I’ve been carrying a special coin for more than ten years. It’s inscribed with the famous quote, “All things are possible with faith.” It has a mustard seed in it. It’s a great reminder to hang in there; to have faith in today, tomorrow, your dreams, and more.
This morning I noticed I lost it. I didn’t worry about it, though, as I had faith I would find another. I went online and did.
But how many people lose their faith and then give up?
How many people have faith but don’t use it for anything?
Mustard Seed Coin
Faith is tricky. Some people use it as a form of self-delusion. They use it as an excuse to not take any action.
They say they “have faith” they will get the money for the bills, or find the cure for their health issue, or stumble across the love of their life.
They sit and wait for the results.
After all, they “have faith.”
But faith without action can be self sabotage.
I’m all for having faith. I wrote an entire book about it.* I’m all for being relaxed about life and letting things you want appear. But I find they appear faster, and more reliably, if I move toward them.
For example, I have faith I’ll write an interesting blog post here for you today, even though I have no idea what I’m saying or going to say as I write this. But I am writing. I am doing, and in that doing, my faith will bring fruit.
I’m inviting you to have faith, and to use it as motivation to do something.
In other words, without faith, there’s little likelihood that you’ll do anything at all. You’ll sleep walk through life. You’ll go with whatever flow is presented to you. That’s okay if you’re willing to remain one of the walking dead. That’s fine if you’re content with the flow your life is currently in.
But what if you want more, or something different, or a smoother flow?
When you have faith, you are fortified internally to do something to make your dreams come true.
Faith gives you wind for your sails. When you have faith that you will attract the money you need, or the relationship you seek, you are positioned to take action to attract the results you expect.
But action is still needed.
Click image to pre-order "Faith"
I’ve been trying to understand why so many people are resistant to taking action. My hunch is they fear doing something they detest; or they fear the result — success or failure — of their actions.
But everything in life is action.
Even “non action” is a type of action. Prayer is an action. Meditating is an action. Imagery is an action. Action is not all digging ditches or taking out the garbage. Action can be small, like breathing, but usually is more intentional, like deep breathing to relax.
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” -Anatole France
Faith can help you take action. After all, the mustard seed’s coin says anything is possible with faith. I’ve often told audiences that a mustard seed has no doubt. It’s going to be mustard. It’s clear.
When you have that kind of faith, virtually anything really is possible for you.
Faith is only a delusion when you use it to replace action. Thinking faith will keep you dry in the rain isn’t smart. Take an umbrella and have faith it will keep you try.
Here’s one more example:
Mathew Dixon and I are currently in the studio recording new music for the follow-up album to our bestselling, “Aligning to Zero.” http://www.aligningtozero.info
When we are in the studio, we have no idea what we will record. We go in with the intention to create something as stunningly beautiful (or better) than “Aligning to Zero,” but that’s it. We don’t have songs or melodies or much more direction than that.
Mathew Dixon and yours truly
We have faith that music will come, because we are preparing to receive it.
We are acting. We are doing. We are available. We are in the studio. We have our guitars and mikes and software. And we are experimenting with ideas, feeling out what wants to appear.
But get this: We wouldn’t even go into the studio if we didn’t have faith that something would come to us by our action of going into the studio!
Faith comes first.
And the results so far have been spectacular. We are recording music so heavenly that I am in awe. To think that we had nothing (but faith), and then out of our allowing (and action), came inspiration.
Wow!
It’s yet another miracle.
The same kind that is available to you, too.
Faith may only be delusional when you don’t actually do anything with it.
Have faith – and act.
I lost my faith coin today.
But my faith that I could get another one was right there.
I took action.
I have a new coin coming.
Where’s your faith?
Where’s your action?
Ao Akua,
joe
PS – *My new book, Faith, will be available on February 15th. You can pre-order Faith online right now at http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Dr-Joe-Vitale/dp/1927005159/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357824279&sr=1-1&keywords=faith+joe+vitale
- Member BBB 2003 – 2013
22 Comments
Another insightful blog post arriving at just the right time….thank you Dr Vitale.
I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you… that’s all I have to say 🙂
And that says it all. 🙂
Joe, I want to thank you so much for bringing ho’oponopono into my life.
I’ve gone through all your books including Adventures Within, and I’m so grateful you’ve taught me, and so many others, how to do these things so our minds can be equipped all the best tools and knowledge for success if we’re welling to put in the effort.
I have a question though that I’d love to hear your answer to, because I’m turning 25 in a couple of weeks, and I am one of those kids who made some bad choices when I was younger and wound up facing a LOT of challenging situations in my life (I got to find all this wonderful information as a result of being gifted with these challenging opportunities and situations to learn and grow).
But a question I wanted to ask you is, given everything you’ve gone through, and all your wisdom and experience now, if you could go back in time, and tell your 25 year old self one sentence you wished you’d heard back then, to take with you for the rest of your life back then, what would that one sentence be?
The miracle is right now. All is well.
That was beautiful. Even if a baby is still in utero and not fully developed yet, it’s still a miracle in progress, yet already here at the same time, and is just moving towards completion, and all is well simply by its being, even if it hasn’t arrived to fruition yet; it’s perfect as it is in every moment.
Thank you so much Joe. When you said that simple sentence it brought up a lot of things for me to clean on, but I will be forever grateful. I love you and thank you! =)
“We walk by faith, not by sight.”
Thank you for this joyful reminder.
Thank you, as well.
i just needed these words today… thank you!
You are welcome. 🙂
Always inspired by Joe Vitale’s words of Wisdom!!! 🙂 Linda
Thank you!
Apropos misunderstanding faith and action:
A very devout Christian was caught at home during a flood. As the waters crept closer to his house, a fire engine came past and the crew offered to take him with them.
“It’s okay,” said the man, “I have faith that God will rescue me.”
The floodwaters continued to rise, coming into the house. A rescue rubber boat floated up to the house and the people aboard asked if he wanted to come with them.
“I’m fine,” said the man, “God will rescue me.”
The waters rose so high that the man was forced to sit on the roof of his house. A helicopter flew up to the house, and the winchman want to know if he needed rescuing.
“God is by my side,” called the man. “With his help, I can survive anything.”
The inevitable happened, and the man drowned. He found himself standing in front of the Pearly Gates. St Peter looked at him in surprise and asked why he was there. The man told him that he had had faith in God and that he had been sure that God would rescue him. He was quite angry the God hadn’t.
“Look here,” said to St Peter. “Even God can only call the rescue services out three times!”
Without taking action, especially faith-inspired action, we get nowhere!
Great post. I really need to get one of those mustard seed coins. Joe, back when you were still struggling to realize your goals how did you deal with failure? I’m guessing you were taking action and had faith things would work out since you were listening to inspirational tapes from the library. Right now I find myself setting goals and taking action but I keep running into road blocks. I have some faith (about as small as a mustard seed) that all my goals are just on the other side of the hill but none of the actions I take seem to be getting me there. Do you need something beyond faith to get past consistent failures?
The big thing is to remember there is no such thing as failure. It’s feedback. Take the information and use it to make your next move.
So true Joe, it’s unfortunate that action isn’t emphasized enough. It is tempting to sit there and have things come to you, but it happens much more often when you are taking action.
Now that i’ve finally got that into my head, things are improving alot more than before.
-Ben
I just wanted to say thank you…I got online and stumbled straight onto this blog during a time of crisis when I was searching for some kind of confirmation/reassurance that maintaining faith in a desire manifesting actually makes a difference (especially when things look so bleak), now I realise, that is the time when faith matters most…
I’m glad I took inspired action and found your post. I hope it will serve as reminder to me to be on the watch for inspiration with respect to my desire – and that I take the appropriate action at the appropriate time to help manifest it.
Thanks again 🙂
Thank you. Here Sandra with Polish 🙂
Thank you Joe,
I was on the way of loosing my faith and I began to read your book “the key”, because I needed something to show me the way and to help me to better understand the law of attraction….and there it was the little light I needed to go on.
Now, I am looking forward to buy and read your “zero limits” and “attractor factor”
Thank you so much.
Francesca
Hei , so everybody has expectations from me and there are so many things to do…i don`t like to do many things in such of short time .
I would like to leave , to do whatever i wanna to do but i don`t wanna to upset my parents , my friends…
I wanna to be free !
The faith will help me . I am sure . And you , with your experiences , can give me an advice ! I should not care , listen my soul and be faithfull in my dreams? Or should i be serious , do the “right things” and choose later ??
Thank you and God bless you !
To all the doubters,
I have attracted many things out of the blue, with no action, in ways that many would consider magical. LOA does work! We have thousands of thoughts every day, and most of them are very repetitive. Thus, it takes major DEDICATION to change ones inner being, and thus what one attracts.
Even many LOA “experts” back down under the pressure and say: “It only works if you take action.” WRONG! This is just a belief that needs to be released. And yes, action does have it’s place, but it is not a requirement for manifestation nearly as often as people think. it only appears that way because we have been taught that is how life works, and believed it. I call BULLSHIT!
I want to leave all you doubters with two things:
“All you need is LOVE.” John Lennon
Saint James tells us, “EVERY good gift comes from above(LOVE).” Get yourself into a state of Unconditional Love, and watch the blessings unfold. LOVE makes all things possible and clears all contradicting beliefs etc.
Remember, DEDICATION!
Luke: …I don’t believe it.
Yoda: That is why you failed.
Thank you so much for being a source of inspiration and enlightenment. Blessings!