Faith is a spiritual force and not a product of the power of the mind.
Galatians 5:16 -25
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Verse 22 says that one of the "fruit of the spirit" is faith. In this case when the Bible is talking about the spirit it is talking about your recreated, born-again spirit. Not the Holy Spirit. It is not the Holy Spirit fighting against your flesh. You know as well as I do that the war between doing good and evil is within.
If your flesh was lusting against the Holy Spirit, then your flesh wouldn't have a chance because the Holy Spirit, who is God, would defeat the flesh every time, hands down, and there would be no struggle.
First, we must agree with the word. Second, that Word must be so strong in your Spirit that it produces the "force of faith". When you truly believe what God has said it will bring results.
With that said, there is a such thing as little faith and great faith. Most of us are operating in the arena of little faith when it comes to getting prayers answered. That's why the prayers aren't getting answered.
Matthew 14:31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Peter was fine until he took his eyes off of Jesus. This man actually walked on water. You can see by this example that Peter didn't had "little faith". He was able to operate in the supernatural and walk on water. By Faith....
Matthew 19:26 :But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
Romans 10:17 - So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The only way to build faith into your spirit is to build the Word of God into your spirit. The only way to build the Word of God into your spirit is by constant doses of the Word. Read it, speak it, pray it, listen to it, meditate on it, apply it.
In order to increase and build up your faith, focus directly on building faith through the things I previously mentioned AND with a great emphasis on LOVE.
Galatians 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
1. Faith works by love. All fruit of the spirit have the parent fruit of love. It is impossible to have ultra strong faith without loving God and our fellow human beings.
Matthew 22:36 - 40
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Most people have weak faith because of the major failure in two main areas. 1. . Their love walk. Many people claim they love God with all their heart but if they really loved God with all their heart it would manifest in love toward their fellow human beings. The scripture commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Do we put down ourselves? The answer is no, then don't put down other human beings.
Do we talk about ourselves? The answer is no, then don't talk about other human beings.
Do we care about our own wellbeing? The answer is yes, then care about the wellbeing of others.
Long story short. WE HAVE TO LOVE GOD AND HUMANITY JUST LIKE WE LOVE OURSELVES. This is the ONLY WAY to get top level faith.
Remember "Faith works by LOVE"
Edward E. Hill