December
22

Fulfill Your Purpose

And when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came Magi from the east into Jerusalem, saying, Where is He who is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him. (Matthew 2:1-2)

"To follow the Lord" has a similar signification as "to go or to walk after Him." That "to go or walk after the Lord," signifies to acknowledge, to obey, and to act and live from Him and with Him, may be seen above (n. 787). This is the signification of "following the Lord," because no one can follow the Lord from self, but only from the Lord Himself. For the Lord draws after Him the man who from freedom wills to follow; but He can draw no one who does not will to follow Him. For the Lord so operates with man that man may follow Him as if of himself; thus does the Lord flow into man's freedom; and this He does for the sake of the reception and implantation of truth and good with man and consequent reformation and regeneration. For unless it appeared to man that he followed the Lord as if of himself, that is, acknowledged His Divine and did His commandments as if of himself, there would be no appropriation and conjunction, and thus no reformation and regeneration. (Apocalypse Explained 864.1-2)

A "star" signifies the knowledges of internal good and truth, which are from the Lord. (Arcana Coelestia 9293.3)

"Journeys," signify of as being what is progressive of spiritual life, thus the order of that life. That it denotes for receiving the life of heaven, is because that life is a gift of the Lord to man by means of the temptations that are described by the journeys of the sons of Israel in the wilderness. The life of heaven is to be led of the Lord by means of good. In order that a man may come to that life, good must be implanted by means of truth; that is, charity by means of faith. So long as this is being done, the man is in the way to heaven, but is not yet in heaven. (Arcana Coelestia 8559)

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