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From the work, Arcana Coelestia 10638.2
When it says that if he observed what Jehovah commanded He would drive out those nations from [before] his face the meaning is, If they carried out the chief commands laid down by eternal truth evils and falsities would be moved or shifted away. Those commands are what come next in the internal sense, the main ones being that they should acknowledge no other God than the Lord, that He is the Source of everything good and everything true, and also that salvation and eternal life come from Him. And when people who believe these things and love the truth of them are reading the Word everything evil and false is shifted away from them, because at that time the Lord enlightens them and leads them. At that time also what they think does not originate in themselves, nor does their affection for the Word originate in themselves but in the Lord. Consequently no evil at all or falsity of evil comes in, for the Lord moves them away. These are the ones who understand the Word, have an affection for the truths derived from it, and also love to live in accord with them.
From the work, Divine Providence 172.6
The Word has to be taught through the agency of parents, teachers, preachers, books, and especially by hearing it read. But still it is not taught by these intermediaries, but by the Lord through them. This, too, is one of the things preachers know, who say that they speak not of themselves but by the spirit of God, and that every truth, like every good, comes from God. They can, indeed, speak the Word, and convey it to the understanding of many; but they cannot introduce it into anyone’s heart, and what is not in the heart perishes in the intellect. (By the heart we mean a person’s love.)
It can be seen from this that a person is led and taught by the Lord alone, and this by Him directly when he is led and taught by the Word. This is a supreme secret of angelic wisdom.
From the work, Divine Providence 187
It is granted man to see the Divine providence in the back and not in the face; also to see it in a spiritual state and not in his natural state. To see the Divine providence in the back and not in the face is to see it after it occurs and not before; and to see it from a spiritual and not from a natural state is to see it from heaven and not from the world. All who receive influx from heaven and acknowledge the Divine providence, and especially those who by reformation have become spiritual, when they see events in some wonderful series see as it were the Divine providence by an interior acknowledgment, and confess it.
From the work, Arcana Coelestia 4067.2
[2] To enable people to understand the way in which goods and truths exist with a person, something scarcely known by anyone must be revealed. It is indeed known and acknowledged that all good and all truth come from the Lord; and some also acknowledge the existence of influx, the nature of which however remains unknown to man. Now because no knowledge exists, at least no acknowledgement in the heart, of the truth that around man spirits and angels are present and that the internal man dwells in the midst of these and is thereby governed by the Lord, there is little belief in that truth even when it is spoken about. Countless communities exist in the next life, and these are arranged and set in order by the Lord according to all the genera of good and truth; also communities that are the complete opposite, according to all the genera of evil and falsity. They are so arranged and set in order that no genus of good or truth exists, nor any species of that genus, nor even any specific difference, which does not have [a link with] such angelic communities, that is, to which angelic communities do not correspond. Nor on the other hand does any genus of evil or falsity exist, or any species of that genus, or even any specific difference, to which communities of devils do not correspond. Interiorly, that is, as regards his thoughts and affections, everyone is within a community of such angels or devils, although he is not actually aware of it. Everything that a person thinks and wills originates there, so much so that if the communities of spirits or angels in which he dwells were taken away from him, he would instantly cease to have any thought or will at all; indeed he would instantly fall down completely dead. Such is the nature of man’s state of being, though he believes that he himself is the originator of all he thinks and wills, and that neither hell nor heaven exists, or that hell is far removed from him, and heaven too.
