Whether does a man have faith?                  

“Whether does a man have faith? Since just faith makes the spirit suitable for practising good and true somehow in the earthly world.

Without faith man is unable to do any good. Yet with faith, he only can get on infirm, with frequent stumblings, fallen and broken because the first trait of the good is self-denial and giving up the bodily self and its benefits. Thus, if someone wants to do good or wants to give something great, he primarily has to take it from himself, since if it is not in him, then wholly it is only an empty phrase and remains a deed without essence.

I mention faith so often for you because people are certainly poor in faith; they haven’t got faith although they think they are rich in it. Since those with faith, even with very little, are made to be humble and to love by their faith. Those who have faith they have hope that all the good and true that they wish, work for and strive for will come true.

But people don’t believe it, hence they don’t believe in the future either only in the present. If they believed, this faith would lead them to God. They only believe in the good which is good for the body and the good that they can enjoy and use for the body. The good which is out of these is an unknown notion for them. If they disregarded from the body and if they were thinking according to their souls, they primarily refused vanity, that vanity which represents a man’s personality greater and more valuable before another man.

The man who really believes has fear in his soul in one hand, because he feels and knows if the divine Providence judges his spirit according to the truth, he must have a breakdown before the light if only God’s grace doesn’t hold him up. That’s why the believer fears, fears from the truth which he carries in him and which he recognized. He fears from the truth which accuses him all the time against the light which was given him by God. And, the more he believes and the more knowledge he has, the bigger the fear in him.

For that very reason, Jesus Christ gave us the Spirit of hope, confidence and solace to balance this fear not to have the human soul fainted or destroyed because of this fear.

But, by looking into the mirror of the truth, he recognizes himself as a spiritual miserable, weak and worthless: He must place trust in God’s promise by holding on God’s grace and he must rely on this which was given to the sunk-in-sins spirits by God. “

Ezotheries: Anonymous Spirit’s Manifestations, page 15, extract