In 1 John 5:6 – 8 we read: “This is he who came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth.”
This statement is not about outer biology or the physical body of Jesus. Remembering that the Bible is written from the point of view of the mind itself, it describes the inner birth of awareness in man — the dawn of the Christ, the chosen and anointed state, within consciousness itself.
The Three Witnesses in Man
The writer says there are three that bear witness: the Spirit, the water, and the blood. For Neville, these are not substances but states within the creative mind — the stages by which imagination gives life to its own assumptions.
Water — The Feeling of Acceptance
Water always symbolises the fluid movement of emotion and receptivity. In Genesis, the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters — the unformed depths of feeling. In man, this is the moment you feel after and find what you wish to be true. It is that quiet yielding when you let the idea of fulfilment wash through you.
To “come by water” means to let the new assumption take root emotionally. It is the baptism of feeling — the surrender of resistance and the cleansing of every contrary belief. At this stage, the desire is conceived but not yet made flesh.
Blood — The Passion That Fixes the State
Blood is the symbol of life and intensity. Where water is gentle feeling, blood is passion — the burning certainty that fuses imagination into identity. Neville often said that the crucifixion is the moment an idea is fixed in consciousness. Blood therefore marks the vital energy that gives life to the imagined state.
When you feel your wish with such inward conviction that it becomes natural, you have shed blood — you have poured out life into that assumption. This is not suffering, but creative sacrifice: the giving of your attention, the lifeblood of consciousness, to what you choose to embody.
The Spirit — Awareness as Witness
The Spirit is the eternal “I AM,” the witnessing self that moves through both water and blood. It is the awareness that first conceives (in water) and then gives itself (in blood) to its own creation. Spirit, water, and blood therefore agree in one — they are the single movement of consciousness from feeling to being.
The Inner Birth of Christ
To say that Jesus Christ came not by water only, but by water and blood, is to say that the awakening of the divine imagination in man is not a pale emotional wish, but a living identification. It begins as gentle feeling and ends as consuming passion — the full embodiment of belief. Only then does the Word become flesh within you.
The Meaning for Us
Every creation within the mind follows this pattern: first water — the feeling of it as true; then blood — the passion that fixes it as reality; and finally Spirit — the awareness that knows itself through its own expression.
This is the mystery of “water and blood.” It is not about outer elements, but about the movement of consciousness from impression to incarnation. The Bible records the inner process by which man learns to give life to his imagined states and witness his own redemption.