When Jesus speaks to His disciples about joy, peace, union, and being with Him, He is not describing a distant heavenly promise. He is revealing the inner relationship between the individual and their own awareness of “I AM”. These statements act as invitations into a mental posture — a state of consciousness — in which desire is already fulfilled.
The apparent division between the self and its assumption exists only because doubt first severed man from imagination in the Garden of Eden. The return to the Father is the return to the Self — the reunion of awareness with its own belief.
Neville Goddard taught that when Jesus says:
“I in you, and you in Me” — John 14:20
He is describing the alignment of one’s inner assumption with imagination. To abide in Him is to live from the end — to adopt the conviction that what one seeks is already one’s reality. Joy then is not a reaction to external success, but the natural state of consciousness resting in fulfilment first demonstrated in the opening of Genesis..
Each statement below can therefore be read as symbolic instruction: enter the state, remain there, and the outward world conforms to it.
1. Joy as Fulfilment
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” — John 15:11
Posture: Assume the end so fully that joy precedes physical evidence.
“…no one will take your joy from you.” — John 16:22
Posture: Inner certainty that cannot be shaken by appearances.
“…ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” — John 16:24
Posture: Ask inwardly with assumption — fulfilment is assured.
“…that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” — John 17:13
Posture: Share the consciousness of completed desire.
2. Union — “With Me Where I Am”
“…today you will be with Me in Paradise.” — Luke 23:43
Posture: Paradise is the state where prayer is answered — enter it now.
“…that where I am you may be also.” — John 14:3
Posture: Move mentally into the fulfilled state immediately.
“…you in Me, and I in you.” — John 14:20
Posture: The desire and the desirer are united as one identity.
“Abide in Me, and I in you.” — John 15:4
Posture: Maintain the assumption — remain in fulfilment.
3. Peace — The End Already Settled
“Come to Me… and I will give you rest.” — Matthew 11:28–30
Posture: Rest is the signal that the work is finished within.
“My peace I give to you…” — John 14:27
Posture: Peace is the emotional signature of answered prayer.
“…in Me you may have peace…” — John 16:33
Posture: Abiding in the end produces calm acceptance.
4. Life Abundant — The Nature of “I AM”
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” — John 10:10
Posture: The fulfilled state is expansive, never constrained.
“…whoever comes to Me I will never cast out.” — John 6:37
Posture: Enter the desired state confidently — it cannot reject its own.
“…to give eternal life…” — John 17:2
Posture: Eternal life means fulfilment is now — timeless and present.
Conclusion
These sayings are for comfort as well as instruction:
- Assume the state as already yours.
- Abide without wavering.
- Let joy, peace, and rest prove the fulfilment.
- The outer world will conform as shadow to its prototype.
To be “with Him” is to remain mentally in the end — one with the fulfilled desire.