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,
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