You have got to have Faith

Faith Power
I don’t claim any authority for what I am about to tell you. I am just curious and I want to share my curiosity with you. It all started when I noticed a rather odd series of happenings which seem to occur with significant repetition, but to explain I will have to go back a little way. When I was a child of about 5yrs My greatest delight of the week was to listen to a program called Toy Town on BBC Children’s Hour. Any body old enough to remember it? Larry the lamb, Dennis the dachshund, Mr Mayor, Mr Grumpy, and my favourite Mr Inventor. When I grew up I wanted to be an Inventor and so I was. I became an electronic engineer (a modern term for an inventor) and I’ve spent my life designing and creating new things. That is I have put together a series of components in a new way in order to try a new idea, not always mine I hasten to add. So I have often come to the point where I have designed and built the new instrument, It is sitting on the bench and I am going to switch it on for the first time. Now it can work exactly as it was envisaged and give us great satisfaction. But sometimes (often enough to be significant) when you switch on, absolutely nothing happens!
If Nothing Happens
If you are plugged in and switched on but nothing happens then you have to find out which part of the circuit is not working. So you probe with your test meter or oscilloscope, starting at the power supply and work your way through the series of operations. There were several times when I have done just this and at each stage I have found the device is working. Here it works at the power supply, now here it is working at the clock and the addresses are all being called. So far so good. But then when you get to the output stage and find that is working too you realise that the device has suddenly burst into life. Then you have to ask yourself what did I do that made it work? So you switch it off and leave it thirty seconds to cool down, and then switch it on again but this time it works perfectly. And afterwards, every time you switch it on the instrument bursts into life! So why did it not work the first time? Now this sequence has happened often enough to make me curious, and it only happens with a brand new idea that has never worked before, and I have to wonder ‘could it be that an element of belief was missing?’ Was I so apprehensive about it working, because I might have made a mistake in the construction, or a calculation in the design, that the apprehension itself could somehow have stopped the instrument working? But having built up my confidence that every component was working, then I had the faith to make it work. And you see, you can only catch it once, because once you have seen it working you have got the belief that every time you switch it on it will work. It only happened the first time when in fact you had never seen it working before, so you had nothing to bolster your belief. It’s not like a scientific experiment we have observed because it can not be repeated – at least it cant be repeated at will. And that’s where I say to you I speak without authority. Nevertheless I’m Curious because it could be evidence that before anything happens at all it has to be believed in. Now that I have put the spotlight on it we can see that its like learning to do anything, Swimming, riding a bike, tying a shoe lace, once learnt you can’t unlearn it. It comes naturally. But before you learnt it you did not believe you could do it – and you could not! I ask myself what can we learn from this about belief? It seems to me that belief either works or it does not. Its like a light switch and if its on its hard to turn off, but if its off its hard to turn on. You have to put a lot of pressure on it to switch it over. The observation that ‘belief either works, or 'it is not a real belief and it does not’, fits in with every day experience. But I am most interested in the techniques that can turn a false (or non working) belief into a real working belief, because as in the case of the new instrument – that makes things happen!
 
Enabling
Let me give you another example. For half my lifetime I enjoyed smoking a pipe. And nothing the doctors could say would change my mind. I just did not believe them. My experience was that my Mum and Dad smoked and my Brother smoked and they didn’t finish up at the end of life coughing and spluttering, even if the doctors try to make us believe that smokers end up this way. Their arguments simply were not true to my observation. But when the Government used the doctors advice as an excuse to continually put up the duty on tobacco, I had to value smoking in a different way. I could no longer justify the pleasure when I had to spend 25% of my pocket money on tobacco, So I decided to give it up. But as everybody knows giving up smoking is not easy. Once again we are in the area of faith. I’m quite sure that the reason smoking is difficult to give up is that you believe you cant give it up. It’s a belief system and my theory is that the belief that you need to smoke has been associated with so many things in your life, after a meal for instance – put on your pipe: if you want to think about something - put on your pipe; You sit down in the armchair for a relaxing evening- put on your pipe: So I set about breaking each association that prompted me to smoke. I called these temptations Smoking triggers. When I felt the urge to smoke I looked around for the trigger. What had I just done? What was the smoking associated with? Then I would say to myself 1 “Yes I used to want to smoke, thank you for reminding me, and it was always after dinner (or whatever the trigger was)” Then I would say “ But now I have decided that I don’t want to smoke anymore So I am not going to smoke anymore after dinner Alright?” Well, it was this technique that enabled me to decide to give up smoking and really give it up. I had established a belief that was a real belief because it worked, I can’t say that I was not troubled again but I had a way of dealing with the problem. And these days I’m not troubled by triggers any more. But the whole point of the technique, the idea that there are triggers, was my imaginary construction. It was my way of dealing with stopping the urge to smoke. The belief in how it works, the rational, was only a construction of my mind. So it seems there are constructions or reasons, that you can build that will help you change a pseudo-belief into a belief that works, and the construction simply has to be believable, even if there is no way of knowing if it is actually true.
Curing Depression
Another example. It started on my 60th birthday when I suddenly realised that I was not young any more. From now on, I thought it was going to be the aches and pains of old age. Not being able to do the things I had enjoyed in the past. All I could look forward to was memory loss and incapacity. These morbid thoughts began to dominate my mind until I felt miserable. I recognised I was suffering from no ordinary depression. Nothing I could do would shift it until I chanced to remember a character who was old but still full of life – Robin Day. Here was a person who was the exact opposite of the way I was feeling. He was confident and aggressive. He would not let the grass grow under his feet. And as I visualised him, all I could see was his flamboyant Bow tie.
 
So I threw away all my neck-ties and bought half a dozen Bright Bow ties. I was not able to get on with the real bow ties, the sort you tie yourself and I imagined the real Robin wore, but I managed with the bows that fasten with a hook and eye. Every morning I looked in the mirror and a confident Robin stared back at me. The change did not happen immediately but gradually over the next couple of weeks the depression lifted and I got my old confidence back. I had constructed a symbol of confidence and pinned it on myself in spite of my depression. I wore Bow ties from then on for some years and became associated with them. Ten years older and I don’t need to wear them every day, just for Hi days and Holidays, but I have left that worrying feeling of depression behind too. I reckon that this construction (that I was something like Robin Day) was equivalent to healing by faith. This is no different to constructing a scientific theory. Scientists imagine a construction that would fit the facts they know. Then they experiment to see if it will fit some facts they don’t know. If the deductions based on it prove correct then the theory becomes accepted (almost) as fact. They will assert that something is true because it fits the construction. But history is littered with scientific theories, discarded because of some new discovery. Yet current scientific theory is considered by the man in the street as fact because he believes in it! But I would argue science is really only another religion with Man’s IQ as its God. What if it only works because it is believed in by so many people. Now Hold back your judgement until you have heard my next construction.
Its a secret
I am going to suggest to you another principle of having faith work for you, and it is “secrecy”. If you want to see faith work for you, don’t tell anybody about what you are using your faith on. That must be a secret just for you, because I am convinced that there is such a thing as foreign belief. You see, if it is true that belief can move mountains – Your belief can move mountains (as big J said “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain ‘Go throw yourself into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart but believe what he says will happen. It will be done for him” Gospel of Mark Ch 11 verse 23). Then it must be true that other peoples belief can hold the mountains where they are! What happens in the cricket match when the bowler comes hurtling down the pitch believing he is going to knock out the middle stump, while the batsman believes he is going to knock the ball over the boundary? We can assume this is a belief conflict and it must occur in every sport we play. In fact, it may be the reason we play various sports, To tune up out belief in ourselves, or what we call our confidence. You will remember, no doubt the text in the Bible where it says about Big J “He did no mighty works there because of their unbelief” Matt 13;58 This was in his home country. And Matt 9;28 –30 tells of Big J working a miracle in which, in the first case He assures the person that it was their faith that was doing the work, and in the second place, he urged them to keep it secret. Now the usual interpretation for J wanting the miracle to be kept secret is that he wanted to be popular for what he taught rather than what he did. But was it? Was J exercising this principle of belief to protect the recent miracle from foreign (or negative) belief? I think it was the foreign faith that J was concerned with. But then I speak without Authority. Now I trust my readers will keep my secret that in my world miracles do happen. Do you have doubts? Don’t dwell on them. Replace them with positive associations. For instance if the doubt is “I cannot do xxxxx” just replace the thought with “Its been done before” or “If he can I can”. You cannot negate a doubt. To say “I’m not ill” only concentrates on the illness. You have to replace your doubt with “I have a degree of health and its growing”
Summary
Now let us summarise so far. My view is that all belief is either positive or negative, it either brings change or it inhibits change. If its positive and actively assisting change then its hard to switch it off. But if its negative and inhibiting change its hard to turn it on. I used an imaginary construction to make a positive belief out of a negative one in two cases. The first to enable me to stop smoking, and the second to lift myself out of depression. They were two cases of healing by faith. In both cases I constructed a tool for the purpose. In the first case it was a procedure and in the second it was what is called a talisman. In both cases the active ingredient was belief. Remember to keep it to yourself at least while there is some chance of your doubting it. Then when you see it working you will be encouraged. Doubts have to be replaced with a positive thought that is a good counter to the doubt. Its been done before or if he can, I can. I have a personal belief that God has given all humans the power of faith just as he has given us the power to move or speak; to make a garden or a gun: To use freely as we will and that this faith is unlimited in what it can achieve. I do not think that God will veto any power we chose to use, and I base this on the observation that he does not veto disasters. God has not left us without any protection from this power because it is a corporate power. That is why to use it you need to keep it secret. Other peoples unintentional belief will provide a framework within which we are restricted until we have learned how to use our faith. To use it powerfully we need their (perhaps unwitting ) help. We need to encourage them to believe in the possibility of our projects. This is the stuff of life, Confidence, Hope, even pressure groups, politicians, and advertisers are all struggling to shape corporate belief to serve there own ends.
Disaster
Be warned then, the power of belief can be enormous, but may I raise a question? Is it possible to use belief accidentally to cause something, that we do not want to happen? I believe that we can. Think of the first illustration I gave you. The new instrument that I am going to switch on for the first time. I want it to work but I fear that it will not. And it does not! How many other situations are like that where we have a fear that something will go bad on us. And because of the fear, which is effectively a negative faith, we maybe able to cause that fear to materialise. Once again I have no authority for what I am saying but it seems to me that if we expect to use faith that can move mountains we must expect it to be a dangerous power that could, through fear, or not understanding how to control our fears, can cause disaster. We must be careful what we allow our selves to be afraid of. Do you remember big J was always telling us to “Fear not” Fear or negative faith is akin to doubt and you must use the same technique. Don’t dwell on fear, Acknowledge it. Then replace it with a positive thought which circumvents the fear. There is, a sort of, faith existence loop. They are joined together like the chicken and the egg. You can Ask your self which came first, the chicken or the egg? The existence or it the belief? All we know is they are tied together. But I would suggest that to be rational, the belief must come before its effect. But this leaves us with a paradox. If you are going to use your faith say to cure a headache, then it is a fact that the headache exists, and to create a belief that it does not exist, you are going to have to create a belief against the evidence2. But then, the evidence may only be the result of a belief system and there are many belief systems that are not so formidable as they seem. Take the discoveries of science, Many are taken for the truth only to be overthrown when new information is discovered. Evidence can be distorted, sometimes deliberately by stage magicians, sometimes unknowingly by politicians, and sometimes mistakenly by us. Now everybody hold up your right hand. I see (in my imagination) that we all believe we have right hands. Okay, Put them down again. Now does anybody doubt they have a right hand? Did anybody say “now let me see, have I got a right hand? Where did I put it last time?” No of course not. You believed unquestionably that you have a right hand, and that’s the way faith works. It has to be believed unquestionably. Remember the story Big J told about his temptation, He wanted us to know “you are not to put the lord your God to the test” I believe this is another clue J left us about Faith. You cant test it! Belief either works or it does not. Like a light switch, its either on of off. There is no half way position. Now J expected his followers to use the power of faith. So practice it in secret. Be very careful of doubts and fears. With most belief you can see it grow. Try to form constructions in your mind that will lead up to a belief gradually. Find imaginary reasons why your faith should be effective, As I did when I used faith to stop smoking. Practice in secret and “greater things than these shall you do” said Jesus. Be quietly confident. comment welcomed roy@themillersathome.co.uk (If you do, who is to say that Roy can't find a way to answer? You have to have faith!) Web Master
Notes
Note 1
You might think that talking to oneself is funny business, but psychologists have speculated that we have a conscience and a sub conscience, and its just a way of the one (conscience) speaking to the other. In fact it could be the technique we are looking for. I am convinced that the beliefs that work are those that have been vetted and accepted by the sub – conscience so it could be that this ‘funny business’ is crucial to success.
Note 2
In this case one of the techniques you may use is time. Depending on your degree of faith you might start with “this too will pass”, Or “it will be gone tomorrow”, Or … in the next hour … minute….second.
Note 3
Belief systems can sometimes be made up of several dependant concepts. If for instance you think you deserve the headache that concept may have to be changed first. This could be a long road, depending on the size of the problem you are tackling but help is available, and you can get it by making your sub conscience a friend and getting into conversation. Be patient and the answers to your questions, or at least the next step on the journey will be presented to you in a few days. Or you could try the traditional method and just pray.