What is belief?  

Belief is thought to be a kind of mind state by some, however our actual belief is more closely related to our heart state.  In my experience, Belief is an internal insistence from the heart and mind, focusing on what is revealed truth to me personally in spite of all that speaks or comes to persuade me otherwise.  Greater belief often starts with daring to believe and is keyed to the faith that comes from belief experiments that work.  (The word believe in the Greek it was translated from has a sense of leaning on and trusting something with your weight).

In my experience, Belief that is based in true revelation of Jesus Christ results in manifestation of Him in you in His power and according to that belief. – Power, the Greek word is Dunamis, dynamic tangible power of God in action not in mind based theory.  I am talking about the experience of Him flowing in and through your soul and body.  His fullness resides in our spirit and it is belief that opens the door for spirit to soul flow, which of course then touches into our immediate environment as well.  This is how Jesus lived in His incarnation on earth, and it is the place of ground zero normal for all who have surrendered to Him.

That is why the new covenant is about God writing His words which are His law of spirit and life on our hearts.  Please note that Jesus teaching separated the law of spirit and life from the law of Moses (or the law of sin and death).  Living in close relationship with His and our Father causes His heart and mind to be linked with ours, making hearing Him much more normal and we naturally live m tune with His Kingdom.  That is living in Spirit and life.

Jeremiah 31:33   After those days, says the Lord, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.   And they shall no more teach each man his neighbour and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.

In John 3:13-16 Family members believe three things about Jesus Christ to be saved.

If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
And no one has ascended up to Heaven except He who came down from Heaven, the Son of Man who is in Heaven.
But even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

"whoever believes in Him" - To believe in Him means to believe in Him as He really is as mapped out in what He is saying here about Himself.

1) That Jesus existed in the flesh and in heaven at the same time v13
    That Jesus dwelled both in heaven and earth and so now in Him do you and me
2) That as the bronze serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so Jesus
     v14 That Jesus must be raised up on a pole as the bronze serpent was
3) God’s great love for man, to give so much to gain family relationship with them.
    v16 That the Love of God for us is so great that He came in the person of Jesus to remove all obstacles preventing relationship between Him and us

Our preaching and teaching should declare these at least, in order to declare a picture of Jesus Christ that He can use to open a seeing of Jesus to our hearers hearts so they can see and surrender to Him.  This could be for the first time or in greater ways because our Father desires to grow us up from children of faith to young men of victory and then to fathers in His family. 1 John 2:12 - 15

Belief that saves. 

Belief that saves comes by revelation.  Each of us was given the faith to believe in Jesus.  That was probably the first revelation we received and it changed the way we saw ourselves and Jesus.  We knew in that moment that we needed to surrender our lives to Him and invite Him to live in us.  I believe and experience that Father is constantly encouraging us on. I have found that He has a wonderful habit of speaking into our spirit that the picture is bigger and yet somehow simpler and easier than we thought with all our complicated reasoning.  I believe that giving the good news to someone is more of an ongoing relating thing than a quick fix “four spiritual laws” formula thing. 

I think that many of us need to relax into an awareness that friendships are what God really works into.  I have found that being relaxed enough to let friendships form allows our belief in the bigness of who Jesus is on the inside of us to work out naturally and bring another person to a saving knowledge of Him or to greater places in Him.  For some of us this is a similar approach to what we have tried, but without the formulas.  In my case I had some mindsets and baggage to work through to get here and I can say that partnering with Him in this way works. 

Belief with compassion calls us to care

Heart felt belief when we are also motivated by the upwelling love of Jesus that lives inside us is also about being willing to be a bit put out to look after someone.  This means more than a “congregational” mindset of “its OK being in church will be enough”.  Every time we go to that assumption concerning someones need for discipling, deep down inside we know we are copping out.  Sons of God care.

For some, this church and service centric approach is somehow cozier and safer because it is not demanding of much of our resources or time (specifically) and we can all just go to services and its all apparently taken care of (reality suggests otherwise).  There are passages of scripture that tell us to help each other and encourage each other on a one to one basis at deeper levels than just social interaction. 

Caring for someone does not mean ruling their lives.  It means being Family with them.  A passage in  Peter comes to mind which is usually read in a heavier control context but I believe is much softer.  This means that Jesus principle of "Love one another" can open up a better attitude to express our beliefs to one who needs help.  Peter says - "obey them that guide you as they watch your souls as those that must give account" etc.  Guide is a much better translation than rule here and indicates simply that it is a good thing for a disciple to cooperate with the human who is helping them to become a disciple of Jesus Christ

Belief to heal or do

Belief to do something For God, starts with Him speaking to us personally about it.  e.g. When He got the news that Lazarus was sick, Jesus knew from His Father that He was to wait 4 days till Lazarus was dead and then go and raise him up.  I have seen Christians assume that they should pray for healing or something else and then proceed without asking Dad how to handle the situation.  

Jesus always knew from His Father what He was to do and what He was to say.  He is our undisputed example in all Kingdom things.  We can know from scripture what the will of God is in a general sense, but it is when He shows us how to handle a specific case that we have true faith to act on, not assumption or presumption that gets us hit and miss results.  If you want to know more about how you personally hear Him and how He wants to work with you, ask Him and trust that He will speak to you clearly in some way or ways.