December3

Prepared for Good Intelligence

For he shall be great in··the··sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb◦. And many of the sons of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall come before◦ Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and in the prudence of the just to prepare the disobedient, a people made··ready for the Lord. (Luke 1:15-17)

It was said of this John that “he should go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah,” and that he was Elijah, because John, like Elijah, represented the Lord in relation to the Word, and thence signified the Word, which is from the Lord; and as Divine wisdom and Divine power are in the Word, these are meant by “the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Apocalypse Explained 724.9)

How great and of what nature is the power of Divine truth in the heavens and also on earth, is evident from what has been said in Heaven and Hell concerning the power of the angels of heaven (n. 228-233). The power of Divine truth is directed especially against falsities and evils, thus against the hells. The fight against these must be waged by means of truths from the sense of the letter of the Word. Moreover it is by means of the truths in a man that the Lord has the power to save him; for man is reformed and regenerated and is at the same time taken out of hell and introduced into heaven, by means of truths from the sense of the letter of the Word. This power the Lord took upon Himself, even as to His Divine Human, after He had fulfilled all things of the Word down to its ultimates. (Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture 49)

The order of influx: as man instructs his understanding, he prepares it for the reception of light, and hence for wisdom from heaven. As man does the goods of charity, he prepares the will for the reception of the heat of heaven, or of love. Like one who cuts a diamond, he makes preparation for the splendor of light to be diffused from himself. (Additions to True Christianity, IV:1-3)

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