Like unbelief, belief is infectious. It is easier to have faith around those who have more faith than you. You will see this effect everywhere you look, in all aspects of life. Wise men and women of all walks of life have realized this truth, and they will tell you things such as “the people you surround yourself with will influence how you are,” and “the ideas you expose yourself to will determine your identity.”
Beliefs come from outside of you: from other people, or from God, or from the devil. These all operate in you, but they don’t start there.
Faith “comes” by “hearing” (see Romans 10:17). In this case, “hearing” means perceiving any invitation to believe in something that you don’t currently believe. It is possible to experience an invitation to believe without perceiving it. The scriptures are full of injunctions to “see” and “hear” these invitations: “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.” (Isaiah 42:18) During his mortal ministry, Jesus repeatedly lamented his audience’s unwillingness to perceive in spite of their ability to do so:
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. (Matthew 13:13)
He commended those who responded to the invitations they were capable of perceiving:
But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. (Matthew 13:16)
“Hearing” is not limited to what you audibly perceive with your natural senses, though it includes that information. “Hearing” means receiving these signals in the multiple ways they can manifest, across the infinite breadth and infinite depth of information they can transmit. It means paying attention to them so that you can perceive them. It means honestly responding to them as justified by their content as soon as you perceive them.
The possession of beliefs by one person will make it easier for others to believe the same. In the idea phase, a belief can be spread from one person to another. Once put into practice, a belief generates evidence, making it easier for others to believe it. Or, as Jesus expressed, “wisdom is justified of her children.” (Matthew 11:19) A belief is hard won in the mind of the first person who receives it, but it is much more easily transmitted from person to person, just as it is easier to use an invention than create one.
The transmission of true beliefs through other people provides a way of catalyzing action in others that would not otherwise occur. This is how faith spreads: first appearing in the minds of those who exert the extreme effort necessary, then more easily spreading abroad to those who are unwilling to do the same:
22 For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing.
23 And God also declared unto prophets, by his own mouth, that Christ should come.
24 And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men, which were good; and all things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them.
25 Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing; and thus it was until the coming of Christ. 30 For behold, they are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness.
31 And the office of [angels] is to call men unto repentance, and to fulfil and to do the work of the covenants of the Father, which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the way among the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony of him.
32 And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men. (Moroni 7)
Because the foregoing passage refers to faith in Christ, you may be tempted to assume it does not apply to all circumstances where one could have faith. Realize that “faith in Christ” refers to the full set of anything anyone can have faith in. Anytime you see someone catalyze action towards an otherwise unobtained outcome, you see this pattern in play. In all places and all circumstances, faith rests on the laws of cause and effect as they really are. These laws were generated by and fulfilled in Christ. Faith can be applied in any circumstance by any person, and it is fully applied when that person realizes that Christ is the fullness of the laws of cause and effect in all situations.