Soberness in the Spirit: Acts 26

Neville's Inner Vision

Paul’s insistence that he is not mad, but speaking "the words of truth and soberness," invites us to see madness as a projection of outer fear onto the inner kingdom. In Neville’s view, Festus represents the surface mind that labels states of consciousness by worldly standards—the accumulations of knowledge, the need to fit a story into a category. Yet the inner I AM, the real you, does not bend to such labels. The words he speaks come from a sober, lucid awareness that already knows the truth his outward audience cannot yet grasp. The state Paul embodies is not skepticism or frenzy, but a ready alignment with truth as it is in consciousness. When you accept that you are the one who experiences, your "madness" dissolves into a disciplined, tranquil knowing. The seeming conflict between learning and truth collapses once you revise the scene inwardly: you are already the being that can hold and express truth in every moment.