The goal of this chapter is to begin to unfold the great principle of "FAITH" as it was revealed to the scribe of this book. This is not your run-of-the-mill rationalization of faith - so pay attention when you are reading. After all, Annalee did tell us in the previous chapter that she was given the system for developing faith within the human heart. Not the kind of faith we all ready think we have. She is talking about the kind of faith that heals the sick, repositions mountains and protects the believer from lethal things, etc. This is a very enlightening chapter. It is very specific. Even a child could understand this. Who will practice it?
Now I shall try to unfold the great principle of "FAITH" as it was revealed to me after two full years of constant prayer and seeking. It came in such dynamic power, when I was least expecting it, and the very light of it lifted me from the floor, and my feet seemed not to touch the earth for many days. I was reading a book when my eyes fell upon these words: "There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundation of the world, upon which all blessings are predicated:
"And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."1
That sentence was like a key in my hand that opened the door to the great storehouse of eternal knowledge, and the power of creation and the law of fulfillment. I had read it many times before in my life and was already quite familiar with it, but it had never, upon previous readings, filled my soul with a living fire of divine light and knowledge.
I had always thought there were many laws; one for health, another for wealth, another for happiness, etc.
It was when the principle of faith began to unfold and the way to use it that I was shown that there is "A" law, just ONE law upon which all blessings are predicated. So in order to give a complete view of the law it will be necessary to start at the very foundation, in fact, where the building digs into the soil. Any building has to connect with the earth in order to have towers reaching into the sky.
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, the fruit trees yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth. And it was so.
"And the earth brought forth grass, the herb yielding seed after his kind, and the trees yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12).
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.
"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, BE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
The law of production is the seed planting, the waiting for the growth and development, and the mature and ripened harvest. This is true of the production of plants, animals or mankind.
After planting a field with grain, if the sower decides to raise something else, and plants it; then again changes his mind and plants still another crop, being unable to hold to one desire, his crop will be a hopeless jumble of nothing. "He is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord."2 Or if he plants his crop without cultivating it, weeding it, watering it, caring for it continually, there will be only a dwarfed, meager production.
"There is "A" law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundation of the world, upon which all blessings are predicated." The law is: That all things must produce after their own kind -- that this production follows the planting; the growth and harvest is also part of the law. This principle of production is the law of nature. More! It is the eternal law of God, irrevocable, unchangeable.
So much for the earthly foundation. Now we shall climb to greater heights and view the higher meaning of the law.
The most subtle garden is the one within each man's soul. There is fertile soil capable of producing anything, any power, any accomplishment. Man has but to desire to prepare the soil. THOUGHTS ARE SEEDS. They are living, vital things that will bring forth each after its kind -- yea, many fold more than the tiny seed planted, or the thought released. Desire is the heat that generates the seed and gives it power to reach up.
"I hold it true that thoughts are things,
They're endowed with bodies and breath and wings,
And that we send them forth to fill
The world with good results or ill.
That which we call our secret thought
Speeds forth to earth's remotest spot,
Leaving its blessings or its woes
Like tracks behind it as it goes.
We build our future thought by thought,
For good or ill, yet know it not.
Yet, so the universe was wrought.
Thought is another name for fate;
Choose then thy destiny and wait,
For love brings love and hate brings hate."
--Ella Wheeler Wilcox
And again:
"You never can tell what a thought will do
In bringing you hate or love;
For thoughts ARE things, and their airy wings
Are swifter than carrier dove.
They follow the law of the universe,
Each thing creates its kind,
And they speed o'er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind."
Man's great dominion, his superiority over the animals is his "imagination," his power to visualize. Man visualized a home, then set to work to build it, consequently men have homes.
Again, man saw in his mind a 'horseless carriage" -- he planted in his mind the seed (or thought), and after a time a harvest of reality was produced. To us now, it would be a pitifully crude thing, that first car -- but then, it was a marvel and a wonder, completely fulfilling the man's expectations. Could that man, in planting that first seed possibly have foreseen how it would produce, yea, a millionfold? Other men experimented and planted more seeds, and more and finer cars have come.
And then a man sat on a green hillside and watched the birds soaring in the air; and to his mind came the promise of the scriptures: "And ye shall have dominion over the fowl of heaven."3 He realized that man could not fly. Surely to have true dominion it would be necessary to fly above the birds. He planted the seed, and cultivated it, worked upon it; and man is able to outstrip the birds in the sky.
Man is continually visualizing greater things, and greater things are being produced. The radio, television, atomic energy -- anything that man can possibly conceive will eventually come forth. Greater mechanical things. Greater conveniences. Greater luxuries. Yes, and greater wars if he plants them.
But the greatest seed of all has not yet been planted in man's mind, or if it has, it is promptly choked out by doubts and fears (weeds). And the greatest seed is the thought that man himself can reach any height.
No man or woman has ever lived who has not dreamed. Some have held to their dreams, and those who have held to them are the successes of this world. Many more have grown despondent or discouraged and have permitted a crop of vile, rank weeds to destroy the glory of their dreams.
"As a man thinketh, so he is." Or to be more exact: "As a man thinketh, so he will become."
When a pebble is dropped into a pond, it sends out ripples that continue in ever-widening circles until they reach the extreme edge. As far as the eye can see they end there. However, this is not so. After these ripples of vibrations have reached the edge, they rebound and, settling along the bottom, return to the starting place. In other words, they come sweeping in from every side to the little stone that started them. The same idea is true regarding the thoughts of an individual.
"He who sows the wind will reap the whirlwind;" "As ye sow so shall ye reap;"4 "As ye judge ye shall be judged"5 is a law -- THE LAW -- the law of production. As we plant the seeds they produce after their own kind and return unto us. It is the law given before the foundation of the world. The law is the only one given that will produce anything, whether it be grain, inventions, plenty, or perfection in an individual, it is the same. First is the planting of the seeds. Then man's part is to keep out the weeds of fears and doubts, knowing that the law cannot fail. He must cultivate it. But otherwise he must keep his human hands out, knowing that only God can make that seed grow. He must also remember that the law is irrevocable. It cannot err. And if the seed is planted it will produce.
Mind is the greatest power in the world -- greater than any locomotive in existence -- "For can the thing say of him that framed it, he hath not understanding, or the thing say of him that made it, he made me not?"6 A locomotive turned loosed without being controlled will run forth to its own destruction and perhaps to the destruction of many things. The same is true of a car, or of any powerful thing left to chance after its power is released. It is especially true of the human mind, for of all earthly things, mind is the most powerful.
We are to be judged by our idle thoughts. How else could we be judged? A powerful, runaway machine going to its own destruction -- a field being sowed with weeds that will grow and produce a crop that will destroy the planter.
"Dream, dream nobly, dream manfully and your dreams will be your prophets (profits)."7 "Prophets" because they will foretell your future; also "profits" because by them you will receive the benefits.
Christ went to the depth of all things endeavoring to teach that the mind was the power which governed man. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment; but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment."8 Anger -- a thought or seed sown in the mind, if permitted to grow, will ripen into discord, hate, violence.
And again: "Ye have heard it said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."9 He has planted the seed of transgression in his heart or mind, and the law is, that everything will produce after its kind, and after the planting comes the harvest.
"And the Lord said, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you."10 Why the reference to the mustard seed? The mustard seed represents "The least among all seeds. But when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."11 And again the planting, cultivating and growth is given.
"For verily I say unto you. That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
"Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, Believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."12
The law is true and eternal. No matter what one desires, if he plants the seeds, keeps out doubts and fears (weeds), it will come forth.
If the seeds are evil they will produce nevertheless -- but like the fields of poppies planted for greed, they will eventually destroy the planter.
In the early history of India the people would meet at dawn and reaching up their arms plead:
"Let no one, not even those who worship thee, delay thee far from us! Even from afar come to our feast! Or if thou art here, listen to us!
"For those who are here make prayers to thee, sit together near thy libation, like flies round the honey. The worshippers anxious for wealth, have placed their desires upon Indra, as we put our foot upon a chariot.
"Desirous of riches, I call him who holds the thunderbolt with his arm, and who is a good giver, like as a son calls on his father."13
This is only part of the prayer, but it is entirely for wealth -- wealth to exceed the wealth of all other nations. And the seeds sowed, grew and have been harvested. India is the wealthiest nation on the earth. Fabulous jewels are stowed there; there are caves full of them; gold and treasures hoarded in cold, underground vaults; jewels glittering in every temple and on every image. Jewels, spices, silks -- riches for which Columbus was searching when he found America. With India's seeds of wealth she sowed also seeds of greed and selfishness which grew and flourished -- and India with all her wealth has been one of the poorest nations on the earth, for only the few had claim to the abundance while the millions are without. There is greater poverty, more hunger, famine, destitution and want stalking through that paradise of wealth than in any other land -- the crop of greed.
Columbus in planting the desire to sail around the world to reach India was not so much concerned about the wealth of the Hindoo nation as he was with the scientific belief that the world was round and it could be navigated in a circle. Columbus had that belief so strongly planted in his heart that it became a burning obsession in his soul and had to be fulfilled. It took eighteen years of cultivating through heartbreak and at times his crop must have been watered with tears, but the harvest he reaped was far greater than he ever knew -- greater than India and all the wealth she possessed. Columbus discovered new worlds where freedom was to be born for all the down-trodden of every land. His burning desire constructed a highway across the sea on which the courageous of every nation might cross and learn to think new thoughts, and find new life.
"Man becomes like the thing he gazes upon." This is true even of the animals. Animals, however, have to see with their physical eyes, but man has the power to see with his mental or spiritual eyes. Jacob fulfilled this scientific law among the cattle of Laban, his father-in-law, who again and again had tried to cheat him out of his just wages. Jacob fixed spotted sticks by the water troughs and when the cattle brought forth, their offspring were ringstreaked, speckled and spotted. If Laban changed Jacob's wages, which he so often did, Jacob took the sticks away and the brown cattle which seemed to be dying out, began to multiply again.
Job, highly recommended for his patience, has been set as an example to the world to teach endurance and meekness, but let us face the truth. Job admits the planting of the seeds of his calamities in these words: "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." (Job 3:25).
When we can prepare our minds, without fears and without worries, for greater things, greater things will be given. The power to govern our surroundings and to build perfectly is in our hands. It is the power of thought, which is the power of Godhood.
1. Joseph Smith Jr’s 2 April 1843 instruction at Ramus, Illinois, on the nature of God and other subjects, The Jospeh Smith Papers, http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1838-1856-volume-d-1-1-august-1842-1-july-1843/154 : "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection, and if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life thro’ his diligence and obedience than another; he will have so much the advantage in the world to come. There is a law irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated; and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; The Son also; but the Holy Ghost is a personage of Spirit;" return to paragraph →
2. James 1:6-7 IVB: But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. return to paragraph →
3. Genesis 1:28-30 IVB: And I, God, said, Let them have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him; male and female created I them. And I, God, blessed them and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. return to paragraph →
4. Hosea 8:7 IVB: For they have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind.
Mosiah 5:49 Book of Mormon, Restored Covenant Edition: And again, he saith, If my people shall sow filthiness, they shall reap the chaff thereof, in the whirlwind; and the effects thereof, is poison. return to paragraph →
5. Matthew 7:3 IVB: For with what judgment ye shall judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. return to paragraph →
6. Isaiah 29:28 IVB: But behold, I will show unto them, saith the Lord of hosts, that I know all their works. For, shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
2nd Nephi 11:152-153 Book of Mormon, Restored Covenant Edition: For shall the work say of him that made it, 'He made me not'? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, 'He had no understanding'? return to paragraph →
7. Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton, Birth 1803- Death 1873: "Dream manfully and nobly, and thy dreams shall be prophets" return to paragraph →
8. Matthew 5:23-24 IVB: Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time that, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment of God. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of his judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, or Rabcha, shall be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
3rd Nephi 5:69-70, Book of Mormon, Restored Covenant Edition: "Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time - and it is also written before you - that, 'Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment of God'; But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of His judgment; And whosoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council; And whosoever shall say, 'Thou fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire; return to paragraph →
9. Matthew 5:29-31 IVB: Behold, it is written by them of old time, that thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Behold, I give unto you a commandment, that ye suffer none of these things to enter into your heart, for it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell.
3rd Nephi 5:76-78, Book of Mormon, Restored Covenant Edition: "Behold, it is written by them of old time that, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery'; But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already in his heart." Behold, I give unto you a commandment that ye suffer none of these things to enter into your heart, For it is better that ye should deny yourselves of these things, wherein ye will take up your cross, than that ye should be cast into hell. return to paragraph →
10. Luke 17:5-6 IVB: And the apostles said unto him, Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. return to paragraph →
11. Matthew 13:30-31 IVB: And another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; Which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. return to paragraph →
12. Mark 11:24-26 IVB: And Jesus spake and said unto him, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith fulfilled. Therefore I say unto you, Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive, and ye shall have whatsoever ye ask. return to paragraph →
13. James Freeman Clarke, Ten Great Religions, An Essay in Comparative Theology, Brahmanism, p.93, https://books.google.com/books?id=1eFVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=near+thy+libation,+like+flies+round+the+honey&source=bl&ots=JzWK1cbNY5&sig=Kv6B9JN_enClQQ5gA8G83q5x590&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFhOT-zYjbAhUMeawKHTVKB1oQ6AEIKzAA#v=onepage&q=near%20thy%20libation%2C%20like%20flies%20round%20the%20honey&f=false return to paragraph →