“This suggests something that has puzzled the world for ages – faith. What is faith? You who are sitting and reading these words can lay this book down, rise and walk across the floor. How do you do it, by what power? You do it by faith. If someone of your associates should say to you: “You cannot lay down that book; you cannot rise from your chair”, you would smile at the suggestions and lay down the book and rise and walk. But if a mind possessing similar power to that of the Christ should speak to your soul-consciousness and say: “You cannot lay your book down”, or “You cannot rise from your chair”, your faith in your ability to move would be overpowered and under the influence you could not move.
Then we give this definition: Faith is belief without a doubt in the inner consciousness. You have the consciousness within yourself that you can move the body, that you can do about as you please, and so you can, but that faith that you can get up and walk around the room may be counteracted and in the absence of faith you would be powerless. Now we ask you to lay this book down and to think about this condition that enables you to move your hand, and when you realize what the influence is and discover the condition of mind that enables you to move your body, you have found the key to the whole situation, you have found the key to the words of the Christ when he said, “All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.”
Everything that you can imagine is all around you, and it is just as much a material substance as those things with which you are familiar. Therefore, faith means belief that you have that which you desire, and as you read over the teachings of the Master in his wonderful sermon, believe that you have the power to live up to the requirements and refuse to allow doubts and fears to enter into your mind. Know that God is, and that in him is all power. You can believe but you can do it, however, only by refusing to disbelieve. With this thought carefully considered and worked out for yourself – for no man can make you know how to move your hand – you will discover the secret of faith.
That faith is a mental effort you may prove for yourself, for instance, by taking a weight of ten, twenty, or thirty pounds in your hand and while holding it try to think quietly and deeply upon some difficult subject. You will at once discover that in order to hold the weight you have to keep your mind on it – the holding demands the thought. We are here brought to consider faith and the powers embodied in the workings of the mind. Remember the words, “Without faith is sin.” We ask you then to work out from the little suggestion that we have given you, this great problem of faith, and then have faith in God, and all things are yours.
But in the midst of all this you may ask the question: Are we left alone to work this out for ourselves? No, emphatically no. Yahveh Elohim through his angels is watching over you with more than a mother’s care, which God expressed in the thought that he gave in the preparatory message before the delivery of the ten commandments: “If ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people.” Then hold this thought: I am a special treasure, beloved of Yahveh Elohim above all people, because I desire above all things, to know, and to do the right.”
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 