Regaining Lost Ground

The bottom line is this: Jesus is coming. That's why He is called the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. He will overwhelm a person with God's power and God's presence. That's who's coming after me. John the Baptist says, "I am nothing, I'm a nobody. I'm just baptizing you into repentance."

But when Jesus Christ comes, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, which, as a result, is fire. If somebody's filled with the Holy Spirit, they're not going to be filled with ice. It's always fire, always filled with fire. If you have not experienced this, you might want to check your surrender. How many of you in this room can say that?

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 the message titled "Let Revival Fire Fall," and is the final sermon in the series, "Theology on Fire."

Spirit-filled Pastor Samuel Chadwick, when commenting on revival, said, "Nothing would turn the nation back to God so surely and so quickly as a church that prayed and prevailed. The world will never believe in a religion in which there is no supernatural power. A rationalized faith, a socialized church, and a moralized gospel may gain applause, but they awaken no conviction and win no converts."

Be stirred to supernatural prayer-filled action with this fiery message from Pastor Shane as he walks through the importance of true devotion to Jesus and sounds the alarm for how crucial it is to heed God's call for revival. 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: The title is "Let Revival Fire Fall." Let revival fire fall. I've been in a series for many months entitled "Theology on Fire." God's Word, theology on fire, the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, let me clarify for you because, depending on if you're conservative or charismatic or Pentecostal, or whoever, a lot of different people watching and listening to this, I need to clarify this word "revival." It's actually not weirdness. It's not being loud. We're having a revival service all week, and that's not revival.

Revival has little to do with evangelism, although evangelism will follow. Revival, straight and simple and to the point, is God reviving His people. "Wilt Thou not revive us again?" Why? So we can rejoice in You, so we can know You at a deeper, more intimate level. Revival is a release, it's a recovering, it's a rebuilding, it's a reclaiming, it's a realigning. Reviving, renewing, restoring, re-establishing, bringing people back to God.

Unless God brings revival, there is little hope for our nation. There's little hope for the world. It is God awakening His church. You picture your teenager sleeping and going and throwing in a gallon of water. Reviving. Get up, there's work to do. It's a restoring, it's a re-establishing, it's re-deploying the troops. In short, it's reviving, restoring, and rekindling that fire that maybe you've never had. Maybe you've had it and you've lost it, but the way God gets His people back on track is to revive them, restore them to wholeness.

I don't have a problem with this word. A lot of churches do. I unfortunately went to a conference a few years ago where they actually mocked and poked fun at those who said, "Lord, send Your fire." They mocked that. "Oh, those guys don't know what they're praying." Oh yes, we do. See, here's the confusion: fire is destructive if it's coming as a form of judgment. But if that revival fire is a purifier and can represent the power and presence of God, we should desire that. It's all where your heart's at.

You don't want an unbeliever or somebody just living in sin to say, "Bring fire, God," because watch out, that's often a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire. Judgment is often represented by fire, but so is presence, so is power, the manifest power of God when fire falls. The altar and the sacrifice are consumed, and God visits His people. Throughout the Bible, you would see Him visiting His people, and even in the New Testament, even throughout church history that I love to read about, revivals. God awakening and bringing this presence that's not normally felt.

It's the difference between a little running stream about this wide and a dam bursting. What would you rather be in? Obviously, safety-wise, the little stream. But to be refreshed and the power—when that dam breaks, it will move enormous boulders. It will knock down the forest and redo the entire landscape. That's a downpour, that's a revival. God's always here, the Holy Spirit.

Even people laugh at that song, "Fill Me Up, Fill Me Up." "Oh, that's brainwashing." No, it's not. What would you rather be praying? "Keep me lukewarm, keep me dry, keep me dead, move on to the next song, please"? No, that's the heart getting ready. God, fill me up with Your power, with Your presence. God, I'm asking, I'm knocking, I'm seeking. I need more of You. Like A.W. Tozer said, "I want the presence of God Himself or I don't want anything to do with religion."

That's what I'm after. I don't know about you, but most of us didn't come to play church. That's why I say that. We didn't come to have a social club. We came to meet God. And so there's nothing wrong in saying that. The reason people will mock this type of message is because they've never experienced it. They're afraid of what they've never experienced. They want comfortable Christianity. They want God in a box. Like I've said before, we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Word. Don't talk about the Holy Spirit stuff.

People can get too carried away. Well, they can also get on fire in the right direction. That's the Holy Spirit. It's the power and presence of God. Isaiah wasn't afraid of this, was he? You know the prophet Isaiah? The scripture we taught on months ago, "Oh, that You would rend the heavens." Isaiah said, "Oh, God, oh!" And I guarantee it wasn't a quiet "oh." He was saying, "Oh, would You rend?" Lord, would You rip up the heavens? Would You rip heaven and come down that the mountains might shake at Your presence?

Have you ever driven by Mount Whitney? Seventeen thousand feet, and that mountain would shake in His presence. Go to Everest, twice that size, and that mountain would shake in the presence of God. Oh, that You would come down and rip the heavens. I hope that's your heart cry. I hope, because that's the only way that lasting change will occur. That's the only way you'll be on fire for God, passion for God, for His Word, for worship, for prayer.

The fire of God wants to be fueled. That's why we want church attendance, we want to get in His Word, we want to sit with other Christians and talk about the goodness of God. Let me just read a few things. I want to increase your appetite for revival. This is from the book *When Fire Fell*. I've got a lot of books on revival. I'm reading one right now on the great awakenings that occurred on our college campuses back in the late 16, 1700s. Yale was founded as a Christian college. Harvard? All these colleges. God brought revival and renewed. They would drift off course, He would bring revival. God can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants.

I'll just tell you this up front. I was going to wait till the end, but when I talk about revival, the title is "Let Revival Fall." The keyword there is "Let." Because you provide the sacrifice, God provides the fire. Charles Finney caught some heat in his book on revivals because he said if you create the atmosphere, God is compelled to move. I partially agree and I partially don't, because we can't tell God what to do. We can't have a revival conference next week and God's going to bring revival. However, we can create an environment.

You see all these forest fires in California? I don't see them in the dead of winter. Why? Because the environment isn't conducive. We can prepare the environment, the condition of our heart for fire to fall, for God to fall on that. Jonathan Edwards gave himself to prayer and the ministry of the Word for eight years. Not microwave Christianity. You've got to press in, you've got to continue to pray and continue to push in. Then suddenly, the fire fell.

Mr. Shear gives a graphic picture of the scenes that were witnessed as the Spirit of God came down upon the people. In the early months of 1735, the people pressed into the church daily, and for a time, Northampton was literally filled with the presence of God. In almost every house, parents were rejoicing over their children, and in the sanctuary, the tears of penance and repentance and of newfound joy and deep compassion flowed freely. The whole congregation became like a heavenly choir and praise was a sweet holy sacrifice when fire fell.

In Scotland, in 1630, a young minister named John Livingston was invited to preach to a great assembly of people. Realizing the importance of the meeting, groups of earnest Christians formed themselves into little companies and spent the night in earnest prayer for God's blessing upon the gathering. The young minister himself, John Livingston, was also part of those prayer groups. And afterwards, for two and a half hours, this young man spoke with burning lips to the great audience. The book records the heavenly fire fell upon the multitude and the scene was like another Pentecost.

I could sit here for the rest of the day and read examples from China to Africa. You've got Andrew Murray in Africa, you've got the Inland Missionary Alliance in China, you've got South America, you've got the great awakenings. God is moving. God moves among His people. One of my favorite journals to read is David Brainerd. He actually came to America and was a missionary to the Indians. He realized more and more that it was only through the mighty power of God and the fire falling from heaven that the hardened hearts of the Indians could be changed.

He decided to give himself unreservedly to intercessory prayer. It was said that whole nights were spent in agonizing prayer in the dark woods, his clothes drenched with the sweat of travail. As a result of such intense, fervent prayer, it's little wonder that the windows of heaven were opened and the fire fell. There's a theme throughout all the books I read, throughout the Bible, one theme and one theme alone: pray and humble yourself as if revival depended upon it. Because it does. It does.

Lukewarm, carnal Christianity that doesn't feel the power and presence of God will never break free of that unless they press in, unless they pray and travail and humble themselves, even if it takes years. Because I run into people, "Oh, I tried to pray for a few hours, it just doesn't work." Are you expecting to walk on clouds right then? Or are you pressing in? I had Hebrews 12:29 up on the screen, actually a few verses there, and I just really wanted to grab the main thrust of that. Hebrews 12: "For our God is a consuming fire. For our God is a consuming fire." That's your God. He's a consuming fire.

One commentary said this about the passage in Hebrews: "If those who ignored earthly warnings didn't get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings? His voice that time shook the earth to its foundation. This time, He will also rock the heavens." So we do see fire as judgment. This context of Hebrews, especially chapter 12, is "Our God is a consuming fire." It's this picture of consuming and taking up and because of judgment.

There's also a picture throughout the New Testament and the Old of God's fire falling upon a prepared people, a prepared heart, and consuming the works of the flesh. Something is consumed when fire falls. The works of the flesh are consumed, carnality is consumed, and what is left is the filling of the Spirit. Then also 1 Kings 18, a very familiar story: the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood and the stones and the dust. It licked up the water that was in the trench.

When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" I bet they did. The story, of course, is Elijah mocking the prophets of Baal and saying, "Cry out to your god, cry out to your god." And they're cutting themselves and they're crying out, "Oh, come on, god, answer." And he's not answering. He's probably on vacation, he's sleeping. "Where's your god?" he said.

He said, "Let the god who answers by fire, let him be God." And they covered the entire altar with water and more water and more water, put water around it, and then fire fell from heaven and consumed everything and licked up the dust. That's the presence and power of God. That's fire falling. That's God's presence and power in a mighty way. Many of you are probably thinking of Romans 12: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship."

Paul is saying, "Listen, I beseech you." Another translation says, "I beseech you." There's a beseeching, there's a begging. I can feel Paul in some of this. What do you think Paul would do? He just sit up here and use a chair and just talk? I bet he'd be down there, I bet he'd be going, "I beg you, I beseech you, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. That's your reasonable service. That's what's holy and acceptable to God, a living sacrifice."

I've learned the more you say, "Lord, whatever You want to do," He will do. And more He will do. And more He'll do through you. The more you give up, the more He does. The more you hold on, the more He doesn't do. Because He wants a willing vessel. The humble He teaches His way. Who's going to pray, "Lord, bring revival fire. I'm going to do whatever I want"?

The fire is the anointing, the unction, the power of the Holy Spirit working through your life to make a difference in the lives of others. That can't be a selfish prayer. "Lord, give me power so I have power." Give me the power—and I believe that's one reason why many people don't experience the power of the Holy Spirit. If I could just have healing, if I could just preach like that person, if I could just, oh, I would just be so great. Isn't it we often want that power? But you've got to want God.

I don't want the power, I want God. I don't want the gifts, I want the Gift-giver. I want to know You, God. Whatever You have for me, I want to know You. That's the person God will use. When fire falls, it consumes the old and the spiritual life is reborn. When fire falls, it purifies and it removes contaminants. When fire falls, it changes the landscape forever. Another verse is very relevant is Matthew 3:11.

John the Baptist is down at the Jordan River. He's baptizing people. He said, "I baptize you into repentance, repenting of your sin." But he said, "There's one coming after me whose sandals I can't even carry. And what will He do? He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." It's funny how people mock that, yet it's in the Bible. Conservative church would never say that, baptize by the Holy Spirit. Well, that's what the Bible says.

People take that and they do weird things, things that are just not biblical, and they do it in the name of the Holy Spirit. "Oh, brother, you just need a baptism of the Spirit. You just need a..." and we give it a wrong name. But the bottom line is this, Jesus is coming. That's why He is called the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. He will overwhelm a person with God's power and God's presence. That's who's coming after me. John the Baptist says, "I am nothing, I'm a nobody. I'm just baptizing you into repentance."

But when Jesus Christ comes, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, which, as a result, is fire. If somebody's filled with the Holy Spirit, they're not going to be filled with ice. It's always fire, always filled with fire. I asked this question last year, and it's really relevant today. If the scripture says when you believe, Jesus, He will baptize you with the power of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Himself said, "If you believe on Me, as the scripture says, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water."

The prophet said, "His word is in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I can't hold it back." If you have not experienced this, you might want to check your surrender. How many of you in this room can say that? I don't say that to be mean, I say it to motivate. I say it to encourage you. If you can't say His Word is in my heart like a burning fire, if you can't say, "Yeah, when I believed on Him, out of my belly flowed rivers of living water," then there's a kink in the water hose.

There's nothing coming out. The problem's not with the water, it's on. I truly believe that you have all of the Holy Spirit as a believer. But does He have all of you? There's kinks in the water, there's not allowing, and most of us know what that is. We say, "I know I need to [fill in the blank]." "I know God wants me to [fill in the blank]." "But Shane, it's my one little vice."

We know what's preventing that outflow of the Holy Spirit, that downpour from coming in our lives. I believe God wants to challenge us this morning. He wants to challenge me. So when He challenges me, I'm challenging you. Jesus is coming. It just cracks me up because people will get offended by this title. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. The Bible says that. To me, that's not just normal Christianity. That's not boring Christianity. That's the fire of the Holy Spirit. That's why I did the study, "Theology on Fire."

I do want to ask some questions. Bible student, have you received fire? Bible student, you know who you are. You love theology, but have you received fire? You love pneumatology, the study of the Spirit, but have you received the fire of that Spirit? You love to dissect Greek and Hebrew, but have you received that fire? Have you received this mighty filling of the Holy Spirit?

It's so interesting, a hundred years ago, we did things a lot different. I know a church locally, I'm not going to say names. There was a position opened up many years ago, a youth, I believe it was, young adults. I went and said, "Hey, I might be interested. I believe God's calling me to this." "Well, we can't even interview you." "Why?" "Well, you didn't go to seminary." A hundred years ago, they would never ask that question. They asked one question: has he received his baptism of fire?

Shane Idleman: Hello, Regaining Lost Ground listeners. This is Pastor Shane Idleman. Hey, I want to let you know that my new booklet titled "A Calculated Assault Against Cancer" is now available. You can download it for free right now at shaneidleman.com. The reason I did this is because there's so much negativity and fear that encompasses that word, and especially in the medical industry, there's not a lot of hope.

I want to release this booklet to give people hope and perspective and let them know with God, all things are possible, and His sovereignty can be your sanity. Get this to anybody struggling with their health, especially and primarily cancer. The title of the booklet is called "A Calculated Assault Against Cancer," and it's available right now at shaneidleman.com.

Guest (Male): 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.