Dear friends,

Faith is not something you must have and practice.  It is something that is given you, which you must then let be to do its perfect work!  Faith is not an act of will, but a benefit of willingness.  It is not something you exert, but something you yield to.  And this is all made clear in the experience of the holy instant, when you abandon self-reliance and reach out to God.

In the silence of the holy instant, the absence of self-confidence, and the quiet desire to know of the Father what the Truth is, you make room for Him to illuminate It and inspire in you the willingness to abandon ingrained doubts which have interfered with the "sudden shift of perception"—the healed experience—called "the miracle."

You must not let the importance of these words escape your attention.  On the surface they seem to be promising "feel-good" words to roll around in your mind and savor the sweetness of, when in actuality they are firm, mandatory, authoritative and unequivocal—words full of power!

The meaning of the holy instant, as introduced in A Course in Miracles, completely reverses the meanings of "faith" and "faithlessness, requiring the complete abandonment of the concept of "self-reliance" as valuable in any way.  However, because self-reliance is such a fundamental concept, promoted as inseparable from the meaning of life from infancy on, its undoing, its invalidation, must be looked at squarely, else its unbelievability will cause the invalidation to be delayed and the "sweet words" will make ignorance seem to be bliss.

Let's be very clear:  Prayer is the abandonment of self-reliance!  It always has been.  But prayer is never just turning to the Father and reaching beyond habitual self-reliance.  No!  It is turning to the Father.  It is reaching beyond habitual self-reliance.  But in addition, it is saying "yes" to God when He answers!  In other words, prayer is actualized, prayer is consummated, true healing occurs when authority is actually transferred in the act of saying yes—the act of agreement—to terms you did not originate!

Faith is the gift received of the Father when one turns his attentive curiosity to the Father and willingly stands ready to receive without interjecting preconceptions or preferences as filters through which the Father's answers must come.

Faith has always come from the Father first!  Never from you.  Therefore, faith coming from you has never met the criteria of what Faith actually is, and has always been nothing more than "confidence" in yourself—confidence in your beliefs, your memory, your concepts.  Faith coming from you has thus been "faithlessness" because the Father was never brought into the picture.

Confidence is an enforcement of your beliefs through the use of will to convince yourself first, and then others, of something which is not True—something you made up.  Enforcement is not faith.  It is only an expression of commitment to what you believe—which can appear to be a show of faith.  But without the holy instant, without prayer in its truest meaning, without asking of the Father, "What is the Truth here?" it is faithlessness and there are no fruits.

Now, let's go back to what I said earlier:

"In the silence of the holy instant, the absence of self-confidence, and the quiet desire to know of the Father what the Truth is, you make room for Him to illuminate It . . ."  and he will!

This unalterable Fact is called the Constancy of Faith because it is the forever-present gift of God presenting itself to each one of us, and is the means of returning Home.  It is a promise, because it is the Father's Will.  And it is mandatory, authoritative and unequivocal—unbreakable—because it is the Father's Will.

It has been said that “Hope springs eternal in the human breast"—a sentiment most would agree with.  The sentiment is empty of meaning, however, since what comes next is: “Man never is, But always to be blest” placing blessing in the context of future, never present fulfillment.

Hope is what an orphan has, calling it faith when it is not.  But the active joining with the Father puts one in receipt of Faith that silences fear and doubt and all that blocks the experience of fulfillment now!  Self-reliance is impotence—no fulfillment now—while Faith received from the Father, because you abandoned self-reliance and asked of Him, means that you are in the holy instant where God’s laws prevail, His omnipotence is now, and you know it!  The sudden shift of perception, the miracle, occurs!

Paul sat down to listen for this communication because the Foundation’s bank balance is less than $300.00 and it is once again the time of month when the majority of the expenses come due.  Approximately $5,000 as usual.  Help is needed and help is appropriate, since autonomy, self-sufficiency and independence are not the means of the extension of my words or of my involvement with all of you.

And so, Paul did what I have just shared about the Constancy of Faith.  His doing it made it possible for the sharing to occur.  But, as I said, before Paul abandoned his preconceptions in order to listen for my voice, he thought the sharing was to express the need.  And after the sharing was finished, he indulged in thinking again and wondered why the need was not expressed.  And so, right now, I am explaining to him, and to everyone, that you must trust the Constancy of Faith which comes to meet you as you approach the Father.  And you must persist in bringing your attention to Him if you have further questions about what has been inspired in you to express.

Paul needs to know that what I have shared fulfills purpose beyond the sharing of a perceived need and that the sharing was to be whatever the gift of God was when he yielded to it.

The gift we make continues when perceived lack or fear or doubt doesn’t immobilize Paul into not listening.  And, likewise, the gift of Faith continues unfailingly when you are not immobilized by an inclination to withdraw further into privacy, feel sorry for yourself and refuse to avail yourself of the holy instant.

The Gift always continues and each of us is part of It.