It’s often assumed that the Bible encourages religious ritual—sacrifices, offerings, public prayers. But look again. Over and over, the scripture turns its back on external ceremony and demands something far more radical: inner transformation.
This, Neville Goddard would say, is the core of all true religion. Not action, but assumption. Not performance, but perception. The Bible is a psychological drama, and the God of scripture does not dwell in ritual—He dwells in the imagination.
Let’s revisit five key passages that reject external ritual and open up when interpreted through the power of I AM.
1. Isaiah 1:11–17
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? … Bring no more vain offerings… Cease to do evil, learn to do good.”
Neville-style interpretation:
Sacrifice is external effort—an attempt to change life from the outside. But evil, in the Bible, simply means error: to imagine against yourself or another.
“Cease to do evil” means stop assuming the worst.
“Learn to do good” is a call to use imagination redemptively.
God has no interest in burnt offerings—He desires a purified imagination. That is the true good.
2. Hosea 6:6
“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Neville-style interpretation:
God doesn’t want penance—He wants awakening.
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Mercy is imaginative empathy: the ability to see others as yourself and imagine lovingly on their behalf.
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Acknowledgement of God is not belief in an external deity, but an inner awareness that I AM is the creative cause.
“That which you assume to be true of yourself, you become.”
That is the true act of worship.
3. Amos 5:21–24
“I hate, I despise your feasts… But let justice roll down like waters…”
Neville-style interpretation:
Feasts, ceremonies, and songs are rejected when divorced from consciousness.
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Justice in scripture is the inner harmony between thought and feeling.
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To let justice “roll” is to let a redemptive assumption flood the subconscious.
There is no ritual for this. Only awareness and feeling.
4. Micah 6:6–8
“Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings? … He has shown you what is good: to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”
Neville-style interpretation:
All grand offerings are meaningless without consciousness. What matters is how you walk with your own imagination.
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“Walk humbly” means to live with reverence for the creative power within.
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“Act justly” and “love mercy” are states of mind, not outward actions.
The external reflects the internal. Always.
5. Matthew 23:27
“Woe to you… hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs… outwardly beautiful, but within full of dead men’s bones.”
Neville-style interpretation:
This is the outer man who clings to religious form but has forgotten the creative power within.
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The tomb is “whitewashed”—it looks the part, but it is dead inside.
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The imagination is inactive. The inner man has not risen.
Ritual, scripture—even prayer—become lifeless unless backed by living assumption.
The Inner Offering
Every ritual rejected by the Bible is really an invitation inward.
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The real offering is assumption—the deep, inner knowing that I AM is the reality behind all things.
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The altar is your mind.
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The sacrifice is the old state.
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And the resurrection is the emergence of a new identity.
So when you read of God despising ritual, don’t think of wrath—think of awakening. The Bible isn’t scolding the religious. It’s calling the imaginer to take their rightful place as the creator within.
Let the feasts cease. Let justice roll. And let the inner man rise.
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