“Faith”
Faith is a process, a divine process built upon knowledge and understanding of eternal righteousness. One may possess a slight amount of faith-having but little understanding of the principles of the gospel and living but a portion of the gospel law; or one may possess that quality and kind of faith which Joseph Smith called “faith unto life and salvation.”
We must remember that Alma is speaking to a people with little or no faith. They must be instructed simply and plainly, must build their knowledge and witness of truth slowly but surely. They do not know of the Christ, of the necessity for the ordinances, or of the gifts and graces which are the companions of the Saints. They must be nurtured slowly. For them, faith and knowledge are almost at opposite ends of a continuum.
“I Said Concerning Faith”
Those who work by faith must first have faith; no one can use a power that he does not possess, and the faith or power must be gained by obedience to those laws upon which its receipt is predicated.... And then-when the day is at hand and the hour has arrived for the miracle to be wrought-then they must be in tune with the Holy Spirit of God. He who is the Author of faith, he whose power faith is, he whose works are the embodiment of justice and judgment and wisdom and all good things, even he must approve the use of his power in the case at hand.
Faith cannot be exercised contrary to the order of heaven or contrary to the will and purposes of him whose power it is. Men work by faith when they are in tune with the Spirit and when what they seek to do by mental exertion and by the spoken word is the mind and will of the Lord. (New Witness, pp. 191-92.)