Neville Goddard on Joel 1:13-14 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Joel 1 in context

Scripture Focus

13Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

14Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD.

Joel 1:13-14

Biblical Context

Joel 1:13-14 calls priests and the land to lament, fast, and assemble before the Lord, turning toward true worship and covenant loyalty. It invites a personal and communal turning from ritual form to inner devotion.

Neville's Inner Vision

Joel presents a state of crisis as a doorway to re-focusing consciousness. When the priests gird themselves and lament, it is not merely ritual; it is the I AM acknowledging misalignment between what has been lived and the truth of being. The meat offering and drink offering withheld is a symbol: the old forms fail until the inner state is ready. Sanctifying a fast and convening a solemn assembly are acts of mental discipline, intentional shifts in attention that align feeling with truth. The call to bring the elders and all the inhabitants into the house of the LORD your God translates to gathering every aspect of your consciousness into the recognition of your oneness with the divine. Crying to the LORD is the directed attention of the will toward the I AM, not begging but re-establishing communion. In Neville's terms, this is a revision of your inner weather: decide who you are by aligning your heart to the I AM, and the outward conditions will follow as the sacrifice of old beliefs is set aside. The cry is a present-tense assertion that your true nature is intact, awaiting recognition.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Sit in stillness, assume the role of the inner priest, and declare I AM THAT I AM as your present reality; feel the desired state already established, and revise any sense of lack by offering thanks.