Colossians 1:9–20 is often read as a celebration of a historical Christ, but when understood through Neville Goddard’s teaching, it's read as an inner dialogue. Paul is not speaking outwardly to a congregation—he is addressing his own divided self. The “you” is the self that still forgets its power, and the “we” is the awakened imagination, calling every lesser thought into alignment.
“For this cause we still make prayer for you, that you may be full of the knowledge of his purpose in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; living uprightly in the knowledge of God, giving fruit in every good work, and being increased in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9–10)
The higher self urges the lower to remember: walk not as one who waits, but as one who already is. To “live uprightly” is to assume the state of fulfilment now. Fruitfulness is the natural response of the world to the seed of assumption.
“In the strength of his great power you will be made strong… giving praise to the Father who has given us a part in the heritage of the saints in light.” (Colossians 1:11–12)
Strength comes not from the world but from persistence in the unseen. Praise itself is strength, for it fixes the mind on the reality already claimed. The “heritage of the saints” is not a far-off promise but the inner inheritance: the ability to imagine and to know imagination creates.
“Who has made us free from the power of evil and given us a place in the kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have our salvation, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13–14)
Here “evil” is not an external force but the blindness of identifying with lack. Redemption comes the instant you cease to condemn yourself for having believed in limitation. To forgive is to stop identifying with the missed mark and to rise into a truer assumption.
The "Son of his love" is your newly formed self-image, that inner realisation of your worthiness—the recognition that your true inheritance is love itself, not condemnation. It is in this beloved identity that salvation and forgiveness are experienced as present realities.
“He is the image of the unseen God, coming into existence before all living things; for through him all things were made, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, authorities, lords, rulers, and powers; all things were made by him and for him.” (Colossians 1:15–16)
Imagination is revealed as the first cause. The “image of the unseen God” is not a man but the human faculty of seeing what is invisible. Every condition of life, every structure and power, is first born in thought.
“He is before all things, and in him all things have being.” (Colossians 1:17)
Assumption precedes fact. The outer world is held together only by what is persisted in within.
“And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the first cause, coming again from the dead, so that in all things he might have the chief place.” (Colossians 1:18)
The “church” is consciousness itself. To be “raised from the dead” is to rise from states of forgetfulness, to awaken again and again from the tomb of appearances into the liberty of assumption. Christ—your imagination—is the head directing the whole body of your world.
“For God in full measure was pleased to be in him; through him, sending peace through the blood of his cross, by him making all things new, through him, I say, all things whether on earth or in heaven, came back to God.” (Colossians 1:19–20)
Here reconciliation is the final message of the dialogue. All inner fragments, all states of discord, are gathered back into unity when imagination claims its place. The “blood of the cross” is the life given to a belief; the cross itself is the fixing of consciousness. Peace is not found in circumstance but in fidelity to assumption.
This passage, read as inner speech, shows the dialogue of awakening: the awakened imagination instructing the doubting self, lifting it into remembrance. It teaches that Christ is not apart from you but the creative core of you. To walk worthy is to live from the end. To be redeemed is to cease identifying with lack. To be reconciled is to bring every outer condition into agreement with the inner claim: I AM.