Reading descriptions of faith such as those found in Hebrews 11 may lead a reader to think that faith is a binary attribute that you either have or don’t have. That is not the case.
Faith is not a binary attribute. Faith is a continuous attribute. It exists by degrees. You can have a little, or you can have a lot, or anything in between. This is why faith is described variously as great or weak, sufficient or lacking.
Different people have different amounts of faith. Everyone has some faith. Faith is inseparable from action. All actions happen through faith. Having no faith at all would rob you of the ability to act of your own volition. You would merely be acted upon.
You have yet to meet a single person who has no faith, no matter how evil they may be, and no matter how much of an enemy to God they are. Even Satan is full of faith:
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:19)
His faith, like ours and like God’s, is the source of his power. You can’t have power without having faith.
Faith varies in which aspect of the faith cycle it is manifested and in degree. You can have great or small desires, great or small reasons, or great or small actions. In concert, these will determine the greatness or smallness of the outcomes you receive.
Those who are “more faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord” will be “favored of the Lord,” receiving manifestations of his power such as answered prayers and miracles (see Mosiah 10:13).
For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him; wherefore, it must needs be that some had faith in him, for he showed himself not unto the world. (Ether 12:7)
Great faith makes it possible to receive great outcomes. For example, the brother of Jared saw the Lord many years before his birth because of his “exceeding faith” (see Ether 3).
Great faith
What does it mean to have great faith?
Great faith means taking the next logical step beyond what you were explicitly told. So often we limit our faith by refraining from the logical extensions of our belief. The centurion who sent his friends to Jesus to request him to heal his servant had great faith:
6 Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:
7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. (Luke 7)
The centurion not only recognized that, if Jesus could heal others, he could heal the centurion’s servant, but also realized that anyone who had power from God to heal would also be able to do it without being present. Great faith means acting as extremely as your reasons suggest. In order to reach Jesus, a group of four lowered their handicapped friend through the roof of the house where Jesus was. Some might consider their actions excessive:
3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.
4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. (Mark 2)
Yet, was there anything excessive about it? If you cared about your friend, you believed there was a way he could have a normal life, and you found a man who was healing the sick, would you not do this and more to get in front of him? Most people today will go through more trouble than this just to see their favorite band play or to go on vacation.
Great faith means pushing forward with the reasons you have in spite of strong opposition and abundant reason for hurt feelings. One woman was commended for her faith when she pressed forward in spite of several rounds of poor treatment from the apostles and even Jesus:
22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. (Matthew 15)
The woman pushed forward in spite of the apostles telling her to leave, Jesus telling her to leave, and Jesus calling her a dog. The fact that she didn’t turn away from her still-valid reasons for believing Jesus was capable of healing her daughter evidenced her great faith.
Great faith means you will have a willingness to act on information received, even if it is new or strange. So often we won’t take the necessary actions to further investigate new possibilities just because they are different from what we already believe. A willingness to believe must precede new knowledge. An ancient queen exemplified a willingness to act on information received when she set aside her status and her previous beliefs after her servants suggested that a man named Ammon was a prophet and could perform miracles:
2 Now the queen having heard of the fame of Ammon, therefore she sent and desired that he should come in unto her.
3 And it came to pass that Ammon did as he was commanded, and went in unto the queen, and desired to know what she would that he should do.
4 And she said unto him: The servants of my husband have made it known unto me that thou art a prophet of a holy God, and that thou hast power to do many mighty works in his name;
5 Therefore, if this is the case, I would that ye should go in and see my husband, for he has been laid upon his bed for the space of two days and two nights; and some say that he is not dead, but others say that he is dead and that he stinketh, and that he ought to be placed in the sepulchre; but as for myself, to me he doth not stink.
6 Now, this was what Ammon desired, for he knew that king Lamoni was under the power of God; he knew that the dark veil of unbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the light which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness—yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had overcome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God—
7 Therefore, what the queen desired of him was his only desire. Therefore, he went in to see the king according as the queen had desired him; and he saw the king, and he knew that he was not dead.
8 And he said unto the queen: He is not dead, but he sleepeth in God, and on the morrow he shall rise again; therefore bury him not.
9 And Ammon said unto her: Believest thou this? And she said unto him: I have had no witness save thy word, and the word of our servants; nevertheless I believe that it shall be according as thou hast said.
10 And Ammon said unto her: Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites.
11 And it came to pass that she watched over the bed of her husband, from that time even until that time on the morrow which Ammon had appointed that he should rise. (Alma 19)
She believed that he could raise her husband from his coma in spite of the fact that the only reason she had to believe stemmed from the words of her servants and this foreign missionary.
Great faith means you conduct multiple traversals through the faith cycle without resisting or rejecting. It means you seek and obtain all value from all people and situations you have access to. In the case of messengers from God, this means learning and living everything they know about God that you don’t. Jesus commended the Nephites for their faith because, in one sitting, they had listened to and believed everything he had taught the Jews over several years:
35 And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of praying he came again to the disciples, and said unto them: So great faith have I never seen among all the Jews; wherefore I could not show unto them so great miracles, because of their unbelief.
36 Verily I say unto you, there are none of them that have seen so great things as ye have seen; neither have they heard so great things as ye have heard. (3 Nephi 19)
The more consistently and speedily you make it through the faith cycle without resisting or rejecting, the more abundant your outcomes will be in frequency and quality.
Little faith
What does it mean to have little faith?
You have little faith when you are so concerned with immediate circumstances that you can’t make decisions with respect to long-term consequences. Jesus said that our whole desire must be completely focused on the glory of God:
22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6)
There is no space in the life of a disciple of Christ for worldly desires, except as couched in and subordinate to the desire to seek and follow God’s will in all things:
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6)
You have little faith when you fail to exercise your capacity to reason. Jesus chastised the disciples for having little faith when they opted not to understand his teaching about the leaven of the Pharisees, even when it should have been very easy for them to understand:
5 And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. (Matthew 16)
You have little faith when you refuse to believe, even when given sufficient reasons to. Jesus chastised his disciples for having little faith because they did not believe him when he told them they had power to heal the sick:
14 And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. (Matthew 17)
Jesus also chastised the eleven apostles after his resurrection because they did not believe the account of those who had first seen his resurrected body:
Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. (Mark 16:14)
You have little faith when you abort the process of faith by remaining in an emotive state, failing to advance to reasoning about cause and effect.
Jesus chastised his apostles for being so afraid and worried when their boat was caught in a storm:
23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
27 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! (Matthew 8)
What makes this story even sadder is remembering that several of the apostles were fisherman who surely had experience weathering storms, and thus had even less justification for being worried.
You have little faith when you doubt a course that was rationally designed without receiving new evidence sufficient to motivate a change or to cause doubt. Peter suffered from little faith when, after seeing that Jesus could enable him to walk on water, he ignored reason and succumbed to fear:
28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? (Matthew 14)
Gaining and losing faith
Faith can fluctuate. There are choices you can make to lose it, and there are choices you can make to increase it.
Gaining faith happens internally. Faith happens in you, not to you. It happens in your mind and in your heart, as you introspect and pay attention to what you think and what you feel and why. It happens as you act on what you already know. It happens as you change your desires and augment your reasons.
You lose faith by refusing to act when given sufficient reason to. You gain faith by acting when given sufficient reason to. Faith increases as you seek God and as you reconcile yourself to what he teaches you:
Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God. (Helaman 3:35)
Calling on God as you contend with the challenge of reconciling to what you know is a sign of faith, and will bring more faith, so long as you are sincere.
Calling on God without an intent to change and without sincerity will not help you build faith. When a father pled with Jesus to help his son, Jesus said, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” (Mark 9:23) The man didn’t have sufficient faith, but he used what he had to implore the Lord for help:
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. (Mark 9:24)
The father did not delay—he asked straightway. He did not weakly request—he cried out. He was not limply emotionless—he said it with tears. You lose faith by ignoring opportunities to learn more about reality. You gain faith by making the most of every opportunity to understand more about reality. Rather than thinking of faith as a gift from God, think of it as a matched gift. You can’t beg God for faith and expect him to magically give you more without your contribution.
Success in life is not a function of your ability to beg God. A successful business person is not just another homeless person who happened to beg more or make a more convincing sign to hold up. He found the rules of the game, and he played the game better than those who were less successful. If you want success in life, you will obtain it in the same way. You will discover the rules God lives by, and you will choose to live by them. The more effort you put into discovering the rules, and the more closely you obey them, the more you will progress towards being all that God is and, because of that, having all that he has.
An ancient military leader wrote about how he gained faith in his challenges through calling upon God:
10 Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, yea, and also give us strength that we might retain our cities, and our lands, and our possessions, for the support of our people.
11 Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him. 13 And thus we did go forth with all our might... (Alma 58)
This man was praying in belief with great effort and the intent to act accordingly. He wasn’t begging God to magically change outcomes. He was praying for confidence to act and wisdom in knowing how to act. He was asking God to magnify his own willing contribution.
You lose faith by intentionally acting contrary to the best you know how. You gain faith by acting in the best way you know. Faith will not increase against your will. To increase in faith, you have to start by doing what you already know.
When a group of prisoners were enshrouded in supernatural darkness, they cried out in horror, presuming they didn’t know what to do about it. One of their fellow prisoners reminded them that three missionaries had already taught them what they should do:
40 And it came to pass that the Lamanites said unto him: What shall we do, that this cloud of darkness may be removed from overshadowing us?
41 And Aminadab said unto them: You must repent, and cry unto the voice, even until ye shall have faith in Christ, who was taught unto you by Alma, and Amulek, and Zeezrom; and when ye shall do this, the cloud of darkness shall be removed from overshadowing you. (Helaman 5)
Faith exists by degrees. Only those who develop great faith will encounter all outcomes available to us in this life and beyond.