Beauty for Ashes Within
Isaiah 61:3-5 - A Neville Goddard interpretation
Read Isaiah 61 in context
Scripture Focus
Biblical Context
Isaiah 61:3–5 promises that God replaces mourning with beauty, joy, and praise, transforming desolation into a field of righteousness planted by the Lord.
Neville's Inner Vision
Within this text, mourning is an inner state, not a fate. The I AM awakens in you as the power to reframe your entire scene. Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for heaviness are inner revisions, invitations to feel a new atmosphere rather than seek it from outside. When you imagine yourself as a tree of righteousness, planted by the LORD, you acknowledge your true nature as a living instrument of divine imagination. The old wastes you see in your life are merely beliefs awaiting revision; to raise them up, you must dwell in the feeling of being already renewed. As you continue, strangers and alien ones do not threaten your life but symbolize larger streams of supply and support arising within your consciousness, feeding your flocks and tending your vines. Stay with the feeling that your inner city is restored, and your outer circumstances will follow the inner order you have accepted.
Practice This Now
Imaginative act: Close your eyes, breathe, and assume the state of being a 'tree of righteousness' planted by the LORD. Then revise one sorrow by declaring, 'Beauty for ashes; oil of joy for mourning; garment of praise in place of heaviness,' letting that felt sense linger for a few minutes.
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