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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.

Now we come to the question of how the Holy Spirit guides the Church. This past Sunday was Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles. Here the Holy Spirit does not come to the Church by way of individual and private revelation by through the ministry of the divinely appointed Apostles.

But Peter standing up with the eleven [notice again how Peter is named separate from the rest of the Apostles], lifted up his voice, and spoke to them ...
(Acts 2:14)
Now when they had heard these things, they had compunction in their heart, and said to Peter, and the rest of the apostles [Peter again listed first and separately!]: What shall we do, men and brethren?
(Acts 2:37)

Nor do we have an option of ignoring their authority for our Lord said:

He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.
(Luke 10:16)

Now if we were to reject this understanding of how the Holy Spirit operates and insist that he comes to each believer privately and individually we have a problem. I too, like you, claim to be a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ yet we do not share the same faith. Does the Holy Spirit teach you a truth that is different than he teaches me or is he failing to come to one of us. If it is the later, how are we to test the spirit and know the truth. Do not reply that we need to study the Bible. I too study the Bible and have found that agrees with the teaching of the Catholic Church.

This past Sunday was Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles.

I could have sworn it was almost 2000 years ago. My, how time flies when you're having fun...

Perhaps God knows you need someone else (Pope) to tell you how to talk to him. I don't really know what your relationship is to him. I only know my own....he'll sort out the rest of you guys. ,-)

You have taken Matt. 16:18 as your proof text for the existance of the Catholic Church...You then try to interpret the Bible to line up with that perceived truth...

Sure Peter was a significant apostle...But at the same time, he was the biggest screw-up of the bunch, aside from Judas...

His ministry was to the Jews...When Peter started preaching to Gentiles, he skipped water baptism until 'after' salvation was established-Acts. 10:47...

And then Peter remember in Acts. 11: that it's not water that saves you, water will only get you wet...It was a 'type' of salvation, vs. 16...

Now if we were to reject this understanding of how the Holy Spirit operates and insist that he comes to each believer privately and individually we have a problem.

That's exactly how the Holy Spirit works and if you don't believe that, we're not the ones with the problem...Look at Acts 11:17 again...This is just one of hundreds of places where this is confirmed in the Bible...

We are all filled with, and guided by the Holy Spirit 'when' we asked Jesus to save us from our sins...Nothing more, nothing less...And as such, we are members of His church...The Bride of Christ...