New Church Life January/February 2017 | Page 20

new church life: jan uary/february 2017 296:10-15; Spiritual Experiences 2194; ibid(m) 4743), and ways “that no words can describe.” (Arcana Coelestia 8631; Divine Providence 336) And we are told that this bending is beyond our conscious minds. (Divine Providence 211; Apocalypse Explained 1174:2) The angels “gently lead and bend to good, and do not break, the very influx being tacit and scarcely perceptible, for it flows into the interiors, and continually acts by means of freedom.” (Arcana Coelestia 6205; see also Earths in the Universe 170; Spiritual Experiences 2194, 3892; Arcana Coelestia 10808) And even that the Lord leads a person “so gently and silently that the person knows no otherwise than that everything proceeds from himself.” (Arcana Coelestia 9587; see also Heavenly Doctrine 148; Spiritual Experiences 295, 628, 3892) Generally, the Lord influences our thinking and feeling, our thoughts and affections. (Apocalypse Explained 1174:2) He uses remains – all the states of warmth and affection, and ideas of truth – to bend us. (Arcana Coelestia 1906:2, 561) He also restricts what flows into us from hell, determining how much we can endure or resist at any given time. (Arcana Coelestia 10808, 5992:2; Spiritual Experiences 3845) He uses whatever affections for good that we have to moderate our evil impulses. (Arcana Coelestia 494:2, 10109; Spiritual Experiences(m) 4625) He also uses our efforts to resist evil (repentance) to moderate its influence on our lives. (Arcana Coelestia 2364) Where we make the effort to lead good lives the “falsity and evil of ignorance may be easily bent to truth and good.” (Arcana Coelestia 2280:6) One presumes the same dynamic exists with non-Gentiles. Another way is seeing how the Lord bends our minds through the uses we perform, causing to think and feel differently than before. (Charity 190; Spiritual Experiences 2911) A function of the Lord allowing us to make self-destructive and harmful choices (permissions) is that He can then guide us away from even more damaging thoughts and actions. (Arcana Coelestia 6489, 7811; Divine Providence 234f; Spiritual Experiences 2151, 2223) Into the most basic sensual delights of touch, eating and drinking, “spiritual good is insinuated by the Lord; and thereby what is worldly is then tempered, and thus afterwards has its happiness therein.” (Arcana Coelestia 2204) The Lord even enters into our selfish lusts (cupidities) or fallacies to gently bend our feelings. (Arcana Coelestia 8487:2, 24:3, 50:2, 6472:2; Spiritual Experiences 2102, 2196) The Lord also uses people to influence – to bend – us. Swedenborg reported: “Once also when I was in the company of angels I had their steadfast faith, which I could not have outside their company. . . . Hence also it can be concluded how human minds are led and bent by the Lord.” (Spiritual Experiences 1256) And at the innermost level of our minds, all the innumerable things of our understanding and will, the Lord is present, 16