From Belly to Belief: Jonah's Prayer

Neville's Inner Vision

Jonah’s belly is not a place in space but a state of consciousness. He sits in fear, guilt, and a desperate hope to escape judgment, yet in that depth the I AM — God within — awakens to remind him that awareness itself is real. When he prays, the act is not supplication to an external power but a turning of attention to the inner governor. The prayer becomes a revision of the story he is telling himself: he assumes the presence and protection of God, and he feels it real in the very belly of his consciousness. The outer crisis is the occasion for a decisive inner shift: the old script yields to faith, trust, and the certainty that all salvation begins within. In Neville's terms, imagination is the instrument by which the mind recreates itself; by dwelling in the I AM and affirming the desired state, Jonah begins to move toward redemption, even before any external deliverance appears.