Inner Fire, Fit for Work

Neville's Inner Vision

All that you call self—sentiment, habit, fear—belongs to the piece of wood in Ezekiel’s fire. The flame devours its ends and its midst, not to destroy you, but to refine you in the consciousness where you truly live. The question “Is it meet for any work?” becomes a meditation: is this state of attention useful to the I AM for actualizing good? When you treat the fire as divine purifier, you shift from resisting change to consenting to transformation. The ends burned away symbolize shredding of extremes; the center burned away signals cleansing of core pride or emptiness that would hinder service. In Neville’s terms, the inner man must be cast into the furnace of awareness until only the living I AM remains, capable of acting in harmony with truth. So you do not fear the blaze; you cooperate with it by imagining the ends and center consumed and feeling your being as indispensable to the work of God in form.