©2003 by George A. Boyd
Faith is a belief or expectation held about the working of transpersonal
or supernatural agencies that operate in the field of the Superconscious
mind. On the basis of this belief, the believer may feel that this Higher
Power can help him or her in various ways if invoked by prayer or other
form of worship or communion.
The believer may call upon different spiritual or supernatural agencies
in different cultures or religious groups. The believer may invoke a Divine
being believed to inhabit an idol, a natural locale, or imbue a force
of Nature. Spirits of ancestors, sundry spirits or guides, angels, gods,
goddesses, spiritual Saints, Masters or Avatars, or a Universal God construed
as the Divine Creator may likewise be invoked in other cultures.
This evocation of this spiritual or supernatural agency may take the
form of requests aimed at improving your life and person. You may variously
invoke your Higher Power for strength, physical and emotional healing,
prosperity, finding a mate, having children, achieving success in important
tests, help getting employment, or overcoming obstacles in reaching your
goals.
You may also call upon your Higher Power to help you accomplish spiritual
aims. Examples of spiritual aims include gaining salvation, supplication
for the personal and spiritual needs of others, finding a Master Teacher,
developing holy virtues, making spiritual progress, entering a heavenly
realm after the death of the body, or traveling back to the Divine Presence
while alive.
Stages of Faith
Faith may be said to pass through three stages: religious or exoteric
faith, mystical or mesoteric faith, and essential or esoteric faith. Seven
manifestations of faith are shown below.
Stage |
Type |
Description |
Exoteric |
1 |
You believe in a Saint, Master, and or/the Divine (or other supernatural
agency). You pray or invoke these spiritual agents to intervene
and intercede on your behalf to obtain personal and spiritual aims. |
2 |
You believe in the veracity of the scriptures or written teachings
of your religious group, and hold it to be Divine Revelation or
the Word of God. (In other groups, these sacred truths may be transmitted
by an oral tradition comprising the telling of stories, myths, parables,
or mystery tales). |
3 |
You believe in the manifestation of desired goals through affirmation,
visualization, and prayer. You expect this outcome based in the
working of invisible metaphysical laws, as the fulfillment of scriptural
promises, or through the miraculous intervention of spiritual agencies
such as Saints, angels, the Holy Spirit or other form of Divine
Power. You tenaciously hold this belief despite lack of confirmatory
empirical evidence. |
Mesoteric |
4 |
You hold the conviction that you are established in your spiritual
essence in the Divine Law. You believe that you can manifest, according
to the level of your spiritual development, whatever your inner
powers or abilities permit. This is the direct operation of the
transpersonal will working through your higher vehicles, activating
your innate spiritual powers and gifts. Those abilities that are
not accessible to you through the lower octaves of the will that
operate in the personality may seem miraculous or supernatural.
In mesoteric faith, you find a wellspring of power and ability within
your own Soul, but may not have a sense that you are personally
activating or making this power operate. |
Esoteric |
5 |
You invoke an Initiate or the Divine to send the Light of Attunement
through your attentional principle. You trust the Light will be
sent and will minister through you. You are able to make different
attunements with others, and ultimately awaken and initiate others
through this means. |
6 |
You invoke an Initiate or the Divine to open the light and sound
of the Nadamic path. You trust the path will be opened and the inner
guide will appear to the spirit. |
7 |
You remember the goal or calling of your spiritual development
in your attentional principle. You bring awareness and realization
of that goal to your ensouling entity, and have the belief that
you will eventually evolve to that state of being. |
Religious faith (types 1-3) is typically based upon beliefs founded
in scripture, testimony of others, preaching or discourse, or personal
experience of the apparent miraculous in response to prayer or affirmation.
Invocation and prayer is directed towards agencies beyond the Soul, such
as angels, saints, gods or God. The working of these agencies is here
mysterious or magical.

Mystical faith (type 4) is founded upon the realization that you
are the ensouling entity, and you can freely create or manifest using
your innate abilities or powers. Here you do not look to agencies beyond
the Soul, but experience you have the ability to create and manifest innately.
You discover these powers operate within your Soul, although sometimes
they manifest independently from your personal whim or wish.

Essential faith (types 5-7) is the recognition and invocation
of an Initiate or the Divine through your three highest principles: your
attentional principle, your spirit, and your ensouling entity. Here you
operate as a conscious co-worker with the Divine in esoteric ministry
of the Light, actively unfold your spiritual potential and fulfill your
spiritual calling, and have direct communion with the Initiate(s) who
work(s) with you and the Divine. In esoteric ministry, these Initiates
are directly known. [For example, you don't believe in Jesus; you
know him, as he is in his Soul body and commune with him in his
higher vehicles in each realm of the Great Continuum of Consciousness.]
Mystery is transcended through discernment; you develop penetrating intuitional
wisdom.

Understanding Faith
It is important to understand faith in its different stages. As spiritual
evolution unfolds, you may see a corresponding shift in your faith from
exoteric to its mesoteric and esoteric manifestations. It may begin as
innocent and childlike faith, then change into a faith that comes from
inner knowing and direct Realization.
Faith is with you through all stages of your spiritual growth and development.
It bridges your initial reach upward to a Power beyond yourself, proceeds
through different levels of invocation and communion with that inner Source,
and follows you through the progressive development of essential mastery.
Meditate upon faith. Recognize its different manifestations as you see
it working in others and in yourself. Use it to garner personal strength
and courage to face the vicissitudes of life, to manifest your chosen
aims and dreams, and to commune with and serve the Divine.
Faith is a mighty power. Know it, use it, and master it. It will bring
you untold blessings and open the floodgates of Divine Grace.

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