Bethel Within: Name Your Place

Neville's Inner Vision

Jacob’s naming of the place is a parable for consciousness. Luz was merely a stopping point on a journey, a city you pass by when you forget that the I AM is your dwelling. When he declares Bethel, he proclaims a shift from a state of distance to a state of nearness—the inner house where God is present. In Neville’s idiom, the city you inhabit is your current set of convictions, habits, and identifications. To rename Luz as Bethel is to refuse the old story of separation and to step into the realization that the divine is already within, that the dream of ascent is a returning to awareness. The vision does not come from without; it arises as you hold the awareness of I AM and treat it as the only reality. Your waking life becomes an echo of what you assume about yourself. The “place” is a state of consciousness you intentionally inhabit, and the name you give it redefines the landscape of your days. Presence of God is not far away; it is the quiet I AM within, waiting to be named as home.