Below is how I have defined belief, knowledge and faith. I have written the most on faith (too much really, but I needed to finish the thought), probably because it is the most complex. I would love any criticism.

Belief
Belief is the intellectual relationships an individual draws to serve as premises in explaining reality. A belief is not dissimilar from an hypothesis or theory. Similar to the hypothesis, a belief attempts to explain reality based on information that an individual has as evidence of reality. Whereas the hypothesis is always formulated for a dialectical purpose, beliefs are not always dialectic in nature. Really, for the bulk of humanity, beliefs are not self induced, but propagated culturally.

Knowledge
Knowledge is the intellectual conception of reality that is processed through sensory interaction (i.e., a person knows their perceptions). As such, an individual may know that the sky is blue because they see it is blue. As well, an individual may know that fire is hot by feeling it and that he exists by thinking. Spiritual epistemology is not any different. One may have knowledge that they felt a certain way when receiving a blessing or praying or that they heard a voice or saw a vision, etc.

Knowledge serves as beacons in reality that help us formulate beliefs to describe reality on a larger scale. For example, we can use a two dimensional picture on a computer screen as a metaphor. The more pixels, the more likely we are to correctly comprehend the image. Reality is devoid of contradiction, we just simply have a limited perspective. The more beacons in a certain area that do not contradict with our beliefs, the more certain we become of our beliefs (though, our limited perspective ensure that there will be plenty of contradictions).

Faith
Faith is, however, an altogether different concept. While it does relate to belief and knowledge, it very much different and apart. First, I will state that when the scriptures speak of faith, they are referring to faith in Jesus Christ and that faith in Jesus Christ is the only faith necessary for salvation.

Faith can most simply be defined as a two-way relationship of love and trust. This definition will come to be more rational as the discussion ensues.

If you ask a congregation if they believe that reading the scriptures everyday is a good thing, everyone will affirm it. If you ask a congregation if they believe that home teaching is a good thing, everyone will affirm it. If you ask a congregation if they believe that pornography is destructive, everyone will affirm it. But if you ask how many read the scriptures daily, do their home teaching and avoid pornography, very few can affirm it. This is because it requires faith in the Lord. Do they believe that daily scripture study is good: Yes. Do they have faith in the Lord to study the scriptures daily: No.

Now is time for the autobiographical section: The average missionary in France saw one baptism on a mission. However, many of the missionaries go home never seeing one. The average missionary companionship will teach one discussion a week and give out one Book of Mormon to someone with whom they have made an appointment per week. I started out my mission and in the first year this was the case. I had a knowledge that this was the case, because I perceived it. I (probably like everyone else) didn’t believe it could be any different.

12 months into my mission things changed. I had a series of companionship where our beliefs changed and we decided we would increase our faith in the Lord. Just as we exercised faith in the Lord to read our scriptures every day or get up on time, we decided to set the goal to give out a Book of Mormon with an appointment every day. One could question the goal of doing something that was out of our control…but was it? We realized that this was going to be a huge leap in faith from our current level, and we prayed and worked harder in recognition of that. At the end of the week we had succeeded and our faith was greater. We gave a Book of Mormon out every single day for the rest of my mission after that (I’m pretty sure) because we believed it could be done, and we had faith in the Lord to do it. Every week after we choose to expand our faith by setting incrementally higher goals and Lord confirmed them. We did not always attain the goals and repented when we did not.

This is a great place for an observation. Missionaries often wonder why they could always receive conformation on their goals, even when the goals were ridiculously high. I struggled with this at the beginning of my mission. The answer: the same reason Jesus told Peter to walk on water after he asked…because it is possible regardless if you have the faith to do it or not.

This process of Belief and Faith increased to an apex one week late in my mission. My companion and I felt inspired to set a goal to teach a huge amount of discussions that week. We were filled with the spirit and faith in the Lord to do it. The week started out amazingly and on track for the goal. We would recognize that we had time to go teach a discussion, pray and then go do it. But half-way through the week it got harder, we got a little lazy and we started our accent downward. We finished the week with 2/3 of our goal (the highest teaching week of my mission).

Now this is where we can go back to the original definition of faith and really see how it works. Faith: a two-way relationship of love and trust with the Lord. Much like a rich uncle who has a $120K car. He would never let a nephew he did not know take it on a date. Even one he knew, he probably wouldn’t let take the car. So how does the nephew get to take the car on a date? By developing a relationship of love and trust with the uncle. The nephew must devote time and energy to developing the relationship and he must be responsible enough to be worthy of his trust. With enough time, eventually the uncle will feel comfortable enough with the good nephew to give him the keys when asked.

I came home from my mission and was able to use the faith that I had foster throughout my mission even as it diminished. Slowly, I exercised less and less my faith. I sinned, which exacerbated the tendency. This continued to my marriage and to where I am now, a place very similar to the beginning of my mission. I don’t even have the faith to read the scriptures daily, let alone to do something miraculous. I don’t even believe I could do something miraculous.