Inner Cities of Refuge

Neville's Inner Vision

Picture Joshua's list not as geography but as the map of your own consciousness. Kedesh, Shechem, Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan are inner stations where you allow yourself to pause the automatic verdicts of guilt and retribution. When you 'kill' someone in your thoughts—anger, resentment, fear—you do so from a belief in separation from Life. By stepping into a refuge state, you acknowledge that the I AM, your true awareness, has reserved a safe harbor within you where judgment is suspended and mercy begins. These cities on both sides of the Jordan signify that refuge is not external but an inner arrangement of attention: you choose to stand in the presence of the congregation, the inner council, until the urge to avenge passes. The stranger who sojourns among you is your own potential for growth, not a threat. In that quiet, legalistic system—where the king and the avenger fade into the background—you discover the liberty that follows belief in your unity with God. When you dwell there, you embody justice from the still, watchful I AM.