John 8:31
Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on Him, ”If ye continue in My word, then are ye my disciples indeed.”
The term disciple is a very familiar term to all who have read the Bible, to all who have grown up in church. Just about everyone is understands the general meaning of the word. When used in the Bible, the term applies to one who is a follower of Jesus. The actual Greek word translated disciple means a learner. Therefore, we can understand that the word means one who learns of and follows Jesus and His teachings. That would explain why Jesus said that we would be His disciples if we obeyed what He said.
There are lots of people who would consider themselves to be disciples of Jesus who really are not. Do you know why they are not? The reason is simple, they do not do what He said to do. You cannot be a disciple by just learning what someone teaches, that would merely be educating yourself to what one teaches or curiosity. An example of this would be the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked Him what he had to do to get eternal life. When Jesus told him, the ruler went away and did not do what Jesus said. He was curious, not be committed and not a disciple.
We are all called to be disciples of Jesus. As you can see, there is so much more to being a disciple than just giving agreement to a person’s teachings or giving mental assent to the the validity of those teachings. To truly be a disciple, one must actually follow those teachings and be obedient to the teacher.
Now with this in mind, Would you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus? If you do, then you should be spending time in prayer. You should be making other disciples, praying for the sick, being obedient and in general, doing the works that Jesus did. Would Jesus consider you to be one of His disciples?