see whatever God's trying to show you. You can see that in a vision. You're awake where a dream is, you're asleep.

Of course, it comes up, does God still do that today? Based on scripture, not opinion, I don't know why he wouldn't. It's not like you're not going to need that anymore, you've got the Bible. I still need help. For example, if they had the Bible, the whole Bible, they didn't have it by the way, it wouldn't tell them to go to Macedonia. They'd have no clue.

So, that's why sometimes God leads things that aren't crystal clear in scripture. Scripture gives us principles to live by, but not often the exact direction of course to take sometimes. That's why you have the Holy Spirit come along as a helper. As long as the Word is primary, as long as the Word is the foundation. All godliness and living is done through the Word. When you don't have that foundation and you get caught up in dreams and visions, you get wonky.

You get weird. You don't need these things every week, you need the Bible. You don't need to go, "What are the prophets saying?" What is Jesus Christ saying to you every day? To me, these prophetic voices are so far off it's ludicrous. You've got to get grounded in God's Word. So, he had a vision and what happened? A man from Macedonia stood and he pleaded with Paul.

So, Paul sees this man and he says, "Come and help us." So, Paul says, "Obviously, this is the Lord calling us to go and to preach to them." Obviously, it's God calling us to go and preach to them. Here's why we still believe this. Acts, when the church was born, the church had a birthday. The Holy Spirit came upon 120 in the upper room. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, something changes.

You're like, "I've got joy. I've got joy unspeakable. I've got love and I'm praising the Lord." And they start speaking in tongues and prophesying. People say, "They must have pulled out the wine early. They got the strong stuff out early in the morning." What does Peter say? He says, "This is that which is spoken—" before that he says, "They are not drunk as you suppose, but this is that which the prophet Joel spoke of, that in the last days God says I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh."

What does that mean? Well, here's what it means. "Your sons and your daughters will prophesy." What does that mean? Prophecy is a messenger, they're speaking for somebody else. God will put his Spirit upon them and out will come the boldness to preach the Word of God, to confront, to convict, to encourage. It's speaking forth the mind and counsel of God as long as it lines up with the scripture.

So, he will pour out on them. "Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. On my menservants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my Spirit upon them in that day." So, this is that. We are still living in that time where God uses—and to me, it's very healthy. I love the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. I love dreams, visions, prophetic words, words of wisdom. It doesn't happen very much.

The Word of God is my standard. The Word of God is what I bury my face in. The Word of God is what I live by. It's the foundation of all sound doctrine and learning. It's what we use. Но иногда I need a little help. That's where the gifts come in. Lord, I'm in your Word every single day for an hour, but it's not going to turn to Matthew 6 and says go pastor a church.

I have this desire, Lord, is this you? I don't know if this is you. Can you help me? Can you show me? Then he'll bring people into your life that it's happened. Remember Nofo Elaitise from Central Christian? My aunt Cheryl and a fourth person all in one week said, "Hey, I don't know but it's been on my heart, have you ever considered pastoring?"

"What?" But see how God will use—even though I could feel my Spirit like, "I don't know, Lord, I need some help." Because there's no Bible passage that tells me what to do. There's no Bible passage that tells you should you move. Should you marry such and such? So, you pray for confirmation. God knows our heart. We can say that, "Oh, God knows my heart," and be in sin. Но he will use, that's what it's for.

I can't tell you how many times we've seen it where God will put something on somebody's heart in the prayer room. They're like, "Hey, I don't know, I've been praying for you all week." They'll say something and the person's just like, "Oh my goodness, I've been praying about confirmation all week." But see, it lines up with the scripture. It's something God's already doing.

It's not like, "Oh, I never thought of that, I'm supposed to move to Alaska and divorce my spouse." No, that's the wrong spirit. That's a demonic spirit. What I'm trying to get across with the gifts of the Spirit is they are not the main meal. The Word of God is the main meal. The relationship with Jesus Christ, obedience, humility, trusting him, seeking him, that's the meal.

But then that's why he's called the helper. "Hey, God, I need a little help on this one. I need a little help on this idea. I don't know what to do with this." I hate sharing examples, but a lot of you are so new. Our church bought that radio station in 2019 as the last thing on my mind. I was driving and I heard they're going out of business and I just had—it was clear as day like, "Why don't you buy it?" "Why don't I buy it?"

That just kept gnawing and gnawing and seeking godly counsel, talking to our elders. Where can I turn in the Bible on that? You can turn to, "That's a good idea, that will bless people." There's some principles there. I finally told Morgan, I said, "I'm not praying about this anymore. I'm not a Christian radio station manager. I don't have any clue what I'm doing."

As God is my witness, two days later, Susie emails me from the office. Phil listens sometimes. He actually puts together those two-minute clips and stuff. Susie goes, "Hey, there's a guy here who watches your sermons from Minnesota and he's a Christian radio station manager." I said, "What? I've never even met one. What are the chances of that?"

God knew I needed some help. So, I called him. I told him. He goes, "Oh, I can do it all remotely from Minnesota. You just check up the system that we use, Amvox, and they do it remotely and we have a guy produce it. It's no problem." Wow. But see, I couldn't turn anywhere to that. I was fighting it for a month or two. "Lord, I don't know what to do with this, I need some help." See, that's what the gifts are for.

It's not the main thing. We don't seek the gifts, we seek the gift giver. Then he will lead you accordingly. It's a very beautiful thing, isn't it? Но here's some words we have read recently: led by the Spirit, heard from the Spirit. Weeks ago, maybe a couple of months ago now, the Spirit told Philip. Now we're getting into the Spirit forbade them. The Spirit did not allow them.

It's like all these different ways God guides. I think I isolated it. This might be helpful. Led, heard, and told are internal witnesses. I don't think the Holy Spirit's going, "Philip!" It's an internal witness. Many of you know if you've had it. You know when there's that conviction of the Spirit. When God's really—it's like you can't—the Holy Spirit is a good nag.

You know what a nag is, nagging? Like your neighbor's dog barking or Proverbs says about a contentious woman, dripping, dripping. Men nag, too. He'll just keep on you until you listen. I believe that's what led, heard, and told Philip. It was an internal witness. But when he stops somebody or doesn't allow somebody, he closes the door. Absolutely closes the door.

I've seen people where they've got the storage bin full, escrow closes in seven days and they're ready to move and then the bank calls and says, "We're not funding the loan. The buyer backed out or the seller doesn't want to sell." Closed door. "Okay, Lord, I think you've got different plans." And now they're still here years later because God closed that door.

Or, "I'm going to start this new work job on Monday. I can't wait until tomorrow morning. Lord, this is so great, I know I have to commute." Then you get the call tonight, "Hey, we're going to have to actually downsize, but appreciate you filling out the application." And they thank God because they got a better job. They found one that they really enjoy. So, God will do those things. We'll start a ministry and we'll want to, and then God just closes the door. It's not going to happen. "I want you to do this instead."

One of the most frustrating things, and I thought I heard from the Lord—this will help because you know when you think and you're like, "Man, did I miss it?" I even had dreams. I still remember this dream. I was preaching to prisoners. They're sitting on those stadium benches and there's a fence there and I'm preaching to them. Again, it could be me, I don't know, but it's not a bad dream.

That week I get an email back from California City detention facility to fill out all their paperwork and to go and actually preach to the prisoners. This is incredible. Myself, my pastor Abram, he got approved as well. Мы drove out there, we took a tour and then the next time we're going to preach and then COVID hits. And it's like, wow. Then we kept trying and many of you know it closed down.

During that time, then we got a different—heard from a different organization in prisons. They said, "Hey, have you ever heard of a Pando app? The Pando ministry?" I'm like, "No, what is that?" So, we talked to the rep. Basically, churches can buy tablets and we put them in prisons for prisoners. There are certain apps that are allowed on it and one is called Pando. So, we can upload our sermons, ten a month to the app, and the prisoners can watch the sermons online. God really answered a different kind of way.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Regaining Lost Ground with Pastor Shane Idleman. You can find more information at westsidechristianfellowship.org. 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.