The Relevance of Faith

With all due respect, faith is NOT a "very necessary success tip".

I am not a man of faith, and I have no desire to be. Without getting into a theological debate, faith in the various gods and faith in people and such are two completely different things.

I am fine with goals and action.

Wow, there sure is no shortage of people telling others how they have to think in this thread. Not to mention getting certain things completely wrong.

To clear up my previous post, I prefer to concentrate on knowledge, and not faith.

However, I encourage all my potential business competitors to concentrate on faith if they want.

Faith is very important within the context of having creative control of our lives.

It provides the bridge over the gap that may exist between where we are now and where we want to be. It's confidence in the unseen path that leads us to our destination.

Very often there is an outcome we greatly desire - we know what we want - but we just don't know how to reach it. It may be great prosperity; being able to work from home; having a successful and rewarding internet business that allows us to give up our day job; a beautiful and loving relationship; a healthy body when faced with disease; or any other desire that is important to us.

But I know many people who will not move (or only falteringly) towards the objects of their desires because they cannot see the steps required to guarantee success. They want the way to be clear and obvious before they will follow any path that may lead them there.

In other words, they are immobilized, frozen into inaction, "destined" to fail! They are shy people who remain friendless; poor people who live from week to week; people craving love and affection yet feel rejected; sick people daily facing pain or weakness. Visit any cancer clinic and see the expressions of gloom (I've been there and seen it).

Yet there are others who will push ahead towards their wants, hoping that the next attempt will pay off, but sure that even if it doesn't the outcome they want will eventually come to pass - they will eventually find a way. Perhaps the path cannot be seen right now but they "know", have faith, believe that they will eventually get there; that sooner or later they will reach their goal.

These people have a very different mindset to those who want steps that are guaranteed to work. They feel comfortable with uncertainty, of not knowing HOW they will bridge the gap between where they are right now and where they want to be; just confident that it WILL eventually happen, they just don't know how - yet.

I've noticed that, with many financially successful people, they seem to view life as a series of tests or trials. Each action isn't considered final and success or failure doesn't hinge on a single trial but simply a step in the right direction. They are constantly testing the path before them to see whether it moves them forward, enabling them to progress another step.

Many are familiar with the story of Thomas Edison and his efforts to invent the light bulb. After 1,000 (some report this as 3,000) attempts had failed, he was asked about what it felt like and did he consider himself a "failure". He replied that he'd merely found 1,000 ways that didn't work.

Some will say being confident of eventual success in the absence of a clear path is because they believe in God or past lives, or themselves, or a guiding spirit, or the tarot cards, or a fortune teller, or astrology, or past experience, or...

"Why" isn't as important as the "act" of believing it will happen. If a talisman or lucky charm enables them to believe in a successful outcome, so be it. If the authority of a kindly doctor leads them to believe in a successful outcome, so be it. If a statue of Zeus enables them to believe in a successful outcome, so be it. If a holy book assures them that success is possible, so be it. If success can be seen in the stars, so be it.


It does make you wonder about those who expect success simply because they can feel that success long before it actually appears.

Ivan

Anticipating an expected outcome which exists in the future inevitably involves an element of faith.

Science itself is based on "faith" although it tries to quantify the degree of confidence and the probable outcome by using mathematics.

Likewise, backing a horse in a race involves an element of faith as no matter how much punters study the history of a horse's performance, the conditions of the track, the weight to be carried, the skill of the jockey and trainer, the barrier position, etc, the outcome is by no means certain.

Ask the connections of the American champion horse, Native Dancer. He'd won 12 starts in a row when he took part in the 1953 Kentucky Derby. The jockey rode him in such a way that he faced a wall of horses heading into the straight, 2 1/2 lengths behind the leader. By the time he got a clear run, the post was too close and he was beaten a head. The third horse was five lengths further back. Native Dancer was never beaten again. His record: 22 starts, 21 wins, 1 second. (As an aside, nearly all top racehorses today are descended from Native Dancer through his grandsons, the champion stallions Northern Dancer and Mr Prospector.)

However, mankind has long sought to attribute meaning to the world around us and, towards this end, has provided a number of explanations that have been useful (for the day) in accounting for our experiences in the world around us. Just look at the multiplicity of gods and goddesses available to ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. These were useful in explaining the seasons, the cosmos, a poor or successful harvest, success in battle, and much more. The priests played an important role in the culture of those societies and were part of the power structure.

The belief systems encouraged by the priests, whilst founded on false information, nonetheless gave a "rationale" to people and their endeavors, helped to unify a nation, provided social bonding, alleviated anxiety, etc - unless, of course, you questioned the accepted ways and were considered a heretic!

That humans search for meaning can be easily demonstrated in scientific studies - just look at the numerous experiments carried out by Gestalt Psychologists, as an example. Also consider the anecdotal accounts of survivors from concentration camps. Those with a firm belief in their religion to sustain them were much more inclined to survive than those who didn't have a belief system that offered hope. (If you want a reference, have a look at Viktor Frankl's 1946 book, "Man's Search for Meaning".)

We only need to look at proverbs, aphorisms, and the like, to see that people were long aware of simple basic principles of predicting outcomes; eg, a stitch in time saves nine; people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones; those who live by the sword, die by the sword, etc. And, from the New Testament, "We reap what we sow".

Unfortunately, those who had greater insight into the principles that would be useful in explaining the true nature of our world and/or offering better outcomes for human behavior, were faced with offering these insights within a society that already had established and, usually, rigid beliefs.

Christ's teachings of the value of kindness, forgiveness, compassion, hope, and much more, required, if his message was to be understood, that it be expressed in terms that could be understood by his listeners - Jewish communities that accepted the idea of a single, external God which was responsible for all creation; the existence of heaven, hell, angels and devils, etc. Even so, the priests of his day considered him a heretic and his teachings a threat to the established order.

Those who've studied comparative religions have long been aware of the many common elements to be found among them - in particular in describing a system of personal behavior which is likely to result in a happy, fruitful life, even if justified by the promise of reward in an afterlife.

Unsurprisingly, those who consistently express kindness, forgiveness, compassion, and hope, regardless of their religions or explanations, tend to attract others who are like-minded.

Likewise, those who are fearful or express hostility, hatred and aggression, experience conditions which support those feelings and "justify' those attitudes continuing to be held. Someone who carries a knife out of fear of attack will be aware of the many threats in their environment - justifying the need to carry a knife! Those who are truly peace-loving will be more conscious of the harmony which surrounds them. Those who express hatred to gain peace are likely to find they don't live in a peace-loving world.

However people choose to justify their beliefs, selecting those which attract love, peace, harmony, and prosperity creates a path to a way of life that most would find satisfying.

Ivan

You know, it's easy sometimes to lose sight of what's important but each of us can build up our faith by reading and hearing God's word if we access to a bible or even from memory when we speak it aloud.

The last enemy that will be destroyed (stopped) is death.
Death is just another spirit subject to God.

There have been numerous resurrections resulting from believers in Christ excercising their authority over the spirit of death and reclaiming life for someone who was revived.

For one example, the man of God, Smith Wigglesworth had over 20+ dead people raised back to life under his ministry.

I can assure you, there was no other "self" or "name" except the name of Jesus who has the power to do that and did once for all.

Be blessed.

To those who believe in Christ Jesus, we are loosed from the bondage of the fear of death, because we know that even after we die, we will live eternally with God the Father in Heaven.

The truth is, there is no clever man made anything or anyone that isn't subject to the same name that gives life to the dead and calls those things that are not yet seen as though they already were!

Perhaps Thomas Edison was simply modeling the Father, who said,
"Let there be light"

when he claimed to "see" the very first lightbulb.
(I have preached myself happy!)

I have really enjoyed all the various views of contributors to this thread. I am not suprised there are so much to talk about concerning this topic. It is a major topic. Without it, the Bible says you cannot please GOD.

Some days ago, i was doing some meditation about this topic of faith and i came to some one or two conclusions about faith. I want to share with you what i have:

Faith is not partial: I searched through the Bible and i observed the types of people Jesus credited GREAT FAITH to their record- the centurion, the woman who refused to be called a "dog" and so on. These people were not recognised christians but they got credited with "GREAT FAITH". This makes the topic very interesting. Faith is at your disposal if you can use it(no matter your age or standing in the society) or if you can understand what is required of you to put up a GREAT Faith- the word of God (this is where i have seen all the promises about my future, my project etc)
I only carry out a search in the word of God any time i am confused about a matter and when i get it, i know i am "condemned" to ACT on it. When i act on it i must succeed because i have put my faith to work since faith makes things work.

Faith works with intangible things: i also discovered faith does not work with what you can see physically. Thomas Edison failed 1000 times to make a bulb. That great man never "saw" those failures, rather he "saw" success. This made him to fight on to achieve his aim.

Faith is just a fantastic thing.

Hey SusanUSA,

I just wanted to say thanks for you blog about you making $12,000 in 5 weeks. Very touching and informational.


For the rest of this thread....

One thing I have learned about Faith is that it is an action word not just something to be said. If you have faith in something, you are going to act upon it and do it.

If you have faith in Jesus Christ, then you will obey his teachings and commandments.

If you have faith in your business, then you are going to do the necessary things to make it work and grow.

Well, there is my two bits on this subject.

I like it, I would say faith does both. Downplaying contradictory evidence is how a lot of great men worked past obsticles to create that which others could not. I like your entire wording here though.