Youtube: Effective Prayer, Part 2: Faith
Faith is a word often used to describe a system of belief. We usually use it in a generalized manner, assuming we know something of a person’s faith if we know what religious denomination they subscribe to. This may tell us something of the religious tenets they subscribe to, but it tells us nothing about how they actually engage their faculty of faith.
Belief and faith are not synonymous. We can say we believe a certain way, but on closer examination we discover that we really don’t have faith in what we profess to believe. Belief is an intellectual construct. Faith is expectation at the gut level.
Depending on how we are using it, faith can manifest as peace of mind or as stress. We experience peace when our expectation is focused on greater good unfolding. Stress is the effect of expecting the worst. We do ourselves a favor when we get in touch with our expectation at the gut level. Then we can redirect our faith in a way that is conducive to the peace we desire.
The faculties of faith and imagination work closely together. Jesus advised that we lift our eyes and see the field ready for harvest. He is referring to the mind’s eye, the imagination. Faith is the expectation of reaping this imagined harvest.
Whatever challenge you may have in your life, get the feeling that it has already reached a successful conclusion. On one level it may appear that there are “four months to harvest” but turn your faculty of faith on the harvest you desire, as if it is already complete.
Jesus also advised that when we pray, we should go into our room and shut the door, to pray in secret. It is best to keep your prayer work to yourself. Hold the highest vision concerning your situation and then expect that vision to come forth either in the way you see it or in some better way. If we focus only on the opening of a specific door, we may not notice the other door that now stands open.