Faith

What is meant when we use the word symbol, "faith"?

Faith is like an umbilical cord to the Father, to higher universe reality. Faith is also like an outstretched hand reaching upward toward security, hope, and trust. Faith is the living spiritual  connection between you, as a mortal reaching upward, and the Father's secure love reaching downward. Faith, then, is always there but it remains up to the mortal person to take hold of his faith and to use in their lives.

Faith is like a lifeline into the realms of peace. When you utilize your faith, when you exercise your faith ability, what you are doing is brining higher peace, security, and trust into the present moment. When you are faced with a disaster or seeming disaster, it requires faith to look past the present moment and to bring 
peace down from the higher realms of consciousness, the consciousness, into the present time and present consciousness.

When all things worldly crumble around you, do you despair and give up hope or do you rather exercise your faith and trust in God knowing that his love and purpose will lead you through any temporal disaster? Can you then bring this greater peace down into your being and therefore be calm and equalized in your reactions and in your thinking?

The spirit filled mortal is for the most part filled with joy and hope in all situations, whether they be seemingly good or seemingly bad. The spirit filled mortal knows that these temporal labels are only passing and are not the eternal reality of his soul which can be always peaceful, calm, and joy filled. The spirit filled 
mortal calmly watches as earthly things crumble, secure in the knowledge that the Father has something even greater in store.

To some it can seem that the spirit filled person is oddly detached and this can be interpreted as being out of touch or cold. But the spirit filled mortal, while empathizing with the suffering of others, is gradually letting go of earthly suffering and does not require it any more.

Also, the spirit filled mortal is untouched by worldly success. He knows that success and failure are both obstacles to be dealt with and surmounted. In a way, life is like an obstacle course with each circumstance, success or failure, bringing with it its own set of problems. So, how you deal with these problems is the important thing. The important thing is to always walk humbly with the Lord through every situation, every circumstance.

Remember, this is his way of teaching you, you are learning with every situation to take what lessons there are and to incorporate these into your spiritual growth. Remember, you are building your eternal soul in partnership with the Father and all this drama of life will at first seem like a hazy dream when you awaken on mansonia one.

So, you don't need to take everything so seriously and act as though you are really in charge of any thing. Let the Father teach you, learn from the people he brings into your lives, learn from the circumstances he puts you through, learn from the ups and the downs, and above all exercise your faith at every opportunity. The more you exercise your faith, the more you will grow in faith, and the more you grow in faith, the stronger your connection to the Father is, and the stronger this connection is, the more peace, happiness, and contentment you will experience during this life.

Therefore, take nothing for granted. Live in the now as much as possible and bring your higher self into the now with all its peace and tranquillity as much as you can. 

Question: That was all interesting of course, but I was especially interested in when you said you will no longer require suffering, will you enlarge on that?

Ham: Yes, as you grow in the spirit, and increasingly are able to live in the higher realms of peace and equanimity. You are no longer so tempted to suffer from the little annoyances and things of life that can cause pain depending on where your consciousness is. When your consciousness is focused overly on the material level, then all the vicissitudes of material living batter the consciousness and thus cause suffering. But as you climb up into a higher spiritual consciousness, and are sustained through faith with the Father's constant loving attention, these material vicissitudes are no longer affecting the consciousness, the consciousness stays steady, joyful, and at peace. But, I might add this is not an either or situation, but one of gradual changes from one level of living to another.

Question: I was thinking of the saying, no pain no gain, and I thought you might be referring to the fact that as we go along, our growth can be one more of perception rather than having to learn everything the hard way, that pain is not required as a learning tool as much.

Ham: Correct.

Question: Is there a difference between what you are saying and what the Buddhist philosophy is?

Ham: Yes there is a difference, the Buddhist philosophy emphasizes the turning away from the world and letting go of attachment. I am saying rather that there is a transfer of attachment from the world to God or 
spirit-faith. And this attachment, this new and greater attachment, is real and lasting. And yes, gradually, the spirit dominates the consciousness and directs the entire personality so that the person is increasingly identifying with the spirit and in effect merging with the spirit rather than trying to identify with the things of the world and mistakenly make them meaningful.

Question: If a discussion comes up of attachment to the world and desire, then the way to handle this is to talk about making a transfer of attachment from the world to God rather than emphasizing the need to let go of attachment to material things or things of this world.

Ham: Yes, one can be spirit led in any circumstance and it is not required that you should all become monks, no.

Question: A criteria is where do you turn for comfort, do you turn to God or these other nonspiritual energies. Is that valid?

Ham: Yes, certainly it is. When you turn to the comforter for help and solace in times of trouble, you will receive increased fruits of the spirit, increased peace, level of joy, and delight in righteousness. When you turn to the physical world to give you comfort or solace or happiness, you are destined to be disappointed for the material world is inert, nonliving energy. It cannot give you comfort, only a personal spiritual  presence can do that.

Question: All these other energies can only give you momentary escape?

Ham: Yes, perhaps, momentary forgetfulness but not comfort.

Question: I have a question about the difference between appreciating material things and attachment. I get an experience of appreciation of beauty from material things sometimes, and I get come comfort from that. How do you balance this, is there comfort that comes from beauty of a painting or a beautiful object?

Ham: As you grow in the spirit, you ability to appreciate and admire the beautiful is enhanced for God is inherently beautiful and harmonious so as you identify with the spirit, you then are drawn to the harmonious and the beautiful more and more. This is not material attachment, at all, no. Material attachment is the mistake of seeking answers and solutions to spiritual problems in the material world.

Question: The point I get from your lesson tonight is that faith is something we achieve or acquire through using it, like a muscle. I was taught growing up that faith is a gift of grace, but it is more like something that we have to work at?

Ham: Certainly, yes.

Question: Use it or lose it?

Ham: Yes

The leap of faith requires free-will decision. It is not to be undertaken lightly. Your love helps, but it cannot take the leap of faith for another. Humans want easy answers because they function on a plane where the easy answer is readily rewarded, the simple solution is often times the most feasible. The one way is what is chosen. And yet the universe is not a one-answer situation. The creations of the Thought Adjusters and the Life Carriers – the life carriers and the Physical Controllers design living beings such that there is no one way. There are fail-safes upon fail-safes. Not even a single celled organism could live if its organization were all single step. There are many many layers of complexities in the functioning of life. Passways and passways - this passway and that - they go around and under and through and over so that life can be, so that if the sun does not shine for a night or a week or a month, life can go on because there are other ways. There are other ways of getting energy and using energy.

This is not to say that you could have life in a vacuum. This was not the intent. The intent was to design life so that it could continue with what is at hand. To make it more understandable, you can live without water for a certain period - not an indefinite period, but a certain period - because you have other ways of conserving your bodily fluids: reduce your excretion, reduce your sweating, and cause your bodv to save the water that it has. Well, the same thing applies to health and disease. Health is maintained not by one-at-a-time pass of doing right things as opposed to wrong things. Its a complex, complex organization, and when the health fails, there are many fail-safes, many alternate paths, fallbacks to sustain the life of the organism, albeit at a less than optional functioning strength. In order to overcome deterioration of health, since health does not decline for simple reasons, health is not restored by simple means.

But despair not. Our loving Father has not put us upon a desert island without supplying us with all that is required to solve all problems that may arise, including health problems. We are asked to provide answers and yet we are constrained from providing other knowledge. The love of The Father is so large that it is all here. How easy, how very easy, to make things perfect! Much easier than to make them imperfect, actually.

Yet if there were perfect beings with perfect health and never any problems, how much less of truth would there be available for the experience of The Father? And so we provide clues and encouragement in as much as we are allowed to give, but we cannot, must not, work miracles.

What loving Father would fight his child's battles for them? Every loving father knows that it is only by grappling with the problems of life that his offspring develop their fullest potential and become the best that they can be.

There is so much more here now, so much at hand in the way of help and guidance, than there has been  for many aeons on this world. You are not blindly stumbling through a void. Every step is guided. But you
must move your leg and take the step. If you do not move your leg we cannot guide your forward motion.

Question: I'm very anxious to move my legs but I need a little guidance as to which way they should go.

Answer: That's where the leap of faith comes. That is your choice. If it is the right direction, never fear, you will receive the affirmation which you require.

Question: Is faith the spiritual antidote for doubt?

Answer: Not exactly. Faith is the spiritual antidote to uncertainty and fear, but doubt occurs and may live side by side with faith. For example one can have unshakable faith in God. Say you have already passed through the portals of physical death and are on the mansion worlds, you may have total faith in your potential for divinity, for the existence of God, for the teachings now manifest through your own experience of spirit and soul, but you can still have self-doubt. Doubt is not solely dependent on faith, doubt is different - doubt will not disappear until you are admitted to the corps of finaliters, really.

I was pondering as I was listening to your lesson today, the message is about a leap of faith, but now sounds as though we take this one step at a time. Is that correct? It's not like jumping off a cliff into open space, its more like taking that step into an unknown area, knowing that it will be right or we will be shown the right thing.

Answer: That is exactly correct. But remember, that one man’s step is another man's leap.

Student: Yes. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take it one step at a time at the present but my goal is to take that ultimate leap where I know absolutely that I'm going in the right direction.

Rayson: You are doing very well.

  In considering that aspect of your faith which has carried you all very far in such a relatively short period of
time. You have a tendency to look at faith as something which is just beyond your grasp, while in truth you have an amazing grasp of faith already. It is your grasp of faith which has brought you here. It is your grasp of faith which has accomplished so much already. You each are in the midst of your own growth, so it is difficult for you to accurately assess that which you are moment by moment accomplishing. As an example, if you were to see a young child and get to know this child then be separated from them for a year or so, when you greet them again you would see vast changes. If you were there with the child through each of these many changes you would not have easily noticed them. In this way do you fail to recognize the incredible changes which you yourselves have been making. You are taking the steps that are creating a network of association. You are touching many lives far beyond your ability to perceive. You believe and you
act. You act because of your strong faith in your beliefs.

Know that what you are a part of is a grand undertaking which will go on with or without your active participation. But it will go on so much better and quicker and in tune with the Master's plan if you choose to participate. At this time many of you are wondering what to do. This makes us chuckle for we see that you are in fact doing it. You second guess yourselves habitually. In truth faith can move mountains. Look a short way behind you and you will begin to notice how much of a mountain you have already moved. It is
indeed miraculous.

I ask you all to work for a time on diminishing your judgement, not so much of others, for you are becoming much better in that area already. Instead I speak of your judgement of yourselves.

In this life progress is made one step at a time, step forward with courage and in faith. Your steps will lead you along the path of unimagined future destinies, but you journey along this path one step at a time.

Open your consciousness to allow intuition to aid you in choosing your steps. Check your motivation through your eye of love as you make your choices.  It is the future which stands before you to be realized one step at a time. Expand your framework to include new possibilities that are continually opening up before you. Step forward with courage and in faith. You will continue to find that life is full of surprises.   One last note: enjoy the adventure.  Worry not, it is exciting and uplifting and fun. Do lighten up your hearts and take that next step.   

You reach for spiritual truth in faith. You reach out to unseen celestial helpers in faith. You devote time out of your busy lives to pursue this spiritual path. It is indeed inspiring to all of us to witness this faith in action, this devotion in action.

Be not afraid to accept the many benefits of your efforts to exercise your faith and devotion. Each time you exercise this devotion and faith they grow stronger. It is as a muscle to be toned and developed and strengthened. If you do not use a particular muscle group you witness that it diminishes in effectiveness and strength. Likewise when you intentionally and with purpose concentrate on a particular muscle, it is quite easily strengthened. You are now engaged in the rigorous task of toning and strengthening your faith muscles, your devotion muscles. You also seek to enhance your wisdom muscle. All of these are developed through their use.

It is entirely appropriate to exercise a given muscle for a period of time and then to properly institute rest and recovery. One cannot simply exercise a muscle without pausing from time to time to recover and to regain strength. Your spiritual growth is a series of toning, using, experiencing; then resting, assimilating, internalizing. After one sits and rests for a time, one becomes bored with the rest and desires the activity once again. This is the lure of spiritual progression before you, the steps of exercise, rest, and gaining strength from the entire process.

You all are as beautiful beacons in the darkness. We visualize you, we see you as such. You are to us potential unfolding, the petals of a rose ever giving way, exposing themselves to the light. Once you have exposed your luminosity it does not leave you, it does not retreat, just as the petals of a rose do not reform into a bud. It is a natural progression that unfolds into more unfoldment, more luminosity. Your light once
released illuminates, not only your immediate presence and path, it also provides those around you with luminosity as well. It enables them to see some of you and the path that you are following. Let your lights shine fully and brightly, albeit there will be times when you desire to rest.

Realize that the light which you shine can be, not only of yourself, but can be a channel for the Father's light as well. Your light will never fail on account of weak energy sources or dead batteries, as the more you shine your light, the more energy you receive. It may be a human tendency to desire from time to time to turn your light off, to save your energy. It is for you to discover that your energy is only enhanced, increased, by thus shining your light. It does not infringe upon your personal energy stores to be a beacon of the Father's light. Indeed, the exact opposite is true; you are empowered by the giving away of this love, of this light. Love grows as it is given away; your capacity grows as you give it away. Others' ability to perceive grows as you give it away. Indeed, you end up with far more than you started with, all the while giving it away.

There will be a time in your futures when this will be, this ideal situation in this world, this will be the common course of activity on a progressive sphere, where the main task would be your spiritual progression. Not as now where you have to somehow chisel time out of your normal, mundane life to attempt spiritual growth. We marvel that you do this under these conditions. We are sure you will be quite successful now and in the future as you take these opportunities to grow spiritually.

Faith is much like a tree. It starts out a small sapling and grows into a large, strong tree. At times it appears that all the leaves fall off the tree, that your faith has been lost. However, the tree is still strong, the trunk sturdy, and the roots deep in the ground. The leaves will come back and flourish with a green hue, and it will bear fruit.

As you go to each new level faith will come. The more you grow into new levels sometimes it will be lonely, and all you have is faith to go on into what seems like darkness. Your tree seems to loose its lustre for awhile only to renew itself with the watering of confidence that you gain as you go deeper into your new level of growth, seeing the potential of new levels to go to.

Faith is very important, and you are doing this work. If you lose your faith in yourself you can easily fall back to the old levels. Faith remains strong for those who are not afraid to go forth into the darkness a little bit farther, a little bit deeper, at a consistent pace, unwavering from the path which becomes brightly lit.  Through the loss of faith it can seem quite dark at times. Faith can be the light which takes you on your paths.

It requires as much faith in yourself as it does in the Father to guide you; the Father to guide you and yourself to follow. Feel confident that the faith in each of you has a strong foundation. If you feel you are losing faith, go back into the roots to nurture and fertilize to allow your tree to grow new leaves. Renewal always takes place in nature; it is the same in you, constant renewal. As things start to get stagnant, remember the renewal process. Allow yourself to go down the path a little farther, even though it may seem very dark and scary. It is just the opposite, taking you into realms of light.  

Elyon: I would once again today touch on the topic of faith. There have been previous lessons delivered on this topic, but it is worthy of many more lessons, as it is a key, integral part in your ascension up through the ranks. It is such a key part to have as your possession, to maintain in your tool box, that it could perhaps be said that it is your most important tool to use. All the other tools and levers that you have at your disposal in your spiritual growth function in liaison with this faith tool, much as you would put sockets and extensions on a ratchet tool. Without your faith you have not the main tool you need to get the job done. Faith can be likened to the key with which you unlock the door immediately before you. If you have faith, if you possess this key, this impediment before you is easily removed. If you do not have faith and exercise this faith, this obstacle before you can become insurmountable. If you have faith and you are gazing upon a wide ravine, you are certain you will make the other side. If you have no faith, you are certain you will not. If you have faith, you are certain that your actions are in the direction of the Father, and you proceed forward with willingness and with boldness. If you operate without faith, you search and fumble and are unable to determine clearly your direction. Faith is, indeed, the difference between a steadily piloted ship and an erratically driven vessel.

Each one of you in this room has enormous faith capacity within your being. It is your decisions and your actions which develop this much as a muscle. This faith muscle can be exercised, and if exercised frequently, will become strong and sturdy. A muscle that has not been exercised, when called on to carry a great load, will strain or even fail under the load. In this existence that you live, your faith-muscle needs to be developed to the greatest of your ability, as you are asked to proceed very much in this life solely with the use of this one tool, of this one muscle. If it is strong, you will progress far. If it is weak, you will be obliged to wait for the next opportunity you have to strengthen this muscle before you may move forward.

The very act of your being in attendance today is exercising this very muscle of which we speak. Feel what this particular muscle feels like at this time, this particular tool you are using. Recognize its application even at this moment, for to build any muscle you need to focus on its existence and its function and purpose. Accept the challenge of this life to exercise this muscle in the absence of so much external confirmation. Realize that, as you are doing this, even in this life, you are doing this for all time, for as you proceed forward from this existence on to the next and so on, your faith exercise and extension and subsequent action is what propels you forward, is what is the impulse which allows you to see more than you can see, to feel more than is obvious, and to be truly more than you are at this time. There is no individual who could not benefit substantially from strengthening this faith muscle. Even if secure within your own parameters, strengthening this faith muscle allows you to increase your parameters and experiences to gain the wisdom that comes from this increased capacity. So, in conclusion, I would applaud each and every one of you for your reaching out in faith as you do regularly and even at this very moment. I would encourage all individuals to exercise this muscle even more frequently as the rewards for this exercise bear great fruits. I thank you for hearing me today, and I would allow others at this time.

Malvantra: God, as a self-expressive deity, chose to manifest creation and is doing so to the far stretches of infinity. In the course of this revelation He chose to initiate creature life of an equal volitional nature. All of you have the ability to decide your fate as He one time chose the organization and promulgation of reality. Your faith ratchet is your secret to your universe climb and eventual embrace with God Himself. During your fledging, initial career on earth, you will spend many times switching your ratchet setting back and forth as you gain understanding of your ability to choose and to choose rightly.

When you have so consecrated your will that you are ever seeking to manifest and effect the will of God on earth, you can consider your ratchet to be permanently set in one direction. You must still apply the force of your own personality, however, you are twisting your faith tool in the rotation that is the will of God. When you rest, when you play, when you take a vacation from spiritual exertion, the slipping, the backwards motion, does not reduce your previous growth. If you were to choose the opposite of the will of the Father and permanently set your switch in the wrong rotation, you would become iniquitous. In this state even a rotation towards God effects no change. Assure yourselves that, until you have attained the spirit stature where you understand more fully your faith-tool that leads you to the Father, you will, at times, be switching. At the moment in your life when you wholly consecrate yourself to the will of the Father, you can rest assured your ratchet is set on Him and Him alone. 

God will not retract His projection of universe reality; it is a gift that all may experience along with Him. As you each give yourself this same undeniable and unretractable devotion, you are permitting God to experience one minute, seemingly infinitesimal life, that being you. In partnership with Him, you have an expansive universe to explore and the profound depths of God Himself to discover. Much is at stake, and all lies in the power of your own choice.

It has been said that faith can move mountains, and this is a wise statement by our Sovereign Son. One day when you are privileged to be in his presence at his headquarters you will understand that even faith can move universes.

Nebadonia: God's love moves within each of our lives. It surrounds us, takes many forms. Grasp this reality with your faith, and you will come to experience God's love at ever varying levels. It has been said and is ever true that God is love. Your experiences in your life take place surrounded in this matrix of love. The universe is friendly because the universe is established on the principle of God's loving nature. You have been given the gift of personal freewill choice by your loving God. You may choose to participate in this loving universe of experience. You may also choose the opposite; God has granted you that choice.

Throughout this first life that you are experiencing, your ability to connect with the will and love of God will vary from time to time, but be not troubled by this. You are learning; you are experiencing God's reality that He has designed for you. Maintain your faith in the loving nature of these experiences that God has granted you and proceed with your life, making your choices grounded in faith and depending on God's love.

Michael: And now, as a direct result of your faith, I come among you today to give you my thanks and to give you my love. You know who I am, and I know who you are. You are my children in whom I am so lovingly pleased. I reach for you, and you reach for me. Together in this act of faith we make contact. I see you are willing; I see you are able. I desire that we have this contact even more frequently. This I desire of each of you and all of you. The fruits of your efforts shall be rewarded. We both shall gain much in this interaction together.

There are two aspects to faith, one is hope, the other is help. You know when the sky is cloudy that the sun is still present. This is because of your faith in its constancy in spite of the appearance to your senses of its lack. You may hope that the clouds part to reveal the sun, however, this hope must be coupled with a desire to help. Though the extent to which you are capable of helping is far less than the ability to part the clouds, you are capable of turning on a light in the room to bring illumination. Hope is an extension of prayer. Your
help is the extension of your faith in healing and in the powers that exist beyond your control. In the course of lengthy illness or injury, hope and help are the greatest supports for your faith. Hope places your trust in the divine; help alleviates your sense of hopelessness, powerlessness, to accomplish some ministry for another.

Elyon: You all have had your entire life experiences on this world to observe the many characteristics and traits exhibited by your brothers and sisters, and you have learned many patterns and ways those around you react to life circumstances. In your common usage, you might refer to this trait as being a judge of
character. I would alter that understanding to reflect a judgment of pattern, as most individuals, when reacting to the vicissitudes of life, find themselves falling into familiar patterns and ways they have seen in their past history as a means of transient support through this troubling time. By reacting in a predictable fashion, they are comforted that in the face of uncertainty there is at least this one stability.

This observation on your part can prove very beneficial to you in assessing the appropriate technique to reach out to this individual. If the pattern they are showing to you is a familiar one, one that you can identify with or perhaps by a stretch relate to, then your course of action may be far clearer to you than if you find yourself confronted with an obstacle, an unknown pattern to interface with. At these times you will feel the uncertainty and confusion of not having ready at hand a course of action suitable to the task before you. This is when I would encourage each of you to seek the wisdom that is greater than your own, to ask Michael, to ask the Father, to ask any form of celestial assistant to discern the motives and needs of a spiritual nature that you are unable to detect and help you to formulate a plan whereby your efforts may meet with success when offered in love and in faith.

You may encounter situations in which you feel entirely comfortable in understanding the needs and desires of another sufficiently to offer your assistance as best you are able. I would encourage you to understand that, while you may trip over your specific words, that far more important in your action with another is your intent, your sincerity, your faithfulness to the process of growth. If you are sincere and if you proceed forward in whatever direction you perceive to be necessary, your efforts will and do meet with certain success. If you remain trumped and stifled by your uncertainty as to how to proceed, then I encourage you to ask for guidance, because Jesus knows and the Father knows the state of another individual and the steps necessary to attain their desired spiritual progress. So, if you find yourself lacking in the certainty of direction, call on another to assist, and you will be granted through your acceptance of this process a game plan on which to proceed.

Again, realize that while exercising your faith and while exhibiting your love you truly cannot err. There may, in fact, be more appropriate techniques, more correct approaches, but any approach taken in faith and with love is a good one. You should never fear that you can fail another by extending yourself. This extension of yourself done in love is a gift. It is a gift you wish to bestow upon another, and it is a gift which the Father wishes to help you in this process. When the stirrings of your soul are to benefit another, to reach out to
a brother or sister in need, then this too is the desire of your Father. You are taking the steps to make it possible. Your divine Parent desires to be of assistance to you in this regard.

Realize this connection. It begins with you, with your commitment, your assertion. In the act of your proceeding you can be directed; you can be guided. 

If you allow yourself to be steered thusly, you will find that others will find messages in your words, will find comfort in your sincerity, will find strength in your strength, will find love in your action. That is all we might ever ask of a mortal in your realm. You do that routinely. It is now to be just more aware of the process, to be more in focus with the process.

All of you have felt the rewards of helping another by extending out to them, as you have been helped by another extending in your direction. There are great gifts, great rewards to be had in this process, and it all begins with your initial drive to take the step, to extend yourself in faith and with love.

Lantarnek: The encounters you have in your days draw from you your riches that you have stored in your being which are the spiritual truths that you have gathered over your life. They demonstrate the degree to which you may receive even broader and more important assignments in this correcting mission.

I entreat you all to always grasp for the big picture when you are encountering a difficulty in the narrow moment. Yes, it is very important to be service-minded, compassionate, fully caring for the needs of your fellow with whom you are encountering difficulty. Where you are also likewise concerned for your welfare and well-being, be it physical safety or mental serenity, or even the hoped-for feeling of success spiritually, there is one other element with which you may find assurance that the undertaking is worthwhile in the long range, and that is that every human being born and reared on this world is a candidate for becoming empowered with exceptional trust. I do not speak of your trust gained through your hope and perseverance through difficulties. I speak of the trust placed in you by those spiritual benefactors throughout your future career.

The future holds in store for you accomplishments that you cannot even this day fathom. Even the needs to be filled by your service you have yet to dream of. I attempt to strengthen your foundation, to bolster your courage. These times on Earth are short and here is where you will gather much ability that will propagate throughout your ascension career and in multi-faceted ways rise back up into your experiences to help you reach even higher in your ascent to the Father.

Having said this, I must also advise you to forget what I have said, for it is in the full application of your personality to the challenge of the minute that you gain those trust credentials for the span of eternity. It is not by obsessing over these long-range credentials that you will be anywhere successful at the hour.

Ginnie: That's interesting about keeping the big picture in mind. How small the circumstances then seem. The task is to deal moment to moment.

Lantarnek: If I may provide a visual image, it is like a tightrope walker, who, while in the peripheral view, can see the entire arena in which his highwire is strung and those who observe his acts and feats, it is the focus and attention upon the placement of his foot on the very spot that is needed that brings him his success. This likewise applies to your broad spiritual perspective and the ministry opportunity at the moment.

Elyon: You are aware that faith is a mode of living; it is action based. Though it contains an element of hope, faith is not equivalent to hope. Faith not only addresses the future but applies itself to the present. I would compare this mode of faith to mood because I observe that all too often the human mood, that emotion that is playing dominant at any point in time, often is evaluated as a reflection of faith. I have observed your expressions of frustration in applying yourself to the practice of stillness and also have been with you long enough to hear many stories where you recognized that you fell short in some undertaking wherein you could have been a better representative of the gospel. Often, though it may be not as obvious to you, the cause of the shortcoming has been mood.

I am one who continually advocates that those apparent negativities that you encounter are equally positive towards growth, that doubt is not a shortcoming but an indicator of answers to be found. To not feel like you are the child of God that you are does not remove you from that standing before the Father. To feel unspiritual does not eliminate the basis of your faith. Moods apparently of a contrary fashion that appear to smother your faith are in reality indications of where you may increase your skills in the application of faith.

You know that Jesus lived his life completely in faith. That did not prevent him from righteousness indignation. He could weep, feel great sorrow. He could be observed to be as though beside himself. The spectrum of human emotions is like a pressure relief valve. It is a form of venting, and I don't mean this merely in the action of expressing anger or wrath. But emotion itself must move, for even your word "motion" is contained within "emotion". It's dynamic, it must be expressed. How often have you experienced that when something strikes you funny it is virtually impossible to suppress laughter or a smile? This outpouring is a catalyst for the expression of faith transformed into the mode of action. It is also an indicator, a means whereby you may test the application of your faith in living.

This emotional fountain, like your sprinklers, can become clogged at one orifice or another. It does not mean, this obstruction, that your faith has faltered, for the pressure of faith is still present. But there is some undertaking, some lesson, that you must perform or acquire that will displace the obstruction and allow the flow of faith into the actions of your life.

Truly it is a pleasure to the soul to feel like loving your brothers and sisters, but it is a revelation of the power of God when you discover the love for another even when you don't feel like it. Love is that personality experience that transcends all conditions of life. No one definition can capture it in entirety, nor can a collection of descriptions describe love fully. Faith is love in you acting through you, and your emotions are your feedback indicators of how you are adapting to the current of love as it passes through your faith channel.