Being an information gatherer rather than a one-way, cock-sure-ofyourself opinion dispenser takes humility. And humility is something an angel
has in spades. Reading from the doctrine of our church:
The Divine cannot flow into a proud heart, that is, into a heart full of self-love, for
such a heart is hard and in the Word is called “a heart of stone.” Instead, life from
the Lord flows only into a humble heart, because it is fitted to receive. And it is fitted
to receive because when a heart is truly humble no self-love or love of the world
stands in the way. (Secrets of Heaven 9377.1, 8873)
But even though angelic people are “into” information gathering, they
don’t just accept whatever they hear as being gospel truth. In the New Church
we are told:
Real faith is nothing else than an acknowledgment that a thing is so because it is
true. People who are in real faith think and say, “This is true, and therefore I believe
it.” If such people do not see the truth of a thing, they say, “I do not know whether
this is true, and therefore as yet I do not believe it. How can I believe what I do not
intellectually comprehend? It may be false.” (Doctrine of Faith 2)
Someone who is an opinion dispenser, and who can’t hear input from
others or hear where others are coming from – there’s something in that
person that needs to die before what is new and better can be born. An angelic
attitude is one that is willing to die unto itself for the sake of something better.
Jesus said:
If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for My sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater
love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s own life for his friends. (John
15:12-14)
Reading further from the doctrine of our church:
Before we can know what truth is, or be moved by goodness, the things that hinder
and offer resistance must be removed. Thus the old life must die before a new one
can be conceived. (Secrets of Heaven 18)
Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone; but
if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)
People who are willing to die unto the less attractive parts of themselves
are often people who actively live a life of faith. Swedenborg writes:
An angel of heaven once said to me that he had conversed with many Reformed
Christians, and had heard what the character of their faith was. He related his
conversation with one who was in faith separated from good deeds, and with
another who was in faith not separated, and what he had heard from both. He said
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