Strange Fire, Sacred Obedience

Neville's Inner Vision

Imagine this not as a historical judgment but as a parable of your own inner state. Nadab and Abihu’s act represents an imagination that runs ahead of the inner command—the 'strange fire' your mind lights when it forgets the I AM within. In Neville's terms, the censer and the incense are your attention and desire; the fire you offer is the image you hold as true. When you pretend to worship in a way not authorized by the inner law, the atmosphere cannot sustain it, and a 'fire from the Lord' consumes the old you—the egoic structure that believes it can conjure reality apart from the I AM. The lesson is not fear, but accountability: you are always worshiping something you believe to be true about yourself. To turn this around, claim a revised inner stance: you are the I AM, and only the I AM grants the form your consciousness may take. Align your imaginative acts with that authority, and the imagined flame becomes a healing fire that purifies rather than destroys.