Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: Always given a glimpse of the glories of heaven, possibly saw Christ himself. Talk about how you'd be a little haughty. You come to church and say, "Hey guys, you should see what happened to me last night." And your spirit's right, that you would. You'd think, "I'm so spiritual, I'm God's man." There's arrogance that would happen. And Paul said so to prevent this, a thorn in the flesh was given to me. A messenger of Satan to the apostle Paul.

So all the faith healers, I don't know what they do with this verse because even the apostle Paul—most people think it was a sickness, possibly some type of ailment or disease—God said, "I'm going to keep this to keep you humble."

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 part of this suffusing message titled, "Staying Focused When God Is Silent."

Charles Spurgeon once said, "The power of prayer can never be overrated. They who cannot serve God by preaching need not regret. If a man can but pray, he can do anything. He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has heaven and earth at his disposal."

Today, Pastor Shane tells us not to give up but keep going no matter the pressure or doubt. That God is working on our behalf right now and is about to speak encouragement to the depth of your soul. 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 is Pastor Shane Idleman.

Pastor Shane Idleman: But there are things also to where I believe we can play a role in some of his will coming to pass in our lives or not coming to pass in our lives. Disgruntled, discouraged, "I don't care, I'm not going to," and you begin to reject God. And that's why a lot of my messages are to have the church come back to God. And remember, the test is not for God's benefit. God's not, "Let me test them, let me see, I don't know." It's for our benefit. He knows. The test is for you, not him.

And we have to get through that and prevail through that. Carter Conlon also said, "A sword is formed on an anvil, not on a hammock." And then I added, "In fire, not a gentle stream, and heat, not comfort." That's where true faith is formed. The sword of the spirit. When Christians become mature and strong in battle, it's because they've gone through that test.

And like an anvil—have you ever seen one of those made? You know what an anvil is? It's a big, probably—we used to have one at the workshop. It must have been 200 pounds. Big piece of metal. And you would heat metal on it, and then you put the metal on it and hit it with a hammer, this large hammer. And you would shape that metal into what you want. And that's how swords were made. And the pounding and the heat, that's how faith is made in our lives as well.

And God will often use the "P" test to develop prevailing prayer. What I call that is the "P" test comes from—not what you're thinking, I probably should have worded that better. Well, too late now. It comes from the life of Joseph. It comes from the life of Joseph. And we can see in our lives as well that this is really where the rubber meets the road. This is where you'll be tested like Joseph.

The pit test: "I can't get out of this." He was in a pit, he was thrown in a pit by his brothers, left to die. They pulled him out, but there's you will go through that where you're like, "There's nothing I can do. There's nothing I can do." Any of you ever go through health crises or sickness? Many times you get to the, "There's nothing I can do. Lord, this is completely up to you. I'm in your hands."

That's a test. You can try changing your diet but, it's good, but ultimately it's up to God. You can try changing your lifestyle, but that's great, but it's ultimately up to God. And you get to, "I can't get out of this." Ever been in a court case? It's just like, "I'm toast. I can't get out of this." And that will be an incredible test because you start to try to get yourself out by manipulating, by forcing, maybe getting upset, "God, you better." No. The pit test. That's a hard one. Ever been in that low spot? That will really test your character.

And then the Potiphar test: False accusations, harassment. Actually, that's what's happening to the pastor I just mentioned right now. A lot of media attack on different things I don't want to get into. Not really valid in my opinion, but lessons will be learned. But there's false accusations, harassment, people lying about you. Have you ever been there? Where maybe from within family or church? False accusations and you're ready to go back at them. You're ready to hit them hard. And it'll test your character, it'll test your faith. Can you answer softly? Can you be quick to listen? It's a very, very important test.

And then the prison test: "I don't deserve this." Joseph in prison. I know a lot of prisoners will hear this, so they can relate on the Pando app. Plug. But he ran from Potiphar's wife. She falsely accused him—false accusation—and now he ends up in prison for a long time. He tells some dreams and says, "When you get out, make sure you tell them about me." They didn't for a couple years. "Oh, that's right, there's this guy in prison." That would have been that one, "The I don't deserve this." That's a tough one because you don't. And you're allowing God to take you through it. It's a very tough season. And it develops your character. It humbles you. How do you treat the people? It's vitally important.

Let me read some excerpts from a book called Mighty Prevailing Prayer. He said this: "Prevailing prayer is normally possible only for the things in the will of God." That's the key. That's why don't give up on God. If it's his will and he's put that in your heart, lay hold of it. If you're not sure if he has—I've been there, I'm still there on a few things—press in like never before and say, "Lord, show me. Show me is this your will? Is this what you want me to do? Is this what you want me to keep pressing in for and contending for?"

And sometimes though he's silent. Often. "Lord, give me a confirmation, let me know." And many times there's not. You just have to keep pressing in and see what he will show you. Eventually, you'll realize if it was your own flesh, if it was ulterior motives, if it was a good idea but not a God idea. Anybody have those? "That's a great idea," and then a month into it, you're like, "What was I thinking?" Because you need to know God has put this on your heart. And that only comes through time seeking his word. Does it line up with scripture? Praying and fasting and obeying and seeking him. And then it becomes crystal clear.

For me, one of the hardest challenges I've shared before was when we felt the call to plant the church. It was months of wrestling, like, "Lord, what in the world?" I mean, I'm going from big heavy equipment, CAT excavators. I like that stuff. I don't want to go be a smiley, nice pastor, meek and mild. There's a fire in my heart and just praying but God would begin to show me what his will was through confirmation of other people and different things I won't get into now but I have before that as you go through, you'll see a certain thing if it's his will or not. Now if it has to do with a saved loved one, just keep pressing in.

That's his will, is for people to be saved. So there's things like that that you can really press in on and know what his will is in certain areas. And again, I'll, hope it's okay to share this with you. David knows and we've talked about this many times. But I've been praying for years if God would ever want to plant in the Antelope Valley. Years, like a long time since we started this church too. And I don't know. He hasn't told me.

I can go find a building. I used to have a real estate license. That's real easy. Call the landlord, "What are your tenant improvements? What's the lease agreement? What are the options? Where are you going to put in? Or do you buy a building? What's the taxes?" But that would be forcing something. It has to be, "Lord, what do you want to do? Is this a good idea or a God idea?" I don't know. Just being honest with you. Probably ten years at least praying. And I'm fine if I go to my grave and God didn't want to do that. That's fine.

But because I don't know, I don't give up. I don't know what his will is for certain things. I do know when a church gets this full, that's probably where we'll stay unless we do another service. It's hard to reach people when you're this full because people are like, "Oh, you're so crowded." That's a good thing. So those are just my own life experiences. "God, will you heal? Will you heal?" Or is my life verse Second Corinthians, "My grace is sufficient." One or the other. But you pray until you hear clearly from God.

So he will answer if it's according to his will. You just need to hold on. We must prevail in prayer for situations where God's will is being thwarted and where Satan is delaying and blocking it. That's when you want to go into a season of prayer and fasting. I truly believe that that verse, "This kind cannot come out except by prayer and fasting," God allowed it to be in the Bible.

The reason I say that is some translations disagree. If you have what's called the older texts and you have the majority texts and Textus Receptus, Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and all these different, some of them don't have it, some do. But you look at early church father writings. For me, the biblical principle's clear as well that there are some things that you may not be realizing until you tell King Stomach to shut its mouth. I'm going to seek the Lord. "This kind does not come out, this greater demonic influence," Jesus said, by the way. On the most famous sermon ever preached—can we all agree it's probably Sermon on the Mount?

He said—not me, don't get mad at me—"When you fast." Why are we not doing that? "Well, I fasted from TV." Well, that's good but. "I did a Daniel fast." That's good but you're still eating. "When you pray, when you fast, and when you give." Assumptions. The spiritual weapon of starving the flesh to be filled with the spirit. And it's actually really not starving. Fasting's not starving, you're switching energy sources. Let's be honest here.

I have people, "Why would we want to starve ourselves?" Listen, most people can go 40, 50, 60 days with our reserves. Not telling you to do that, there's dangers involved. I'm just saying we have all the—we love to make excuses for things we don't like, don't we? I think it was Leonard Ravenhill who said anything we read in the Bible that we don't like, we call legalism so we can avoid doing it. You must prevail over yourself.

I've also been praying about WCF Worship or WCF Academy, like starting things. I don't know why that came to me, it just did. But there's things where you're praying about things and you just don't know until God begins to do something. You must prevail over yourself. Some people have to prevail over personal laziness. They are too undisciplined to find prolonged prevailing prayer easy. They need to determine by the grace of God to learn to discipline themselves.

I didn't want to put the quote up but I think it's important because it's true. If you think I've got prayer mastered and I'm so disciplined in prayer, you've got another thing coming. That's not true. I struggle just like everybody else. "Why am I praying for nothing that might not happen? Talk about a waste of time." But we're called to really press in and you do develop. That's how habits are developed. Any of you have developed habits now that are just so easy that were very difficult six months ago or a year ago?

Never say impossible when you are praying for something in the will of God. God is sovereign over nature and over people. Never rule out an intervening act of God. Never doubt the possibility of a miracle. And I truly believe we should come with the spirit of expectation. "But Shane, what about if it doesn't happen?" Your hope is not in it happening. It's not, "Lord, now that it's not happening, I don't trust you anymore, I'm critical." It's like, "Lord, I'm hoping, I'm expectant. But even if it doesn't, thank you. Thank you that you saved me."

Do you know here on earth is like this? It's vapor compared to eternity. Yet we worry about what's here and forget about eternity. Only God knows at which point of time there would be the greatest spiritual returns and the most strategic advantage to his kingdom from your receiving the answer to your prayer. God's clock keeps perfect time. Rest in that. But as we're talking about prevailing prayer, as actually as we're talking about staying strong even when God is silent, there's something that comes up I want to talk to you about under this heading: When do you embrace the thorn like Paul did, or when do you pray to remove it?

This is where I'm living this right now, and I know many of you are. Unless you're not familiar with the scripture, let me read. "Lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelation." Paul was given a glimpse of the glories of heaven, possibly saw Christ himself. I mean it was just incredible. Talk about how you'd be a little haughty. You come to church and say, "Hey guys, you should see what happened to me last night." And your spirit's right, that you would. You'd think, "I'm so spiritual, I'm God's man." There's arrogance that would happen. And Paul said so to prevent this, a thorn in the flesh was given to me. A messenger of Satan to the apostle Paul.

So all the faith healers, I don't know what they do with this verse because even the apostle Paul—most people think it was a sickness, possibly some type of ailment or disease—God said, "I'm going to keep this to keep you humble." And I heard one of these faith healers—I think I shared this before but it bugged me so much, I want to share it again—he was being interviewed by his granddaughter recently. And this verse came up and he goes, "Well, Paul's thorn was his burden for the churches." What? But see, he has to say that because the apostle Paul can't be sick.

Never mind the fact Timothy takes some of this drink for your stomach, these other people, because God doesn't always heal all the time. It's not based on our faith all the time. If it was our faith, he'd be a genie in a bottle, a butler. Faith is important, belief is important. But also is the sovereign control of God's will. He uses some of these things to keep us very humble and very broken and trusting on him.

For example, think about this: What would be more beneficial or easier for God to heal him? He's healed. Or God says, "I'm going to keep sustaining you in your weakness. My grace is stronger. That's going to stay, but I'm going to stay." That takes more faith, more endurance, more perseverance. I would submit to you a deeper relationship with the Lord. And so he says here it was given to me, and concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And God said to Paul, "I'm not going to heal you. My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness."

So to answer the question: When to embrace the thorn or when do I pray to remove it? Keep contending for removal until you hear otherwise. "Lord, take this away. Lord, heal. Lord, set free." And you keep pressing in, you keep doing it until you hear clearly that God says, "Hey, I've allowed this, and my grace is going to sustain you." You keep pressing in.

And as we talk about this importance of prayer, let me give you the top three prayer hindrances. Again, to recap, Paul was in a jail cell. They were set free that evening. But for most of us, 99 percent of the time, our prayers don't happen that quick. So how do we remain strong when God is silent? I think I prayed with somebody with diabetes. And I just said, "Yeah, you've got to trust the Lord and you've got to do this. But as of today, you're stopping McDonald's. You're going to start getting 5,000 steps in. You're going to lose this weight. You're going to get off the sugar. You're going to start eating whole, God-given food."

See, that's wise. That's why God will honor that. Because if the diabetes is being caused by lifestyle choices, then lifestyle choices can reverse it. See, you're still trusting God, but you're not continuing to harm the body. And so it is a balance that you have to try to find. Doctor says my arteries are getting clogged and I need to go into heart surgery and okay, we'll trust the Lord and let make sure he guides you. But have you tried a whole plant-based food diet for a while and fasting and losing that weight and seeing if you can—what if God directs you that? I don't know, I'm just saying.

Because how many people have reversed it by that? Many, many, many people have reversed it. So you're using wisdom when you're trusting the Lord. Does that make sense? And so we just I think the church just, "Lord, we're just going to trust you." And I think that pleases him. Any fixers out there? Like, "I'm going to fix this." That's why it's always hard, they say, for men to talk to—just listen to their wives. Because in like a minute I'll tell them, "Okay, I'll fix it. How can I fix it? What's there to be fixed?" "No, no, no, just listen. Don't fix anything. There's nothing to be fixed."

And the same thing with God. We often want to fix it. And God says, "Just trust me." And so that's what I would do with the thorn. I would contend to have it removed until you hear otherwise. That's biblical. How do we keep pressing forward when God is silent? Well, one thing we have to consider is there are things that hinder your prayer life. Did you know that? God's not always obligated to answer every prayer. Sometimes conditions must be met. Let me go through. Number one, of course, is internal: Besetting sin.

Hello, this is Pastor Shane Idleman. I want to tell you about a new booklet I just released titled, "The Dark Night of the Soul." This book came from a very challenging season in my own personal life. Dark seasons reveal what we actually believe, not just what we say we believe. The phrase "the dark night of the soul" captures a moment we all dread. It's the moment when the floor drops out from underneath us and we realize that we are not in control and we come face to face with something we cannot fix.

Time and time again, God demonstrates that what appears to be the end of something is actually only the beginning. So again, I want to encourage you to take time today and download my new booklet, "The Dark Night of the Soul," for free right now at westsidechristianfellowship.org. Again, download it for free at westsidechristianfellowship.org. It is on Amazon, but we're encouraging people to go to our church website where they can actually download the booklet for free, the PDF, and share it with friends and family at westsidechristianfellowship.org.

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.