In the Light of Truth

38. Faith

What most believers hold to be faith is not real faith. Faith can only be real, when a man has entered into the very heart of Divine teaching, made it his own and thus arrived at a perfectly unbiased and living conviction of its truth.

God's teaching comes to us through His Holy Word and through His Creation. Everything bears witness of Him and of His Divine Will; and, as soon as man consciously experiences all the phenomena of being and activity, all his sensations, his thoughts and his deeds will unite in acclaiming God's Holy Truth. Then he will be silent, he will not often speak of it, but he will have become a person, inspired with that inner devotion, or perfect trust in God, that will enable him to stand firmly and securely in his place in the universe. He will not give way to fits of ecstasy, nor will he persist in leading a purely spiritual life on earth, but on the contrary he will fearlessly attend to his worldly duties according to the dictates of his sound understanding, at the same time skilfully use his wits in necessary self-defence when attacked, without being unfair. In no case is he to suffer himself to be treated with injustice without remonstrating, for this would be to encourage and strengthen evil.

Now there are many who only imagine themselves to have faith. In spite of inwardly acknowledging the existence of God and His Work, they fear the smile of the unbelievers. It is disagreeable and unpleasant to them. When this subject is discussed in their presence, they would pass it over with an inscrutable expression on their faces and in their embarrassment and by their behaviour constantly make concessions to the unbeliever. This is not faith, for although they may inwardly assent, in reality they are disowning the God to whom they pray and from whom they expect every blessing.

This false consideration for the disbeliever cannot be excused by saying that the subject was too holy and serious to admit of its being exposed to ridicule. Nor can one call it modesty; it is mean cowardice! Speak up and let us hear whose children you are! With the pride that becomes every child of God, fearlessly face every man! Only then will the incredulous be forced to bridle their sneers which really betray their uncertainty. At the present time, however, their ridicule is only fostered and encouraged by the behaviour of many believers.

People deceive themselves, because they have ascribed quite a different meaning to the word faith from what it really has. Faith must be a living thing, i. e. it must be even more than conviction, it must be active. It is active when it permeates everything; all sensations, all thoughts, all actions. Coming from within the man, it must unobtrusively be visible and be felt, as a matter of course, in all that appertains to him. It must not be hung out as a mask or a signboard. The emanations of the inner spiritual man must also appear externally. In plain words, right faith must be energy, which, coming from the spirit of man, must permeate his flesh and his blood as a matter of course — nothing artificial or forced, nothing studied, but life itself.

Look more closely at many of these believers. They pretend to believe in life after death and it would seem that they really mean it. If, however, they have the opportunity of getting a proof of this life in another world, somewhat out of the ordinary course of events, they are terrified and shaken, thus showing that, in truth, they were not so convinced after all of this life after death, for otherwise such a proof would have seemed quite natural. They would neither be frightened nor specially moved.

Besides these cases there are many others which show how little faith the so-called believers have. Theirs is no living faith.

[Grail Message by Abdrushin]  [Resonances to the Grail Message]