Touch of Courage in Fear

Neville's Inner Vision

Fear is not a foe outside you but a state of consciousness that you have temporarily mistaken for reality. When the disciples hear and tremble, the scene reveals your own mind’s habit of shrinking before appearances. The touch Jesus brings is not a gesture in space, but the inner visitation of the I AM—the awareness that you are always present with yourself. That touch declares, in the language of sensation, 'You are present; you are the power that speaks and acts.' The command Arise and be not afraid is a revision, a turning of attention from the object of fear to the subject who never departs from itself. When you presume the feeling of being united with the I AM, fear dissolves, for you have rewritten the inner narrative: the fear is a miscreated sense, corrected by the truth of consciousness. The events of the outside world respond to your inner state; faith is simply your trust in the reality of this inner presence, here and now. So your practice is to assume the I AM as your real state, feel it as reality, and watch fear bow to your inner touch.