Strangers and the Inner Covenant

Neville's Inner Vision

To Isaiah’s listener, the “stranger” is a symbol of any part of your consciousness not yet joined to the I AM. When you affirm that these parts have pledged themselves to the LORD, you are not petitioning an external power but turning inward and declaring your awareness to be the dwelling place of God. “Serve him” becomes acting in alignment with the divine impulse that moves within you, rather than acting from fear or habit. “Love the name of the LORD” means clinging to the recognition of your own I AM as the source of life, not chasing names and forms. “Keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it” suggests you guard the sacred stillness of your mind, refusing to let the outer world’s noise pollute the holy rest of awareness. “Taketh hold of my covenant” is the inner agreement you renew: you choose to live as though God and you share a single will. The outward image of strangers joining the covenant thus describes a shift in your inner state—from separation to unity, from struggle to rest in the realised presence of God within.