The gift or principle of faith is to be used to accomplish the impossible. The things that are humanly possible do not require the dynamic "exercising of great and mighty faith."
Great and mighty faith demands a great and mighty project or goal or undertaking. It demands what orthodoxed, mortal minds consider to be impossible.
As one lifts his vision to the glory of God his vision expands to comprehend the greater goals. As his understanding is exalted his desires become purified and spiritualized until nothing appears to be impossible.
So it is, that when one fully comprehends the purpose and the power of faith all things become possible. Faith is truly the substance out of which things "hoped for" are formed or created. Faith is more. It is the principle of creation in action. "Faith promises all things for it is allied with the Holy Spirit of Promise. And it fulfills all things," as one learns to exercise it.
Faith, like love, never fails. It is man who fails to use a privilege and a power so great. It is easier to drift along in the deep maze of human taboos and creeds, than to rise up above one's doubts and fears and mediocre existence, to exert the divine powers of creation and fulfilment. This is simply because man has never truly believed the unspeakable, stupendous promises of Almighty God.
Man adheres to some creed or doctrine or church and misthinks he is exercising faith. All he is really doing is weakly shifting the responsibility of his eternal welfare, as well as his moral obligations, onto the shoulders of the orthodoxed leaders of his choice. This adherence to "the arm of flesh" is not faith. It is slothfulness. It could even be called stupidity. At best, one is cheating his soul, as he remains "a blind follower of the blind" in his physical distressed, human miseries and powerless beliefs.
As one holds his desire or hope, without wavering or changing or doubting, in a diligent effort to maintain a conscious awareness of the desire at all times, he is exercising faith. The more intense the desire, the more intense will become the effort, until one is automatically exercising great and mighty faith. Faith is a stupendous, active power of creative force that must fulfill the hope or ideal or desire, which is held forth for its fulfilling. Faith has no other course than to fulfill itself, as it draws into the container, or pattern, of the desire, the substance of creation to bring forth in tangible form, the hope held out.
For Columbus it took eighteen years. The ignorance and fears of centuries had to be overcome. Yet the dream of the youth became the establish facts of a world.
Faith is the foundation or law of fulfilment. It is the principle of achievement. It is the power of complete accomplishment. It is the gift of creation, of restoration, of renewal and of perfection as well as exaltation. To faith "nothing is impossible." It can fulfill the seemingly impossible as readily as a man's slightest wish. Only faith can reach out to take hold of all the powers of the universe and deliver them fulfilled into man's hands -- or into his life.
Faith is every man's to use. None have a monopoly upon it. It is a principle or law of such dynamic, stupendous creative power, all things are possible and of easy accomplishment, as one opens his mind to comprehend and to exercise the precious gift of creation. And none can exercise it without benefiting a world.
A dull, stupid, inactive belief is not faith. Faith is power in ACTION! It is the principle of creation as it is put into use.
It will take patience, at first, to fulfill the deepest desires of one's soul, because the exercising of great and mighty faith may demand that one perfect himself, as well as the container or idea or ideal he holds out to be fulfilled -- or filled full of the creative substance of God. Or as James so aptly stated: "Let patience have her perfect work that ye might be perfect and entire, wanting nothing!" The idea, or desire, or goal, must be held forth in perfect, unwavering clarity until the very mold takes on the faultless perfection that admits no doubts or fears or inherent human ideas to mar it.
This is how faith works, as its impossible achievements are consummated in purest perfection. This is how every hope can be fulfilled and every desire be accomplished.
To use faith in this manner, one must be sure he is not working selfishly, in contrary willfulness to the divine Will of God. In God's Will, all perfection, all beauty, all loveliness, exists for the present and for the future. Any evil, selfish desire can bring no glory with it. And to use the gift of faith to interfere with another's free-agency is disastrous.
As one purifies his hopes and desires to reach into the higher realms, they become as perfect as the principle of fulfilment.
Reach beyond all possible things into the dynamic achievements of unutterable power and glory as you use the divine gift of faith to bring forth your heaven on earth, to glorify God and to fulfill the promises of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
Hold forth the withered arm, the crippled limbs or the unseeing eyes and let patience and faith have their perfect work.
When you have perfected yourself in the use of faith, time is no longer required in the fulfilling process. Hold forth the five loaves and the three small fishes and have them instantly multiplied into an over-abundance. In the power of faith, is contained the supply for all your needs and for all the necessities of your life, for these things will all be added unto you as you "seek for the Kingdom of God to fulfill its righteousness," or to use its principles rightly. When you perfect the use of the law its action becomes instantaneous.
Go beyond human thought or belief or orthodoxed, conformed ideas of dead, dogmatic acceptance. "Doubt not! Fear not!" The principle and the power of faith is yours to use at all times. Exercise it! Use it! Perfect it! And you yourself will grow perfect in its use for nothing will remain impossible to you.
Look not at the distresses and the lacks. Concentrate on what you do possess and bless and give thanks. If you, or mayhap your loved one, has only a broken, marred body in which the feeble pulse of life throbs weakly, hold out that gift of life within the perfect mold of your conscious, loving heart and bless and give thanks as you praise and rejoice and that feeble flicker of life will be increased to its fullest measure, according to the perfection of your own idea. Remember your idea or hope-filled awareness is the container or mold which gathers into itself the substance of creation and of fulfilment.
With the correct use of this creative principle, your lacks can and will be supplied, as your life is made perfect and powerful with the impelling principle of faith exercised to fulfill the "impossible!" "Yea, all that the Father has is yours." Use it!
Nothing is too great to desire -- that is righteous. Nothing is too prodigious to accomplish and nothing is impossible when the marvelous, creative power of faith is brought into action by your own correct thinking processes as you hold your idea or ideal or request forth to Its limitless, fulfilling measure of creation. Let your minds reach out to encompass and contemplate the promises that have been given-- promises to fulfill all that Christ fulfilled -- and more! Hold to those promises, in faith, that they might be fulfilled for the eternal glory of God -- and your own also.
Truly, "Nothing is impossible to him who believes!"
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not seen." Things that are seen do not require faith. Faith is the "evidence" or the indicator of facts that are not visible. It is the dynamic road along which proof is uncovered and established.
The first shred of evidence in any investigation may be only a thread, a hair, a grain of sand misplaced. It may seem to be too insignificant and infinitesimal to demand that a search be made along its suggested indications. It may take imaginative fortitude and slowly accumulating confidence, to follow that trail through to its surprising end, as it reveals the unseen facts with indisputable certainty.
Faith truly contains the power to "PROVE ALL THINGS!"
Every man is a living record of unquestionable evidence, which, if explored, will unveil the stupendous realities of that which, at first, was unapparent and unseen.
Man carries within himself the evidence that he is much more than a mere physical being of flesh and blood and bones, Man has a mind with which to think and reason and investigate -- and choose. He has a heart with which to love in self-sacrificing tenderness and with which to adore in sublime devotion as he kneels at the very throne of God in worshipping homage of singing glory. He has a soul that can reach and yearn and aspire and KNOW -- and fulfill. Yet none of these facts can be seen with human eyes. This very unseen evidence is enough to set a man upon a search of eternal truth and power if he will only open up the inner realm of this thinking capacity to contemplate and weigh the evidence his physical eyes has never looked upon. To accomplish this it may be necessary to open up the mind and remove the seals of blindness that have been established by a life-time of thinking or even generations of dogmatic errors.
"Faith is truly the evidence of things unseen." Evidence is the indicators, or guide-posts or way-marks along the upward path into the higher realms. This evidence, which is faith, contains the proof which can reveal the definite reality behind the promises of God -- and to fulfill them.
Faith has been called "blind" by the mocking, unbelievers in belittling contempt. No statement could be more false. Faith is never blind. Faith is endowed with a deeper, truer, knowing vision. What is called "blind faith" is only some unprogressive, mortal concept or acceptance of a dead creed or belief. This is not faith! Faith is always active and alive. It is continually revealing and fulfilling the greater possibilities a searching mind holds out in earnest contemplation in its quest of knowing. Faith cannot possibly be blind. Neither can it be inactive. Only dull indifference or stupid unbelief are blind. And only sealed, orthodoxed minds remain inactive in a smug, unholy, complacent contentment that leads to death.
Faith contains the evidence that will prove and fulfill every promise, every hope and every worthy desire as one seeks to follow that evidence through to its source.
There is much, much more that could be said upon faith as an evidence of things which are not seen but I am restrained from revealing the entire pattern of its wonders.
Let me suggest only that evidence must be checked and proved else it is of no value. There is no limit to faith's supply of continually increasing evidence as one follows its leading. And that evidence will grow into definite, eternal knowledge as one puts it to use. As faith is exercised the unseen becomes visible and will be established in tangible, indisputable reality. So is the law of creation fulfilled. And so does "Faith promise all things -- and fulfills all things!" To faith nothing is impossible!
Faith reveals the evidence of "the substance of those things hoped for." And as one uses that substance of creation new evidence is continually produced to substantiate every claim and to fulfill every promise as the gates of glory finally open wide to welcome the searching traveler home in honor.
"Ask, seek and knock, for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened," even the doors to all truth and to all power.
This work has been given that man might rend the veil of darkness that enshrouds the earth and the powers of God in the unholy condition of the great wickedness of unbelief.
This work contains the keys by which one might "PROVE ALL THINGS as he learns to hold fast to that which is good!"
The promises Christ left with the world have become buried in fear and superstition and doubting as the dark mist of the ages has accumulated to enfold His miraculous powers in awesome whispers of fearsome mystery. By the slothful ones and the cowards, who are afraid to face truth and take hold of Its Light, the seals of ignorance and darkness have been perpetuated and increased upon the earth. And by these sealed and unenlightened ones who have only professed to believe, but who have never lived the laws, faith has been denied, truth has been silenced and light has been banished. Sealed hearts and closed, blinded minds are the encompassing, containing walls of hell as a man permits himself to be locked in by his own accepted unprogressiveness and encouraged unbelief. And by such, doubts and fears have been engendered and fostered upon the whole human race.
"And Christ truly said unto our fathers, if ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me." To do "the things that are expedient" means to be able to use the power of God to glorify every condition as it arises, to heal those one meets along his way and to bless each happening by enfolding it in the power and love of the Lord as faith is permitted to do her perfect work. The dismal, mortal happenings one faces in life, the distresses of the world, the sorrows and afflictions of one's fellowmen, these are the "expedient" needs Christ is speaking of. And these expedient circumstances will be yours to meet and to overcome by the power and Light of Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God as you begin to use the divine principle of faith.
Now, to continue with the quotation: "And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth -- that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief.
"And woe be unto the children of men if this be the case, for there shall be none that doeth good among you, NO NOT ONE!" For if there be ONE among you that doeth good, he shall work by the power and gifts of God.
"And woe unto them who shall do these things away and die, for they shall die in their sins, and they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God; and I speak it according to the words of Christ; and I lie not!"
In our day and age mankind has almost succeeded in "doing away with the powers and gifts of God" by mocking derision and unbelieving skepticism. Many have designated God's divine gifts as "evil" and those who believe in them are regarded as deceivers and heretics to be shunned and avoided. Or else they are branded as fanatics, devoid of intelligence. Those who have denied these powers to others have lost them completely themselves -- and realize it not.
While those who may still have hunches that defy explanation and reach beyond the realm of doubt, have only courage enough to mention them in timid whispers to some sympathetic friend they trust will not betray them and their sacred confidence.
Who is there in this day and age with the courage to stand up and declare with Paul in the powerful assertion of confident assurance: "I believe all things! I hope all things!" and understand that faith IS the substance of those things hoped for as it is gathered into form to fulfill the unwavering, undoubting hope or idea?
For such this work has come forth by the power and grace of God that all who will might become purified by living the higher laws and by casting aside the veil of unbelief in the exercising of a great and mighty faith that will fulfill all things. "For the veil will soon be rent and he who is not purified shall not abide the day!"
So has God spoken! And so have I been commanded to write by the power of the Almighty God, Creator of heaven and of earth!
And in the Name of Jesus Christ this record is sealed up unto the righteous forever for the wicked will never be able to lay hold of it nor fulfill its promises.
And who are the righteous?
The righteous are those who are not so lost in sin or so secured by pride and wickedness and self-righteousness and orthodoxed opinions they cannot humble themselves in prayer to ask God, in the Name of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, whether these things are true or not.
The righteous are the ones who love the truth and continue to search for it along that divine highway of increasing evidence which faith unfolds. They are the ones with the spiritual courage to live by the truth when they find it. These are God's noble ones who are not burdened with the ponderous weights of self-righteousness, self-pity or who are blinded by willfully sealed minds. To those who are sealed in unprogressive darkness the container or mold, in which the sublime substance of creation is gathered, is inverted and holds no promise or power of fulfillment.
Every living soul who will ask sincerely to know the truth of these things will have the truth of them revealed by the power of the Holy Ghost. "And by the power of the Holy Ghost they may know the truth of all things!"
So is the law of the Lord. And so is His power of fulfilment. And so have I been ordained to testify and commanded to write that these truths might be sealed up unto the righteous forever.
And so have I written according to the command given unto me -- In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost -- Amen!