Comments on The Sublime Personal Experience of Faith
The Sublime Personal Experience of Faith
The Sublime Personal Experience of Faith ~
I love these few words out of the text: "rather a sublime experience and a profound conviction." I've found that 'Faith' is 'alive' if you've got it, and an intellectual concept if you don't...
Faith is not only a matter of ideas or good attitude, it is a matter of sincere belief coupled with to do the will of the Father. We need the real experience with God within us, communing with him, receiving his divine values, ideals and spiritual discernment in our soul through the inner communion, the worshipful silent and receptive communion, and then we can have a strong, living and experiential faith like Jesus' faith, doing the will of the Father wholeheartedly. The revelator says in Paper 101:
101:8.1 (1114.5) Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief. Neither is certainty nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a living attribute of genuine personal religious experience. One believes truth, admires beauty, and reverences goodness, but does not worship them; such an attitude of saving faith is centered on God alone, who is all of these personified and infinitely more.
101:8.2 (1114.6) Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist.