What It Really Means to Say “In the Name of Jesus” — According to Neville Goddard

“In the name of Jesus.”
It’s a phrase spoken with passion, reverence, and sometimes desperation. But what does it mean?

To many, it’s a spiritual seal—like signing off a request with divine authority. But according to Neville Goddard, this phrase has little to do with calling on someone outside of you, and everything to do with your internal state of being.

Jesus as a State of Consciousness

Neville didn’t teach Jesus as simply a man who lived and died, but as the embodiment of a divine pattern—the awakened imagination. To him, “Jesus” represents the perfected state of man: the I AM made flesh.

To speak “in the name of Jesus” is to act from the nature of the fulfilled desire—to assume the state where your wish is already a reality. You’re not begging for something to happen. You’re being the one for whom it already has.

“Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human imagination.”
— Neville Goddard, Christ is Your Life

Name = Nature

In Scripture, a name always signifies a nature or state of consciousness.
So when you do something “in the name of Jesus,” you’re not using a phrase like a magic formula—you are stepping into a new identity. You are claiming your oneness with the resurrected state.

“When you say, ‘In the name of Jesus,’ you are actually saying, ‘In the nature of the thing hoped for,’ for Jesus means ‘Saviour,’ or ‘salvation.’ You are saying, ‘I am saved from what I formerly appeared to be.’”
— Neville Goddard, The Power of Awareness

But there is more to this salvation: Jesus is called the Son of David—David meaning “beloved.” This tells us that salvation (Jesus) is born from the beloved state (David), the ideal state that you cherish and fall in love with in your imagination.

This beloved theme echoes profoundly in the Song of Solomon, where the lovers call each other “beloved” repeatedly, symbolising the intimate union of consciousness and desire, the meeting of self and ideal. Solomon, the wise king and son of David, continues this line of beloved identity, highlighting how salvation and fulfilment flow from the beloved state.

To call upon Jesus, Son of David, is to acknowledge that your deliverance flows from this beloved state you have assumed and now embody.

The Departure from the Seen

This transformation is captured in Genesis 2:24:

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

Neville would read this as a spiritual principle:

The father and mother represent your current reality—facts, upbringing, sense-bound reasoning, and all that confirms the unwanted state.

To leave them is to turn away from the senses, to disregard the visible world.

To cleave to the wife is to unite with the new desire—to marry the unseen ideal and become one with it.

To say “in the name of Jesus” is to do exactly that: to forsake the old state and fully enter the new. You commit to the imaginal act until it becomes your embodied truth.

Jesus as Living Water — The Return to Eden

Jesus said:

“Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” — John 7:38

Neville would not interpret this as external belief in a man, but as belief in the I AM within—in imagination as the true source.

“Living water” here is the life-giving flow of consciousness. When you stand in the name (nature) of Jesus, you tap into this inner stream—the same stream that flowed in Eden:

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden…” — Genesis 2:10

Eden—which means "pleasure"—is not a place lost in history. It’s a state of consciousness where imagination flows unhindered. The four rivers that flowed out of Eden represent the directions of thought, the currents of creative power from the centre of Being.
When you say, “In the name of Jesus,” you are re-entering Eden. You are allowing the waters of imagination to flow freely—to nourish the new life you have chosen to embody.

You return to source, to the centre, and from there, abundance flows.

So What Does It Really Mean?

To pray, speak, or act “in the name of Jesus” is to:

• Abandon the state of lack, struggle, or fear (the father and mother),

• Unite with the desire already fulfilled (the wife),

• And stand in the awareness of I AM, through which all things flow (the living water).

And to remember that Jesus, Son of David, reminds us salvation is not something outside us; it is born from the beloved state — the ideal identity in which we place our faith and love. The mutual calling of “beloved” in Song of Solomon reveals the intimate, living relationship between you and your ideal self—the source from which salvation flows.

You are not asking Jesus to do something for you.
You are awakening to the truth that Jesus is your own wonderful human imagination—the source of creation, the river in Eden, the fountain of life.

It’s not about saying the words.
It’s about being in the state where the words are no longer needed—because the thing hoped for has already been made flesh.