When read symbolically rather than literally, the Bible reveals a profound inner drama — not of ancient prophets awaiting external events, but of the individual soul learning to wait in faith for the manifestation of what has been assumed. Hebrews 10:35–39 echoes this timeless truth, and it mirrors an earlier moment in Scripture: the prophet Habakkuk standing on his watchtower, determined to see the vision fulfilled.
The Watchtower: Inner Vigilance in the Silence Between Desire and Fulfilment
“I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me...”
— Habakkuk 2:1 (ESV)
Habakkuk represents a state of consciousness that refuses to let go of its desire. He stations himself upon his watchtower — an elevated place of awareness — to see the response from within. This watchtower is not physical, but symbolic: it is the still, alert posture of mind that refuses to abandon its assumption — "Be still and know that I AM God".- Psalm 46:10
Similarly, Hebrews 10:36–37 says:
“You have need of waiting before his word has effect for you. In a very little time he who is coming will come; he will not be slow.”
Here, the “coming” one is not a messianic figure travelling through space, but the embodiment of the assumption — the imaginal act that is taking shape below the surface of life.
The Vision Will Not Lie: Trust in the Timelessness of Desire
“The vision is yet for an appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
— Habakkuk 2:3
Hebrews picks up this very thread: “He who is coming will come; he will not be slow.” The echo is intentional, but spiritually, it is about the same principle: the Law of Assumption. Neville Goddard taught that once an assumption is fixed in consciousness, its arrival is inevitable — just as the vision “hastens to the end.”
Delay is a temptation to doubt. But “waiting” here does not mean passive hoping. It means continuing in faith, unmoved, keeping the assumption alive — as Habakkuk does on his watchtower and as the writer of Hebrews urges his audience to do.
The Just Shall Live by Faith: The Bridge Between the Two Passages
“But the upright man will be living by his faith...” — Hebrews 10:38
“...but the righteous shall live by his faith.” — Habakkuk 2:4
This is the very verse from Habakkuk that Hebrews is quoting. But when we interpret faith as Neville did — not mere belief in dogma, but the loyalty to the unseen reality assumed in imagination — it transforms the statement. The “upright man” or “righteous” one is the individual who stays loyal to the vision, even when it appears nothing is happening.
Not of Those Who Shrink Back: The Danger of Doubt
“But if he goes back, my soul will have no pleasure in him.”
“But we are not of those who go back to destruction; but of those who have faith even to the salvation of the soul.” — Hebrews 10:38–39
The phrase “my soul will have no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38) reveals that the assumption — once withdrawn from — no longer delights in its creative purpose. This echoes Genesis 4:7, where God says to Cain, “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if not, sin is waiting at the door.” Sin, in this symbolic reading, is not wrongdoing, but the missed mark — the loss of pleasure in creation through doubt and regression.
The warning is clear: turning back is destruction, not by external punishment, but by the collapse of the assumption. To go back is to fall into the old state — the Egypt of doubt, the bondage of fear. This matches the warning God gave Habakkuk: the vision is trustworthy — but you must wait for it.
Conclusion: The Inner Path of the Watcher
In both Habakkuk and Hebrews, the call is the same: to fix the vision, to believe unwaveringly in what has been inwardly accepted as true, and to “watch” — not in idleness, but in active imaginative and spiritual anticipation. Neville would say this is the art of living in the end, embodying the state of the wish fulfilled.
The watchtower is the place within you that does not waver, does not compromise, and does not turn back.
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