Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: Men of prayer! But you need to pray, and you need to pray, and you need to press. "But I've done that." Do it again! Do it again! You didn't stop eating last week. Do it again! Keep pressing in and pressing in.

The more I seek him, the more I find him. And the more I find him, I want to seek him. And the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And ask him, ask him. If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask 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 the second and final part 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 is Pastor Shane Idleman.

Pastor Shane Idleman: We still don't see things perfectly. Why? Because when that which is perfect hasn't come yet, Jesus hasn't come yet. When he comes, yes, prophecy will cease, tongues will be done away with, love will not fail. But that which is perfect has not come yet.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones made that point. He said, "Then if we say the gifts are gone, that means we now see better than Paul." And I sure can't make that statement. I don't know about you. But again, don't let the abuses push you away from what the Spirit can do in our hearts.

It must be a life's pursuit. Pursuing God is a life pursuit. The Holy Spirit coming upon and powerfully weeping and at the altar in emotional worship, that doesn't happen anymore? Well, that's where you're going to stay, sir, for the rest of your life.

And I guarantee you will turn hard and critical and legalistic and dogmatic without that deep working of the Spirit breaking your pride out of your heart. I've seen it more times than I can count. Without a shadow of a doubt.

And so, "baptized in the Spirit" is what they call it. You'll hear that term out there a lot. "Brother, have you received your baptism of the Spirit?" Pentecostal churches talk about that a lot. "Have you received your baptism of the Spirit?"

And I know what they're saying because there's something that I think early Methodists taught, even the Moravians, Count Zinzendorf and many people like that. So much in church history, sometimes they would teach there's a "second work of grace" is what they would call it.

The first work of grace is you're saved. And the second work of grace is now you need to keep pressing in, you need to keep praying, you need to keep asking for, you need to keep seeking this baptism of the Holy Spirit.

That's why they say, "Have you received your baptism of the Spirit yet?" And people are like, "What are you talking about?" And so studying all this, looking at the Bible, of course talking with the elders over the years, we all agree that there is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Just sticking with Scripture, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is when you're a believer. You're baptized into Christianity. As far as the baptism of the Holy Spirit comes upon you when you're saved.

I don't really see where the Bible is like, "Okay, hey, over the next couple years, you're going to be dead and barren for a while. So just keep waiting, just ask God for this second work of grace, ask God for the baptism of the Spirit." But we're kind of all saying the same thing because often people don't receive that at salvation.

How many can relate to that? You know it came years later. And I can give, there's a book called *They Found the Secret* that I've talked about before. John Bunyan, Amy Carmichael, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, Whitfield, Wesley, even Adrian Rogers, you hear him on the radio, he talks about this later, A.W. Tozer.

What happens is they're Christians and for years, Oswald Chambers was teaching at a seminary as a professor. And he said the Bible was dry, the most boring book I had read. "I'm saved, but I'm just, there's no fire there." He's a professor!

Read D.L. Moody, he was a pastor. No fire really, building his own ministry. But then years later, what happens? This baptism, this unction, this fire, whatever you want to call it, they didn't have it back then.

But they receive it now, and now they're on fire for God. And they wonder if they were even saved to begin with, it's so powerful. And I've talked about this before, that's what happened to me in 1999 when the Spirit came upon me. It's just talk about life-changing. Bye-bye world. And now the fullness of the Spirit.

And so the only thing I can think of that makes sense, and in listening and reading their biographies and understanding is, and this is why I say this often, they had all of the Holy Spirit at their conversion, but he didn't have all of them.

Now it makes perfect sense. So somebody's fully surrendered, "Lord, I want all of you." It's like, "No, it's probably going to take about five years from now." Something called a second work of grace.

You have to keep praying for the baptism of the Spirit, the baptism of the Spirit, the fullness of the Spirit. It could take 10 years. "That was my first stage of salvation, now comes my second stage of salvation."

It doesn't work that way because many people, Charles Finney received the mighty baptism of the Spirit the next day after his conversion when he's out in the forest crying out to God. There are so many different stories. And it often has to do with the fully surrendered life once they give up everything.

I've seen conversion and baptized in the Spirit, fullness of the Spirit, on fire for God, boom, end of story. But for the majority of believers, let's be honest. And I think what happened, I was right up there in Wrightwood at 12 years old.

I remember repenting, believing Jesus, had the peace. My mom was happy, I was happy, everything's good. But then like my dad was tough guy, farms of Oklahoma. My friends, my influence, I didn't want to be some Jesus guy.

"I'll go to church for my mom." I'm a mama's boy on Sunday, but I'm my daddy's boy Monday through Saturday. Hunting, fishing, cussing a little bit. Tried Copenhagen at 12. That didn't stick too long.

And so I'm quenching and grieving the Spirit at my conversion. And then when God finally said, "Okay tough guy, break you, break you, break you, break you, break you." "Lord I can't take any more, I give you everything. I give you everything God, fill me, fill me."

So the same thing that could have happened didn't happen for 17 years later. But how many believers are living their whole life like that? That's why I often talk about full surrender. Without that you're quenching and grieving the Spirit because he doesn't fill you to do what you want to do.

So to the degree you're filled is ways equally with the degree you surrender. That's why throughout this church you've seen it before, you know people on fire for God. I mean like, whoa, there's people I look up to that are on fire for God.

You heard that Paul Washer clip I played a couple months ago. Some of you need to go find it when Paul Washer received the Holy Spirit years after conversion. He was so desperate and crying out to God walking in the hills of East Texas, the hill country, and the Spirit of God came upon him.

Because he was, and there's a desperation though, it's not like a light switch either. "Okay I'm fully surrendering today, everything Jesus Shane said better happen to me." Sometimes there's a pursuing. It's called pressing in.

It's called he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So it might not happen right away. It's a pursuit. And that's why I don't know. The wind blows where it wants. I don't know why the Holy Spirit does this here.

Sometimes you see a 12-year-old receive the Lord and they're on fire for the Lord. They're worshipping and speaking, where did that happen? Why did I have to wait 17 years? Probably because they didn't care what anybody thought. They wanted more of God and more of God and more of God.

So you see people, they're just on fire for God. Their countenance, their joy. And then you see other people kind of in the middle. Any middle people? "Yeah I visited the hospital home last week and I love to come to worship sometimes."

There's something there. But then you get to other people, it's like my lifetime pursuit is quenching and grieving the Spirit. "I'm in another wrong relationship. I'm fornicating again. I'm getting drunk again. I'm watching..." and they live in this state of carnality and they consistently quench and grieve the Spirit.

That's why those things have to be repented of and full surrender must take place. And God falls upon an empty vessel that wants to do when you say, "Lord whatever you want me to do," and you mean it.

Then it might be a pursuit because God might be testing you. See, I don't know the heart, God does. Somebody could say, "Lord I give you everything this morning." Okay let's see if you don't feel anything for a while. Are you still going to pursue me? Are you still going to follow me?

And so Peter experiences this incredible baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's why they call it the baptism, they call it unction, they call it the fire of God, they call it not the new birth, but the new life of the Spirit.

There are so many different terms because we don't know what to call it. But I remember I used to read books, I still read books, 100 years ago. A couple different books, man they're on to something here. And I'm not endorsing this, I'm just telling you what it says because I think it's important to have somebody qualified obviously leading a church.

But many churches when they would look for a pastor, the number one question was not where did he get his degree? Where did he go to seminary? Their number one question was, has he received the baptism of fire?

And I just get chills thinking of that. That would be the number one question for me, absolutely. "Hey we've got this church, has that person received this baptism of the fire?" Then I'll look at the theological education because that should never be the determining factor.

It helps, you've got to have a good theology. And I told this story before, I don't want to embarrass people but I'm just trying to bring it in. There's a church in Lancaster, they were looking for a pastor. I went there. I believe God's calling from my life.

I'll never forget this. "Oh Shane we can't consider you because you don't have a degree." That I couldn't even be considered at a church in Lancaster because I didn't have a degree. It's like, do you want to hear preaching? Do you want to talk?

I'll talk with your PhD and I guarantee I'll go head to head with him on these issues of theology. But because man didn't anoint me, that I'm not qualified. And now our church has a much larger reach than that church ever.

And again I'm not minimizing education. If you can and you feel God's calling you to do it, absolutely. I did the, I studied the same books they're reading in seminary. I did the same studying, the same church history, the same things.

But it's God's calling upon a person that really matters. Because when you put somebody in a church with the PhD they can fail big time. I've got examples, but I'm not going to give them to you this morning.

And you can put somebody in with no degree and it can fail too. And you can put somebody in a pulpit who's anointed by God who's got the fire of God and it can still fail if they don't stay close to their shepherd. If they don't stay close to that living water.

And so Peter saw this experience and he said, "Can anybody forbid water?" In other words, let's baptize these people. Let's baptize them. They've received the Holy Spirit, let's baptize them.

And he said, "Let's go get baptized." But I have two questions for you. There are some that I've talked to, maybe you know people you can send this to them, that they believe that a person's not saved until they are baptized.

Roman Catholic teaches it, it's called baptismal regeneration. Some of the early church fathers embraced it as well. But my question is this, if baptism saves you then how these people weren't saved yet, how did they receive the Holy Spirit?

Let's be honest, that's a big theological oops. They received the Holy Spirit, they've got the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they've got the joy of the Holy Spirit, they're on fire for God but they're not yet saved because they need to go get baptized?

Hello! That makes no, that's actually heretical. It's heretical. That's why we call it a believers' baptism. So for churches that believe that you're not saved until you baptize, you're actually baptizing unbelievers. Correct?

"Hey I got 10 baptisms today. They're all unbelievers though until they come up out of the water." It makes no sense, absolutely no sense. And again this is Scripture, this is not me being a jerk.

Maybe a little sarcastic, I'm sorry I don't preach a sermon 100% my attitude gets in there a little bit. Anybody else? So baptism doesn't save you. But if you don't want to get baptized I have concerns about your profession of faith.

It's a public declaration. So maybe make that decision this morning. "I'll change my clothes, let's baptize you." There's a seven-year-old getting baptized and the children's ministry's coming in to watch in just a minute if I hurry up and get through this sermon.

But I can't ignore these important parts. Finally, how to receive the Spirit? How to receive the Spirit? If you're not a believer the bottom line is stop being led by the wrong spirit. Repent and believe in God. Repent and believe in God.

Let's put up these quotes. "Satan is a diabolical dictator whose laws are evil to the core. He hands down orders to the eager sinner who quickly runs to obey. Little does he know that the law is written in his own blood and nothing but damnation is promised for fulfilling the devil's lusts."

I like these Puritans, boy they would lay it out. Now we get all this "oh don't say that, don't say that, let's make people feel comfortable." No, I want them to feel convicted. I want them to drive home upset and like "is that true? Is that true?"

"He who will not take God before he dies, the devil will take him as soon as he dies." Quotes by William Gurnall, famous Puritan who wrote *The Christian in Complete Armour*. He said, "Satan has no reason to fear an assassin's bullet.

He can trust all his subjects and never has to worry about rebellion except when the Holy Spirit intervenes." Except when the Holy Spirit interventions. The Holy Spirit needs to intervene and he's convicting you that you need to turn over completely to him.

Second Chronicles, "when he humbled himself the wrath of the Lord turned from him." You have to humble yourself in the sight of God if you are an unbeliever and you don't know God. And this is what's hard for me, I didn't want to rush through this, maybe I'll have to bring it up next Sunday.

But if you're a believer, which the majority of you are here this morning, how do you receive more of the Spirit? How do you want me to wait until next Sunday? Okay that's a good whoever said yes, that means I need to talk about it. It means you're convicted and you're not coming back next Sunday.

So that's how you're getting out of it. How to receive more of the Spirit? Pray! Pray! It's not a one and done, we must press in. We must press in. What the church needs today is not more events or more studies, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use.

Men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods but through men. He does not come upon our plans, he comes upon men. He does not anoint plans, he anoints men. Men of prayer!

And of course women of prayer, it's the same thing. But you need to pray, and you need to pray, and you need to press. "But I've done that." Do it again! Do it again! You didn't stop eating last week. Do it again! Keep pressing in and pressing in.

The more I seek him, the more I find him. And the more I find him, I want to seek him. And the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And ask him, ask him. If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

But let's clarify. Jesus is speaking about prayer and the good things that God gives his children. There's nothing in the context of this verse that deals with the reception of the Holy Spirit as a believer.

And you look at the context, he's talking about prayer. If we know how to give good gifts, how much more the Father will give you the Holy Spirit that will help you pray according to not your will, but his will.

I love when God targets you to pray. Those prayers are answered as sure as the sun sets. God is not limited. God will not be mocked. He's not restrained. This is the God of the universe who says, "Seek me and you will find me.

Ask and you shall receive. He who knocks on that door, that door will be opened." Keep knocking. Keep pressing in. Keep desiring. Keep asking. The best thing is more of God, more of God, more of God.

Surrender yourself and yield. Surrender yourself and yield. It's not a one-time decision, it's a pursuit of obedience. What happened to me in 1999 if I left it there 2000, you wouldn't even know me today. It's a pursuit.

A constantly yielding and it's a pursuit of God and surrender. "Lord things have drifted into my heart. Idolatry has come in, hatred has come in, wickedness. I'm starting to doubt your word. I'm starting to doubt the power of your Spirit.

Lord I'm becoming critical and cynical and I'm bothered by worship and Lord would you help me?" Surrender and return to your first love. And then you have to desire it guys, you have to desire it, you have to pursue it.

How many of you know that doctors say the stronger the cry, the stronger the child? As soon as that baby's delivered, if he's not crying they're worried. They're worried. I remember our firstborn crying like crazy. "Oh my god what's going on?"

No it's good, it's very healthy. Very healthy. You want let them scream, let the lungs, let the oxygen breathe. In the same way that greater the desperation, the deeper the pursuit, the more intense the cry, the stronger the believer.

Cry out to God church. You need to humble yourself before Almighty God. Get off your high horse, humble yourself. Stop being comfortable and start seeking God like never before. Pride is blinding, pride is blocking a mighty downpour of the Spirit in the hearts of many.

Who calms the storm with a word? Who silences your fear, who fills the empty, rebuilds the broken, and strengthens the sick? It's God and God Almighty. Listen we don't come to church to play games. We come to church to worship the living God.

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