Blog & Videos  
Quotes  
Books
About
Search
Register
Login

The transmissible nature of beliefs is a benefit with true beliefs, but causes great harm with false beliefs. While those with more faith than you boost the signal, those with less faith than you attenuate it. Your exercise of faith will be impeded by the presence of those with less faith. Jesus couldn’t do great miracles in places where people had little faith (see Mark 6:5), and when he did work miracles, he noted how “virtue [went] out of [him].” (Luke 8:46)

Avoiding the presence of those with less faith is one way to mitigate their negative influence. For example, when Jesus went to raise a young girl from death, he first dismissed those who would not believe from the room:

40 And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.
41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.
42 And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. (Mark 5)

Sometimes, it is not practical to separate yourself from those with less faith. In such cases, what becomes important is the duration and frequency of time you can spend apart from them. The more faith you have in comparison to those around you, the more often you will have to do this. Jesus routinely left everyone to be alone with the Father. All of the righteous ancients did the same, to some extent.

When you are figuratively or literally in the mountains, this is the place and time where you access the deepest, fullest faith to obtain, articulate, distill, and refine ideas. These times away from those who would detract from your faith are like jumping in zero gravity. You will have an easier time obtaining, developing, and refining ideas regarding your desires, reasons, actions, and outcomes. Leverage that time to capture those ideas and carry them back into times and places where you interact with others of less faith. Always have a means to write down and revise everything you can while there. At the conclusion of these sessions, you can go back into the world and act from your recorded plans, leaning on your preparation to push back against the faithlessness of others around you.