The Damascus Altar Within

Neville's Inner Vision

2 Kings 16:10 speaks of Ahaz traveling to Damascus and ordering Uriah the priest to fashion an altar after the pattern he saw. In the Neville idiom, this is not a history of a king and a temple, but a revelation of inner states. The Damascus altar is the image of security built on dependence upon external power and outward forms. Ahaz’s act of copying the workmanship is the mind’s attempt to replicate power it has not internalized, a belief that life can be secured by following another’s pattern rather than awakening the I AM within. Your own mind may likewise travel to a Damascus of opinions, institutions, or relationships that promise protection, then return with a borrowed altar—an imitation of someone else’s worship. The true spiritual law is that God is the I AM, the inner monarch; the altar you honor in consciousness becomes the world you construct. To awaken, refuse to adopt another's pattern of worship. Instead assume the consciousness that you are already one with the I AM, that all supply and order flow from within, and feel the reality of inner temple's authority.