People struggle with faith because it seems to work when times are good, but in difficulty it evaporates into a nebulous mist and drifts wherever the winds take it. Have you ever had conviction in something only to watch it dissipate later and wonder “what the heck was that all about?”

Faith that works has to have depth, like an ocean, so that a little evaporation doesn’t diminish the body of water. The undercurrents run deep and keep it moving. Even the evaporated water returns later as refreshing rain, replenishing the ocean from whence it came.

Life Requires Deep Faith

The question is how do you cultivate a deep faith whereby you can live with God through the years and in the many circumstances that life throws at you? It has to start with knowing that you are loved no matter what. While you may accept that notion intellectually, experiencing it on an emotional level is something else altogether.

How do you hang on when doubt is all around you?

That is a great question. This is where the Holy Scriptures from the world’s religions come in handy. They can provide an external compass, or navigation device for your internal compass to connect with. It opens up the possibility of a syncing of sorts. I was reminded of the value of that external compass this past week when I read Psalm 139.

“Where can I go from your spirit, or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into Heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.”

In reading this over, I was struck by the words. I know I have read this before, but this time the words jumped out at me – “If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” We are so immersed in the realm of conditional love that we don’t believe that we are worthy of being loved at all times. The verse doesn’t say that God is there when we fall into bad circumstances through no fault of our own. It says “If I make my bed in hell,” in other words even when I choose to end up in the wrong place God is still with me. That is amazing!

The words of Scripture function like an external navigator which syncs with our internal navigation device and awakens our soul to something we always knew to be true but couldn’t access. In this way you experience the depth of your ocean.

Fighting the good fight

I saw this phenomena in the movie War Room. The wife, Elizabeth, is trying to save her marriage. Her spiritual mentor, Clara, has advised her to pray but like all of us Elizabeth is having a hard time getting real. It’s just words – she’s not feeling it! She is sitting in her prayer room (a converted clothes closet) and her eyes glance upon a Bible verse she has written out and pinned to the wall. Internally she is all over the map but an external navigator points to a truth. She begins to read the verse over and over again, out loud and then something amazing happens. Her internal navigation device, her original mind, is awakened to the truth. Now she’s really feeling it! She explodes in prayer and she’s no longer in formal prayer mode. Her innermost feelings bubble up the surface and she is finally real with God and real with herself.

How to develop your original mind

It is interesting that the Divine Principle points to an awakening of the conscience:

“How is the force of conscience generated? Since all forces are produced by give and take action, the conscience cannot generate the force for its operation by itself. (You can’t just sit with your conscience and hope it grows.) That is to say, the conscience can operate only when it forms a common base with some subject partner and engages in give and take action with it.”

In the case of Elizabeth the subject partner that stimulated her original mind or conscience was God’s word. This is why Rev. Moon always stressed the study of Holy Scripture – it’s like a stepping stone to reach God. The Divine Principle goes on to say “The ultimate subject partner of our conscience is God.” (Divine Principle p.23)

In syncing her internal and external compasses, Elizabeth finds her power to pray and all of a sudden she is no longer praying by rote or repeating words she thinks she should say. She is being real with herself, with God and the enemy that is trying to steal her joy. This is the point at which she finds faith that works; she finds her true self and the incredible power that she has a divine daughter of God.

A question for you

Have you ever found some words in scripture or some other literature that became special to you because through them you experienced an awakening to something or felt closer to God? What were those words?

God is always with us

God doesn’t withhold his love because we made some bad decision. His presence and love is with us all the time. This is the essence of God’s unconditional heart, even when we are the author of our own suffering. Elizabeth came to know that she had made her own bed in hell but still God was with her and was showing her a way out.

Although the Divine Principle and other Holy Scriptures teach that God is with us simply because we are His children and destined to be Lords of Creation, it’s not easy to believe or understand that. First of all there is the hurdle of vocabulary. We are not living in a time or place that connects with the concept of being a “lord” of anything and then there is the whole guilt thing. How can we say that we are Lords of Creation when we see humankind’s destruction of the environment?

Let’s dig deeper into the idea behind the whole Lord of Creation concept because it may be important to the idea of faith that works. In the Divine Principle it explains that people are the mediators and the center of harmony of the cosmos. When we are united with God we unite the physical and spiritual worlds and “achieve harmonious integration to construct a cosmos that is responsive to God.” The artificial separation of the physical and spiritual worlds simply wouldn’t exist if we could live feeling the presence of God all the time. I can’t wait for that day.

Regaining the right of ownership

But before that day can come we have to reclaim our position as Lord of Creation or the right of ownership as God’s sons and daughters. In the movie, War Room, both the wife and the husband had to claim their lives back and it started by owning where they were off track. They had to stop blaming each other. The biggest thing that keeps us from our relationship with God and faith that works is we cling to victimhood instead of being owners. We would prefer to be victims because we have been duped into thinking that we will avoid responsibility and life will be easier – who wants to be responsible? Sounds like hard work!

But being a victim is a lot more painful and God is urgent for us to become tired of playing that role. Tragically, according to Greg Baer, when we act like victims

• We can’t feel loved
• We can’t have intimate relationships
• We can’t grow in our personal lives
• We can’t be responsible, productive human beings (think Lord of Creation)
• We become selfish
• We are guaranteed to become angry
• We are guaranteed to lie
• We can’t be free
• We can’t be happy
• We raise a generation of children who will act like victims

Ouch! Sons and daughters of God, owners of the cosmos are the opposite of this list!

Learning to tell the truth about yourself

Applying the Divine Principle in our daily lives starts with gaining awareness of where we are at and thinking about who we want to be. In the movie War Room, the wife had to confront that she had lost herself. She had become the classic victim. Her husband was in real need of change too but by becoming a victim Elizabeth had made herself a prisoner. She was so busy listing complaints about her husband that she failed to see she could no longer receive real love. She was receiving a lot of sympathy, but sympathy isn’t love. No amount of sympathy would ever lead her to feeling more love for or from her husband.

Elizabeth had to learn to tell the truth about herself and as she did that she opened the door to receiving real love because she knew where she had to change and she began to uncover her value – she came in touch with her strengths instead of clinging to her identity as a victim.

Elizabeth could have a victory because she finally realized who the real enemy was in her life that would steal her joy. It wasn’t her husband. It wasn’t her sister and the sister’s good for nothing husband. It wasn’t her daughter who believed her mother didn’t care. It was the spiritual enemy of humankind who goes by a variety of names – pick the one that you can relate to best: Satan, Beelzebub, ego, or the author of selfishness. Faith that works demands that kind of clarity. When we believe that God can indeed dwell in us and that’s what it means to be a Lord of Creation; we have ownership of the power that God invested in us for our lives.

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them (the world), because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” –  John 4:4-5

Faith that works is knowing that God’s spirit is in you and because of that you will find your way, no matter what. Satan was never destined to be a Lord of Creation, a mediator between the spiritual and physical worlds, a center of harmony in the cosmos, but you are! You will be that person and that is totally awesome. You can achieve a direct, intuitive experience with the Divine. There is nothing more beneficial to a person’s life than having a direct, personal experience with God.

“When we know that we are loved absolutely, that knowledge has the power to heal us from our own suffering, give deep meaning to our lives, and empower us to achieve our highest potential.” – Ron Pappalardo

We are worth fighting for. Our marriages and relationships are worth fighting for. Our children are worth fighting for. This week I encourage you to discover faith that works by figuring out who the real enemy is and having a show down in prayer. You’re worth it!