Most religions state that faith connects us to God. However, in the name of ‘faith’ some have justified killing, torturing, and being at war throughout history, so it has acquired a bad reputation among non-believers and even spiritual seekers to a certain extent. Talking about faith smells like organized religion and religious dogma.
Yet from the moment you are born, faith is what makes you expect to be alive, to be safe, and to be loved, in the form of an inner sense, an attitude, a knowing that lives within you even before you develop the ability to label it. Faith brings you success and happiness when you expect it, although you may not call it ‘faith’ either; perhaps you think it’s good luck, or good karma, or destiny. But these aspects are played out through you, so it’s your attitude, the inner certainty of success—or deserving success—that brings you what you seek.
Whether you relate to God as separate from you or existing within and manifesting through you, faith is the inner sense that connects you to your divine nature. It holds the inherent quality of cognition and yet it is different from mental reflection or intellectual knowledge. But its true power lies in the fact that it is an attitude that transcends itself, because it goes beyond the separate ‘I-sense’ of ego-mind and surrenders all manifestations to a higher power.
Faith implies trust in a transcendental power that has your best interest at heart and knows what is best for you at any given time, even when things don’t go the way you expect them. Paradoxically, it is this self-transcending quality that connects you directly to the Divine within. Since faith is your true nature, when you lose faith you weaken the connection with your soul and your Self.
Faith Is the Spark of Your Life
For those who feel hurt, or betrayed, or depressed, the sensation of hopelessness can be likened to being trapped in a death-like, dark place because the spark of faith is gone. If the spark of faith is gone, your sense of self is also diminished, and so are hope and life within you. Likewise, if you don’t believe in yourself, or if you rely on a false sense of self based on other people’s opinions, beliefs, or values (your ‘sense of otherness’), then your life may become meaningless and empty. It’s missing the light within that keeps you in touch with your true nature, regardless of external conditions or circumstances.
Organized religion has made us think of faith as something we experience in regards to an external transcendental power, but in truth faith is your own inner power: the knowing that no matter how difficult it may be to go through what you’re going through, or how unattainable a goal may seem, you can always find a way to reconnect with who you essentially are—a spark of Divine Consciousness—and move through obstacles and challenges with peace and trust in your heart, not the fear or anxiety or despair the ego-mind identifies you with.
Faith is the magic ingredient leading saints and sages to be absolutely focused on their endeavor to merge with the Divine. If you were as single-pointed on your goals and desires, no matter what obstacles or difficulties you may find along the way, and in spite of how much resistance or doubt you may have to overcome, you would certainly manifest and achieve anything you wanted.
It is actually much easier to create and accomplish things in the material world than the spiritual realms, since mundane desires require less energy, time, and effort than enlightenment. But everything requires effort and perseverance. If you can desire, imagine, and sustain your vision, you can manifest it, because it is already part of the Infinite Consciousness Continuum you belong to. Faith is the purifying force that brings it to light in your perception, opening you up to see it once you clear all the doubts and resistance in yourself.
Pay Attention to Where You Invest Your Energy
At any given moment, you have to choose between love and fear. Faith connects you to love by overcoming fear. Fear is a creation of the ego-mind that makes you identify with and get attached to the world and its comforts, its illusions, and its temporary pleasures. You don’t want to lose those because they give you a sense of identity. Yet your attachments prevent you from transcending mere physical reality to discover the true purpose of life.
Even when there is chaos in the world, faith gives you the sense—the knowing—that everything will be alright, that everything is as it’s supposed to be, because there is a higher plan behind all appearances and your soul is guiding you to experience what helps you mature emotionally and grow spiritually. The times we are going through call for greater faith than usual, as the energy frequencies re-arrange themselves to create a new reality in the world. So don’t lose hope and look forward to a better future!
Chaos and confusion are inevitable when the old needs to be dissolved to give way to the new. This also applies to our false self-images: transformation is not possible without struggle, because it is internal death and rebirth. Life itself is change and impermanence: Consciousness in expansion and creative potentiality in motion.
Your Self, or Spirit, the transcendental force that faith connects you to exists only in the present moment, in this very instant, even if its nature is eternal. Because eternity is the present moment; and to attain it you must clear anything and everything that prevents you from being fully and absolutely present in the here and now.
The Supreme is absolute stillness and silence within you—eternal peace. Allow the power of faith to take you from emotional chaos into mental stillness, from uncertainty into trust, and from fear into courage, to reach the intuitive wisdom of your heart. So contact me today to start letting go of all the fear and confusion you’ve being holding on to that prevents you from discovering and expressing the true YOU!
© 2012 Yol Swan. All rights reserved.
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