Faith is a concept that has been with mankind for millennia. In order for something to survive that long in the consciousness of the species, there must be some benefit or truth to it.
Let's look at faith in relation to the vibrational model of life.
Faith could be defined as holding to what is desired purely, with no counter-thought or intention. Faith does not allow observation of the current reality to vibrationally influence intent. In that sense, it is completely a priori.
Faith gets a bad name because it is theoretical, not based on experience or experiment. Some people say that having faith is delusional.
Faith is sometimes pejoratively associated with fundamentalism or fanaticism, because, it is said, those who practice it refuse to acknowledge reality, but hold to their intent nonetheless.
But faith can also be meliorative (to make better). No matter what your intent, faith establishes a vibration that the Law of Attraction responds to.
If you want to improve you can’t operate on the same frequencies or nothing will change. Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem with the same consciousness that created the problem.” New thoughts are required to change an unwanted situation. That’s where faith comes in.
Faith isn’t delusional. Delusion is looking at black and calling it white. Faith is simply holding to your dream despite the current reality.
Here’s an example. Last winter I was writing full time and not working at all. Although my books were selling at this point, it wasnt enough to pay the bills each month. So I dreamed up a job that would pay well and last a minimum of 6 months, enough time to finish my book. For the next couple of days I continued to create this idea and then let it go. I even had a dream about it, so it was pretty well established in my consciousness. Two weeks later I received a phone call from a contractor who wanted me to work with him on an exciting project which would pay well and last between 6 months and two years! This co-incidence was remarkable because I performed no action cycles whatsoever. I made no phone calls, did no promotion; nothing except send out a vibrational signal to the universe and maintain it.
This is the opposite of what I learned in religion classes. I learned that faith is very difficult, achieved only through great diligence. And it IS difficult, if what you are attempting to achieve doesn’t line up with what you want. If you’re trying to achieve the goals others have set for you, instead of the ones you have set for yourself, faith can indeed be arduous. And impossible.
I finally learned that it is much better to have faith in yourself than to have faith in another. Having faith is pretty simple: it means holding your vibration in the place you want it while working toward the goal. There’s nothing delusional about that.
Having faith allows the law of like attracts like to work in your favor, but I don’t advise quitting your job and trying to think your way to success. That’s like Sheldon Cooper trying to destroy Raj’s asteroid with his mind. The Law of Attraction is a powerful weapon, but it should be used synergistically within the spirit-mind-body framework.
Many people associate faith with hope. Hope is an entirely different thing from faith. If you have gotten to the stage where you are hoping, you have almost lost the game!
Hope could be defined as trying to get what you want from a place where you are pretty sure you aren’t going to get it.
Hope usually comes after you’re already discouraged: “Oh, I so much want to buy a house, but the mortgage is too expensive. I hope that one day I can.” When you are hoping, you are hanging on to just a thread of desire. If you think over times in your life when you were hoping for something, you will probably find that almost always you weren’t very confident of a positive outcome.
However, I'm not trying to bad-mouth hope. Hope is a lot better than being completely discouraged. When you are hoping, there is still some focus upon what is wanted. It is a good place to start the creative process.
But faith is a much stronger feeling. Faith will never fail to get you where you want to go, because having faith creates a vibration unsullied and unhindered by contradictory thoughts and feelings.
I have learned that I am not a failure because my desires have not yet manifested. I am simply involved in an ongoing creative process of lining myself up with what I want.
I learned something profound from this: that engaging in my creative process every day is more important than the goal itself.
This may seem odd, but let me explain. I am a writer. It takes me a year at least to write a book. But every day I find time to write, and I never write unless I am inspired. So I am sitting at my desk for hours every day after work in a state of inspiration. When the book is complete I self-publish it, but by that time I am done with it. I don’t care if it sells or not! Does that seem strange? It did to me until I realized that I just spent the last year feeling pretty inspired, even if work sucked that day.
I think the phrase is, “It’s about the journey, not the manifestation.” For me that is literally true. I highly recommend finding something that inspires you, even if you only have a few minutes every day to do it while you are working two jobs, or dealing with the kids, or putting up with your demanding boss.