From The Doctrines For Spiritual Christianity
It is the Divine truth that goes forth from the Lord that has all power in the heavens, for the Lord in heaven is Divine truth united to Divine good. To the extent that angels are receptions of this truth they are powers. Moreover each one is his own truth and his own good because each one is such as his understanding and will are. The understanding pertains to truth because everything of it is from truths, and the will pertains to good because everything of it is from goods; for whatever any one understands he calls truth, and whatever he wills he calls good. From this it is that everyone is his own truth and his own good. Therefore so far as an angel is truth from the Divine and good from the Divine he is a power, because to that extent the Lord is in him. And as no one’s good and truth are wholly like or the same as another’s, since in heaven, as in the world, there is endless variety , so the power of one angel is not like the power of another. (Heaven and Hell 231)
That the angels possess power cannot be comprehended by those who know nothing about the spiritual world and its influx into the natural world. Such think that angels can have no power because they are spiritual and are even so pure and unsubstantial that no eye can see them. But those who look more interiorly into the causes of things take a different view. Such know that all the power that a man has is from his understanding and will (for apart from these he is powerless to move a particle of his body), and his understanding and will are his spiritual man. This moves the body and its members at its pleasure; for whatever it thinks the mouth and tongue speak, and whatever it wills the body does; and it bestows its strength at pleasure. As man’s will and understanding are ruled by the Lord through angels and spirits, so also are all things of his body, because these are from the will and understanding; and if you will believe it, without influx from heaven man cannot even move a step. That this is so has been shown me by much experience. Angels have been permitted to move my steps, my actions, and my tongue and speech, as they pleased, and this by influx into my will and thought; and I have learned thereby that of myself I could do nothing. I was afterwards told by them that every man is so ruled, and that he can know this from the doctrine of the church and from the Word, for he prays that God may send His angels to lead him, direct his steps, teach him, and inspire in him what to think and what to say, and other like things; although he says and believes otherwise when he is thinking by himself apart from doctrine. All this has been said to make known what power angels have with man. (Heaven and Hell 228)
Is there anyone who does not believe the soul to be the most intimate and subtle essence of a person? But what is essence without form but a figment of the imagination? The soul then is a form, but what sort of form, I will tell you. It is the form of all the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom. All the parts of love are called affections, and all the parts of wisdom are called perceptions. The perceptions as a result of and so together with the affections make up a single form containing countless parts, but arranged in such order and so coherent that they can be called a unity; and they can be called a unity, because nothing can be taken away from it or be added to it, if it is to remain a unity. What is the human soul but such a form? All the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom are the essentials of such a form, and in the case of a person these essentials are in his soul, and from his soul in his head and body. ‘You are called spirits and angels; and you believed in the world that spirits and angels were like puffs of wind or particles of ether, and so were minds and characters. Now you see clearly that you are truly, really and actually people, who in the world lived and thought in a material body; and you knew that it is not the material body that lives and thinks, but the spiritual substance in that body. This you called the soul, whose form you did not know; yet now you have seen it and go on seeing it. You are all souls, about whose immortality you have heard, thought, talked and written so much; and since you are forms of love and wisdom coming from God, you cannot ever die. The soul then is a human form, from which nothing can be taken away, and to which nothing can be added, and it is the inmost of all the forms throughout the body. Since the forms which are outside receive from the inmost both essence and form, you are therefore souls, just as you appear to be to your sight and to ours. In short, the soul is the real person because it is the inmost person; its form therefore is the human form in full perfection. But it is not life, but it is the nearest receiver of life from God, and so God’s dwelling.’ (Conjugial Love 315{10,11})
Whoever duly considers the subject can know that the body does not think, because it is material, but that the soul, which is spiritual, does. The soul of man, upon the immortality of which many have written, is his spirit, for this as to everything belonging to it is immortal. This also is what thinks in the body, for it is spiritual, and what is spiritual receives what is spiritual and lives spiritually, which is to think and to will. Therefore, all rational life that appears in the body belongs to the soul, and nothing of it to the body; for the body, as said above, is material, and the material, which is the property of the body, is added to and, as it were, almost adjoined to the spirit, in order that the spirit of man may be able to live and perform uses in the natural world, all things of which are material and in themselves devoid of life. And because the material does not live but only the spiritual, it can be established that whatever lives in man is his spirit, and that the body merely serves it, just as what is instrumental serves a moving living force. An instrument is said indeed to act, to move, or to strike; but to believe that these are acts of the instrument, and not of him who acts, moves, or strikes by means of the instrument, is a fallacy. (Heaven and Hell 432)
Key Points From The Video
Material Versus Spiritual Conceptions of Power: Material thought attributes power to the physical body and views mental faculties as chemical processes. Spiritual insight recognises power as independent of physical bodies and instead derived from spiritual alignment with the Divine Mind.
The Limitation of Materialistic Thought: Materialistic views confine understanding to physicality, neglecting or negating deeper spiritual realities.
Spiritual Insight into Power: Angels, lacking material bodies, possess power proportional to their spiritual detachment from space and time.
Divine Source of Power: The Lord God, beyond space and time, embodies essential power through Divine Love and Wisdom.
Role of the Body: The body serves as an instrument of the mind’s power, which retains true power upon separation from the body.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What is the materialistic view of power according to Spiritual Christianity?
a) Power is derived from spiritual alignment.
b) Power is attributed to the physical body and brain processes.
c) Power originates from Divine Love and Wisdom.
d) Power is independent of material substances.
Answer: b)
2. How do spiritual thinkers perceive the source of true power?
a) As a function of physical substances.
b) As proportional to the extension in space.
c) As derived from spiritual alignment with the Divine Mind and the detachment from material constraints.
d) As limited to the material body.
Answer: c)
3. Who embodies the essential power in the universe according to Spiritual Christianity?
a) Material bodies
b) Physical atoms
c) The Lord God
d) Human intellect
Answer: c) The Lord God
4. What role does the body play in relation to the mind’s power?
a) It functions as an instrument of the mind’s power.
b) It is the primary source of power.
c) It retains power after death.d) It acts independently of the mind.
Answer: a)
5. What are the core attributes of the Lord God’s essential power?
a) Physical strength and endurance
b) Material wealth and resources
c) Divine Love and Divine Wisdom
d) Sensory perception and chemical processes
Answer: c)
Reflective Questions
1. How can recognising the spiritual origin of power influence your approach to personal strength and influence?
2. In what ways can you detach from material constraints to enhance your spiritual alignment to true power?
3. How does understanding the body as an instrument of the mind’s power shape your view on physical limitations and spiritual capabilities?
Experiential Integration
Reflection on Spiritual Power
- Morning Intention: Begin your day with a meditation focusing on aligning your will and intellect with Divine love and wisdom.
- Throughout the Day: Practice mindfulness by recognising moments when you rely on physical strength and shift your focus to inner spiritual power.
- Evening Reflection: Reflect on this experience. How difficult was it for you to remember and do this? What happened when you did?
Further Exploration
Man possesses a natural mind and a spiritual mind. The natural mind is below, and the spiritual mind above. The natural mind is the mind of man’s world, and the spiritual mind is the mind of his heaven. The natural mind may be called the animal mind, and the spiritual mind the human mind. Man is discriminated from the animal by possessing a spiritual mind. By means of this mind he can be in heaven while still in the world; and it is by means of this mind also that man lives after death. In his understanding a man is able to be in the spiritual mind, and consequently in heaven, but unless he shuns evils as sins he cannot be in the spiritual mind and consequently in heaven, as to his will. And if he is not there as to his will, he is not in heaven, in spite of the fact that he is there in understanding, for the will drags the understanding down, and causes it to be just as natural and animal as it is itself. (Doctrine of Life 86{1-2})
We perceive,’ said the elders, ‘that you believed in the previous world that this world is empty, because it is spiritual. The reason for this belief of yours is that you entertained the idea that the spiritual is abstract; and that what is abstract is nothing and so as if empty. Yet here everything is in its fullness. Everything here is substantial, not material; material things owe their origin to what is substantial. We who are present here are spiritual people, because we are substantial, not material. That is why everything that is in the natural world exists here in its perfection; and so are our books and writing, and much more.'(Conjugial Love 207)