Neville Goddard on Jonah 1:5-6 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Jonah 1 in context

Scripture Focus

5Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

6So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

Jonah 1:5-6

Biblical Context

The mariners panic and pray to their gods. Jonah sleeps through the danger.

Neville's Inner Vision

Notice the storm in the tale is your inner weather, not a distant gale. The mariners' cries are the clamor of anxious thoughts; their multitude of gods is your belief that happiness comes from many conditions. Jonah, asleep, embodies the part of you that forgets you are the I AM, the awareness that can arbitrate any scene. The shipmaster's question—What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God—invites you to awaken from the dream of separation and to align with the one perfect presence within you. When you assume the state of the I AM, the storm shifts as your attention returns to inner truth. You revise the scene by acknowledging, 'I am the I AM within me now,' and feel the fear melt as you stand in the light of that awareness. Imagination becomes your instrument: your inner weather changes because you no longer identify with the frightened ship. The crisis becomes an invitation to realization: you are the God-aware consciousness, awake in the storm.

Practice This Now

Imaginative Act: Assume you are the awakened captain of your inner vessel; revise fear by mentally declaring, 'I call upon the I AM within me now.' Feel the inner sea calm as you stand in that awareness.