Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ! My "two cents" ...
It is not faith when one covers his ears, jumps up and down, humming and thinking to himself "I believe." That is self-will (I choose to believe) but it is not faith, not yet.
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. - Mark 9:24
And believing that God IS is not faith.
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. - James 2:19
And doing things is not faith, e.g. attending church, preaching, benevolence, obedience.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9
A person of faith takes God seriously. God is not a hypothesis to him, not a hope but real. He is always aware of God's presence. He doesn't try to hide from Him (as if he could) - he is glad that God sees and hears every thing he does, every thought.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. - John 3:19-20
He loves Him, believes Him and trusts Him. He is Spiritually minded not carnally minded.
[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace. Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. - Romans 8:1-9
He wants what God wants because he loves Him. Being loving, kind, forgiving and generous is as natural as breathing. And because he trusts God, he doesn't worry, doubt, fear, want, etc. In Hebrews 11, called the hall of faith, all the named examples acted on their faith. Their faith was not dead.
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. - James 2:26
The flight of the Hebrews from Egypt is a great example to me. God could have moved them miraculously to the promised land as He did here:
Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. - John 6:21
Or He could have led them on a direct path to the promised land, but instead God led them to the Red Sea and there the Egyptians closed in on them. These people had just witnessed God's mighty miracles. They should not have been afraid. They should have been able to trust God, to stand on faith. Instead they feared.
And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. - Exodus 14:10
Obviously God did not "need" Moses to raise his arm in order to part the sea. The exercise had Moses acting out his faith. The red sea parted, and Moses' faith increased.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry [ground] through the midst of the sea. - Exodus 14:15-16 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go [back] by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry [land], and the waters were divided. - Exodus 14:21
The work was not faith but it was by faith and it increased his and their faith for having done so.
By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry [land]: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. - Hebrews 11:29
When I consider Scripture from Genesis to Revelation it is clear to me that God did not "need" this heaven and earth, we did. He doesn't change, we do. It is as if this present heaven and earth exists so that we, His adopted children, can grow up which is to say, achieve faith, actual living faith not intellectual dead faith.
So, in my view, the real issue in the faith v. works debate amounts to who gets the credit for the acts of faith in a Christian's life. And I aver that all glory goes to God, not man.
The earth [is] the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. - Psalms 24:1 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God. - Mark 10:18
To God be the glory, not man, never man.