Readings
“Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies. ” (Psalm 27:11)
“Lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:24)
“In the beginning there was the Word; the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God. The Word was present to God from the beginning. Through the Word all things came into being, and apart from the Word nothing came into being that has come into being. In the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light – a Light that shines in the darkness, a Light that the darkness has never overtaken. ” (John 1:1-5)
“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me, but you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40)
“He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. ” (John 10:3)
“Since we all live forever after death, then, and are assigned places either in heaven or in hell depending on how we have lived, and since both heaven and hell are necessarily in a form that causes them to act as unities... and since none of us can be assigned to any place in that form except our own, it follows that the human race throughout the whole world is under the Lord’s supervision, and that each one of us is being led by Him in the slightest details, from infancy to the end of life, with a particular place foreseen and provided for... We see nothing of this universal providence, and if we did see it, it would look to our sight like the scattered piles and random heaps that passersby see when a house is being built. The Lord, though, sees a magnificent palace constantly under construction and constantly being enlarged. ” (Divine Providence 203)
“To all appearances, we are leading and teaching ourselves, while the truth is that we are being led and taught by the Lord alone.” (Divine Providence 154)
“The one God is substance itself and form itself. Angels and people are substances and forms from Him. To the extent that they are in Him and He is in them, to that extent they are images and likenesses of Him.” (True Christianity 20)
“What is charity but the good a person does under the Lord’s guidance? And what is faith but the truth a person believes under the Lord’s guidance?” (True Christianity 712)
“Enlightenment comes from the Lord alone and affects people who love truths because they are true and who make them useful in their lives. Other people do not have enlightenment concerning the Word. Enlightenment comes from the Lord alone because the Word is from Him, and therefore He is in it. Enlightenment comes to people who love truths because they are true and who make them useful in their lives, because these people are in the Lord and the Lord is in them. The Lord is truth itself... Loving the Lord is living by His divine truths, that is, doing useful things with those truths, as we read in the following words in John: "On that day you will recognize that you are in Me and I am in you. The people who love Me are the people who have My instructions and follow them. I will love them and will manifest Myself to them. I will come to them and make a home with them" (John 14:20, 21, 23). These are the people who are enlightened when they read the Word. For them the Word shines and becomes translucent. The Word shines for these people and becomes translucent to them because the details in the Word have spiritual and heavenly meanings inside. These meanings are in the light of heaven. The Lord flows through these meanings and their light into the Word’s earthly meaning and its light in the people. As a result of this light, the people first acknowledge the truth with deep perception and then see it in their own thought. This happens whenever people have a desire for truth because it is true. This desire, you see, leads to perception, and perception leads to thought. This process leads to the acknowledgment that is known as faith.” (True Christianity 231)
“We are led by the Lord through an inflow and taught by being enlightened. The reason we are led by the Lord through an inflow is that both the being led and the flowing in are connected to our love and volition. The reason we are taught by the Lord by being enlightened is that being taught and being enlightened are properly connected with our wisdom and discernment.” (Divine Providence 165)
“We all learn within the limits of the comprehension of our love. Anything beyond that is transient. People who are taught by the Lord in the Word learn a few truths in this world, but they learn a great many when they become angels... It does not reduce the immediacy that this happens indirectly, through sermons. The only way the Word can be taught is indirectly, through our parents, teachers, preachers, and books, and especially by our reading it. Still, these are not our teachers; the Lord is, using them as means... We can see from this that we are led and taught by the Lord alone and that this happens directly from Him when it happens from the Word. This is a most treasured secret of angelic wisdom.” (Divine Providence 172:5)
“Strange as it may seem, wherever the Word is read reverently and the Lord is worshiped because of the Word, the Lord is present along with heaven. This is because the Lord is the Word, and the Word is that divine truth that makes heaven what it is. This is why the Lord says, "Wherever two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in their midst" (Matthew 18:20).” (Divine Providence 256)
“The reason why the spiritual sense of the Word has been at this day disclosed by the Lord is that the doctrine of genuine truth has now been revealed; and this doctrine, and no other, is in accord with the spiritual sense of the Word. This sense, moreover, is signified by the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven with glory and power (Matthew 24:30-31).” (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 25)
“By means of doctrine the Word is understood, and is like a lamp stand with a lighted lamp. The people then see more things than they had seen before, and also understand those things which before they had not understood. Dark and contradictory things they either do not see and pass over, or see and interpret them so that they agree with the doctrine ... But doctrine is not only to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word, but must also be confirmed by it; for if not so confirmed the truth of doctrine appears as if only people’s intelligence were in it, and not the Lord’s divine wisdom; and so the doctrine would be like a house in the air, and not on the earth, and would lack a foundation. ” (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 54)
“The doctrine of genuine truth can also be drawn in full from the sense of the letter of the Word, because in this sense the Word is like a person clothed whose face and hands are bare. All things that concern people’s life, and consequently their salvation, are bare; but the rest are clothed. In many places also where they are clothed they shine through their clothing, like a face through a thin veil of silk. The truths of the Word also appear and shine through their clothing more and more clearly in proportion as they are multiplied by a love for them, and are ranged in order by this love. But this also is by means of doctrine. ” (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 55)