I and the Father Are One: The Meaning

Few statements in scripture strike as deeply as this line from the Gospel of John. In traditional theology, it’s taken as proof of Jesus’ divinity. But Neville Goddard, the 20th-century mystic and teacher of manifestation, invites us to read it psychologically.

To Neville, the Bible is not a historical or religious account, but a symbolic manual of consciousness. Every passage unveils a truth about the divine imagination within man. The Father is awareness itself; the Son is your assumed identity — the state you enter and inhabit through imaginative belief.

"Let the earth bring forth... the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself..."
— Genesis 1:11

Creation is not external. The seed — the cause — is already within. It brings forth “after its kind” not by outside forces, but because assumption creates reality. Neville taught that this inner seed is your belief — your state of consciousness.

Your assumption contains everything needed for its own fulfilment. Nothing outside you is causing your world. You are doing it now, by what you accept as true.

"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..."
— Genesis 1:26

This is not a discussion between distant gods, but a conversation within consciousness. The “us” is the union of imagination and feeling — thought and belief working together to form the image called man.

You become what you inwardly accept. “Man” is the visible projection of invisible assumptions. The Father (awareness) and the Son (assumption) are not separate. They are one.

"Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."
— Romans 9:13

This puzzling verse makes sense symbolically. Jacob is the inner man, the dreamer, the subtle power of imagination. Esau is the outer, hairy, sense-bound man — the older brother who appears first.

Neville explains that Esau represents your present circumstances. Jacob is your desired assumption. At first, Esau dominates, because the five senses report only what is. But Jacob, though smooth and quiet, is beloved of the Lord. Why? Because your inner state creates your outer world.

"I came from God and now I AM here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me."
— John 8:42

This refers to your divine origin. You, as consciousness, came forth to experience limitation — so that you might eventually awaken as God through imagination.

"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."
— John 14:9

Jesus is not a man apart from you. He is your imagination in action. To see the assumed state — to behold someone walking in the feeling of their wish fulfilled — is to see God expressing Himself.

"I and my Father are one."
— John 10:30

To fully identify with your desired state is to know union with God. There is no separation between consciousness (the Father) and its assumption (the Son) — they are one act, one being, one I AM.

"I AM in the Father and the Father is in me."
— John 14:10–11

There is no separation between consciousness (the Father) and imagination (the Son). They dwell in each other. When you imagine something with belief, it becomes alive — this is the union in motion.

"That they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us..."
— John 17:21–22

This is a call for unity — not external or religious unity, but the realisation that there is only one Being, expressing itself in fragmented form. Neville taught that all individuals are aspects of the same divine consciousness, playing different roles in the drama of awakening.

This multiplicity is encoded in the word Elohim (rendered “God” in Genesis), which is a plural noun. It means rulers, judges, mighty powers — not one distant deity, but many aspects of the mind that rule and shape perception. Each “judge” is a belief pattern, each “power” a creative assumption. They are the "one body with many members" that Paul talks about in his letters.

The invitation here is to gather all those fragments — all the inner contradictions — and bring them under the rule of the I AM. The moment you recognise your awareness as God, you return to wholeness.

"That they may be one, even as we are one."
— John 17:22

"The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do."
— John 5:19

The outer man has no power without the inner assumption. The Son (your outer experience) only reflects what the Father (your imagination) believes. You create not by effort, but by alignment with your inner state.

"I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."
— John 5:30

This is not submission to an external deity — it is surrender to the law of assumption. You don't create by force, but by imagining and feeling your desire as already true.

"For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me."
— John 6:38

You descended into this world not to build an egoic life, but to remember that you are God in form, here to awaken to your power and express it consciously.

"I proceeded forth and came from God."
— John 8:42

This speaks of your divine origin. You are consciousness — I AM — descended into limitation to experience the world of form. Through the awakening of imagination, you remember who you are: not a separate being, but God in expression.

"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father."
— John 16:28

You entered this world of form and forgot who you were. But through spiritual awakening — by using imagination wisely — you begin the return journey to full awareness of your divine identity.

"For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak."
— John 12:49–50

Your words carry creative power only when they come from belief. When you imagine a thing and speak it into existence, you speak not from worldly identity, but with the authority of the Father within.

"All mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them."
— John 17:10

This is the inheritance of being. Everything the Father is, you are. Nothing is withheld from you — the “I AM” within you is the source of all things, and you are its vessel of expression.

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The Bible opens in Eden, a state of unconscious union with the divine. But the moment man eats from the Tree of Knowledge — the awakening of self-awareness — separation begins.

Neville taught that this wasn’t a fall but a necessary descent. God became man — imagination clothed itself in limitation — so that man might remember and awaken as God.

Jesus’ words — “I and my Father are one” — mark the culmination of that journey. The circle closes. We return to Eden — but now as conscious creators.

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Summary of the Pattern:

• Creation begins within. The seed is your assumption. (Genesis 1:11)

• You are made in the image of what you believe to be true. (Genesis 1:26)

• Awareness (Father) and assumption (Son) are one. (John 10:30)

• The inner self must take on the garments of the outer to receive the blessing. (Jacob & Esau, Romans 9:13)

• You are the creative power of God in expression. (Jesus’ words throughout John)

• You are many judges and assumptions, unified through the “I AM” awareness. (Elohim concept)

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Affirmation:
I and my Father are one.
My assumption is the seed.
My image is my truth made visible.
I AM the power I’ve been seeking.