Inner Turn of Jonah 3:8-9

Neville's Inner Vision

Within this brief scene the sackcloth is the language of the mind, a humble posture of awareness. Crying out to God is the steady attention of the I AM turned toward the source of life. When the verse says let man and beast turn from their evil way, it is not a demand on others but a model for your own inner state. The call to turn away from violence is a turn away from fear, projection, and the habit of hurt. The fear of God’s fierce anger is the fear that life will not respond; yet the verse questions who can tell if God will turn, and in your inner practice that question becomes your invitation. If you persist in the inner turning you embody, God is not outside but within, and the I AM reorders your circumstances as if mercy itself were turning toward you. The mercy you seek arises from the consciousness you inhabit; you are not at the mercy of fate but the author of it. When you accept this, you discover that the external world reflects the inner turning, and you perish not but awaken to life.