In this sermon, Pastor Jim shares a personal experience of seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit on what to preach. He emphasizes the importance of being led by the Spirit and relying on Him for understanding the Bible. Pastor Jim recounts a powerful moment when a student prayed and unknowingly articulated the exact sermon he was meant to preach. He encourages listeners to surrender control to the Holy Spirit and trust His guidance in making decisions and avoiding harmful situations.

To lead into some private prayer for ourselves, I want to share with you and unpack an interesting portion of scripture having to do with the Antichrist or a Antichrist, because there's more than one Antichrist. There are many Antichrists, the Bible says. Many people believe there's one vinyl Antichrist, and scriptures seem to indicate that, but I want you to watch what it says here in 1 John 2nd chapter. Dear children, this is the last hour. As you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, this is 2,000 years ago, John's saying that, even now many Antichrists, plural, have come. Who are they? This is how we know it's the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. Notice as he's talking about the Antichrist, he identifies them as people who were once in the church. Isn't that interesting? He said that these Antichrists, plural, went out from us, but they didn't really belong to us. How do we know who doesn't belong to the body of Christ? They don't stay. If they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the Antichrist, denying the Father and the Son. What's the ultimate lie? There's many kinds of lies, but the ultimate lie that is linked to the spirit of Antichrist is the one that denies that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, the Savior of the world, the only one through whom we can have salvation. When someone denies Jesus, they can say God, they can say whatever. Can I just add this? When you testify to people, or you write your own testimony and all of that, yes, it's fine to use God and Father and all of that, but boy, we gotta be talking about Jesus. Amen. And the word is, that's a good term too, but I read a testimony from one of the people that were baptized, and it unnerved me a little bit, because there was not hardly any mention of Jesus. And they're probably a new believer, but it was about God, it was about the power of the word, and I'm down for all of that, but I mean, the Savior's name is Jesus. And the demons tremble not when you say God, but when you say Lord. They tremble when you say Jesus. Everybody say Jesus. Jesus. Anyone who denies who Jesus is, no matter what other religious talk they have. This is how some of the false prophets and people well-known televangelists, they're caught on TV, and they're interviewed, and they want a following, they want not to turn anyone quote off, and then the question goes to them. So is Jesus Christ the only way of salvation? And that's when things get dicey. And some of us said, no, no, that's so narrow. No, I believe, I personally believe in Jesus. But there's many roads to God. No, there are not many roads to God. There's only one name given unto heaven whereby we must be saved. Can we say amen to that? Now, they might say other things, that God can heal, God can bless, and all of that, but the Antichrist spirit is one that downplays the centrality, the importance, the necessity of Jesus as the Savior, as the Christ. And Christ means, the Greek word for Christ means anointed one, the anointed one. I say that for a reason. So, but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know the truth, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the Antichrist, denying the Father and the Son. Notice that when you deny the Son, you automatically deny the Father. There was no mention of denying the Father, but by denying the Son, we're gonna hear that again. Now, no one who denies the Son has the Father. Someone who says, no, I don't believe in Jesus, but God is my friend. No, you do not have the Father, you don't have God, you don't have anybody. You're all by your lonesome because you have to have Jesus. Oh, precious Jesus. Precious Jesus. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. As for you, you see what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what He promised us, eternal life. I'm writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray, so just stay there. At all times in the Christian life, there will be voices and teachers and very subtle and very beguiling and very cunning that are always trying to lead the people of God astray. There is always God is for us and all of that, but you can't go in a coma, you gotta be awake. There's always someone leading you, trying to lead us all astray. Ministers go astray. One of the best preachers that my mother-in-law heard, she told me before she died when she was a new Christian, was this wonderful preacher from California. Then he either got full of himself or went after money or whatever, and the next thing you know, when he ended up, he was wearing a robe in a church in California with an idol, a physical idol that people came down and bowed down to. Now, how could you preach so that my, you know, newly saved, Spirit-filled mother-in-law all those years ago was so blessed by you, how could you end up making sacrifices to a statue? No, I mean, how do you get there? Because there's always someone trying to lead us astray. This is the whole warning that John is giving. Come on, be awake, be full of the Word of God, and let His Spirit teach you, why? Because there's always someone trying to lead us astray into some false emphasis, some false something, and then ultimately denial of Christ. But as for you, the anointing you receive from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. What? But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit, just as it has taught you, remain in Him. Let's look at that again. As for you, the anointing you receive, we'll go into that, remains in you, from Him, remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things, and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit, just as it has taught you, remain in Him. Now, right now, I am teaching, and this is an important passage of Scripture. Wouldn't you say amen to that? But notice what he's saying here. The ultimate teacher is not the man or woman teacher. The ultimate teacher is the anointing. Who is the anointing? The anointing is Christ inside of us, i.e. the Holy Spirit. He's the inner teacher. He will never lead us astray. And we'll get to how do you discern that from just your own thoughts. But notice how sure John is. He says, you have a teacher. By the way, if you needed great teachers to be mature in God as you study the Word, would it not be unfair for people who live in out-of-the-way places, not near anybody, some mountain region, the jungles of Peru, you get saved, and there's hardly anyone that maybe the pastor is a new convert himself, he's not learned it, he didn't go to seminary, maybe he's just learning the Bible. But you can grow in God with no human teacher, because there's an anointing that God put in us who will teach us what this really means because he wrote it. The Holy Spirit wrote this, so who would be better teacher than him? He also, I want you to notice, teaches us in our hearts what it means, not only in su cabeza. If you only learn the Bible in su cabeza, in your head, in your mind, you can have all kinds of verses, but with no revelation in the heart, you can stay mean and nasty and proud and all kinds of things because you know the verses, knowledge puffs up, but the teaching of the Spirit edifies because it brings us into conformity to Jesus Christ. Because that would not be fair. Someone says, no, I sit under this, I read under that, I read this book and that book. Well, how about people who just, all those early Christians in these remote places? How about today, like places I've been, Northern Argentina, up in the province of Formosa and Chaco and Corrientes where I pray God will help me to get to next year to help the pastors there. The people there are not many times gonna have the best teachers as we would judge teachers, but that won't hold them back. Once you open this book and say, Holy Spirit, you come and teach me. He says, you have an anointing that teaches you all things. You don't need anybody to teach you. Now, God has said in the church, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers. So obviously, there's a place for teachers. But if all you do is cling to the teaching of a man, it gets cult-like. No, I gotta hear what brother so-and-so said. How about what the Holy Spirit said? That's even better than what brother so-and-so said. So he says, you have an anointing that's in you. Notice where the teacher is, in you. You received an anointing. You received the spirit of Christ, who's the anointed one. So the spirit John is referring to is called the anointing. And you could say the inner Christ, Christ through the Holy Spirit living inside of us, who wants to teach us and lead us and guide us. I know all kinds of people who have zeal and who learn verses, but if the spirit doesn't teach you, you can get very strange or be very carnal with your verses. Because when the spirit teaches you in your heart, this is softening. Come on, how many know what I'm talking about? Say amen. There's a breaking, there's a revelation that comes. If you learn just in your head, you wanna brag to everybody how much you know. When the anointing teaches you, you keep your mouth shut. And you're just thanking God that he taught you something. Right? So this teaching is inside of us. It's the Holy Spirit. And I would say that a lot of us don't give much attention to the anointing that's been put inside of us. We don't. I travel in places now and around the country, around the world, it gets so cerebral. You would think that you need a PhD to get mature in God. Christianity is yes, the mind has to get truth and all that. But unless it gets into the heart through the Holy Spirit, teaching us, it doesn't change our lives. Lean not upon your own understanding, but trust in the Lord with all your, look, understanding heart. There's a difference. You can understand the whole life of Christ and it won't help you much. Unless the Spirit begins to teach you, reveal it to you. We learn here as we unpacked it that the denial of Christ is the spirit of the Antichrist. We learn also that there are many Antichrists and the ones that John's referring to were once in the church. But they left the church and they went off into false teaching and started to deny Christ. I just heard the most tragic story yesterday. Someone came by. Many years ago, Carol and I were talking to somebody, a minister, another part of the country, and their son was very talented. And then we heard that he won some contests and he was gonna be singing with a secular group. A lot of people think, oh, now he made it. Listen, when you stop singing for Jesus, you did not make anything. You just went down. There's nothing higher than singing for Jesus. Am I right? Can we say amen to that? But the spirit of the world invades the church so that we get the same values as the world, like who do you know, who do you rub shoulders with? Whoa, you know this one. You actually were there. I remember when I heard it. Everton, I got sick in my heart when I heard it. Knew nothing, hadn't even met the kid. No, no, this is the hottest group. At that time, the group he was in, the hottest group. I just heard from somebody who ran into this guy now, this guy who's grown up now. He's not only serving God, he's denying Jesus Christ. He's denying that Christ is the Savior, a pastor's son, who started out in prayer meetings like this, hopefully. It's a very subtle, demonic thing that tries to pull us away. And many times, the world is used because you can't fit in this world and hang on to Jesus. The world didn't like him 2,000 years ago. How many know the world does not like him still today? So if you wanna be cool and accepted and run with the in crowd, you better not serve Jesus Christ because it's incompatible. Anyone who says he loves, anyone who loves the world does not have the love of the Father in them. You take it to the bank. Those are opposites. So now, this inner teaching of the Spirit. So when we read our Bible, reading this Bible, I haven't read this Bible, this is a new American version. It has just the 66 books of our canon. But it's done by a committee and it's very interesting. As we read it, the scripture, we gotta ask the teacher to help us. When we come in a meeting before we hear a sermon, pastor simply shouldn't be just praying. We all need to pray. Spirit, teach me. Whatever verse he's gonna bring out, teach me. Make it real in my heart. Open my eyes that I might see wonders out of your word. And that what the psalmist was praying in Psalm 119 way before the Spirit was poured out. They knew that without the Spirit, you can't even understand the Bible. Can't understand anything. And if you think you understand it, it does more harm than good. Think of those slaveholders. Terrible, terrible, terrible stuff. History of this country. Went to churches that were pounding the Bible and justifying slavery and the mistreatment of people brought over from Africa. They didn't know God from the man in the moon. But they knew the Bible, but the anointing had never taught them. Because when the Spirit teaches you, you won't treat anyone mean. How could you beat someone? How could you take advantage of someone if the Spirit has taught you, right? So that's the difference. You gotta be careful. Because without the Spirit's teaching, you can use verses to back up your prejudice. White prejudice, black prejudice, and all of that. But it goes deeper than this. This anointing that's inside of every true believer. You and I have to learn to develop listening to him. If he's an inner teacher, he speaks. But we have to listen. We have to acknowledge that he's there. Not just Christ in heaven. You have the anointing that's in you. And he teaches you all things. You don't have a need for anyone to teach you anything because he teaches you all things and he never teaches anything that's false. Well, Pastor Simba, how do you know the difference between just your thoughts and the inner teacher? Well, as you read the Word, the Word will warn you when your mind is going astray and when the devil puts thoughts in your mind, right? I told you the first time I ever preached a sermon, one of the first times in Newark, New Jersey. Hadn't even come to Brooklyn Tabernacle. I was preaching, oh, they were pitiful. Oh, that sermon was bad. Trust me, you weren't there, it was bad. This crazy guy walks up to me that's in this church. I was there, not even there a month. And he says, oh, Pastor, oh, what a word you brought. I didn't think it was that good at all myself. But he said, you know what? While you were preaching, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, the wife you have, you can get rid of because I got someone better coming for you. That's the truth before God. And I said, the Spirit told you that while I was preaching? I gotta resign from the ministry. I'm not even in it a month. But if you're full of the Word, you know, no, that's not the Spirit. Satan, you're a liar, get out of here. By the way, when the Bible says, resist the devil and he'll flee for you, that's resisting thoughts that are of the devil. It's not a physical devil. It's satanic thoughts because he does have access to our minds. That's how temptation comes in the mind. You have to resist those thoughts. No, that's not a right thought. Get out of here. But he comes back a half hour later. Tell him to get out again. If you have to tell him to get out 100 times a day, just resist the devil and he will flee. But look, do we not have authority over that? Come on, we have authority in Jesus' name. Get out of here. That is not a right thought. That's an impure thought. That's an impure thought. That is a hateful thought. That's a bitter thought. Get out of here. That's not from my inner teacher. That's not from the Spirit. But now listen, this is what some of you need now. It's not only giving us the teaching of the Word, it gives us discernment of what's true and what's not true. But it also, he's so sensitive, when you pay attention to him, he will put a check on you when you're about to go the wrong way, when you're about to make the wrong decision. There'll be an uncomfortableness if we become sensitive. And we learn to be controlled, and we tell him, I want you to control me today. If I start even a sentence that I shouldn't be saying, just, ooh, I better not say that one. Why'd you stop in mid-sentence? It's not your business. My teacher told me don't say that sentence. Come on, how many have had that happen to you, right? Don't go there. Don't make that decision. Don't hook up with this person. Don't do that. And then the little quiet voices. Call that person. Call that person. Did you know, as God is my witness, somebody in security can bear witness to this. I was sitting at home after a long Sunday, tired, and the Lord, I felt, spoke to me inside so quiet. Call such a person. Call him right now. I called that person right when they were in the middle of a big mess. And my call was like, oh no, why would he call me right now? That's a sign I better defuse this situation. And I learned of it later. It was just casual to me. It was just a little whisper. Call that person. How many want to be led by God more that way? And how many want to be warned by God more that way? You know, there's a way that seems right to a person, but the end thereof is really bad. We need to pray, starting with me. We need to pray. God, teach me your word. Holy Spirit, the anointing that I have, say after me, repeat this sentence. I have the anointing of God in my heart. Oh yes you do, the Bible says that. We all have the anointing. He's writing to the whole church. We have this anointing, but oh God, make me sensitive to it. Don't make me weird. Some people who think they're led by the Spirit, they act weird. How many have found some weird people are just weird. They're not led by anything. But God, make me truly spiritual. Lead me, guide me, stop me, stop me. So this last week, just a week ago tonight, I was speaking somewhere, thousands of people, and I wasn't sure what to preach on, and I don't preach with notes for nine years now. So I'm out there on the limb to begin with, but I was debating what should I preach, and I had two things in my heart, right? And I said, God, Holy Spirit, I will preach whatever you want me to preach, but you must show me what to preach. You've always come through, you are faithful, you will teach me, you will lead me, I know, but give me a sign. So I meet in the green room with all these dignitaries and all of that, and they go, okay, and they say, listen, Pastor Jim, there's some students here at the school, they're waiting outside to pray with you, okay? So I go outside, whatever you say, I go out, there's about five or six of them, they're divinity students, so they go, oh, Pastor Simba, we read your book, we're so happy you're here, your books. So I said, okay, who's gonna pray? So one guy said, I'm gonna pray. So I closed my eyes, and I'm still praying, God lead me. He begins to pray, and he makes every point that I'm supposed to make in that sermon. My heart almost stopped. Out of nowhere, he begins to pray the sermon that God wanted me to preach. The words that I would use, the points, the verse, he goes to the verse that I was debating about. And I was so happy, and he was praying. When they got through, I was ready to run all around, and they were wondering, like, you okay? And I said, oh, you don't even know how okay I am. Thank you, brother, for that prayer, and he didn't even know. The Spirit will never let us down. Let's close our eyes. Those needing direction from the Holy Spirit, those wanting more fullness of the Spirit, a better ear to hear the inner teacher. For you have an anointing that teaches you all things, and that anointing is in you. And he's not of a lie, he's of the truth. And you're facing a situation right now, it's not a moral decision, right or wrong, it's do I go back, do I stay? Do I move, do I stay? Do I major in that, or do I not major in that? Do I leave that job, what do I do in this situation? If you're here and need guidance and direction from the Holy Spirit, please come out of your seat and stand up here. But we're gonna listen now. Might everyone sincere, be sincere with it. Thank you for the anointing, God, that you've given us Christians. Now teach us, lead us. We praise you, God. Holy Spirit, we love you. Thank you. Thank you for the anointing, God. Thank you that all of us who are born again have the Holy Spirit within us. But God, we, a lot of us have not paid enough attention to the Spirit of God. We haven't listened, we haven't cultivated an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying. We haven't built him up and fed him with the word and prayer and meditation. We have fed ourselves on other things which deaden his voice. It's not that he's not there, but we can't hear him sometimes because there's so many other voices, so much other nonsense. Sometimes I've been so busy, God, even doing your work that I lose my sensitivity to your voice. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you for being so gentle and kind and patient with us. Could you help my brothers and sisters, God, to hear the word they need to hear? The direction, the revelation, the guidance, the encouragement, the comfort, it all comes from you. We have nothing, we have nothing. Only good thing about us is that you're our Savior and you live inside of us. Father, we thank you for your word to us tonight. Don't let any of us be led astray, but let the anointing you've given us teach us all things and keep us close to Christ. I pray that we will have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying, that we will cultivate and just keep clean and precious the temple of God within us where the Spirit dwells. Just speak and we will say yes, digo si, Senor. Now, Lord, this is not about a service, this is about a lifestyle, about a change in our lives so that we're listening all day long, we're careful, we're sensitive, make us that. We wanna honor you, Spirit of Christ within us, we honor you. And everyone said, could you look at me for just a second? I had this in my heart when I was in Poland and I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna ask Everton, his wife, and deacons here and the pastors next Tuesday, I'm gonna set aside a day for myself of fasting and prayer. I'm gonna come down here at six o'clock and we will have a prayer meeting that will start at six and end at 10. You can leave when you want, we'll have a regular beginning at seven, but we will pray for you individually, I will be here with others, six o'clock, bring your neighbor, bring your friend, bring your whatever problem you have. But from six to 10, we're gonna be in the presence of God. I know that goes a little late, but for those who can't stay, they can't stay. Those who can stay, we're gonna wait before the Lord because in his presence, there is fullness of joy. Can we say amen to that? Lord, let us fulfill your commandment by this shall all men know that we belong to you because we love one another. Get us home safely, but help us to hug each other and encourage each other first in Christ's name, amen. Come on, ladies, hug a bunch of ladies. Brothers, come on, don't handshake, hug somebody.