What Is The Point Of Having Faith?

Many people wonder why it is that a person cannot have faith the way Christ instructed in Mark 11:22-24, and actually move mountains immediately. The answer is, God allowed wickedness to arise in creation as a means of testing and perfecting many beings - mankind in particular. It was necessary for man to fall from his perfect, luminous form, to one where he is trapped in bodies which bind him to this lowly, wicked, material world (i.e. plane of existence).

Man's capacities to perceive things and to act righteously, have been greatly stifled by beings living within him called the carnal self. It is these beings which force him to perceive only the material world, and to be ignorant about where he came from, who he is, and what he should be doing with his life. These beings also sap away much of his power and other abilities. That is why Christ said the following:

Gospel of Thomas

85)  Jesus said, "Adam came into being from a great power and a
great wealth, but he did not become worthy of you. For had he
been worthy, [he would] not [have experienced] death."

Mankind therefore has been placed under very hostile conditions, to overcome and grow. It is also important to realize, that mankind are God / creation seeds who have been thrown down into this material world to grow up into huge Gods and creations. This whole process has been made arduous in order to obtain the finest Gods in the Godhead. Therefore the point of having faith is not to move mountains, or heal the sick, or fly through the air per se: it is to overcome the circumstance men have been born into. Men are required to overcome their circumstances via a process in which each man's spiritual composition changes from one where his soul is overwhelmed and ruled by his carnal self, to one where where his soul: becomes purified and protected by the Holy Spirit; grows into an image of God; and is aided by a myriad of angels and other spiritual beings which make up what the Bible calls his inner man. (The above is also what it means to be born again.)

When a person has faith, he uses the inner man to contend with the carnal self which remains in his body, and also wickedness in this world. It is primarily the angels contained within the inner man that a soul relies on to overcome the world, and in so doing,  attain greater and greater righteousness and knowledge. (Gnostics calls this knowledge gnosis, which are the mysteries of God.)

Therefore when someone has faith and grows it, he should not expect things will necessarily become easier and easier in this world. For even if a person increases his faith to the point where he has knowledge / gnosis to move mountains, much of his power could be sapped away, and he could become brutally pinned down, as part of the process of being purified by this world through suffering.

If anyone has faith, and sees that the things he prays for take a long time to come to bear, he should not be discouraged. He should look at his fundamental goodness, which bears evidence that the things he believes in are real, and be encouraged by it. Even if all creation was to crumble around a man, the man's fundamental goodness, which shows up reliably only when he has faith correctly, assures him that the things he believes in are real.

Therefore take heart while you have faith. Even though having faith is a long process which is difficult at times, and even though it may seem to take a long time to grow one's faith substantially, there is a whole lot of spiritual activity taking place around you while you are doing this, and the reward for sticking with is gigantic.