People say they want to know the truth, but once they hear it, they don’t always want to abide by it.  When Christ Jesus was being questioned by Pilate in court prior to being crucified, it is written,
Joh 18:36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
Joh 18:37  Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Joh 18:38  Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

Jesus said He came to bear witness unto the truth, and Pilate questioned “What IS truth?”  and I think everyone has their own version of what they believe is “truth”.  But does OUR version of truth take precedence over what GOD said is truth?  Jesus said, every one that is of the truth heareth MY voice.  Are YOU hearing His voice, and if so, what are you doing about it?

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Joh 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Joh 16:15  All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

At that particular time, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit periodically came upon certain people like Kings and Priests and Prophets, but the Holy Spirit was not available to all believers yet. And we read where Jesus told the people that His Father had sent prophets to bring truth to the people, and they killed and persecuted them because they hated the truth.  And so it is today as well.

Fast forward to the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were gathered in the upper room seeking God, the Holy Spirit literally turned each of their worlds upside down and changed each of them forever, as they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Their lives from that point forward were no longer about doing their own thing, but they became “fishers of men”, who told others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and thus believers were multiplied, and people were being saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, like a domino effect, with thousands being added to the body of Christ daily.  But it appears that has fizzled out, because we are not seeing that happening today.
Just being a church member does not mean you automatically have the Holy Spirit.  If that were so, we would all be in perfect unity, but it’s easy to see we are not, in fact, if anything, different denominations are in opposition to one another, each thinking only THEY have the truth, and everyone else is wrong.

Jesus said ALL things the Father has are His, and He would show it unto us, but do we really want to know and have that truth?  It’s a wonderful thing to have God’s truth available to us, but, if we have it we are obligated to live by it.  If we have the Holy Spirit, we must allow Him to change us into the image of Christ, to make us “fishers of men”.  But by and large, we are mostly “fishers of money”, or “fishers of our own will”, or building our own Kingdom, not God’s.

We are freely offered the Holy Spirit to help us, and guide us into truth, and as we allow Him to do so, we will find OUR version of truth is wrong, and we are faced then with a choice: to either abandon OUR version of truth so we may be filled with God’s truth, or else, to reject God’s truth to retain our own version of truth.  It is there we find whether we are really disciples of Christ Jesus or not.  If we are  not willing to abandon everything we hold dear, in order to lay hold upon God, then we are not truly His at all, but are only disciples in “appearance only”.

When you wake up in the morning, what are your first thoughts?  Are you asking God what He wants you to do today, or are you making your own plans?  Are you about making disciples for Christ Jesus, holding the lost soul as so precious, that you can’t wait to tell them about Jesus, that they may believe upon Him and become His disciple?  These are burning questions that determine if you are or are not truly a disciple of Christ Jesus.  If you find you’re not really that concerned about winning the lost, then chances are, you are also lost, even if you go to church each week.  You can go into a barn each day, but it does not make you a mule, any more that going to church makes you a disciple of Christ Jesus.  In fact, most of the work of a true disciple is done OUTSIDE the church walls, out in the world where the lost are.

Now, if you want to catch fish, you don’t sit at home in your recliner saying “Here, fishy, fishy!”. No, you get up and take your fishing equipment and you go where the fish are. You bait your hook and cast the line into the water and hope a fish bites, and you reel them in.  A fisher of men must use bait as well, and that bait is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus didn’t go around telling people how lost and rotten they were, rather, He gave them hope, and that’s why multitudes followed Him and wanted to be around Him.  Do YOU have followers?  If not, you’re not catching any future disciples.  And if you aren’t catching any, then they are missing out on following Jesus.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Rom 12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

You may be thinking, what does that verse 3 have to do with ME, not to think of myself more highly than I ought to think?  That, my friend, is a VERY important thing!  YOU, if you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, have been adopted into the very family of God!  YOU have the truth that this lost and dying world so desperately need, in order that they may be saved.  And there are people out there who will never hear that truth unless YOU tell them, because they won’t listen to anyone but YOU, for that is why God put them in your path.

You’re not to think of yourself more HIGHLY than you should, but you’re not to think of yourself UNWORTHY to tell others, either.  YOU have been given the measure of faith that can move mountains, you can heal the sick, even raise the dead, for you have been given the very faith that God himself uses.  After all, you cannot be “given” anything unless there is a “giver”, and that Giver is God.  Yes, you have been given His own faith, and it WORKS!    What good is dead faith?  It isn’t.  God is offering you the Holy Spirit to equip you to be able to do all the same works Christ Jesus did, and Jesus said in John 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Wow!  What a promise, that we have the opportunity to do not only what Jesus did, but GREATER than He did, because He went unto His Father.  He sent the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to fill US, so we may be fully equipped to build the Kingdom of God on this earth.  Once you know the REAL truth why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, your life will be forever changed, and nothing will be able to hold you back anymore!