Faith — The First Spiritual Power

The first spiritual power that Charles Fillmore discusses in his book The Twelve Powers is faith. Faith is our ability to believe and it is our beliefs that decide how we think, feel and act in any situation. It is our ability to Intuit and perceive.

Cora Fillmore, in her companion book Christ Enthroned in Man says that faith is “the quality of the mind that moves and molds ideas and brings them to concrete expression. Faith is the assurance or confidence of the mind that invisible substance is the source of visible material things.”

Jesus says over and over when people came to him for healing or solutions to life’s problems, “according to your faith let it be done to you.” This was always his reply!

Peter — The Faith Disciple

For Fillmore, faith is represented by the disciple Peter, the first and greatest of the disciples. But in the beginning Peter was known as Simon who was just a crude fisherman. (Simon means “hearing.”) Paul, in Romans, tells us that “faith comes by hearing.” We listen receptively to truth, receive it into our minds and consciousness and this opens the way for receiving the next degree in divine order, faith.

The more Simon listened to the words of Spirit that Jesus spoke and allowed them to become real and alive to him, the more he became Peter — the Rock, Faith!

The ability to trust God grew in his life as it does in ours.

Faith is our ability to spiritually know. It is our ability to say “Yes” to our good. Faith draws our good from the invisible realm and causes it to manifest in the visible world. “As you believe, it will be done to you.”

One of the most memorable times in Peter’s life was when he accompanied the disciples out in a boat one night and a storm arose that threatened to sink the boat.

The disciples looked out and saw what they thought was a figure — a ghost and they were very afraid. But the figure cried out, “Take Courage (or have faith), it is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Peter thought it was Jesus and so he said, “If it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” And Jesus said, “come.”

And so Peter stepped out of the boat and started walking.

He did ok as long as his gaze was up — looking toward Jesus — toward the Truth. But as soon as he lowered his vision and allowed himself to think about and believe all that he had been taught all his life (people can’t walk on water) he began to sink!

When he allowed himself to regain his contact with his real Truth then he walked tall on the water.

What Do You Put Your Attention On?

Too often we are like a friend of mine who loves to watch crime dramas like CSI and NCIS. These types of shows just keep her reminded of all the evil, bad people who are out there just waiting to harm, abuse and deceive us. This dominates her thoughts and words and ultimately her life.

Others watch the news and read newspapers which are all filled with accounts of the latest catastrophes or terrorist threats. And we watch our faith in these things begin to increase as our lives begin to sink under the waves of fear and worry.

Like Peter, we need to pay attention to where we put our attention!

Faith Center — The Pineal Gland

Charles Fillmore located the faith center in the center of the head in the pineal gland which is often called the master gland. It is located between the ears and the eyes. These are the avenues through which most of us get our information about life. This information is always limited to what has happened before — information which is also known as precedents.And so as we live according to what we see or hear then our life is characterized by fear, anger, hatred and worry.

We need to center on our faculty of faith and our inner vision and hearing. As we do, our results will express the highest realizations of our spiritual nature. We can develop our faith through prayer and meditation and at its highest level, our faith will be directed by our spiritual nature from the Christ center at the crown of our head.

We start like Peter — being receptive to Truth ideas and then we let them grow until we feel our absolute oneness with the quality of faith — feeling it in such a way that we no longer think about having faith, but expressing it automatically, as Jesus did.

Now I am going to share with you a way to help your faith center to increase.

A Meditation Technique for Increasing Faith

Try using these affirmations daily and see what effect they have on your own faith.

Say: The Christ of God is quickened in me.

I AM aware that the Christ of God is quickened within me.

I AM grateful that the Christ of God is quickened with me.

The Christ in me calls forth Peter, my disciple-faculty of faith.

As you do this, visualize Jesus speaking these words, “According to your faith be it done unto you.”

Sit with this for few moments and when you feel ready affirm, “I AM grateful” as you close this meditation moment.

Repeat this meditation daily and watch as your faith center increases.