Lord, Increase our Faith (Rabel)

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^17:5And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. ^17:6And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye would say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea; and it would obey you.

Jesus ends the Luke section of this discourse in Luke 16-1, 17:10. Now let us look at that very first idea where not for the very first time, His disciples ask Him to increase their faith. This is not the only time they do this. The first time they did it, He just said, "Have faith in God." Remember, they said, "Lord, increase our faith." Here they ask again, increase our faith; and, again, He does not respond on the level of their request, in the nature of their request. Instead of this, He tells them some Truths regarding the faith faculty, that it is not a matter of how much you have, increasing it or finding techniques that will increase it, or asking somebody with superior abilities to tell you how to increase it. None of that has any connection with the truth about faith.

The only thing that matters is, are you aware that you do have it or not? That is all. The size, the quantity does not enter into it. Spirit has nothing to do with quantity or size. There are no dimensions in Spirit. In Spirit, the only thing that counts as far as a human being is concerned, is yea or nay, are you or aren't you, do you or don't you, will you or won't you; not how much or what size, or even what shape, but yea or nay. You either are aware of faith and what it is in you, or you are not. If you are aware of it, then being aware, of itself, is the how-to in using it; and it is strengthened.

Jesus just gives a very "Hyperbolic" illustration about telling the sycamore tree to go uproot itself and plant itself in the sea. Naturally, we would not use faith literally in that way; but in the symbolic illustration of it, this is what we do. Mr. Fillmore says that faith is the faculty in man, which has the power of transforming energy from one plane of consciousness to another. That is what it is as a faculty. As a divine idea behind the faculty, faith is the divine idea of dominion and authority and movement. As a faculty, it carries out that divine idea. How? By transforming energy from one plane of consciousness to another.

Jesus uses the fancy illustration of transforming the sycamore tree from the soil into the sea, which symbolizes different planes of consciousness. The power aligned with faith does it. Faith, of course, is the great affirmative faculty. As a divine idea, faith is the idea of the cosmic "yes", the purity of the cosmic "yes", the great firmnative [formative] principle of creation. In man, it is the faculty which also does this and is man's direct connection with substance. When man uses his faith faculty correctly, he makes his affirmations of truth directly connected with substance, which brings forth results. If the faith faculty is in alignment with the faculty of power, then it results in the moving or transforming of energy from one plane of consciousness to another, and usually invisible or potential plane to the visible or the actual.

If faith is aligned with the faculty of understanding, then a person is affirming the truth of being, not with hope, not with blind belief, but with understanding. Then he has what you call predictable results, predictable manifestations; and Jesus is the supreme example of this. Jesus knew exactly what was going to manifest through Him, because His faith was aligned with understanding and also with power, and there you have the use of the faith.

So the idea is not to worry about how much of any of these faculties you have, but are you working with them or not. Are they quickened? Do you understand what they are?

Text of the original transcript of the 6th paragraph of p.230 through the 2nd paragraph of p.231.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on 04-08-2014