The importance of real genuine faith

Matthew 21:18-22 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. (19) And seeing a fig tree by the wayside he went to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. (20) When the disciples saw it they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” (21) And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will be done. (22) And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Faith can move mountains! Through an ardent longing and belief in God, a connection is made with His Power. It is the access to this spiritual power that allows believers to achieve what to intellectuals are impossible. Jesus did not mean here the movement of physical mountains, but the achievement of such great things that indeed they must be considered miraculous. The disciples demonstrated this after they had received the Power from the Holy Spirit and were able to accomplish deeds which confounded their critics.

It is the openness to this Power and the ability of believers to allow this Power to pass through them that achieves this effect. The Power simply flows through those who have opened themselves properly for It and takes effect according to Its nature. The human being is able to guide the direction of flow of this spiritual power through his will. This, however, requires that we be pure of heart. It is only purity of the intuitive perception which allows a connection to this pure power. It will never flow to a human being whose inner being does not already offer an anchorage through the nature of his pure intuition.

It is only granted to the simple and the pure in heart as Jesus have made known through His declaration on Peter. It is such a rock of simplicity and faith that allows a connection to the spiritual power which flows from On High. Here of course we must avoid the expression Divine Power. It is impossible for quite natural reasons for Divine Power to flow through human beings. Human beings have a spiritual nature and it is a gradation of this Divine Power which flows through us. This is spiritual power. It is, however, still so powerful that it can achieve the miraculous as demonstrated through the work of the disciples.

Jesus here talks about the importance of prayer. With prayer the human spirit is able to unfold itself before its Creator and can often gain connection with His Power through this. But it is not the conventional type of prayer that can achieve this. We are too used to offering mundane prayers. We say prayers by the hundred which prevents the participation of our intuitions in this process. Without the intuition, a prayer is but an empty sound. As Abd-ru-shin explains in his book “In the Light of Truth” the Grail Message, for prayers to be so effective as to rise to the Feet of the Creator it really must be that which has been pushed all the way there through the purity of the intuition.

Words may indicate a direction but they can weaken the power of prayers especially if we have to think too much about the words, even if they are formed prayers memorized and recited. When Jesus said that we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer if we have faith, He meant that through our faiths, we do not even have to ask for anything anymore. Our prayers when we have faith will be prayers of gratitude to the Creator for the wonderful Creation and for being allowed to participate in its further development.

To have faith means to live aright. To have faith means that the individual has so absorbed the knowledge of the Laws of God that it has become second nature to him. Such a one in his thoughts, words or deeds is pleasing to God because he serves God through the activity of his spirit. The goods works carried out by him through the retroactive effect of the Laws of God will automatically bring rich blessings upon him. He does not have to specially ask for anything. The Laws of God returns to him the rich harvests of his rightful activity. He knows this through his faith in God and he knows that he will be protected and cared for. He does not have to specially ask for this or for that. His works are his prayers.

Matthew 21:28-32 “What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ (29) And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he repented and went. (30) And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. (31) Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. (32) For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.

The pretence towards God of the religious leaders of Israel has been exposed by Jesus here. They pretend that they serve Him. They accepted their charge and agreed that they would serve God but they do not as shown through their attitude to His Son. Others, however, who are regarded as sinners accepted the charge of God.

In spite of their status as great religious representatives, they will now run the risks of being rejected by the Almighty because of their hostile attitude. Their cunning and the hardness of their hearts was exposed by Jesus. They accepted that they would do the bidding of God but their hearts were set on disobeying Him. They never had any plans on carrying out the Almighty’s charge. They only had their own ends at heart.