The experience of the brother of Jared in seeing the finger (and later the spirit body) of the Lord Jesus Christ—in a manifestation of the Savior’s corporeal being—is an extraordinary and apparently unprecedented event. Concerning this event, President Joseph Fielding Smith has written the following:
I have always considered Ether 3:15 to mean that the Savior stood before the brother of Jared plainly, distinctly, and showed him his whole body and explained to him that he was a spirit. In his appearance to Adam and Enoch, he had not made himself manifest in such a familiar way. His appearances to earlier prophets had not been with that same fulness.
The scriptural accounts of talking face to face and of walking with God should not be interpreted in the sense that the Savior stood before those prophets and revealed his whole person. That he may have done so at later periods in the cases of Abraham and Moses is possible, but he had not done so in that fulness in the antediluvian days. For the brother of Jared he removed the veil completely. He had never showed himself to man before in the manner and way he did to that prophet. (Doctrines of Salvation, 3 vols., ed. Bruce R. McConkie [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–1956], 1:37)
From the experience of the brother of Jared and the Lord’s words unto him, we can surmise that individuals are empowered by faith at different levels of intensity. In other words, the faith of some can indeed be stronger than the faith of others. Ammon said, concerning the wife of King Lamoni and her absolute acceptance of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ: “Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites” (Alma 19:10). Does this mean that her faith exceeded that of even the previous Nephite prophets such as Lehi and Nephi? Or does it mean, more probably, that her faith exceeded that of Ammon’s contemporaries, the Nephite population in general, whom he had recently left behind in Zarahemla to embark on his mission, some of whom mocked the sons of Mosiah for their quest to convert the war-like Lamanites (see Alma 26:23–25)? To His believing Saints and disciples in Bountiful, the resurrected Savior said, concerning the relative spiritual vitality of different groups: “So great faith have I never seen among all the Jews; wherefore I could not show unto them so great miracles, because of their unbelief” (3 Nephi 19:35). Thus the level of faith within us determines the level of miracles we might experience.
Of greatest importance in these considerations is not to focus on measuring our faith as compared with that of others. Instead, we should strive to increase our faith in the greatest measure possible. We receive blessings according to the cultivation and exercise of our faith. Alma taught the Zoramites how to “strengthen [their] faith” (Alma 32:30) through the systematic application of an experiment for nourishing faith as if it were a seed evolving into “a tree springing up unto everlasting life” (Alma 32:41). We can learn from the example of those with exceeding great faith, such as the brother of Jared; but at the same time, we are to focus primarily upon strengthening our own faith. We are to govern our lives by faith, as the Lectures on Faith disclose:
Faith being the first principle in revealed religion, and the foundation of all righteousness, necessarily claims the first place in a course of lectures which are designed to unfold to the understanding the doctrine of Jesus Christ… .
“Now faith is the substance [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”…
And as faith is the moving cause of all action in temporal concerns, so it is in spiritual; for the Saviour has said, and that truly, that “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” (Mark 16:16; italics added.)
As we receive by faith all temporal blessings that we do receive, so we in like manner receive by faith all spiritual blessings that we do receive. But faith is not only the principle of action, but of power also, in all intelligent beings, whether in heaven or on earth. Thus says the author of the epistle to the Hebrews (11:3):
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
By this we understand that the principle of power which existed in the bosom of God, by which the worlds were framed, was faith; and that it is by reason of this principle of power existing in the Deity, that all created things exist; so that all things in heaven, on earth, or under the earth, exist by reason of faith as it existed in HIM.
Had it not been for the principle of faith the worlds would never have been framed, neither would man have been formed of the dust. It is the principle by which Jehovah works, and through which he exercises power over all temporal as well as eternal things. Take this principle or attribute—for it is an attribute—from the Deity, and he would cease to exist… .
Faith, then, is the first great governing principle which has power, dominion, and authority over all things; by it they exist, by it they are upheld, by it they are changed, or by it they remain, agreeable to the will of God. Without it there is no power, and without power there could be no creation nor existence! (Joseph Smith, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985], 1:1, 8, 12–16, 24.)
The Apostles said unto the Lord, “Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). We can do the same. We can pray for a greater abundance of faith—faith in the Savior and hope for a better world. The Restoration of the gospel was brought about “that faith also might increase in the earth” (D&C 1:21). As our faith grows, we may look forward to the time when we, too, like the brother of Jared, can pass through the veil into the presence of the Lord.