When we hear the word confession, something like the following usually comes to mind:

A young man comes to a priest:
— Holy Father, I have sinned very many times.
— How many times, my son?
— Well, I came to confess, not to brag.

For me confession was a bit different. Sometimes, when a short skirt came into view, and especially if I was two steps lower on the tram, my eyes for some reason ended up in the wrong place. Of course, knowing that I am righteous in Christ, I confessed my righteousness: “Christ is my righteousness. I am righteous by faith, not by works,” and so on. Why I kept repeating this, I don’t fully understand. Most likely to fight off the self-condemnation that attacked me when I did something wrong. Interestingly, these repetitions did not stop the self-condemnation at all, and the next time I would proclaim my righteousness again. I don’t even remember how many years this went on, until one fine moment, when self-condemnation was clinging to me yet again, a light, unobtrusive thought-question came to me: “If God does not condemn me, why am I doing this?” And really, I thought, don’t I have anything better to do? From that moment the self-condemnation simply left, and now, even if I’m watching a film and a scantily dressed “cutie” suddenly appears, I don’t do any confession routines, and there is no self-condemnation. That question, which came from the Holy Spirit, freed me not only from unnecessary work — proclaiming my own righteousness, which focused me more on myself than on Christ — but also from self-condemnation.

Have you ever heard the saying: “God speaks loudest through your pastor”? Such a belief turns believers into vegetables who meet with God on Sundays, when “the Voice of the Most High” shouts from the pulpit. I also listened to a preacher for years, although the Lord told me more than once to stop listening to him. Probably it is more convenient and easier to understand than simply talking with the Lord. “Well, it is written that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So, to believe, you need to listen to anointed sermons about Jesus Christ.” Yes, I believed that for a long time too, and so I listened for years, although changes happened in my life only when I responded to the voice inside.

The Voice Within

But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
—1 John 2:27

My friends, the Lord speaks loudest not through a preacher or a pastor, but through the anointing within, through the tender and warm voice of Christ, who lives in us by His Spirit. Perhaps it does not seem loud to us, or we think we don’t hear Him, but this voice is very close, and it only seems that we don’t hear. Jesus said: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” [Jhn.10:27] You see whose voice His sheep hear? It’s just that often, because we have been stuffed with law and religion, we confuse the roar of a lion with the voice of the Lamb of God. His voice does not condemn, reproach or frighten, but sets free, gladdens and teaches all things. Yes, yes, it teaches all things. John writes that we do not need anyone to teach us. “Then why do we need teachers in the church?” For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry [Eph.4:12], but not so that a leader or a pastor tells me how to solve one problem or another in my life, and not even to get a fresh revelation…

It was in the Old Testament that, when people had some question, they went for advice either to a prophet or to the high priest, who had the Urim and Thummim. And through them a person received an answer from God. It is written about the Old Testament prophets: “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you… To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven; things which angels desire to look into.” [1 Pet.1:10-12] The prophets did not have what we have. Even angels desire to look into it. What do we have? God lives inside us, that’s what. That is grace. God has made everything simple for us — He has made His home inside us, because Jesus cleansed us with His blood, so as to be forever very close, as close as can be. He made it so that we would not need anyone to teach us, and so that all, from the least to the greatest, would know Him. [Heb.8:11]

When I was meditating on all this, or more precisely when Jesus was preaching inside me, He said: “Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, not the word about Christ.” Indeed, Romans 10:17 does not say the word about God, but faith comes from the word of God Himself (many translations read: the word of Christ). “Of God” — it is the word God speaks, not a word about Him. Faith, or the revelation of Jesus, does not come when we hear someone preaching about Jesus Christ, but when we hear the voice of God, who speaks inside us by His Spirit. When we listen to a sermon about Christ and hear something new, we sometimes say: “Oh, I received a new revelation about Jesus.” No, we received new knowledge or new information about Him. It is written that the revelation of Jesus Christ is spirit [Eph.1:17], and Jesus said: “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” [Jhn.6:63] Not the words of this preacher or that one — and what I am writing here is also second-rate goods — but the words of Christ Himself give life.

You know, I never understood it when someone says to another person or to me: “You are so much like Jesus,” and at the same time people expect a mentor or leader to show Christ to them. It is understandable if an unbeliever expects to see God in another person, because he has no anointing inside, but if God lives inside us, why look for Him outside? When Jesus walked on the earth, He said: “the kingdom of God is within you” (or, as the NKJV margin has it, “in your midst”) [Luk.17:21], because He was in their midst. Today the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. [Rom.14:17] Where? In the Holy Spirit. And where is the Holy Spirit? Inside us. But unfortunately, sometimes it seems as if we live in Old Testament times, when people had no anointing inside, when everyone gathered around Jesus and listened to His word — only now the role of Jesus is played by a preacher or a pastor. Beloved, it should not be so; a preacher is no substitute for God and is not closer to Him, but you are close to Him, because He lives inside you.

“So preachers aren’t needed?” Of course they are needed. Paul writes: “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” [Rom.10:14] Who needs to hear a preacher? The one who needs to believe. And who needs to believe? The one who will find salvation by calling on His name. Unbelievers need a preacher, because they have no anointing inside, and God speaks to them from outside; but believers, in whom Christ lives, do not need a preacher. We have the anointing inside, which teaches us all things.

The Word of Grace Builds Us Up

“But what about helping someone who has just been born again to grow spiritually?” All of this is the invention of professors of theology. If you believe in spiritual growth — which in fact does not exist, because when we receive the Spirit of Christ into our heart, we receive the spirit of a full-grown Son, not of a child. So, who helped the eunuch whom Philip baptized to “grow spiritually”? The eunuch had just heard the good news from Philip and asked to be baptized in water, to which Philip answered: “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” Notice that Philip did not drag him to the pond, the way people often drag their friends and relatives onto the stage to repent there. For Philip it was important that he believed with all his heart, and not just repeated after him a prayer of repentance, which the legalists also made up. The eunuch answered: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” There you have the confession unto salvation, which is the result of believing with the heart. After Philip baptized the eunuch, “Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.” [Act.8:26-39] (Some ancient manuscripts, followed by the Russian Synodal translation, read here: “the Holy Spirit fell upon the eunuch, and an angel of the Lord caught Philip away.”)

Who was the eunuch’s pastor, leader and mentor? Christ! Think about it for a minute: the eunuch was going back to Ethiopia, where there was not a single Christian. All he had was the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures he had been reading on the way from Jerusalem. Nothing and no one else! Perhaps you have heard or read about the ancient Christian community in Ethiopia. I think the Lord did a glorious work through the eunuch!

Paul said: “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” [Act.20:32] In the previous verse it is written that for three years he taught each of them night and day with tears. Not because it couldn’t be done without that — the example of the eunuch clearly shows that the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures are more than enough — but because of the love of Christ for them; that is why he taught them with tears. He wrote to the Corinthians: “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.” [1 Cor.4:15] He loved them like his own children. But now, he says, I commend you to your pastor and mentor. Is that right? No! I give you into the hands of God and the word of His grace, which is able to build you up. The word of grace is the anointing within, the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, who teaches us all things.

The Holy Spirit always testifies about the grace of Jesus Christ. Jesus said that “when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth” [Jhn.16:13] And what is truth? Pontius Pilate asked Jesus this question when Jesus bore witness to him about the truth. [Jhn.18:37] Paul writes to Timothy that Jesus witnessed the good confession. [1 Tim.6:13] That is the true good confession, when the Holy Spirit testifies to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the grace of God that came down from heaven, because grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [Jhn.1:17] “no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” [1 Cor.12:3] Notice that Jesus did not confess the truth to a priest, nor did He proclaim it to Himself, but to an unbelieving ruler. Paul did the same when he testified before Festus, King Agrippa and later Caesar. Jesus said: “But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” [Mat.10:19-20]

Have you heard the claim: “Don’t sin, or you will grieve the Holy Spirit”? It is not sins that grieve the Holy Spirit. He testifies that God does not remember them, so how could they grieve Him? [Heb.10:15-17] In the same chapter of Hebrews it is written that whoever does not count the blood of Jesus holy, able to cleanse every single sin, insults the Spirit of grace. [Heb.10:29] The beloved Paul writes about the same thing: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,” and in the previous verse he explains how not to grieve Him: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” [Eph.4:29-30] Any word that condemns a person is a corrupt word. A good word always brings grace to the hearers and builds them up in love and faith. It is the word about the complete forgiveness of every single sin. That is why a couple of verses later Paul writes: “forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.” [Eph.4:32] Forgive not out of fear of punishment, but out of the revelation of how much you have been forgiven in Christ.

“Well, if a believer doesn’t need a leader and mentor, who will control him so that he doesn’t sin?” Control? So that’s what it’s about. People don’t need to be controlled so as to manipulate them and drive them into your own will, or rather into the will of the evil one. Paul writes to Titus: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,” [Tit.2:11-12] The grace of God, the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of grace living in us teaches us how to live soberly and godly. It is not the commands of the law, which God abolished on the cross, that direct our actions and life, but the saving grace of God that directs our desires and actions.

Paul writes: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” [Phl.2:12-13] Not earning salvation by our works — because our salvation is a gift by grace, and a gift is not earned — but working out, or putting into action, our salvation, that grace, the gift of God which is inside us. Paul writes to the Romans: “For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect” What promise? The Holy Spirit is inactive in us when we try to justify ourselves by the works of the law. The grace and salvation inside us are inactive when we live in the works of the law, and not in faith that God has already justified us in Christ.

So, precious children of God, listen to the anointing within, the voice of the Holy Spirit, the voice of grace, which will teach you all things and is able to keep you completely — spirit, soul and body — in God’s righteousness and holiness, whole and blameless, for you are the bride of Christ — pure, holy, perfect and precious in God’s eyes!