Neville Goddard on James 4:13-17 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read James 4 in context

Scripture Focus

13Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

16But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

17Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

James 4:13-17

Biblical Context

James 4:13-17 cautions that human plans apart from divine will are vain; life is a fleeting vapor, and true direction comes from aligning consciousness with the I AM.

Neville's Inner Vision

From Neville's vantage, this small text becomes a reminder that you are not a separate planner; you are a state of consciousness. When you say 'today or tomorrow' you reveal a belief in a self that rules outcomes, yet the verse invites you to recognize the I AM behind all moves. Life, as James notes, is a vapor—brief, changeable, and scented by your inner weather. The true navigator is your awareness, the I AM, which orders impressions and draws your experiences into harmony with divine purpose. Humility and surrender are not weakness but alignment: to say 'If the Lord will' is to let your imagination consent to the laws it already knows. By cultivating the discipline of imagining from the finish, you allow Providence to unfold through your inner act. The violence of obstinate planning dissolves into a gentle confidence that what you seek is already present in the state you hold.

Practice This Now

Assume the state of the wish fulfilled: silently repeat, 'If the Lord will, I shall live and do this,' and feel the I AM already ordering the sequence of events.