Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: There's a marked difference. And that's why we often say there should be fruit in the life of a believer. There should be a marked difference about you. Now, again, there are different personalities; some people are more conservative, some people are more demonstrative. Some people are wired differently, they have different callings from God, but there's a marked and obvious difference.

Number one, when a person becomes a believer, of course, but also when a person has surrendered to the work of the Holy Spirit, they look different than the carnal Christian.

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 powerful message from Pastor Shane titled, "Seized and Overwhelmed by God."

Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, once said, "If by excessive labor we die before reaching the average age of man, worn out in the Master's service, then glory be to God. We shall have so much less of earth and so much more of heaven." Listen now as Pastor Shane encourages us with the holy fire of God we as believers must have for the coming days.

How imperative it is that we get right with God and walk in His anointing on our lives. Are you ready? Buckle up for this message from 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: All right, the title is "Seized and Overwhelmed by God. Seized and Overwhelmed by God." When the spirit falls, part one. When is part two? God willing, next Sunday. So, seized and overwhelmed by God. Why are we always talking about the Holy Spirit? Well, blame the book of Acts, not me. We're just going through the book of Acts.

Since many of you weren't here before or you've been out, let me catch you up a little bit. We've been going through the book of Acts, and Peter met with Cornelius. Cornelius was an unbeliever; Peter was obviously a believer now, filled with the spirit of God. And he went to Cornelius's household because God gave Cornelius a dream to look for Peter because he was genuinely seeking God.

And that's what I talked about before. If you're genuinely seeking God, God will show you who He is. But there has to be a genuineness there, not "Okay, Lord, if you're real, show me today then." There has to be a genuine seeking. "Lord, I really want—clearly somebody put the sun up there. Clearly somebody put the moon over there. Somebody did this, and God, if you're out there, I want to know who you are. I want to know you and experience you."

And so Peter goes and he preaches in Cornelius's house. He walks in and he begins to preach. Now, this is interesting. Are you guys ready to experience what they experienced there? I mean, not necessarily what's going to happen here is what happened there, but it's a very interesting tie-in to what can happen now in the church.

What I mean by "seized and overwhelmed by God" is that often we're overwhelmed with joy. Have you ever been overwhelmed with joy? Overwhelmed by excitement? Overwhelmed by grief or anguish? How do those things happen? Because something happens to us and then there's a response, an emotional response, a God-given emotion. God gives us these emotions as He designed us, so it's okay to express anger, but do not sin.

If something's going to make you angry, something's going to upset you, something's going to excite you about things, and there's anguish or sadness, you feel the death of somebody and these emotions. And so when the Holy Spirit—in the book of Acts, we learned initially the Holy Spirit came upon the early believers, and this overwhelming power of the Spirit came upon them and they rejoiced. And the church, actually, that's how the church began, and it went out.

In chapter two, which was the baptism of the Holy Spirit into the church, the church was sent out. They had now the fullness of the Spirit. Now we're in chapter 10, also in chapter 19, we're going to read about it and throughout church history. You read about Christians being overwhelmed and seized by the power of God. You also read about unbelievers being overwhelmed and seized by the power of God.

One of the verses that I came across this week said, "The hand of the Lord was heavy on me." Ezekiel says, "The hand of the Lord was on me." It indicates an overwhelming force by which Ezekiel was seized by God. And we see this; Jeremiah was seized by God, Isaiah was seized by God, and Ezekiel was seized by God.

And again, I will tell you, I'm sure our elders will tell you, most theologians, it's a topic where all we have is the scripture. I don't know why God does some things some ways. I don't know why some people are completely overcome and some people's salvation experience is different, and they kind of just woke up with this sense of knowing God and now they're different.

That's why I love what Jesus said, "The wind blows where it wishes." How the Spirit works, we don't know exactly. So it's not like "Okay, here's what God's going to do here today exactly like that." We don't know. You don't have a chapter and a verse to say "Okay, do this, do this, and do this, and then do this. Have a prayer room meeting, wait for about two hours, and then the Spirit comes upon you." We don't know. We just have the scriptures.

But we also know that a desire is important. I don't know how God does things or why, but man, I want more of Him. I want more of Him, don't you? And as soon as we don't, that's where it's closed off. Your walk with the Lord will stop when you don't want more of Him, when you are satisfied, when you are content. It seems to just stop. I've felt that before, have you before? It's just like "That's it, I've got to return to my first love." Because we're hungry, and when you're hungry, He'll feed you with more of Him.

The desperate and dire need in the church today is more of God. More of God, repentance, humility, brokenness—all these things. The desperate need is more and more of God. So, check this out. Peter walks into Cornelius's house. He's got what we would call an entourage, and these are Jewish believers with Peter. Remember the early church, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the day of Pentecost is what it's called.

The Holy Spirit fell upon you, you've got 120 people, and the Holy Spirit falls upon them. Jesus said to go and wait for the enduement of power, wait for the Holy Spirit. Don't go out and do anything, wait. And so this promise comes. Now, the Bible says it doesn't know how to describe it, but like tongues of fire. They are speaking in tongues and they're worshiping God in just this incredible atmosphere that's taking place.

While Peter was still speaking to Cornelius's household, he's telling them about Jesus, he's telling them about the cross, about repentance. While he's still speaking, what happens? The Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And Peter's surprised. I mean, think of this house. He's inside this house, people are sitting down, he's explaining to Cornelius, and then the Holy Spirit falls upon these people who weren't yet believers.

That's what's interesting. In Acts 2, they're believers. Jesus said to go and wait, but they don't have the what I referred to before, the epi, the over-filling, overpowering Holy Spirit in their hearts. They're saved as believers, but that overpowering sense of the Spirit working in your life was not yet there.

But what words caused the Holy Spirit to fall? Well, God honors the preaching of His word. And so that's what Peter was giving them: the unadulterated, untarnished purity of the gospel—the good news and the bad news, no doubt. Talking about repentance for the remission of sin, turning from God, turning from the wrath that is to God. And as he's preaching, the Holy Spirit falls upon them. And that has often happened before.

Maybe not a large group of people, but as a person's preaching sometimes, you'll begin to hear that weeping. And we've seen it here where the people just start weeping and you can tell there's tears throughout the service and the Holy Spirit's being poured upon them, or in the prayer room, or when they come forward. They came in kind of dead and barren, but now the Holy Spirit's poured into their hearts.

Throughout even church history, you read a lot of the books I read, talk about in prayer meetings or in services where the Spirit of God would come upon a service. Duncan Campbell in the New Hebrides revivals writes about this, and sometimes they would just go to preach and the Spirit of God was so heavy and came upon the people. And again, we can't put a formula on it any more than a farmer can make it rain.

But he can prepare that soil. Can you imagine a farmer sitting out going, "Oh, look at all this rain. I forgot to till the soil and plant the seed." Nothing will grow. So same thing in the heart of a believer. We've got to till that soil, so when and if the rain comes, we are flooded with that work of the Spirit. So many times people say Pentecost was a once-and-for-all event. Well, if that's the case, why did it happen again in chapter 10 here? Why does it happen in chapter 19? Why does it happen in the life of church history?

Now, there's something true to that fact. Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, was a one-time event, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but as believers, we are still seeking that deep work of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes for unbelievers, when they become Christians, they receive the Holy Spirit. And I don't quite understand it because sometimes people, when they repent and they believe, it's just tears and they are overcome and they can't wait to start witnessing. They might experience some gifts of the Spirit.

And then other people, it's not that dramatic. It's like "Yeah, I repented and I believe and I want to get baptized and I'm going to start evangelizing." Okay, well, it's a little bit different, and I can't explain it because the Bible doesn't tell us exactly what the formula is and how it works. But I do know this: no doubt these listeners were open and ready to receive. And they were probably on the edge of their seat, listening.

Remember God went to Cornelius in a dream, or an angel went to Cornelius. And so he's probably a little excited to hear what Peter's got to say. He fell down and he worshiped Peter. Peter said, "No, no, get back up." And so I do know this though, for sure: if a person's closed off—"I don't know about this guy. I don't know about the Holy Spirit, whatever, whatever. I've seen some weird stuff on YouTube."

So have I. That's not going to keep me away from God. It'll keep them away from God on YouTube, but not me. There's always going to be counterfeits. We don't throw out the Bible when the church down the street uses it. I mean, there's always counterfeits and there's always things that aren't going to happen to people who are closed off or think, "I don't know about the gifts of the Spirit." Well, you probably won't ever experience them if you're closed off. That's called doubt and unbelief.

We should say, "Lord, whatever you want. I want more of you. You show me." And so I'm pretty sure they were open. They were receptive to what Peter was saying, and as a result, God honored that and the Holy Spirit came upon them. Beautiful scene. Sin in the camp, hindrances in the holy place, and choosing compromise over conviction all can hinder the Spirit falling upon a person.

What I mean by sin in the camp, if there's undealt with sin and we're holding on to sin, it quenches and grieves the Spirit. It doesn't lead to a mighty filling of the Spirit. Or if there are hindrances in our hearts that are hindering us from that deeper walk with the Lord, and we're choosing compromise instead of being convicted, it will all hinder the Spirit falling upon our hearts.

And those of the circumcision who believed, or basically the believing Jews who were all with Peter, they were astonished. That's a pretty strong word. They're sitting there, Peter's talking to them, and they're like "What is going on? The Holy Spirit fell upon them just like He fell upon us." They were astonished and they said the gift of the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the Gentiles also, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

Why were they astonished? Because they're thinking "This is our gift. This is the Jewish gift. Wait a minute, this is mine. Holy Spirit is mine. God's work is mine, God's redemption, He's our Savior, He's not yours." At least that's what they thought. I'm sure their hearts are changing now that they have the spirit of God, but this is my gift. But God says, "No, it's for everybody. Everybody. The Gentiles shall see the light."

And it's a good reminder that God doesn't always do things our way. Anybody learn that lesson yet? Okay, the rest of you aren't being honest. God does not always do things our way. They would have never guessed this at all. They didn't know why they were going. God summons them to Cornelius's house and the fruit was amazing. Wanting more of God doesn't mean that you throw caution to the wind.

Guys, when we want more of God, more of God to move in our hearts, more of that deep work of the Spirit, it doesn't mean like we're checking our brains at the door and throwing caution to the wind—"All right, whatever happens, I'm gullible. If it's odd, it must be God." That's not it. It's just it's a passionate desire as that deer looks for that living water. As our hearts want more of God. It's actually very healthy, and it should be that way till the end of our life. More of God, and more of God, and more of God.

Because what's the opposite of that? Less of God, less of God, less of God. Getting bored, leaving our first love. And there is a marked and obvious difference when the Spirit falls. There's a marked difference. And that's why we often say there should be fruit in the life of a believer. There should be a marked difference about you.

Now, again, there are different personalities; some people are more conservative, some people are more demonstrative. Some people are wired differently, they have different callings from God, but there's a marked and obvious difference. Number one, when a person becomes a believer, of course, but also when a person has surrendered to the work of the Holy Spirit, they look different than the carnal Christian. They can't mix—it's like mixing that oil and the water. There's a marked difference now and now they are overwhelmed by this spirit of God.

And again, I don't fully understand when God does it, to what degree, or how often, but there's something about childlike faith. And I have seen many, many intellects hinder the work of the Spirit because they put God in a box. I mean, some of you are aware, but there's a huge debate within Christian circles that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit coming upon people powerfully, does not happen anymore. It doesn't happen anymore.

A lot of people who are well-educated—there's something about the more education we get, the more we know about God, the more we try to confine Him to a box and worship our intellect, and we begin to quench and grieve the Spirit. That's why I've quoted before D.L. Moody's quote that we are leaky vessels. We have to stay underneath the fountain of living water all the time. But he also said that they are good teachers. He's talking about the Bible teachers in his day. He said they are good teachers, but why can't they themselves see that the one thing they are lacking is the mighty filling baptism unction of the Spirit?

He saw it in his day. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones has a sermon series on it. He was reformed and he would actually go after the reformed dead churches of his day. It's a consistent pattern throughout all of history. I do want to ask this question though: so why a sermon on this topic? Well, let's think about this just for a minute. If a downpour of the Spirit is possible and the gifts are available, wouldn't it be advantageous to pursue a deeper work of the Spirit?

Think about that for a minute. If a downpour of the Spirit is possible and the gifts are available, wouldn't it be advantageous to pursue a deeper work of the Spirit? Even those who believe that the supernatural gifts have ceased, take that part out. Wouldn't it still be important to pursue a deeper work of the Spirit in your life? Absolutely. This type of message, I believe, is vitally important for the church.

And here's the thing we have to remember: I always want to tell people this, get this point across. If your experience with the Holy Spirit lines up with scripture, you're in good company. There's nothing to be afraid of or worried about or people put you down. If what's happening to you is in the Bible, good thing.

And I'm going to get into part two next week to talk a little bit more about this because it says here, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles also, what happened? They began to speak with tongues and they began to magnify God. Now, it's a confusing issue, for sure, because we see weird behavior, we see odd things, it's something we don't understand. But again, the context of it is it's a worshipful magnifying of God. And that's what they heard. It's really a benefit to you and other people.

What do you mean by that? Because Paul goes on to say that with the Spirit, he's praying to God. It's this time with the Lord that's very impactful and meaningful. That's what Paul says. So people have a problem with it, well, you have a problem with Paul. Paul needed it, but we don't? Well, poor Paul. He sure needed those gifts. We don't today because we've got the Bible here. We still see through things dimly, don't we?

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.