Church and State and Corruption

I hope to show through logic and history that America is very much engrossed in religious politics under the guise of non-religious based doctrines. That those who reject divine origin or divine existence practice theology under the protection of government. It will be shown that the Book of Mormon reflects the same decay of a free society to a contentious and defeated society. That we have been blinded by our own arrogance and cry for freedoms into the ruin of our freedoms. This will lead, and always has lead, to a hostile take over by greater powers waiting on the sidelines. I theorize the root cause of the decline in society is corruption of morals and that corruption is checked by organized religion, not enforcement of laws. Hence, the dissolution of institutionalized religion in our public, political, and social lives will lead to the absolute corruption of all forms of social organizations. The most influential and the most susceptible to corruption is State (government).

So lets, start at the beginning of America. I enjoyed a July 9th, 2011 Forbes article titled, "The True Meaning of Church and State" by Bill Flax (a Christian and political journalist). He describes the religious practices protected and practiced in state buildings, governments, and political events. To the point, a majority of the 13 ratified states maintained official religions after the ratification of the amendments. In the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we read of missionaries and bishops all around the US using libraries, court houses, and public gathering places for worship. Worship services were regularly held in the capitol and treasury buildings in Washington. Our forefathers would have revolted and fought if their government tried to not let them pray at school, display a cross or hang the ten commandments in a courthouse. The point... "Our forefathers never sought to evict the church from society. They recognized that the several states did not share uniform values."

In this setting of early America, we see people liberated from tyrants (Kings, church government, lenders) in the old world and in this new world they sought to stand on their own. With this freedom, they sought to know God for themselves. They were free to believe what they wanted concerning God, morals, etc. They began to till the earth, build, invent, and start business. At the founding of America Americans were 90% business owners. This social atmosphere required certain things:

1. Trust: There had to exist trust between persons. There was not a robust legal system with centuries of litigation to rely upon. There was not the availability of paper to write every contract. There was their word and a hand shake. Trust is rooted in honesty, self sacrifice, promise making and promise keeping, and being actively responsible. Claiming mistakes to one's self and not to another.
2. Being Active: One could not sit and expect society to pay them much attention let alone feed them and clothe them. They would be left on the side until they began to 'move their faculties' as they would put it.
3. Being left alone by the state to do as they wished. There were no registration requirements, insurance laws, minimum wages, or regulations on what one could do. The only regulation brought upon you was by another who felt you took something from them. Tax laws came later.

Today we have 10.6% business ownership in America. The people by far have become dependent upon the State for the food, clothing, and income (minimum wage, overtime, insurance, and benefit laws). This is a huge contrast to the picture once enjoyed here.

To give an idea of how dependent America is on the employee and not employer, look at the tax system. It's written for the wealth of employers, not employees. It's evident when one can make billions and claim $750 on taxes because they had billions in losses and debts. If we consider what would happen if everyone was a business owner and there were only a few employees, we would find the collapse of the medicare and unemployment systems. They wouldn't have any funding. The government wouldn't collect very much and wouldn't be in so much power. The corporations that run the government in their own favor would not have as much interest in this practice since everything they would do would benefit everyone else equally as much and the incentive to get involved in government dissolves. Kind of a fun exercise. This should reveal am important ingredient to today's American government. It is by the corporation for the corporation and no longer by the people for the people.

The government corrupted itself from its original purpose and intent of creation. How did we get to this point? How does corruption evolve and what puts corruption in check? To understand this sickness (failing government) we must first study the disease (corruption) that causes it. We need to understand corruption.

cor·rup·tion - 1. Dishonest or Fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. 2. The process by which something, typically a word or expression, is changed from it's original use or meaning to one that is regarded as erroneous or debased. 3. Decay; putrefaction. - Google Dictionary

Corruption changes the natural state or use or practice or ownership of something by an external party. This third party exerts it's own will upon something by diverting it's use, ownership, or natural state to another one that naturally should have no part of it.

On a social level corruption is when one gains power by breaking the laws they have power over. The exact action that would strip them of power. In this context, they act as a third party in a system they are also a participant in.  Corruption in society is taking something that has not been earned or does not belong to you. Hence, power can be gained through corrupt actions. Money can be taken through corrupt practice. What is a corrupt practice then? Any program that takes what one has earned through fair and honest labor and gives it to another who has not earned it. This is, by definition, corruption.

For humans, third party interactions are visible with pollution, war, farming, and almost every aspect of human life. Understanding that humans are also a member of this scene some may think we aren't 3rd parties to the things we interact with. To an extent this is true, but we also know that humans can reach so far they destroy the thing they want. They want wealth and some steal or lie to gain it at the cost of others, some want precious/rare food and ways are created to deplete or mass produce the food which increases disease and health issues. Some want thrills and in seeking them cover mountains with fecal matter (Mt. Everest), draw crowds to trample and pollute rare findings, and alter the eco system that supported the rare find. There is a limit humans must enforce upon each other to keep our society healthy and secure. Unchecked, humans would kill themselves off or at least the masses of them that aren't in reach of the things that would sustain life.

Corruption in social organizations is harder to see on the daily level. We hear of the large scale corruptions and we wonder how these persons could be so vile. Yet, a closer look reveals the step by step path that led the group to the position they were in. It wasn't a contracted business plan with corruption written all over it. It was collision and people's desires matching each other's that leads to what looks like organized crime.

What happens when we introduce corruption into the new world back in the 1800's? What happens to trust? What happens to being active? Are you ever left alone by the State? Maybe a few corrupt individuals could not stifle this grand effort and act of freedom. Can we look upon society today with all the social programs that take honest wealth and labor from one and gives it to another, focused education to become employed, not to own and be independent, the common feeling that the government has obligation to feed the poor and clothe us and medicate us, and make our food safe, and our business safe, and our roads safe and not see that these are the signs of corruption on a grand scale? It's no wonder business ownership (independent wealth generation) in America is so uncommon. It has become unpopular to be independent, responsible, and honest. Being honest isn't very lucrative in America anymore.

Corruption is not limited to State affairs, but at the office, the market, on the road, in contracts and leases, at the school game, in almost every transaction we encounter, we are faced with corruption. People trying to take things beyond what they deserve. For example, I went to lease a property for my business and after reviewing the contracts of several properties, I discovered they all wanted to push all the risk of their venture (property ownership) onto me without giving me the value this deserves. They want me to cover taxes, maintenance, care, etc. as though I owned the building. They explained this was because I get to live like I own it and they made sense. This was not so bothersome until I found that if my business should fail they wanted a personal guarantee that I would cover all future payments to them or they would have right to collect from me for their losses. These "losses" they were describing were future payments not made no matter if my business failed or not. When I chose a space, I had to sign a 3 year agreement. They can now go to court if my business fails, and sue me for their "losses" and take more from me to cover the risk of economic failure. As though they have no risk in the venture of owning and renting in their business. All that risk was pushed onto me without giving me value. When I approached them and told them of the ethical dilemma their contract imposed upon me, their response was, "This is common. This is what is done on all leased properties." How incredible, that society has found that commonality creates moral right. The phrase, "It's just business" has become the moral high ground.

The masses have blamed capitalism, religion, sexism, racism, socialism, communism, or greed. But this large scale social corruption is the result of a far greater issue. We have lost a moral compass that engenders the atmosphere required to support the freedoms we want. Hence, business ownership is not ideal. Wealth generation through honesty and integrity are almost impossible. And suspicion of corruption in any level of any organization is a real thought had by every individual as they engage with them because there is evidence of it everywhere. It is truly sad.

"Ahhh... The Good Ol' Days!"

Did conspiracy ring in the air during the beginning and early times of America? Yes it did! Did they have dishonest men and women taking advantage of others? Did they have Black outcries with looting and destruction? Did they experience the mega rich taking advantage of government and society? Did they have people being incarcerated for ridiculous and/or false crimes? They sure did. People were just as human then as they are now. Wealth disparity was still a thing and most likely even more visible then than it is now. Corruption in societies is something we have lived with forever. The real question is, was there ever a society that was not corrupt?

So what was different then (early America) compared to now? Not that much. Instead of judges and magistrates with puritan leaning ideals they judged against (not against any real law except that of religious origin), we have real laws to judge against that are just as socially one sided. Today we have hate crimes. Laws against a feeling or ideal that can be used against words spoken, refusal to work for an individual or refusal to hire an individual, acting or dressing as another race, or even past acts that had nothing to do with race are no being prosecuted for. And people are more apt to pursue a person breaking a law than they are the person who has done something socially despised. They can get their vengeance/hate using the law against their offenders. Not much different than early America.

I like to explain things away sometimes by saying, "We live in a telestial realm. Murders, whoremongers, adulterers, liars, and the such are all here trying to gain what they want." But this does not settle well when I try to understand how to fix the corruption that affects me. Now I am forced to find out how corruption came in and from where/whom/ and why it is not checked into balance.

So what makes America so infused with corrupt living and corrupt laws today?

The answer I have found is a lack of education. Surprisingly, it's mainly the intellectual who lack in this education and lead the literary incompetent with them. This education they lack is not in facts, math, languages, or any other science taught in lower or higher education facilities. It is moral education taught in religious institutions. Mainly a dependence upon a greater power for our substance, life, and happiness. Religion looses all it's benefit to society when this dependence upon God is gone or when God is defined by the individual. A religion based upon personal morals is not a religion that will benefit anyone else but that individual. It's not useful to a nation or the people as a whole.

The power and need of religion has been shown through history. Religion is a very successful tool to run empires and nations. It is very successful at keeping families together. It is very successful at unifying large groups of people to a common cause. The larger the group the better chance at a successful outcome. This could be the cause of wealth, war, and bloodshed like the Mongol, Japan, or Roman empires. Religion can also be the cause of peace, cleanliness, and health like the Ancient Greek, Hopi, and Anti-Lehi-Nephi peoples. When religion ceases to unify, it ceases to be a benefit to the nation. These are some of the evidences we can glean from the past. A few nations have made these religions the reigning power over their empires and each has corrupted them into things that destroyed societies and people. The religion began to dictate morals that were corrupt and intended to bring gain for those in power. Hence, religion has a bitter and black past in history. Many still claim that religion is the cause of war and is responsible for the deaths of millions. They refuse to look at the purpose of these wars. They would find it was to get gain. That the religion claimed to justify the act had been corrupted into a vessel of gain.

Can we find a people organized into a successful nation that didn't have a religious core? 

Can an irreligious nation enjoy the same benefits religion brings?

The non-religious use wisdom to describe their moral framework. Is there a difference between wisdom and moral? Some say yes and some say no. In the end, they are both ethically based guidelines one follows whether gained by their own experience or taught to them. For the purpose of this essay, they are the same. Every moral can be written as wisdom and every wise comment can be written as a moral. 

For those who don't care for religion we can talk of wisdom. Wisdom is crucial to the success of any organization. Wisdom wins wars, increases life span, and better's daily life. Wisdom is valued in society and known through the ages to bring enlightenment, success, and peace to everyone. The organization that shares wisdom does so with types of ceremonies to show graduation into a better role of life and societal existence. Schools have graduation ceremonies. Most accredited educating societies/organizations have their own ceremonies of the like. They act as a religion. Religions are known for their ceremonies and these have lost a lot of purpose and meaning because of their commonality. At school we learn to get gain through our talents to maximize wealth through our works. We graduate in black robes having origin to religious ceremonies with a square cap instead of round and a cut tassel instead of it tied to the gown. In religion, we learn to use our talents to help others without thought of income. From this institution we graduate with robes of white, a halo over the head, tied to the gown representing the priesthood and that revelation continues from the higher source of truth to the individual to instruct on what to do. It engenders purpose of existence rather than entropy of existence.

And some fail the religious courses though they learn it all. Some leave it because this education results in creating amiable, patient, and long suffering people who are willing to sacrifice personal pleasures for another's benefit. These teachings are entirely adverse to scholastic and higher education doctrines and philosophies where talent building to get gain is the end goal. We are educated to compare our abilities against others to define our societal status and worth. These moral ideals are socially destructive and will always bring war. The graduate that lives by what they were taught at church, will benefit society far greater than the greatest minds manufactured from societies universities void of religious direction. Bring two religious graduates and they benefit society greater than twice the one could. Invite two of the greatest minds lacking moral direction and they will hurt society greater than twice the one could. And this exponential affect, visible through history, will move the masses and countries to flourish or dissolve. 

I know I have to be weary of a complex view of the word "religion". For some, it is viewed as a belief in some unknown God. For others, it is servitude toward some one else's cause. Ton Wolfe And our government has most recently defined it as, "any belief". So, suddenly religion is any belief. This ideal destroys the purpose of religion in society and destroys the framework of morals that keep a society stable. Many still cry for freedom from religious practices. Marriage, prayer, and family have all come under attack under the guise of freedom to one's religion (personal belief system). Suddenly, hate crimes arise for the religious practice of marriage. Marriage has always been a religious practice, but is now governed by  the nation and laws. The nation is taking over religion and religious views through the onset of various laws to 'protect' society from church. Separation of church and state has an entirely different meaning today. It means keep church away from us entirely so we aren't forced to follow the morals that don't fit my amoral appetite. Replace moral with wisdom and they are saying, "keep church away from us entirely so we aren't forced to follow wisdom that doesn't fit my foolish appetite."

Thomas Jefferson defined what separation of Church and state was in a letter where he quotes the FIRST AMENDMENT: “...legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."

If we look at the laws today and how they are defining and enforcing moral dogma, we will discover that America is very much engrossed in religious practices. It is very much enforcing religious doctrines and wisdoms. Just not from a diestic source but rather from the most dangerous and destructive source, the desires of the few. They are set to gain and have corrupted the systems to their favor at the expense of the masses. Like other nations before and with us today, they are becoming powers unto themselves and not any more governed by a higher power. They are defining for themselves right and wrong and becoming no different than the church ran governments before them.

Can we help our country? Can we better society and try to fix this? This is where I try to understand Zion. The only type of government I actually desire to see happen and know that I and everyone else will have peace in. But lets compare it with others to get a better understanding of it.

We could go over societies and examples of people who had a utopian, Zion, communist, utilitarian, democratic, or sovereign social structures and see what happened to that society. We could examine why it doesn't exist today. Each one was destroyed. Interestingly, the only type of society to have never been taken over or destroyed by others was a Zion type. The records tell us they were taken away and were no more. They could not be found. They left this cruel world and were invited to another place to wait till this world would love them as they loved the world. All the others, every single one of them, has been defeated.

Lets examine the laws of Zion to see if there are differences from each type of society to find what we want in ours.

1. Zion had a law of consecration where every person who joins must give everything to society. What's more socialistic than this? These things would be given to a presiding bishop who would then distribute them to those who needed them or could best benefit society with them. That's communism. Then the individual would be given a home, land, work they preferred, education, and the likes to support whatever situation they were in and to hopefully support society. They were made stewards over the property and things. This meant they had power over them as though they were the sole owner. Christ gave the buried talent to the one who had 10 not the one who had 5. The guy with 10 would make more of it and benefit society more. Plus that talent (representing people, most likely your child) needs special love and care and that guy with 10 had enough practice and endurance to give what was needed after being buried away from the light for so long. What's more utopian than that? Let alone the capitalistic nature of it. They didn't tell him how to do his work or analyze his efforts except at the end of each year where he brought his profits back for an accounting where they would take what was beyond what the guy needed to sustain his family, business, and growth. They took no more. If the person was struggling, they would give them money. That's the IRS and crazy tax laws without the rigidity of law. This society has the personal influence of just judgment only found in personal interaction and not tax code.
2. Zion has no poor among them. This was not only a life style but a requirement from God. This put all people into a mind set of society focused efforts. They recognized the value of their family to society. That their education would be important to value society. The law of consecration was only a process that reflected an outlook on self and society that is as different to us today as the Japanese ethic of honor was to us during world war II. They chose who they wanted to be and what they wanted to do and educated themselves to that cause. They had honor in being good at what they did. Not in how much money they made because at the end of year, nobody could boast of crazy earnings way beyond their needs, it was dispersed among the society to those with needs or to better things like water, roads, education, or maybe even an army to defend against the enemies who wanted their wealth and way of living.
3. Zion judged it's own people on a law of character. They were tried as apostles and those who were not apostles were not able to reside there. What does this mean? They had to live by faith. The fruits of their faith would be visible and if bad fruit came of their work, it was very visible. This individual would be stripped of the property and business and given less so their faulty works would not disrupt society as much. If this did not work to bring the individual in line, this person would be literally kicked out. Authoritarian and moral societal pressures here.
4. Zion has a king and queen. This might be news for some but Joseph Smith Jr. was ordained as king with his wife as queen. There were other kings and queens ordained and these were ordained to govern the earth. This was not some heavenly title, it was earthly. And it pertained to Zion. The kingship was Father to son. Autocracy, monarchy, or tyranny anyone?
5. Zion is for the pure in heart. This is the kicker. It's not about laws they have or government styles. It's not about how they handle the finances or organize their business or even what time they get up or what they eat. It is the moral makeup of their hearts and minds. Morals that teach faith in God through revelation and action in keeping promises and gaining blessings. The pure in heart are always spoken of as being able to see God. 

In the end, we see that Zion has the traits of even the worst government types. I also saw that America has all the ingredients of Zion!! We have Zion here but it is being ran by corrupt people. Are tyrant, communist, or socialist governments really bad then? The problem has never been the type of government but the moral code of the people working and living in that government. Corruption will destroy any government or society. But the word corruption is just a blanket word. What is the actual act that is corrupt?

I used to love conspiracies. 9/11, D-day, the CIA, NSA, UFO Sightings, and the like. I loved them because there was so much compelling evidence on the grand scale that made it look like a grand orchestrated thing. But when a person or reporter digs into it, the individuals are not tied together. Sure they may have met but they aren't orchestrating anything. Then the conspiracy debunkers come in showing how this person did this and that person did this and the conspiracy falls apart. Yet there is enough evidence to keep the conspiracy together because statistically, that many coincidences cannot be by chance.

Pondering on a new conspiracy I encountered with sex trafficking amongst the elites I had a revelation. All that was revealed to me was "Corruption" and with the speaking of that word I understood that corrupt individuals unite for moments to benefit from each other's corrupt work. For instance, a company sees an opportunity to get a little clause in a health care bill that would protect their business. Their vendors see this and instead of blowing a whistle, they let it fly but also add a clause the increases the value (aka price) of their products they offer forcing the CDC to regulate on a scale that would make business for them easy. The medical industries sees this and instead of blowing whistles, they add clauses to eliminate taxes on those products to make them cheaper but are end of year clauses that cannot be rebated directly at purchase and thereby save money but not to the patient. The corruption continues round and round until it looks like a grand orchestrated evil event to get gain and power.

Just as in Zion, where the righteous are of one heart and one mind, corruption amongst corrupt hearts will also bring them to one heart and one mind. It's just they aren't pure, they are greedy, selfish, and dark. This is America today. Unity, under the banner of hate. United in destroying and stealing and killing. United in benefiting from the weak and poor. United in exploiting the vulnerable. United in grabbing that government payout even though we know it wasn't based on what you put into the system, but on how many mouths you feed. A re-dispersal of wealth that did nothing to the rich, hurt the middle income, and helped the poor.

Look at the Nephites and Lamanites at the end of the Book of Mormon. They also had Zion just as we do. They also had unity and equality. They also had a break apart of race and 'ites'. They also had contentions of freedom and wealth. They also had corruption where leaders were being assassinated for gain. They then went to war and never left it until they were all dead. They had chances to repent and change, but they did not and those who were righteous were removed from them. 

This message is not to instill fear but an awareness. Possibly an awareness of self corruption and family corruption. Look for it and abolish it. Even if it means you cannot have your children do all the home chores so you can sit and watch a movie justifying it with how much you worked already. Work with them. Uncorrupted religion will always teach you to sacrifice more to the benefit of others. Keep going and serve. Seek for these moral and wisdoms and you will better society. Hopefully this information will help in the next election or the next political event near you. Hopefully it will help to calm the conspiracy theorist to help them become an agent for good and for God. He will lead us and direct us. I know it and live by it.

Rediscovering Faith 2

After sharing what I learned on faith in that long post I found it was still difficult for people to follow my words. In a discussion with my wife, where this became apparent, I prayed in my heart how to express this so it would be simple to understand. The answer came in a flash and so far, I have loved the simplicity of it.

So, if you have not read the first part of rediscovering faith, you will need to. Maybe this post will help some to understand that post better and maybe that will help some to understand this better. The entire goal is to help us realize faith is a tool, a process, not a character trait, a belief system, or a muscle. The end result of using or acting in faith will always be miracles. Faith and miracles are tied together like hydrogen and oxygen in a cup of water.

In the conversation with my wife, we were discussing some one who had to do something pretty hard in their life. My wife then expressed:

My wife - "That would take a lot of faith." 

 

Me - "That doesn't make sense. That's not the correct use of the word 'faith'." 

 

My Wife - "What doesn't make sense?"  

 

Me - "Faith is not a characteristic or something we can quantify like a measuring unit. What you mean to say is, 'that would take a lot of will power' or maybe 'that would take a lot of trust in God' but to say that would take a lot of faith is the wrong use of that word." 

My wife - "I don't follow. What does it matter? We say that all the time and everyone knows what that means. It's very common to say this and you know what it means."

Me - "Do we though? If it takes a lot of faith then it would stand to reason that it will produce a lot of miracles. I don't think the outcome matches the description here. What are we really saying by saying something takes a lot of faith? Other phrases like, 'you gotta have strong faith to keep going' or 'I prayed with a lot of faith or great faith' show me that we think faith is a word that means something else we intend on saying, like 'believe', or 'hope', or 'for a long time.' It's like we use it this way because we want it to mean more than just believe or hope. It's a lot like describing a bucket of water as having a lot of inches of water. It's the wrong use of that word."

My wife - "What does it matter Bryce. It's harmless. When I say it, people know what I mean.

Me - "It brings the wrong idea about what faith is and how it works. The danger is making faith into something that really doesn't bring miracles which is equal to making it into something that does not reveal God. All miracles reveal God and His nature and are the basis of everyone's testimony. Without them, we have no church, no blessings, no power. We lose everything if we lose the meaning of faith."

My wife - "Then what is it. Cause I'm lost. I think it's fine to say something takes a lot of faith. I don't think it has hurt my testimony at all."

Me - We paused for a minute. I was praying to know how to describe it, to explain what I know and then it came very suddenly. "Faith is a recipe. That's all it is, a recipe. Say you want a delicious roll. Warm, soft, buttery, and golden with white. You can't just pick any recipe. You have to find the exact one for what you want. Then once you have found it you have to follow that recipe exactly. The wrong ingredients, too much of one ingredient, bad timing, or any other waywardness from the recipe will alter the roll you desire. But if you follow that recipe exactly, you will get the roll you hoped for.

 

All blessings are predicated on laws. To get that blessing you must keep that law. Laws are not defined by us nor are they bendable without bending the blessing. Just like a recipe. Faith is literally a recipe. If you want baptism, you must find that recipe and follow the instructions. To have the faith to be baptized is to know from God what you must do. To act in faith is to do what you know to do. If you want to be healed, you must seek out that recipe (AKA Faith) and follow it once it is revealed to you. Once done, you will be healed. The miracle of faith is the roll... or roast, or mashed potatoes, or birthday cake of a recipe you sought after. It's the fruit of your labor. So to say, "that takes a lot of faith" is like saying, "that takes a lot of recipe". It doesn't make sense. I guess you could say, "That's gonna be a tough faith to follow and do." Or maybe "That blessing is gonna need a lot of faiths to get." This actually makes sense but that last one seams wrong due to cultural use of the word faith."

She loved it. It clicked and I have had so much fun with the different analogies this recipe metaphor brings.

Paul taught that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for the evidence of things unseen" (Hebrews 11:1). Just like a recipe. I love German Pancakes so I'll use that. You gather your ingredients for German pancakes. It's still not a German pancake. You mix it, but the evidence of what you hope for is not seen still. You place it into the oven and wait. If we are impatient we get a sloppy and mushy raw soufflé. Pretty gross and undesirable. Wait too long and we get a black carbon infused crunchy egg that doesn't taste good at all. But pull it out at the right time and it's beautiful. Add a little sugar and lemon and it is divine. 

Photo by Monika Grabkowska on Unsplash

Faith is just like this. We hope for something we want. We pray to have it. When we understand that what we are actually praying for is a recipe to have it, this changes the attitude and immediate response to our prayers. 

This explains why God answers prayers in mysterious ways. 

He's giving a recipe. To some, 9 raw eggs, a cup of milk, a cup of flour, a bit of butter and salt is not anything close to what they desire. They might think God disregarded their prayer for German pancakes. And then if they get so far as mixing the ingredients and then think they are done, they will be greatly disappointed in God's answer to their prayer. They forgot faith is a recipe and they decided when that recipe was done or what ingredients were required. Faith doesn't work when we seek not the will of God and His ways and laws. They need to continue to seek revelation until they realize what they hoped for. Then, the recipe is done and they need to follow that faith no more. Unless they want it again.

The fun part with faith is people are different. Hence to get that savory soft roll out of different people is going to require differing methods and slightly different ingredients. Basically it's still a roll recipe, but sometimes you have a camp fire instead of an oven, or maybe just a lighter as your heat source. Or you cannot eat gluten so differing ingredients will be revealed. It's gonna take a lot of patience, time, and sometimes, trashing what was done so far and starting over. The analogies are so beautiful to human experience and our relationship with God.

Listen to how people use the word faith. If you replace it with 'recipe' you will get a great idea of what they meant. If it doesn't make sense, they are not talking about faith as a recipe for blessings but something else. Most likely they are actually trying to convey meanings from words like, trust, love, patience, endurance, charity. These character traits are common byproducts of using faith. Hence, I believe that is why 'faith' has become synonymous with those words. Some one who is faithful will ideally bear these traits. To be faithful is to be following God's recipes in your daily walk. Always having recipes for what you hope for and living in a way to keep them all. This is the recipe for eternal life. This is the faith we seek for. This is the blessing we should be hoping for. It's entirely possible for anyone to obtain.

In the previous blog I wrote about Faith, I listed 4 parts to faith. They are a hope, an assurance, personal revelation of God's will, and a miracle. If one is claiming to be exercising faith, they must be able to answer these three questions:

1. What do you hope for?
2. When did God give you an assurance you could have that hope?
3. What is God revealing to you now as the ingredients of this faith that you are acting upon and doing?

When Faith is a recipe, we can see that the hope is both the miracle and the end result of following the will of God when entered into a faith recipe with God sealed by His assurance. The assurance is God's permission or His 'OK' that you may have this hope. After that assurance, we can't very well go off doing our own thing. We won't be enjoying what we hope for if we adjust the recipe to our liking or pace. We must do the will of God and avoid acting in the doctrines of men (including our own) mixed with scripture. This takes personal revelation. Without revelation and guidance by the Holy Ghost, we cannot act in faith nor can we be faithful.

This sheds a little more light on what this recipe really is. It is a contract between you and God where you hope for something and through prayer and sacrifice, you obtained a hope in Christ that you can have it, called an assurance. This testimony is not the fulfillment of your faith but only the beginning. This is when you start your journey walking in the likeness of Christ. Walking in Faith through constant guidance from the Holy Ghost in your daily walk. This contract or covenant (recipe or faith) is personal. It was instigated by you and to the effect of your benefit. In essence, you heard of a type of roll that other's loved and you want one but you don't know the recipe. So you seek for it in written words and found others dead and alive who have eaten it. Through prayer you ask for it until you gain an assurance that you can have that special roll. You then continue this communication with God asking for guidance on what needs to be done in order to fulfill this promise. The time will come, when you have done it all and can have that roll to enjoy and testify to others that it is there but this can take a lot of endurance and long suffering. Depends on the greatness of the hope you seek after.

This scripture has a much more potent meaning to me now:

Maybe that is why Peter, in listing the character traits of a saint that would make your calling and election sure started with faith. He laid out these traits as though one trait was dependent upon the previous. 

• Faith was the first on Peter's list. (And add to your faith virtue...)
• Faith always brings power (Virtue) to do things never before possible. 
• This always brings the knowledge of God and the world around you (miracles). (Study the power of God and priesthood to see the correlation of power and knowledge given by God in unison. God does not give power without knowledge otherwise God would be responsible for the mistakes of the use of this power.
• That knowledge will strengthen your foundation in the laws of God and make you temperate. 
• This temperance will always be beat against with the waves and rivers of diversity and telestial beings around you. They will always be upset by a symbol of correct and good character. This will make you patient. 
• This patience and knowledge and temperance and virtue and faith will bring an understanding of the telestial beings around you that doesn't make one mad but sad. Your heart is softened even though theirs may be hard and you patiently take their beatings knowing it is pain they feel and not pain they need to feel more of. You'll know what sickness in heart, mind, soul, and body they have and how to fix it and you work diligently to help the sick and afflicted which makes you godly. Able to help them gain miracles through your faith on their behalf.
• This work will always build up to loving your brother/sister. You increase in love and decrease in hate. 
• As you practice these things you gain charity. 

Each trait after faith is a natural consequence of the trait before. These traits can be sought after but undoubtedly they must be obtained in the order listed here otherwise they would be askew of Charity... the final result. This puts a heavy weight on understanding faith and how to apply it in our lives since it is the basis upon which charity and all these other traits exist in their proper and true forms. If we can understand faith as God intends us to, ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:8)

HOW BEAUTIFUL!!

This does not mean we will all have the same ingredients to obtain the same blessing. This I covered in the first post on faith. Abraham sought for the same blessings as his fathers but had to do entirely different things to gain that same blessing. Everyone's conversion story is different. Everyone's tasks, talents, and God's will upon them is different. In order to keep my temple covenants I might be required to move to St. George, UT. Not everyone is being asked to do that to keep their temple covenants. The same covenants I made.

Try reading your scriptures replacing faith with the word recipe. You'll grasp a bit more of what I have found to be a most useful and powerful experience in engaging in heavenly works. It is so fun!!

I have found that in some instances, people were given their requests or blessings because their faith was sufficient. Meaning, they had in their possession, the ingredients and actions already fulfilled to have the blessings they sought for. This explains the discouragements the Savior felt when talking to his disciples who could not cast out the devil from a child. He said, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt 17:20-21). Meaning, if they had not been praying and fasting, they could not perform the recipe that requires it.

This is the power of the saints. They walk within the laws of God and are obedient to the commandments they receive and are therefore filled with the ingredients to satisfy many recipes. All they have to do is ask. The windows of heaven are opened and blessings pour down. Yet it is a window, that we cannot open. This is why Christ always says, "Ask and ye shall receive. Knock and it shall be opened unto you." We must ask and start the process of faith by gaining access to our hopes.

Revelation is key. Miracles, faith, and testimony are dependent on it. Revelation is communicating with God. It's all we need to do to begin this journey. Make personal covenants, or gain a faith or many faiths to follow and be directed by. These will lead to eternal life. It works! I know it does. It's so simple and so beautiful and unbiased. All are welcome to try it out. It transcends sex, race, and time. And it's how we come unto Christ and gain his image in our countenances.

For fun, I have included some references and teachings of faith were the word is replaced with recipe...

Rediscovering Faith

Faith is a word that has changed meanings over time. It has different meanings from person to person. "This is my faith," can be transliterated to mean this is my religion or this is my divine commission to labor or act in this way (it may be adverse to his religious beliefs). Or the overarching meaning for most people, usually who have not read the works and texts that this word was derived from which is a belief in something that cannot be seen or measured, literally just means belief without evidence.

I ask that you to let go of your current understanding of Faith for just the time you take to read this post. Discover faith again as we explore the meaning, power, and use of it in everyday life. This may be hard, so picture yourself exploring a new people. Let's choose the ancient Greeks where thought began to derive logic and science. You are going to explore a tiny bit of their language. You are going to journey with them to find truth and discover this was their ultimate goal. You will find that they began to search for natural answers to things instead of assigning all misunderstood happenings to mythological or divine interventions. Science was born at this time and mankind began to look at the world with new eyes. This started at the end of the 5th century B.C. People such as Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato, Anaximander, Anaximenes of Miletus, Aristotle, Thales of Miletus, Diogenes, Parmenides, Plutarch, Xanophanes, Archimedes, (and many more), began to arise and give reason and measure to the world around them. They sought knowledge in everything around them. When it was said, "the gods made it so," they set out to discover what natural phenomena was going on to cause such a thing.

At the Eastern Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association in December of 1988, a speech was given by Peter Losin called 'Plato's Analogy of the Divided Line.' 'The Divided Line' is a conversation written by Plato within 'The Narrative of the Republic' describing 4 levels of reality or truth. Plato was trying to decipher what is knowledge and what is truth. He steps aside from moral grounds (defining what is right and wrong according to culture or belief) and tries to define reality. We can place what we know (believe) into these four categories to help us understand if our knowledge is founded upon truth or conjecture. The four categories are Noesis, Dianoia, Pistis, and Eikasia. The image below is a pictoral representation of what he wrote. They are ordered from the worst type of knowledge (Left) to the best/most complete knowledge (Right).

(Image retrieved from HERE)

To better give understanding to this chart, here is another chart I made that defines these Greek words into what they mean and their uses:

Look at the word 'Pistis'. Eikasia is studying the tree through a picture or shadow or reflection of it while pistis is the actual tree being observed.  When a person was being convicted in court, the prosecutor needed pistis or evidence to prove guilt. The defendant needed pistis or evidence to prove innocence. Lawyers and politicians use Dianoia to reason and give thought beyond what people see (true or not) and Noesis is the judgement given by the judge after exhausting all evidence (or pistis).

In the New Testament, Pistis is the Greek word that translates into Faith. How does that compare to your current definition of Faith? It is far from a belief in something one cannot see or touch or measure. That is Eikasia knowledge. Pistis knowledge is something one can see and measure. Dianoia is what one does after they see the object of knowledge try to discern why or how it happened. Noesis is gained when a complete understanding is gained of that object. Religiously, Elkasia is belief in a God that is unknown. Pistis is seeing God or hearing him or interacting with him. Dianoia is beginning to comprehend the nature of God to help define morals and truths. Noesis is knowing God's will and absolute truth.

Lets turn to the scriptures. The King James version of the Old Testament has the word 'Faith' twice. It was translated from Hebrew. Now look at the New Testament, translated from Greek, where 'faith' appears 229 times. Did the Gospel change? Was faith not as important before Christ? The Book of Mormon has the word 'faith' 223 times. Most of those were before Christ was born. Where is "Faith" in the Old Testament? According to the Book of Mormon and Paul (Hebrews 11) and other New Testament authors and even Christ Himself, faith was very much a part of God's dealings with mankind in the past just as much as it is today.

Finding out God or faith is different than our perceptions is moving from Eikasia knowledge (looking at shadows to understand things) to Pistis Knowledge (Seeing the thing itself). Comprehending God is Noesis. According to the experts (prophets before us) man cannot comprehend God (Romans 11:33-36 & Mosiah 4:9), therefore, Noesis of God is not something we can attain unto on our own. It takes revelation. And luckily, there is a lot of revelation given concerning God and Faith that we can rely upon to find out what Faith really is.

Here is a link to Chapter 13 of the 'Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual'. It has a great list of scriptures that show the use, definition, purpose, and examples of faith. It is not exhaustive but has a good list. Please read them. It's not long.

Hebrews 11:1

JST Hebrews 11:1

I find it neat that Joseph Smith was right in his correction. The greek word translated to substance is a mistranslation if one thinks of earth or matter or something one can touch. Referring to Strongs Concordance of the Greek New Testament (Strongs concordance identifies English words translated from Greek words in the New Testament. It references how often a Greek word was translated that way and it references other words it was translated into as well. It is a powerful source to understand the meanings of Greek words) the Greek word is 'upostasij'. A snipit of this words use is here:

Sounds like faith is being defined exactly as Plato defined Pistis. And if faith is the concrete, foundational, evidence, assurance, real substance, of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen... what does that mean? A quick read of the rest of the verses in Hebrews 11 will show that each person received a promise from God in something they sought for, then did what God told them to do to gain it, and gained it. Once they had gained it, their work was over. Meaning, their faith was done in that hope. They had gained the realization of their faith. So the assurance was evidence from God that they could obtain what they hoped for. It was pistis.

In this light, to say, "my faith is strong because I go to church every Sunday" or "my faith in God is my own making" does not make sense. This is confusing faith with the word belief. "I believe in God so I keep His commandments" makes sense, not "I have faith in God so I keep His commandments". If some one says they have faith in God, I should be able to ask, "What is it you are hoping for and when did God say you could have that thing you hope for and what are the things He has asked you to do to gain it?" Any one of those things missing, and you have no faith to exercise. Doesn't mean you have no testimony or belief or knowledge. Just means you have no Divine purpose at this time. 

The founding fathers of America used the term, "Divine Providence" or just "providence." It meant to have a purpose or work to do under the direction of God. They believed one must have providence or they would be lost in life, purpose, and duty. They believed that what they were doing was commissioned to them by God and nothing could stop it. Indeed, nothing can stop faith in God.

They knew from experience how faith works, they just called it by a different name, Providence. And this providence gave them conviction that what they were doing was right and God's will. They prayed for instruction and guidance and did as they were inspired.

If you read Hebrews 11, you find the same pattern. The passages of scriptures that helped me to learn what faith really is were found in Nephi 32:1-6, Moroni 7, and Hebrews 11.

The adage, "The first law of heaven is obedience" is often construed to replace faith. What Bruce R. McConkie defined when he wrote this in 'Mormon Doctrine' is faith, not just obedience. He wrote:

"Obe­di­ence is the first law of heav­en, the cor­ner­stone upon which all right­eous­ness and progres­sion rest. It con­sists in compli­ance with divine law, in confor­mity to the mind and will of Deity, in complete sub­jec­tion to God and his commands." Mormon Doctrine Pg 539.

Faith is a type of obedience, but an obedience that requires constant revelation and direction from God. This phrase has been construed to mean that obedience is faith. It is not. This has led people to declare, "If the prophet says for me to do it, then I do it without question." With dignity and honor they obey. Today, there seems to be a movement of great force within the church to counter this harmful belief by teaching blind obedience is bad. The problem is they didn't read the rest of the quote as given above. Obedience, as Elder McConkie defined it, requires submission to the will of God which would require a great deal of revelation to do anything right. Hence, his obedience as he defined is the same as faith. 

Obedience as simply obedience is a part of faith but it is not faith, just as much as belief is not faith. Belief is a part of faith.

Saul believed that the saints were wrong and evil and killed and destroyed them. When God came to him and he was converted, he then had a change in belief and began to do a different work. His beliefs changed and his obedience changed and then he began to exercise faith in Christ. The same goes for Alma the Elder and Alma the younger. Their stories of conversion show that belief does not save. Their concern for their own souls was real and heavy and they hoped that their work was sufficient to save them. They were working on a faith to be cleansed from their pasts. Hence, though they knew the atonement of Christ is sufficient to save, their belief was not enough to save them yet they knew that through faith they could be saved. Belief is not faith. 

Another example, the Jews were so hung up in obedience to law that the law became their savior. The laws God gave were not comprehensive, they were principles and therefore this presented a problem for knowing if one was righteous or wicked, clean or unclean. A few examples are keeping the sabbath day holy, honor thy father and mother, do not marry thy kindred, pay tithe, etc. Notice how the law was vague? How to keep those laws was left to the person. The Jews took it upon themselves to create the subset of laws to help govern people so they knew how to keep those laws. This replaced the most key element in faith. They were being obedient to their laws, but were far from God and the truth. Obedience in itself is not going to save anyone from death and hell. Obedience is not faith. 

The key element that was covered up in law was revelation. Personal revelation and prophetic revelation. The first more important than the latter. 

Nephi acted in faith when he declared his knowledge that he knew God would provide a way for him to accomplish the things he was commanded to do. So he went. Laman and Lemuel were not so willing but went probably because Nephi and Sam were younger and needed their aid. Straws drawn, Laman went to visit King Laban. Was this God's will? Was drawing straws the way God wanted them to obtain the plates of brass? In any case, it didn't work. Laman and Lemuel willing to give up and go home, Nephi preached to them the words of the prophets and their father that Jerusalem would be destroyed and they would too if they didn't have this record. He convinced them to gather their precious things back home and go back to Laban and try to get the plates again. Nephi was most likely inspired to do this. So they did it and it resulted in them almost loosing their lives. Was this how God wanted Nephi to get the plates? We might conjecture yes or no but after the angel visits them and instructs Laman and Lemuel, Nephi has got to have some serious questions. I imagine him saying things like, "What is happening? I thought you would provide a way for us to get this done. Why is nothing working? I knew what I was supposed to do but it didn't work, why?" But Nephi recalls that he went alone as instructed by the Spirit and followed the spirit in every step not knowing beforehand what he was to do. He was literally walking in faith. He was being led by revelation. He slew Laban and gained his sword and clothing, and also brought Zoram back with him. 

Step back a minute and consider, would you have ever guessed God would want you to kill Laban, get his sword and clothes, get the plates and Zoram? A fun question to ask is, "would Laban be found drunk if he hadn't have gained a substantial amount of wealth from Lehi's home?" or "What would have Laban done had he not been killed and found his plates gone?" Would God even command his death if he hadn't tried to kill them for their wealth? All in all, things worked out and Nephi accomplished the work given to him and he received many miracles along the way that gave him evidence, proof, and witness that God is real, loves him, and cares.

Now zip forward to Nephi's death bed. He is giving his last sermon in writing and it is concerning the doctrine of Christ. In Chapter 31 of 2 Nephi, he talks of a gate and the straight and narrow pathway to heaven. The gate is repentance, baptism and the baptism of fire through the Holy Ghost. That is the gate to the path. Once on the path you can speak with the tongue of angels and shout praises to the Holy One of Israel (all made possible through the Holy Ghost) and to continue on the path one must endure to the end with unshaken faith in Christ. The path leads us to eternal life. Faith leads us to eternal life. 

In chapter 32 he gives again the doctrine of Christ but in an entirely different way. He skips the gate and goes on to explain what enduring to the end in faith means while on the path. He explains it as feasting on the words of Christ which TELL you all that you should do, asking and knocking about those things or you'll perish no matter how much you study the gospel, and then the Holy Ghost will show you HOW to do those things you were told to do while feasting on the words of Christ. In both descriptions, he claims this is the doctrine of Christ. In the second one, he declares there would be no more doctrine given until He (Christ) shall manifest Himself unto you in the flesh.

In chapter 31 Nephi tells us to enter the pathway that Christ used to show obedience and faith in God. The gate he describes is the beginning of this straight and narrow path. The gate is repentance, baptism, and the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Listen to what Nephi says about the Holy Ghost...

"17 Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.

"18 And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive." (2 Nephi 31:17-18)

Notice the Holy Ghost witnesses of God unto the fulfilling of the promise. This is faith! The promise is not gained by passing through the gate of baptism. It is earned through enduring faith on this path until you have gained them. Hence Nephi continues to explain that faith is required on this path and then defines faith...

"19 And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen." (2 Nephi 31:19-21)

The first 6 verses in chapter 32 are a re-writing of the last 4 verses in chapter 31 to help people understand what they have to do after they have entered onto the straight and narrow path. (These next 6 verses are from 2 Nephi 32)

"1 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, I suppose that ye ponder somewhat in your hearts concerning that which ye should do after ye have entered in by the way. But, behold, why do ye ponder these things in your hearts?

2 Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?"

He reminds us that we have the power of the Holy Ghost with us. That we can use this on this path. The companionship of this God is critical to the work we have to do on this path.

"3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."

This has multiple implications. One, that we can search the scriptures or words of the prophets for God's will for us individually. Two, that we have the power within us (so long as we have the companionship of the Holy Ghost) to speak the words of Christ for ourselves (AKA receive God's commands through personal revelation). It is important to note that these revelations will tell you what to do. Things like keep the sabbath day holy, or pay ten percent of your increase annually, or give thanks to God day and night, etc. I have found it gets even more specific such as, stop your car and wait, or knock on this persons door and offer them your service, or call this person, or repent and change this in your life.

"4 Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark."

This verse really puts knowledge in it's place. Knowledge cannot save anyone. Not even Satan was saved with all he knew. We can search the scriptures for an eternity but unless we ask and knock (Pray and do the things we are shown to do) we will not be brought into the light.

"5 For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do."

Here is the kicker of righteousness. You can try to be obedient but without revelation, you are not obedient to God's will, just your own understanding of His will. We must all rely upon God to show us His will through the Holy Ghost, a person and a God who knows all and is able to show us anything we need and want. Once we know what to do and how to do it, we can act in faith on this path and endure to the end to gain eternal life.

"6 Behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and there will be no more doctrine given until after he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh. And when he shall manifest himself unto you in the flesh, the things which he shall say unto you shall ye observe to do.

7 And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be.

8 And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.

9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."

And there it is again. Pray to know God's will, to know what he wants you to do. To know what to hope for that you may have faith in God and gain His wonderful blessings He has waiting for you. Notice that when we pray, our actions are consecrated for our good and the welfare of our souls. This is faith. It is being led by Rebekah in your daily walk to obtain the hopes and desires you and God have counseled over in prayer. 

To sum up, faith has some key elements that I have found throughout the examples and teachings on faith in the scriptures:

1. Prayer: Talk to God about your desires; what you hope for. Seek for things which are good and true and you know are right.
2. Revelation: The answer to that prayer (or many prayers) will be a promise or assurance that what you seek for is OK to seek for. That you can have that thing. It is not realized yet and therefore you have an assurance in something you hope for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith can now begin.
3. Prayer: Faith continues as you seek God's will in obtaining that hope you have an assurance for.
4. Revelation: You will receive more revelation about what to do to gain that assurance.
5. Act: Do as you are instructed. Do it God's way, not your way. If you cannot answer the question, "How has God instructed you to do that?" then you are not acting in faith and your faith is dead. You have become a law unto yourself and will fall. You must submit to God and exercise faith in Christ through constant revelation and inspiration in how to act and get this work done.
6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you have gained the hope you sought for. (Hebrews 10:36)
7. Witness the miracle!
8. Give thanks.

A great example is Joseph Smith Jr. when he learned about baptism in the Book of Mormon. He wanted to be baptized and learned it was required. He could have just ran to a river and said the same words Alma did or repeat the words given by Moroni on how they baptized. He could have dunked himself at the same time as dunking Oliver Cowdery and it would have been according to what he was told in scripture. Would it be right? We know today that he lacked priesthood authority and authorization to baptize. It would not be OK. It would not be faith either because it would beget no miracle and because it would not be done according to God's will. Hence, Joseph, already practiced in acting in faith, went in prayer and asked God if he and Oliver could be baptized. The answer came, angels ministered, power was given, and their faith answered with a miracle of being baptized and empowered to baptize others. They gained the hope they sought for.

I have discovered that God will require me to do things different than my neighbor in order to keep the same commandments we have both been given. We cannot judge, nor can we assume the will of God. We must seek for his will in all things and do it. Abraham sought for the same blessings as his fathers but he nor any of his fathers did the same thing to gain that same blessing.

Remember, it is by faith in small things that we gain the faith to save our souls. The words of Christ inspire us to know what it is we can and should hope for. The gift of the Spirit we obtained at baptism will invoke within us the knowledge of what we should hope for and how to go about doing it.

To help give examples of simple ways to exercise faith I tried this with my daughter. Back in May, she got into a car accident. Both cars were totalled. Her experience left her with extreme anxiety which I've the past months grew until her neck muscles wouldn't let her turn her head and her fear of driving was extreme and she wouldn't drive. 

Her loyalty outweighs her fear still so one day she drove to work because I and her mother were on a date together. A little past ten at night we get a text that she needs help driving home. So we stopped by her work and I got into her car with her. She started to drive and quickly discovered she was avoiding all left turns and taking us in a strange direction to do so. I had pull the car over and we talked. She believed her fear to be superior to anything. When I told her she was going to take only left turns to get home, she panicked. She was convinced it was going to take months and years to get over this. I helped her see that she obtained this fear in an instant and our minds, bodies, and hearts are able to change as quickly in any direction. She wasn't convinced. So I suggested we try out faith as I explained it to her just the Sunday before. So we prayed. I asked God if Ella could take only left turns and make it home without scratch, dent, or harm. After the prayer the Spirit filled our hearts. 

"Do you feel the Spirit?" I asked.  "Yeah," she replied. "Do you feel better?" I asked again. "Yeah," she responded. "See, you can feel better in an instant." I smiled. She retorted, "but I still have fear dad. It only feels a little better." " OK. But you do feel it and now you know, God has given us an assurance that what we hope for is ours to have. We can take all left turns and you know nothing will happen. You have nothing to fear." I said and she listened. So we drove. At each turn, I asked how she felt and at each turn she felt better. The cat kept filling with the power of the Spirit of God until she we got home we stopped in the driveway and sat there. "How do you feel Ella?" I asked. "Really good dad." "You just exercised faith Ella. You had a hope, gained an assurance, and did as you were instructed and now have witnessed the miracle. You got home safely and you feel better." I was elated. She then asked, "So am I supposed to pay every time I drive?" She asked sincerely. "I would hope that one day you won't need to but if you need it, yes you can."

Notice how this scripture was fulfilled in my example. In the very hour of need, I and my daughter were able to rely Yoon or pay choices to study the scriptures together, really upon inspiration or the words of Christ in a teaching about faith, and then practice it which brought pistis or knowledge and evidence that it works. Or faith was restored in that moment. 

There are so many other examples of faith. When you see a miracle, you know faith was used. Look for that faith and the ingredients of it. Please study Hebrews 11 and Moroni 7 because they will show you that it is within your power to ask God for anything and you can obtain a perfect brightness of hope and gain the most desired blessings. It is a pathway, not an event. It will take endurance, not indifference. It will take a keen eye and heart to know the imperfections of your actions and the humility to change them so you can be faithful and live righteously and enjoy the fruits of faith.

There is another common belief that I did not list at the beginning because it is had amongst many saints and I did not want to distract from the message. It is the belief that if one knows something then they cannot have faith in that thing anymore because they know it and they believe that faith requires a lack of knowledge. Hence I was taught in my youth that if Christ was standing in front of me, I could not act in faith. This was the purpose of the veil. This would assume that testimonies overcome faith. Hence if I had testimony in Christ, I should not have to exercise faith anymore. This is false and contains bits of truth mixed with Eikasia knowledge (assumptions of shadows of things they knew existed but didn't understand). Another example is that if I knew that I would not get a scratch in a car wreck that was about to happen, I couldn't act in faith because I already knew what was going to happen. This is wrong. I believe it is derived from the truth that faith begets testimony and knowledge and that when one gains the knowledge or testimony they sought they no longer need to act in faith for that thing. It is false in assuming knowledge destroys the ability to exercise faith. Knowledge can actually make faith a lot harder, such as knowing a people will burn you alive or stone you if you go back to preach to them. Knowledge is required to have something to hope for. If you don't know you can hope for something, then you lack knowledge to gain it. Then it takes more knowledge to know God will allow you to gain it. Then it takes more knowledge to know what to do to gain it. Knowledge is so much a part of Faith that there is no way to separate them. Men, Prophets, and Angels act in faith and many of them have knowledge superior to ours. Even the God's act in faith excepting God the Father who is the creator of the laws and sits above all to give to all according to their faith in Him. If Christ acted in faith (Hebrews 10:37-38;12:2, 2 Nephi 31:15) on this earth being a God, then a lack of knowledge or heaven is not needed to have faith. Testimonies are gained through faith. The faith we have been walking ends when we gain the testimony (A.K.A. miracle) it was based upon.

So now we can look at the Old Testament and find the works of faith in it. We can consider the promises they sought for, then made, then gained. We can then consider for ourselves what blessings we desire as we find them within the scriptures like Abraham did, "I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence; And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers. It was conferred upon me from the fathers; it came down from the fathers, from the beginning of time, yea, even from the beginning, or before the foundation of the earth, down to the present time, even the right of the firstborn, or the first man, who is Adam, or first father, through the fathers unto me. I sought for mine appointment unto the Priesthood according to the appointment of God unto the fathers concerning the seed." (Abraham 1:1-4) 

We will find that they (Old Testament authors) called faith by a different name. They called it Righteousness. "My fathers, having turned from their righteousness, and from the holy commandments which the Lord their God had given unto them, unto the worshiping of the gods of the heathen, utterly refused to hearken to my voice;" (Abraham 1:5) They turned from righteousness AND from keeping the commandments. Like Nephi taught, the words of Christ will tell you all things you should do through the Holy Ghost. These are above and beyond the commandments given to the world by God through His prophets.

"25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us." (Deuteronomy 6:25)

There are 201 instances of righteousness that can be gleaned over to learn more about faith. It works and it is in our hands to use being baptized and having the power of God among us to reveal to us His will that we might act in obedience to His commandments and seek His will to gain promises that all lead us to eternal life.

This then gets personal. Can you look on yourself and ask yourself, "Am I acting in faith?" Try it in any commandment God has given. Try the command to keep the sabbath day holy. Have you counseled with God in how He wants you to do that or do you follow the culture and counsel and desires of others or yourself? Can you say, "God has told me to do this to keep the sabbath day holy?" Ask this with tithing, chastity, priesthood covenants, your baptismal covenant, and all other commandments and instructions God has given. And do you see how every commandment God has given, every instruction and rule, has been so you can exercise faith in Christ and receive miracles in your life on a constant basis? Priesthood leaders become an avenue to try and exercise new faith. You get to have miracles on a constant basis. And if you continue, Angels will minister to you.

"...for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain." Moroni 7:37

If you think you have been acting in faith, but struggle in your belief, you may know that what you have been doing is not faith. If you have your firm testimony and know certain things, but the last time you witnessed a miracle was years ago, your current walk is not a walk in faith but a walk outside the will of God and fueled by faith lived long ago. The answer is simple. Repent and come unto Christ in prayer and supplication. Plead with Him for all your heart's concerns and he will give you a yoke to wear. You wear that yoke and pull that cart with him and you will get to your destination you desired. It always works.

For those who claim they cannot receive revelation, Joseph Smith is here to stare you down and get you back into the chair you once sat in to realize the divine nature you posses. 

"No man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations. The Holy Ghost is a revelator." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.328)

"A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus." (History of the Church 3:381)

So now you have it, At a young age we baptize children so that they may exercise faith in God. We practice prayer and fasting to gain revelations. We are given commandments and instructions and scriptures to give us things to hope for. With those hopes, if we seek for them, we can have them. We can gain every single promise and blessing God has to offer and along the way, witness miracle after miracle on this walk of faith. I LOVE this gospel. It is so complete and uplifting in every way.