The Dilemma Of Faith

WED., DEC. 30, 1987, 7:46 AM
LEANDER, TX, CREEKSIDE

You are a Christian, and though I urge you not to read and study writings that are more pertinent to other spiritual paths (particularly to a doubting path) you still are constantly having elements of your faith challenged. Most specifically, this gift of hearing Me directly is rather regularly being questioned or disparaged. This is a process in which you must have faith. There is no way you can prove these pages are thoughts from the Holy Spirit. Few individual Teachings are so immediately clear and orthodox that you would share them readily with anyone. You do have certain tendencies toward extremism that could explain your being here before sunrise in close to freezing temperatures to receive this Teaching. Yet you know that it is faith that brings you here, rather than to exercise of your physical body.

The dilemma of faith is that it is knowledge of things hoped for but unseen. When another person does not share your faith your exposition of it or the manifestations of it seem insufficient, even silly. Yet these very challenges are what nourish a faith. Faith in anything is shallow and almost unnecessary if everyone else shares the same perception. You have faith that the sun will be in evidence soon, but this is based in long human experience, in the predictability of the earth… and virtually everyone else will have the same faith. So it’s no big deal.

Many of your professional colleagues have much more faith in scientific research relating to human beings that you do. In some gatherings the faith is so strong that you are reluctant to challenge it. If you are in the midst of others who all have the same faith… even in scientific processes… the faith is maintained, even though it may be challenged.

My original chosen people, the Jews, still maintain a faith in the coming of a Messiah. Christians have the faith that, in Jesus of Nazareth, I have already come. Each is a strong faith, reinforced by the power of group acceptance, and hence there ultimately is a clash which prevents full relationship. Most Presbyterians would express the faith that the Holy Spirit works in the world in some ways, but most of these would not have faith that one of their ordinary non-clergy members is being taught directly by that Spirit. And, hence, a full relationship is not possible.

The dilemma of faith, then, is… do you continue to have faith in that which prevents you from having full communion with those with whom I have called you to be? Would I call you to some situation which is not ideal, in spiritual terms? Well, that’s where a good, current knowledge of Scripture is a help. Most of the main characters in the story that the Bible is had to have faith in what I called them to do, even as it separated them from others of My creation and even as it had them doing things of no great historical consequence. Yet all together the Christian story is a powerful one… one that has inspired faith in persons who would have rejected what some of the “characters” in the Bible story said and did, if they had lived at the same time.

I offer you the promise that there will be value beyond that to you personally from these Teachings. Without faith you could not record them. Without faith you could not use them as you do. But that faith shall be continually challenged, both by Christians and non-Christians. It shall be easier for you to keep this practice rather secret. In this way there will, predictably, be less challenge to that faith in the reliability and validity of these Teachings… of this Work I offer you.

The dilemma of faith is that the faith in what We do together shall be increased as it is challenged, so I must tell you that “hiding your light under a bushel” is not the way of growth in spirit. I shall not tell you specifically what this translates to, but offer it as a general guideline for your current life.