38. Faith
Faith is not what the majority of so-called believers display. Real faith only arises when one has fully grasped the meaning of God’s Messages and thus made them a living, unshakable conviction.
God’s Messages come through God’s Word, as well as through His Creation. Everything bears witness to Him and His Will. As soon as a person can consciously experience the entire process of becoming into being and development, his feelings, thoughts and actions will be a single joyful affirmation of God. Then, however, he becomes silent, does not speak much about it, but he will have become a person who, with this silent worship of God, which can also be called trust in God, stands firmly and securely in the whole of Creation. He will not become lost in fantasies or fall into ecstasy, nor will he live on earth only in the spiritual, but will also accomplish his earthly work with a sound mind and fresh courage, skilfully using his cool head as a sharp weapon when it is necessary to defend himself when attacked without, of course, without becoming unjust. He should by no means silently or meekly suffer when he is wronged. Otherwise he would be supporting and strengthening evil.
But there are many people who only think they are believers! Despite all their inner admissions of the existence of God and His Work, they fear the smile of the doubters. It is embarrassing and uncomfortable for them; they quietly pass it over with a diplomatic expression on their faces during conversations, and out of embarrassment they constantly make concessions to the doubters through their behaviour. This is not faith, but only an inside admission! In reality, they are denying their God, to Whom they pray in silence and then expect all good things from Him.
The false consideration shown to the doubters cannot be excused by the fact that the matter is too “sacred and too serious” for the “believers’ to expose it to possible ridicule. It is no longer modesty, but only mere cowardice! Speak out at last, whose spiritual children you are! Fearless towards every man, with the pride that befits being a child of God! Only then will the doubters finally be forced to curb their mockery, which only betrays uncertainty. But now it is only being fostered and nourished by the timid behaviour of many “believers.”
These people deceive themselves because they have attached a completely different meaning to the word “faith’ than this word demands. Faith must be alive, that is, it must become even more than conviction, it must become action! It has become a deed as soon as it has permeated everything, all feeling, thoughts and actions. It must become unobtrusively felt and visible from inside in everything that belongs to a human being, and therefore becomes a self-evident fact. It must neither be held up as a fake nor as a cover. Rather, everything that becomes outwardly noticeable must merely be the natural radiance of the spiritual core inside. Proper faith, therefore, must be a force that radiates from the spirit of man, permeates his flesh and blood and thus becomes a single natural matter of fact. Nothing artificial, nothing forced, nothing learnt, but only life!
Look at many believers: They claim to believe unconditionally in a continuation of life after death, and apparently also seem to focus their thoughts on it. But if they are ever given the opportunity to obtain proof of this life beyond simple everyday observation, they are startled or deeply shaken! In this way, however, they show that they were not really so convinced of the afterlife after all, for otherwise such occasional proof would seem quite natural to them. They should therefore neither be frightened nor particularly shocked by it. Besides this, there are still countless other events that clearly reveal how little faith the so-called believers have. Faith is not alive in them.
