Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote:
In order to repent we need to know that God will forgive us, and then take actions needed for us to change. President Henry B. Eyring said, “Faith is not simply to know God could do something. Faith is to know He will.”11
Repentance must begin with faith in Christ. The prophet Alma taught the Zoramites how faith in the word—which is Christ—as it is nurtured, will grow from a seed, to a seedling, to a powerful tree of faith in Christ.12
Faith is multidimensional; it has depth and breadth. Your faith is growing or diminishing. Faith grows and strengthens within us as we desire to believe, as we ponder the word of God, as we increase the sincerity and frequency of our prayers, as we repent and keep the commandments, and as we experience the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. Alma begins his teaching on faith in chapter 32 (of the Book of Mormon) with these words: “If ye awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if you can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.”13 He then talks about planting that seed in your heart, not dismissing it by unbelief, and allowing it to enlarge your soul and enlighten your understanding.14
Alma asks, “Would this not strengthen your faith?. . . because ye have tried the experiment, and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that that the seed is good.”15 Next, Alma ties our experience to the growth of the spiritual inside us: “Is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible.”16
Faith is something that grows, and as it grows you receive heavenly gifts, power, and ability to do what you could not do without it.
The author of Hebrews said, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”17 Faith brings assurance. As we nourish our faith by taking righteous action, the evidences of its reality come into our life; we know it is real. Those evidences that we acknowledge as spiritual gifts that we did not have previously allow us to have greater faith. Our faith in Jesus Christ builds upon itself, experience after experience, feeling after feeling, confirmation after confirmation.
President Henry B. Eyring explained how this knowledge moves us to action: “It will take unshakable faith in Jesus Christ to choose the way to eternal life. It is by faith that we can know the will of God. And it is by exercising faith in Jesus Christ that we can resist temptation and gain forgiveness through the Atonement.18” ~Neil L. Anderson, The Divine Gift of Forgiveness (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2019), 101-03
