Defiance in the I AM

Neville's Inner Vision

To Neville Goddard, the verse translates into a motion of consciousness: a self-imposed severance from the I AM, a stubborn posture that believes in separation from divine awareness. 'Stretcheth out his hand against God' becomes the outward projection of the ego's insistence that I am the source and can act apart from the divine. 'Strengtheneth himself against the Almighty' signals a closed, fortified state of mind resisting correction and the truth that all power flows from God within. In this inner economy, the so-called defiant stance invites conflict, illness, and limitation as the echo of a belief in separation. The remedy is not to fight God but to return to the one unwavering power—the I AM within you. By revising the assumption, you acknowledge unity with the Infinite, and you feel that awareness filling every decision, sensation, and outcome. When you live as that I AM, the imagined Almighty is your own awareness made manifest, and defiance dissolves into harmony with divine reality.