Regaining Lost Ground

Pastor Shane Idleman: We're quick to call out false teachers when it could just be a believer who God used powerfully when they were younger. Notoriety, popularity, and fame drew them away from the Lord. They're not necessarily a false teacher. A false teacher is purposely bringing in heretical doctrine to deceive people and lead them to hell.

They need to get back to their first love. They need to get back to theological grounding. They've drifted from the truth and they need to recapture the limelight has changed them. That's why all the cameras make me question their character.

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 grounding message titled, "When the Devil Meets You."

Leonard Ravenhill once said, "The self-sufficient does not pray. The self-satisfied will not pray. The self-righteous cannot pray. No man is greater than his prayer life." Today, Pastor Shane brings the truth with all power and authority against the enemy of our soul, encouraging us to be actionable in this: Greater is He that is in us than he who is in the world. Walk this today right 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.

Pastor Shane Idleman: Who's crying for America now? "Give me America for the cause of Christ, or I shall die." And that is born in the prayer closet. It is birthed in the furnace of affliction, and from that comes out prevailing prayer. The enemy knows that prayer is going to bring your prodigal home. That prayer might even heal you. That prayer might set you free. That prayer might break that stronghold. There is the power of the praying Christian.

That's why he goes after it. I'm tempted to try this, I don't know, but one of these Sundays, I want to just promote it for a while and say I'm not going to preach. All we're going to do is pray and worship, and I want to see the attendance. Don't shout. You don't know the attendance yet. Should we try that sometime just to prove a point? I'm guessing half. I'll run into somebody, "Why didn't you come?" "I want to hear a message."

Why do you want to hear a message when you can grab the heart of God? You're going to listen to a man? You can listen to a man for the next 50 years, but five minutes in the presence of God will change you. That's what you need. My job is to point you to the Man. My job is to build that hunger, build that desire, build that thirst so you get home and you're desiring more of God. That's what He has called me to do. That's the mandate on this church. It's a little bit different than other churches. I get it. I'm not worried about other churches.

I run into people, "Why do you guys do it this way?" I don't know. The Bible doesn't say exactly how to do church. But Paul, oh goodness, it's not just me. Paul, greatly annoyed. Paul was greatly annoyed, like this girl, "These are the servants of the Most High God. These are the servants of the Most High God." Just following around, "These are the servants of the Most High God." And he said, "Okay, you know what? I'm done with you. Listen, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ, be out of her." And at that moment, she was delivered and set free. What a picture.

God doesn't do that anymore, they say. Really? Could it be our lack of faith that limits God? I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. God, if we could just get that power back in many churches where we could tell people, "If you need help, go in the prayer room. Let us pray for you." But it's got to come from vessels who are clean, prayer team members who are broken, humble, have dealt with God, they're not holding on to besetting sin, and they believe in the power of prayer.

I have a note to do that at the end and have our prayer team members pray with you if you do need that. If you need that, I've just got to let this off of me. I need a breakthrough in this area. Let us pray with you. And that spirit came out that very hour. What's interesting is it appears that it was immediate, but we have seen sessions where it's taken a couple of hours to really deal with people in the demonic realm.

The Bible doesn't give us clear instructions on exactly how to do it, but we know people can be set free. I mean, there are times I wanted to maybe sometime just give a lot of testimonies. But there was one time I remember over on 50th West where we keep our radio equipment and offices, and a lady was in there by the name of Eva Marie, some of you remember. I went in there and they're in there doing some things. I'm like, "Oh my goodness, wow. I think I'll come back later."

This lady is just crying and heaving. I texted her later and she goes, "Oh, Pastor, it took about three hours." I said, "What? Shouldn't it just be like this?" So I don't quite understand all the... but then I talked to the lady and she's like, "I threw up in the trash can and I've been set free." I think she's been at the altar, this is years ago, and she says, "I'm just feeling so incredible." And then you see other things that have been happening and you talk to people. Right, it's not common every single Sunday, for sure.

Could it be? Possibly. We're open to whatever God wants to do. But it's a beautiful thing when He sets people free. And sometimes there's no major event. Sometimes you pray for somebody and they come back and they're glowing, like, "I've been set free from that prayer last week. I cannot believe it. I haven't touched whiskey in all week, and I've been hooked on it for 20 years." I heard that a few years ago. Same-sex attraction, marijuana—we've heard those things where it's just, "I have no desire anymore."

And other people are struggling. I don't understand how it all works. Some people are set free, other people there's a struggle to fight through sometimes. We trust in God's sovereignty. But the spirit came out. And when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. Isn't that interesting? "What did you guys do to my spirit of python?" By the way, you guys don't have to try and name all these demons. Just take authority over what God has given you.

But here are a couple of keys I want to talk about before Paul casts this demon out. I believe he had some time to be prayed up and to use discernment. Like maybe at first he thought it was legitimate, like she recognized who they were. But maybe over time, following them around, he realized, "Okay, this is not good. This is not of God." And he used discernment. So that's a key for praying with people, especially in this area. If you're going to cast out a demon where there's no demon, it's a little silly. We've seen that many times. "I don't have a... I don't know what you're talking about."

Because there are some people who think there's a demon under every rock. "I have the demon of anger." No, you're just a jerk and you're selfish and you're prideful. That's not a demon. So it happens. You guys have seen it. Demon under everything. Demon of coffee, demon of sugar. And there's everything's got to cast out demons out of all believers all the time. Demon of gluttony, demon of this, demon of that. But on the other end, there are people who think that doesn't happen anymore. And the devil loves that view too.

So Paul's prayed up and he's using discernment. I think if you're praying, "Lord, what is going on here? Is she harassing me?" and you're prayed up, you use discernment, you use wisdom, and you speak into that situation. And like I said earlier, many are too fixated, I believe, on naming demons. It's about popularity and pomp, and they have all these demon names and they've built a whole career out of casting out demons and things like that. So we just have to be careful.

But here's what we have to remember: Darkness hates to be defeated and will lash out. So the darkness was defeated. This girl is set free. The profit that they were gaining from her is over, and now they're going to lash out. Be ready, believer. Anytime God is working in your life, the enemy's going after it. He hates it. He hates to be defeated. I mean, we see it. Some of the most powerful worship services come with a little nuance. There's something else going on sometimes: arguments, or this happened, or that happened, and the enemy's trying to disrupt what's going on.

Negative talk and a critical spirit, critical hearts—doesn't that kill unity? Just come in with a critical heart and just, "I don't know about that, Shane. I don't think demons work that way. I don't know." Well, let's talk about this for a minute. The concept of casting out a demon. Oh boy, you guys didn't know I was going here, did you? Well, it's in the book of Acts. It's where we're at, and it's important, especially for us today. Now, there probably were like 15 verses I found in the New Testament.

Jesus cast out demons, commanded His believers to cast out demons, the apostles cast out demons. So I said, okay, what in a sentence is it? In short, it's a greater authority is present. That's what casting out a demon is. The Holy Spirit in you is greater than the demonic realm. So you are taking authority over the situation. You don't run in fear. You take authority. The Greater is you that's in the world. So when Jesus cast out, a greater was present. "I'm greater, I cast you out of that person. My authority is greater than yours."

And so when I've told people before, "I might go to that palm reader place and minister to her," they say, "Oh, I would not do that." Why? They have no greater authority than the authority in me. Go to a place where there are witches and talk. They have no greater authority than me. You have the greater authority. Now you want to use wisdom, you want to use discernment, but we should not be scared of the darkness. The darkness should be scared of you.

So that's really what casting out is. It's a greater authority that you've been given. The Holy Spirit in you. You notice the demonic realm, maybe in your kids, a little kid, five years old, or this, and you say, "In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name." You have the authority to pray as if Christ would want you to pray. "If you're bound by this demon or whatever, be delivered in Jesus' name." A greater authority is present. That's what you're doing. You're casting down, as it were.

And that's why I love 2 Corinthians: "Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." And it goes on to say, taking those thoughts captive. So you're casting down. The greater authority that's been given to you, you take authority over those things that are trying to ruin your life. But because of social media... when I was growing up, you just heard of things. You never saw them unless there might be a VHS video. Remember those video recordings? You put those in, you might see some interesting stuff.

But nowadays, it's everywhere. Instagram, I mean, you've got demon slayers. You've got deliverance at book signings. You guys see the videos out this week? I actually was going to play two and mention this person, but I'm not. I just don't want to give them any more publicity. But I want to talk about it because it's important. My kids have lots of questions when they see this stuff. It's just the world we live in now, and because of social media, there's a lot of exposure.

You see people being delivered or fake deliverance. What are we supposed to do with all of this stuff as a church? Right? What are we supposed to do with all this stuff? Because the church should have some type of response. They should have, biblically speaking. I mean, for example, if something started happening here and somebody's manifesting or this, we'd have them escorted to the prayer room and have people talk with them and pray with them and handle things a certain way.

But when it comes to this issue, we either ignore it, we don't know, or we don't know. I mean, you run into homeless people sometimes, you think they're either demon-possessed or there's mental illness. And there's a combination. That's just truth, biblically speaking as well. So here are the top 10 points that I want to leave you with about deliverance. Okay? So as a church, I believe—the elders will tell me if they disagree on this, maybe we should have talked about it first, but I think we're on the same page.

We believe that a Christian can be harassed and open the door to the demonic realm. We can pray for that person. We can give that situation rest. We can have people that can go to the home and pray over the home, and there's a calming effect of the work of the Holy Spirit in their heart and set them free in that area. Sometimes things come back. But we also believe that we can pray for unbelievers. But the real point with unbelievers is to be set free as a sign that they need the Gospel, to point them to the greater power that is Jesus Christ.

And so we pray for people if we feel that's ever needed. Maybe not enough because it's hard to discern what's demonic, what's not. Some people don't want to admit it. Have you ever seen that before? "No, I'm fine." No, you've got something going on. You've got a stronghold that's got a really strong hold. And so a lot of times when I'll pray, too, I'll pray and say, "Lord, if there's a demonic stronghold in this person's life..." many times there's not much, but sometimes it's just like a response. You know that something triggered them.

Or you ask questions. "Have you opened yourself up to this in the past, and the fortune tellers and things like that?" "Well, I used to just kind of see where I was going, to see if I'd meet a certain person, and horoscopes." And you kind of work through that, and you have to... the really key is repentance. The person has to repent from those things. And this is where a good guideline is for those you see things on Instagram.

So basically, yeah, basically in the last week, there's this lady at a book signing and people would come to her table—her church is actually in LA—and they would start shaking and manifesting and fall over. And then they pick them up and then they're smiling and they're fine. And so I guess it's manifesting with the demon, but then they're set free on their own because nobody's really praying for them. So it's like, this is so bizarre. Lord, I don't know about this.

But I know other things that this person does, and it's just not good. It's not godly. So but here's point number one: Judge actions versus attack the character of the person when we don't know the person. So it's one reason I didn't mention the name or the video. I don't know the character. I mean, if you sit down with somebody and you really hear their heart for an hour, you just find out they've just been misled in certain areas.

Because what happens, I've noticed over the years, if you talk to certain Christians, many times we live in our own bubble. For example, there's like the Reformed camp. You know, all they listen to is John MacArthur and Spurgeon and the Puritans and R.C. Sproul. And that's their whole world right there. I talk about revival. No, not open to that. And then there's a whole other group that's just all about, you know, Calvary Chapel movement. They stay all in the Calvary Chapel distinctives. It's Calvary Chapel, they go to Calvary Chapel conferences, and all these things are good, right?

But then there's another group that there's no scriptural grounding. It's just the "name it and claim it," just having enough faith and you can move mountains, and they're not open to what the Bible really says about faith and sifting it through godly counsel and reading systematic theology and solid commentaries to get a solid grounding in your faith. And so that's what happens here. So we judge the actions versus attack character.

Number two. So, for example, on those two people I just mentioned, every time I do this, people are going to get mad at me for saying their names. I can't watch more than four minutes of Jesse Duplantis. These guys? There's a certain group, it's like, what in the world is going on? They do not represent me. And I'm not ashamed to say it because they go out publicly and say asinine things and ridiculous things and misrepresent the Gospel, misrepresent pastors and teachers. So yes, I can call it out. I've got a biblical mandate to call out silliness and not just not want to say anything because I want to be nice to everybody. That's not biblical.

You shouldn't want to do that. I actually didn't know that was in my notes to say that, but I felt it's important. I'm going to get to more of these points that will tie in what I just said. Number two: A false teacher versus the one who fell off the wagon. So this person I've been talking about, or you'll see others online... I mean, I could name lots of names. You guys already know who a lot of these people are.

But false teacher, false teacher, false teacher—we're quick to call out false teachers when it could just be a believer who God used powerfully when they were younger, and notoriety, popularity, and fame drew them away from the Lord. So they're not necessarily a false teacher. A false teacher is purposely bringing in heretical doctrine to deceive people and lead them to hell. These people might just need to get back to their first love. They need to get back to theological grounding. They've drifted from the truth and they need to recapture... the limelight has changed them.

That's why all the cameras make me question their character. Don't allow or welcome adoration. A lot of these people welcome worship. "Oh, this great faith healer, this great person of this," and they welcome that adoration. You should actually not welcome that; point people to Jesus.

Pastor Shane Idleman: 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.

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.