Intention

In my reading of Renovation of the Heart today, Dallas Willard talked about the steps to begin renovation. Mainly, that affecting a true change in the depths of our heart involves more than just simply wanting transformation. There needs to be a clear vision of what the outcome of a change would look like, a firm intention to make the change, and a lot of work to provide the means for the change. He put this together in the acronym VIM:

• Vision
• Intention
• Means

But about intention specifically, he says:

Concretely, we intend to live in the kingdom of God by intending to obey the precise example and teachings of Jesus. This is the form that trust in him takes. It does not take the form of merely believing things about him, however true they may be. Indeed no one can actually believe the truth about him without trusting him by indending to obey him.
~Dallas Willard, pg. 87

I think this is where a lot of misunderstandings about faith come into the Christian church and into our lives. Many Christians come to describe faith as merely the belief that what God says is true. And thus salvation and the Christian life are just the belief that Christ died for my sins. But if all that comes from this is just a mental note or an inward agreement that it sounds right, then that is not true belief (James 2:18-19).

True belief as Willard points out is trust in what God is saying is true, and then from that actual trust comes the outflow of true intent founded upon the gripping vision of God's kingdom (the vision of a world where what God willed would be done without compromise). These two, when honestly put together, will not be able to help, but to pour out physical obedience to God in the form of Christ-likeness.

The difference between the "belief" and "faith" promenant in Christian culture and this type of belief is radical. It nullifies the debates between faith and works, because there was never meant to be a difference. True faith will spawn the works that signify a Kingdom minded person.